After the intense battle with the beast horde, each and every youth in the camp retreated to their rooms to rest. It had truly been a long day.
Even Atticus wasn't excluded; he headed straight to his room to have his bath after escaping from Aurora.
Although throughout the duration of the fight, his clothes hadn't been stained once, his body was so neat that he hadn't even sweated a single drop, but he still felt dirty and decided to have his bath.
The whole camp descended into a palpable silence after this. It was already after 6 pm, and because of the battle, they had all decided not to hold any training sessions again for the day.
The next day, Atticus, as usual, woke up early. He had never really needed an alarm to wake him up; it was already programmed into his system.
After a quick training session that lasted 2 hours, Atticus left his room, heading to the mess hall to get a meal.
Fortunately, this time around, Atticus didn't have to give the youths any more 'warnings'. There were no incidents as he made his way to the mess hall.
After a few minutes, Atticus was seated down at a round table in the mess hall, and seated all around the table were Aurora, Lucas, Nate, and surprisingly, Chubby.
In a 20 meter radius around the table, it was as though there was a palpable boundary there. Every single youth currently in the mess hall steered clear of the area.
Normally, during the three weeks they had all been in the camp, Atticus had never once eaten in the mess hall.
This was the first time they were seeing him here. And after the major reminder they each got yesterday about how much of a monster he could be, they all knew better than to get on his nerves.
The whole hall was silent, with only the occasional sound of the silverware clattering or of a random awkward cough.
On the round table, unlike everyone who was casually eating, Chubby's head was down as he was twirling his fingers underneath the table. It was very obvious that he was nervous.
Nate, turning his gaze up from his food, suddenly noticed Chubby. "Hey Kai, why aren't you eating? The food is good!" he asked.
They were each eating a different variety of food, each looking better than the last. The cafeteria building allowed them to select any food they wanted to eat, but of course, depending on the food, the number of points required to purchase differed.
The mess hall building was a huge lifesaver for the group. They didn't require any ingredients or have any cooking skills; they would simply select whatever they wanted, and the food would materialize instantly.
But the only reason they were able to afford the building in the first place was that Atticus took the second position in the entrance test.
One could only wonder how the other divisions who couldn't afford it were doing.
Hearing Nate, Chubby looked up, but just as he was about to reply, he suddenly saw Atticus's eyes focused on him because of Nate's statement.
His eyes widened, and he instantly bowed his head back down while stuttering, "No-nothing. I just don't have an appetite."
Nate was flabbergasted for a few seconds, "Is the world ending?" Nate couldn't help but ask in slight disbelief.
Kai had no appetite?
He was shocked. Kai was nicknamed Chubby by the others for a reason, and that was because he was indeed chubby.
Chubby had never for even one day missed taking multiple portions of meals in each meal of the day. But now he had no appetite?
Atticus gazed at Chubby for a few seconds, 'Am I really that scary?' he pondered.
Although Chubby had said that he had no appetite, Atticus's perception was too great to miss the glaring hints.
Atticus knew it was because Chubby was scared of him. Pondering about it for a little bit, Atticus decided to drop the matter, and he continued eating his food.
And Atticus wasn't far off from the truth. Every single day since the award ceremony where Atticus had given him that intense stare, Chubby had always made sure to avoid talking or even doing anything that would enable him to stand out to Atticus.
But the current situation said otherwise; out of everyone on the table, he was the only odd one out.
Till everyone finished eating, Chubby didn't even take a bite of his food. He just kept his head bowed down while twirling his fingers.
After the meal, Lucas turned to Atticus and spoke, "So what did you decide?" he inquired.
Atticus seemed to ponder for a bit before he responded, "We'll only need to replace their equipment. Their armors and weapons are far below standard," Atticus said.
After the hunt, just as Atticus had planned, each of the youths had gathered a substantial amount of points.
Three weeks ago, after he had given the full armor and instructed the Ravenstein youths to train the students, Atticus had discovered a significant problem if they were to follow that formation and battle.
One only defends without attacking and killing, simply protecting. And then the other does the attacking and killing; it was obvious the latter would be the one to gather the points.
Which meant that in every battle, because of the nature of their role, the points the armored would gather would be next to nil.
This situation would undoubtedly cause a lot of internal disputes among them. Atticus had found a way to circumvent this. It wasn't foolproof, but it was better than nothing.
It was simply by pairing them up with each other. In every unit, there were about 30 armored and 50 dealers.
What Atticus had simply done was create 25 Pairs with Rotating Defenders.
He had paired up the 50 dealers into 25 pairs and assigned a rotating schedule where different defenders joined each pair during specific periods.
He also divided the 30 defenders into groups or pairs as well. Rotating these defenders periodically so that they get the opportunity to work with different pairs of dealers.
For the remaining 5 defenders, he had them serve as "floaters" without fixed pairs. These floaters would join any pair that might need extra support or rotate to different pairs as needed.
And the points earned were shared equally among the members of the mixed group, regardless of role.
From his last rampage, Atticus had noted that killing each of the beasts gave about 3 academy points.
And his killings yesterday compared to the last time were incomparable. He had gathered a substantial amount of points.
