NOVEL NEXT Chapter 69: Hard saved points
The moment Xane heard the sound, he just lay on the floor. The height of the bed hid him from direct view.
He held his breath as he heard whoever came out of the bathroom humming.
Zayn pointed at that moment. [Shit, the shelves before the 6th bed still have stuff.]
Xane looked at the shelf and cursed in his mind. Still, not letting it affect him, he calmly tracked the humming sound.
To his luck, the guy walked to the shelf and started rummaging through his stuff.
It was clear he was getting ready. It wasn't the worst case, but Xane knew this guy wouldn't be as dull state of mind as the others.
The only thing working in his favor was that the guy chose not to light up the big magic gem. If he did, he would surely notice the bizarre situation.
Though another messed-up thing was that this was the fastest of the 5 roommates. So Xane wasn't even sure if he would be able to knock him out cleanly like the others.
Xane stopped thinking about the others as he focused on the guy's legs.
For a fat person, balance was their biggest weakness, and it just so happened that those chubby legs were around two hands away from him.
Soon, the guy picked up his school pants, and as he raised one leg, Xane rushed out and grabbed the only leg still on the ground.
The guy yelped in surprise. "Whoa, who is there?"
Xane gave him no time as he pulled with all his strength. This was enough to stumble the guy, who fell headfirst into the corner of the shelf.
Bam!!!
The guy screamed in pain as he plopped onto the ground.
Xane wasted no time and grabbed hold of his hair and started slamming his head onto the floor.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
As he was about to hit the fourth time, Zayn shouted in his head. [Dude, he's going to die!]
Xane paused for a bit, and then, when he saw the fatty still moving, he started chopping at the back of the guy's neck.
After the third chop, the guy finally went limp.
Xane wanted to lie down and rest, but knew he didn't have much time, as who knew when the others were going to come back to their senses.
He wasted no time popping his finger back into place.
Zayn complained in his head. [Shit, that hurts.]
Xane just shrugged his hand as he was used to this kind of low pain. Not wasting any time, he turned on the big mana gem.
He casually grabbed a bedsheet and started tearing strips out of it.
Soon, he dragged the last one of his roommates to the back wall next to the bathroom door.
All of them had their hands and feet tied down, and for extra precaution, he even tied their mouths.
Xane calmly walked into the bathroom and came out with a bucket full of water.
He wasted no time and splashed it onto them.
It took some time, but soon enough, he saw movement as one after another, the five of them started to wake up.
All of them glared at him, a few of them even tried to rip the rope around their hands, but a couple of kicks to their faces, and they quieted down.
Once they stopped struggling, Xane calmly crouched before them and asked with a smile, "Where are your IDs?"
They just looked at him in confusion, but as he moved his hand toward the skinny guy, that one started looking toward his pocket.
Xane wasted no time and pulled out the card.
The good thing was that the number of points wasn't hidden, so he could see that this guy only had 3 points.
He was about to thrash him, but then he saw he had copper potential. It hit him that copper potential only received 5 points each week.
Xane mentally cursed and asked Zayn. <Ok, so how can I transfer the points?>
[No, we can't transfer it. We need permission from the ID owner.]
Xane looked into the skinny guy's eyes and asked, "You want the easy way out, right?"
The guy stared at him and glanced at the others beside him.
Right at that moment, Xane punched him straight on the nose.
The guy started flailing in pain on the ground, tears streaming down his face.
If not for the cloth stuffed inside his mouth, he would have screamed by now.
The other four stared at their roommate and then at Xane in horror.
Even the muscular guy who had shown resilience at first shuddered when Xane smiled at them.
Xane just casually brushed off his knuckles and said, "You see, guys, I don't want things to be ugly between us. You're willing to transfer your points, and I'll let you keep one emergency point. Otherwise…"
Xane kicked the first guy to give the message.
Bam!
The guy continued to flail like a fish out of water while Xane didn't even look at him.
He saw one after another; the others started nodding their heads, though interestingly, the fatty actually started crying.
Xane didn't think much of it, but as he collected the points, only then did he realize this fatty was actually a silver potential like him and had somehow managed to save 16 reward points.
Not caring about his tears, Xane collected 15 of those points to his ID, and from the other four, he took a total of 9 points.
It was interesting because even though all of them had copper potential and only got 5 points, still, 2 of them actually had 4 points saved.
It was like they didn't even spend these points at all.
Zayn said to him, [They were likely saving those points to get some Hex Arts, I think.]
Xane shrugged his shoulders as he checked his own ID. This time it had a total of 42 points.
Zayn said in excitement. [This is enough, though if we chose the Tier Three food, then it's still far too low.]
Xane raised his eyebrow and asked, <Tier 3 foods?>
[Yeah, it's the tier that Miss Luna suggested to Liam in the novel when she started teaching him some kind of sword art. All I know is this version helped Liam recover much faster.]\\
Xane waved his hand through his hair as he mumbled, "Interesting."
At this, the five before him looked up at him with hope.
Zayn asked him. [What should we do with them?]
Xane rolled his eyes. <Leave them, they should figure something out on their own.>
He looked at their IDs and was about to place them in his pocket when Zayn shouted in warning. [No Xane, don't do that. That would lead to trouble with the Hex Masters.]
Xane was taken aback by this response as he asked, <Didn't you tell me that the academy didn't care about these things?>
Zayn sighed. [Sure, the academy didn't, but that can't be said about the other Hex Masters. Xane, I know that all Hex Masters follow a certain unsaid rule among them that forces them not to directly influence the other students.]
[This is why Hex Master Plena just asked us, not forced us. If she did, then Hex Master Xenor would gain the right to interfere with her other students, and so on.]
Xane rubbed his forehead. <Wait, I get the point of the unsaid rule, but how is that linked to metal IDs?>
Zayn took a long pause to collect himself and said, [Xane, I'm not clear about what all these rules are. But in the novel, there's a certain incident where Liam snatched someone's ID in anger, and that little incident basically led to a war between Hex Master Luna and that other student's Hex Master.]
[I remembered this because it was one of those incidents where Liam got humiliated, as he had to publicly apologize to the guy.]
Xane just looked at the other IDs with interest. He never knew these little things could lead to such a big bomb.
Zayn mumbled to himself, [I think they mentioned the reason behind the verdict, but what was it…]
While Zayn thought, Xane just tossed the IDs down on the ground.
Just then, Zayn said, [Oh yeah, you remember we need IDs to access the portal in the Black Castle.]
<Yeah.>
[Okay, so if you keep their IDs, that means you're interfering with their ability to meet their Hex Master. I believe interfering with a Hex Master's teaching is taboo.]
Xane asked with interest, <Oh, what about the stuff that we did?>
Zayn asked in a casual tone, [Even though they're broken, they could still meet with their Hex Master, right?]
Xane just burst out laughing. "Haha, this is such an interesting place."
The five on the ground shuddered in fear when they heard that laugh.
Not caring about them, Xane walked up to his shelf and started pulling out his stuff one after another.
Zayn asked in confusion, [Wait, what are you doing?]
Xane said with a smile, <Don't tell me you think we could stay here any longer.>
As Xane said that, Zayn focused on the few on the side. Even though they had tears in their eyes, Zayn could feel the burning anger in their gaze.
It was like they were waiting for an opportunity to get back at him.
Zayn gulped down as he also started pointing at the stuff Xane could pack faster as he said, [Hey, don't forget about the book and letter.]
Xane nodded his head.
Not long after, he casually walked out of the room while the five lay there passed out with new marks on their faces.