The Earth After Rebirth

The coach was only allowed to keep them for a full hour, except if it were an official game. The academy was still the academy after all, they needed the kids to have enough time for their homeworks and projects.

So at exactly 3pm, coach Smith clapped his hands, "good job everyone, you\'re probably the best set of first years I\'ve ever received." He said encouraging them a little.

"Now, don\'t forget to hit the showers. You don\'t want all that sweat to be sticky, making you dirty and cold. Dismissed."

Everyone dispersed. They left the field chatting with whoever they befriended during the hellish training. Kiro noticed that Ursa and Isaac didn\'t even look each others way. Even now, they left through opposite directions.

"Tsk. Probably an act." He mumbled to himself.

"Guys, let\'s not go to the locker room, I have the perfect place. A hot spring!" He excitedly proclaimed whispering.

Nikolai jolted Kiro out of his thoughts about the couple playing the same sport and pretending to be broken up.

"Where?" Kiro asked.

"Second year campus, I know this secret way to get there." Smugly, he said.

"But won\'t we—"

"Let\'s do it!" Kiro cut Hiro short. "Let\'s rebel for once men, to the hot springs!" He whispered with valour, he was still much under the influence of the Underworld.

Hiro rolled his eyes but he followed them nonetheless. As much as he wanted to uphold the rules, he also wanted to experience campus life with friends.

They ran behind the dorms, they were already in their normal clothing now. They walked until they were completely hidden by trees. They must\'ve walked for 20 minutes and reached the other end of the little forest.

There was a really long fence. It looked like those impenetrable fences they usually had in schools or government facilities.

"Ah this fence! We\'re screwed!"

"No we aren\'t." Nikolai said with much confidence.

He started tapping the fence in a strange sequence. At first nothing happened, then a creak appeared on the fence. Nikolai pushed it open, and a little hole appeared on the fence.

"Haa, what the actual f*ck?" Kiro exclaimed.

"I don\'t know how it works either, suppose something a senior did, for what, I don\'t know. We have this now." He entered as he said.

The others followed him, they only walked for 10 more minutes and they were soaked in the hot spring. It was heavenly bliss. It was still a bit early, so time wasn\'t a problem.

It felt better than the in-game one, Kiro felt all his troubles disappear.

"Why don\'t we have one too?" Hiro asked at the brink of passing out because of how good it was at massaging their muscles.

"Who knows! That dean is a bit of mystery." Nikolai shrugged. "He\'s a good guy though."

"Won\'t we get caught?" Felix asked, he had entered nude but left his bandages on.

"They rarely use it during the week." Nikolai clearly knew more about this place.

More than Kiro, the person who regressed. Not even back at school did he know about something like this. It wasn\'t something the teachers here told students, they let them find out on their own.

Naturally, Kiro never found out about this in his past life. It stung, but at least he was here and now, that\'s all that mattered. The past him didn\'t matter, it wasn\'t important at all. He was here, now, and he had friends.

"By the way Felix, you said your subclass is butcher?" Kiro suddenly remembered and asked.

"Haha, yes." He grinned, this one thing in particular seemed to always tickle him. .

"Why does this make you happy?" Hiro asked him.

"Let\'s just say I like cutting things up, and now I even have the power of healing them back up to health. It\'s obviously a happy moment for me."

They all shuddered. They didn\'t know if they could trust a priest with a butcher subclass that loved cutting things up. Won\'t he purposely heal them slowly, that was the question wandering in their minds.

Won\'t he purposely cut them just to heal them and repeat the cycle. Of course it\'d be a good addition to the team\'s strength. The torture side of it was enticing but when it was directed at them, that frightened them a bit.

They all could totally see Felix pushing them down a cliff then healing them again. They gulped and decided to let it go, the most important thing was the fact that he wouldn\'t let them die.

They had a really good time in the springs. Chatting up and discussing their next plan as a group, whether they should do a dungeon run for others or themselves.

"Let\'s run them first, when we\'ve gotten the lay of the land, we ask them money to be carried by us." Kiro suggested.

The suggestion was sound. They all agreed on this. They\'d only accept a mission if the giver allows them to explore first.

The time was nearing 5 o\'clock they decided to dress up and leave. Kiro felt the cleanest he\'d ever been, like the water scrubbed on every single corner of his body.

"Oh, I saw your post on talkalot, I can\'t believe how popular you guys are. It\'s insane how much traction your post got."

Kiro shrugged smirking, he didn\'t know either.

They suddenly saw a dancing flash light in the distance, "Hey, you, kids, freeze, don\'t run."

"As if!" Kiro yelled back.

It was security for the second year campus, they bolted out of there. The security was right on their tail, not wanting to give up the chase. All of them seemed to be very adept at running.

They managed to keep the distance they gained because they stupidly used a flashlight. The early start was essential in their escape.

Because of the early start Nikolai was able to tap the secret code to close the hole completely without getting caught on how they entered.

Kiro didn\'t understand what part of science this phenomenon was, but he was intending to learn. It was too useful not to.

They bolted through the mini forest, and only stopped when they were in front of the dorms. They looked at each other nervously, breathing heavily from all the running and then they burst out laughing with relief.