The two children wanted to help clean up the things scattered all over the ground, but Freya told them directly that they weren't hers. She put the pen back into the briefcase, zipped it up, propped it up against the wall, and decided to ignore the rest.
She just hoped the owner wouldn't blame her when they returned to find their potion spilled all over the ground.
The main reason was that this whole ordeal was simply too bizarre. If she had just found a potion, it could be chalked up to excellent luck. If she had accidentally dropped and shattered one of her own potions, it could be chalked up to bad luck. But when both happened at the same time, Freya refused to believe such a coincidence could exist in a world with extraordinary powers.
“I couldn't have been targeted by some weirdo, right?” Freya quickly left the area and headed toward Euphemia's house. However, she wasn't particularly worried. After all, the death crisis indicated by her system was still a long way off—over a year. Even if she did encounter danger during this period, it would likely be minor trouble that she could easily handle.
After all, she had already defeated Jerome, a Rank Five General of the kingdom. Could someone even stronger than Jerome suddenly pop up in this city?
Upon arriving at Euphemia's house, Freya was in the middle of changing her shoes when Euphy ran over, bursting with excitement. “Fufu, Grandfather wrote back! He even mailed over two potions for the Scholar Pathway!”
As she spoke, she grabbed Freya's hand and pulled her inside, even though Freya only had one shoe off. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't rush! I haven't finished taking off my shoes yet!”
Once they reached the living room, the first things Freya saw were the two potions on the table and a small white pigeon.
As she walked over, the little pigeon shot her a deliberate glance, then turned its head, flapped its wings, and flew away. Seeing this, Euphemia explained, “My messenger is just like that. It rarely lets anyone other than me touch it.”
Hearing this, the corner of Freya's mouth twitched slightly. She grumbled inwardly, That's not how you acted in front of Life Freya, you little pigeon.
Euphemia pointed to the bottle on the left side of the table. “This one is the Rank One potion.”
However, Freya didn't drink it immediately. Instead, she first told Euphemia about the bizarre incident that had just happened on her way back. Sure enough, Euphemia's immediate reaction was, “That is absolutely not normal!”
Freya asked, “Do you know of any extraordinary abilities related to luck?”
Euphemia paused at the question. “Uh... let me think...”
After a moment, she said, “Maybe... could it be related to the Destiny Pathway? I'm not really sure either. Honestly, the Destiny Pathway is considered the most mysterious of the twelve known pathways.”
Freya crossed her arms, deep in thought. “Come to think of it, I've always felt my luck is pretty good.”
Perhaps her good luck had spiked, allowing her to find a potion for free, but some extraordinary of the Destiny Pathway was targeting her—or maybe wanted the potion too—and had cursed her with some bad luck, culminating in today's incident?
Euphemia looked skeptical. “Really? No matter how good your luck is, it shouldn't be so good that you just pick up a potion while walking down the street.”
Freya said, “But I really do feel my luck is amazing. Everyone I meet is incredibly nice and kind. Even that gangster near my house is willing to just give me money.”
Euphemia blinked. “?”
Setting aside whatever she meant by a gangster giving her money, Euphemia said, “Isn't it a bit too subjective to claim your luck is good based on just that?”
The best way to test luck was through games of chance. Without another word, Euphemia left the living room and quickly ran back with two dice. “Come on, let's roll some dice and see who gets the higher number.”
Freya was curious as well, so she didn't refuse. Euphemia rolled first, and right off the bat, she rolled an incredibly high eleven—a six and a five. With a slight smirk, she looked at Freya and said, “Your turn.”
As for Freya, she rolled a mediocre nine—a six and a three—losing the first round.
However, one round proved nothing. The two continued rolling, but the subsequent results quickly began to make Euphemia break a sweat.
Seven to ten, eight to ten, three to nine... Aside from the first round where Euphy won, she went on a five-game losing streak!
Probability-wise, they should have had a fifty-fifty chance of winning. Yet, the reality was entirely different. After several more rounds of testing, Euphemia only managed to win one more time by some miracle roll of eleven. Aside from that single stroke of luck, she lost every single game!
The final tally after twenty rolls: Euphy had won twice, while Freya had won a whopping eighteen times.
Staring at the dice on the table, Euphemia fell into deep thought. “Alright, I agree with your initial claim now. Your luck really is terrifyingly good... or rather, terrifyingly consistent.”
Euphemia noticed that her own rolls fluctuated normally, ranging from a high of eleven to a low of three. This was perfectly normal; everyone had their ups and downs.
But Freya was completely different. Fufu's rolls were almost entirely concentrated around nine and ten, with only a few elevens and twelves. Across all twenty rounds, Freya hadn't rolled a single number below eight!
It was as if a nine was already the absolute worst-case scenario for Freya's luck.
Euphemia said, “I think... maybe you're more suited for the Destiny Pathway?”
Freya glanced at the two Scholar potions on the table. “But the problem is, we don't have any way to get a Destiny Pathway potion. Even if I wanted to drink one, I can't.”
Euphemia suddenly suggested, “Say... do you think the potion you picked up today might have been a Rank One Destiny Pathway potion?”
Freya fell silent. She realized that was highly likely. After a brief pause, she said, “But regardless, my luck was too bad in that moment, and the potion shattered. There's no point in dwelling on it now, is there?”
Inwardly, however, she thought that if the potion she had found really belonged to the Destiny Pathway, she might have been too afraid to drink it anyway. This kind of completely unearned, heaven-sent fortune made her feel inexplicably uneasy, as if it harbored some hidden danger.
In fact, a bizarre thought even crossed her mind: What if it wasn't that her good luck led her to find the potion, but rather, her luck was so good that it caused her to accidentally shatter it?
Putting the topic aside, Freya finally turned her attention back to the two Scholar potions on the table. She said, “Um, can you wait a moment? I'm going to use the bathroom first to prepare myself.”
Euphemia nodded in understanding. “It's normal to be nervous before drinking a potion for the first time. But don't worry, the Scholar potion is known for being very gentle.”
Freya nodded, though her actual reason for going to the bathroom had nothing to do with nervousness. In the split second before she spoke, she had already opened and closed a simulation.
Now, within her system, Save Slot 3 had become "Scholar Freya".
However, since Scholar Freya was alone in the simulation, she couldn't determine whether she had digested the potion. She needed Life Freya's help. Therefore, right after consuming the potion, she immediately saved and exited.
Inside the bathroom, Freya stealthily summoned her two clones, Life Freya and Scholar Freya. Life Freya activated her Heart Perception and carefully examined Scholar Freya before reaching a conclusion.
There was indeed some advanced digestion, but not much. It was probably just enough to support Scholar Freya in consuming the Rank Two potion. If she wanted to advance to Rank Three, she would have to constantly 'uncover the truth' to accelerate digestion, just like Euphemia.
The moment she reached this conclusion, Freya recalled the two clones. She muttered to herself, So it seems I can't rapidly advance to Rank Five in every pathway. Only the War and Earth Pathways are exceptions?
But why can the Scholar Pathway directly advance to Rank Two? What is the underlying logic behind this?
Lost in thought, Freya walked out of the bathroom and said directly to Euphemia, “Unlike the Earth and War Pathways, I can't rapidly advance through the Scholar Pathway. At most, I can drink two potions in a row to reach Rank Two, but nothing higher.”
“Eh?” Euphemia blinked in surprise. “So in the time it took you to use the bathroom, your mysterious ability went off again?”
Although the phrasing sounded a bit odd, Freya nodded. “So after giving it some thought, I think I'll pass on the Scholar Pathway.”
This was mainly because the abilities gained at Rank One and Rank Two of the Scholar Pathway were related to enhanced learning. If she didn't dedicate time to studying, she would essentially have no abilities at all. And did Freya look like someone who enjoyed studying?
In truth, now that the duration of the future simulation had been extended to two months, if Freya used the Scholar Freya save slot to repeatedly enter simulations and study, she could theoretically raise the ceiling of this save slot quite high. But the problem was... she was lazy.
So, she might as well leave this save slot for the Mind Pathway.
“Alright then,” Euphemia said, looking slightly disappointed.
Time trickled by, and half a month quickly passed. Soon, the day of Freya's final exams arrived. As previously agreed, Euphemia slipped into the exam hall wearing her Invisibility Cloak and began helping Freya cheat.
The entire process went without a hitch. No matter how strict the proctors were, they couldn't possibly detect someone cheating right under their noses using extraordinary abilities. To eliminate any chance of an accident, Freya had even run through a simulation beforehand. Only after confirming there were no issues did she have Euphemia help her in reality.
Poor Euphemia had to take the exam twice for Freya—once in the simulation and once in reality—though the real-world Euphemia had no idea, of course.
As for the results, it went without saying that Freya easily secured first place in her grade, leaving the runner-up far behind in the dust.
Freya's teacher, the balding man who had scolded her before, held her exam paper with trembling hands. He stared down at the paper, then looked up at Freya standing in front of him, his expression completely blank with shock.
Was this really the same Freya who either whispered and chatted with others during class or slept so deeply she lost all track of time?
But Freya couldn't really be blamed. The subjects taught in this world's schools were just too boring. She had genuinely tried to pay attention, but every time she did, she would blink and find that school was already over. What was she supposed to do?
Take A Brief History of the Kingdom for instance. Freya wasn't even from this world and felt absolutely no sense of belonging to the Kingdom of Tarapaca. Without that connection, she naturally had zero interest. What did the history of this country have to do with her? It would be a miracle if she could actually absorb any of it.
Seeing her teacher's speechless, shell-shocked expression, Freya felt a wave of secret satisfaction. Placing a hand on her slender waist, she said, “A genius is a genius no matter what. Piece of cake~”
After pondering for a moment, the balding teacher actually accepted this explanation. After all, Freya had always excelled academically in the past. Although her behavior had been a bit odd over the last month, scoring well was perfectly in character for her.
In fact, it would have been stranger if her grades had suddenly plummeted.
And just like that, the long break was about to begin. Before finally leaving the school, Freya waved goodbye to Amy. “See you next semester, Amy~”
Amy pouted. “Hmph, the way you say that makes it sound like you don't plan on hanging out with me at all during the summer break.”
Hearing this, Freya looked slightly embarrassed, because that was exactly what she had in mind. After Euphemia had searched through numerous books to no avail, the two of them were planning to leave the city for a while to find a way for Freya to embark on the Mind Pathway.
Freya pressed her hands together above her head and bowed slightly in apology. “I'm really sorry, Amy! But I have something extremely important to do this break. I even have to leave Auxerre for a while. I promise I'll come hang out with you the second I get back!”
Hearing this, Amy's slight annoyance vanished instantly. She asked in surprise, “Eh? Leaving Auxerre? By yourself, Fufu?”
Freya replied, “I'll be with another friend.”
Amy looked worried. “As long as you're not alone. Still, you have to stay safe out there.”
Freya raised her right arm, striking a pose to show off her muscle, and giggled. “Don't worry, don't worry! I'm not as delicate as you think~”
However, Freya's right arm was completely smooth, without a single trace of muscle definition. Amy kept her worried expression. “Seeing you like that actually makes me worry even more.”
......
Rate on N.U.
