Reincarnated with an SSS-rank Tamer System: My Harem of Villainesses-Chapter 49 – Awakening

At the Arcanis Academy hospital, Adam could be seen lying on one of the beds with his eyes closed, his breathing calm and steady.

The room was spacious and bright, with large windows that allowed the morning sunlight to stream inside. The distinct scent of medicinal herbs lingered faintly in the air.

Adam began to move his eyes beneath his closed eyelids, his consciousness gradually returning.

While he lightly moved his fingers.

And finally, he slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he felt was a brutal dizziness that made the entire ceiling spin violently above him, immediately followed by a sharp headache that forced him to shut his eyes again with a low groan.

"Shit..."

Then the familiar translucent blue screen appeared before his eyes.

[Tamer System]

[Congratulations, host! Mission successfully completed]

[Reward: You retain all your stats and active contracts]

[I must admit, you really showed off in that fight. Honestly, I didn’t expect you to win in such a... brutal way. It was entertaining to watch]

Adam would have rolled his eyes if his head didn’t hurt so much.

[IMPORTANT NOTICE]

[Due to the host’s physical and mental overexertion during the previous battle, the system will enter a temporary update state]

[Estimated time: 72 hours]

[During this period, the system will optimize its guidance functions to better adapt to the host’s current level and will adjust experience parameters to allow faster progression, in accordance with your growth]

[In other words: I’m going to improve so you don’t have to kill yourself in every fight. And your levels will increase faster now because you’re clearly no longer a beginner]

Adam let out a sigh of relief at that. At least something good was coming out of all this.

That was when he heard a soft voice from his right side.

"Adam?"

He slowly turned his head toward the sound, ignoring the lingering dizziness, and saw Evelyne sitting on a chair beside his bed with a smile on her face upon seeing him awake.

"Evelyne?" he murmured, his voice slightly hoarse.

"The one and only," she replied as she leaned slightly forward. "Are you feeling okay?"

Adam tried to sit up, but the same dizziness made him reconsider, and he lay back down again with a grunt. "How long was I unconscious?"

"Two full days," Evelyne replied as she adjusted her chair to sit closer. "The professors said it was more due to the accumulated exhaustion in your body than the injuries themselves. They used healing magic to fix the worst of it, but your body needed real rest."

She paused before adding in a lighter tone, "Although, if there had been a professor here with master-level magic, you probably would’ve woken up within minutes. But well, almost no one has that level."

Adam simply listened attentively for a moment. Two days. He had been out for two full days. "And the tournament?"

Evelyne shrugged with a smile that didn’t seem particularly bothered. "I already fought. I lost in the first exchange, honestly. My opponent was much better than me."

"Doesn’t that bother you?"

"Not at all," she replied sincerely. "I didn’t expect to win anyway. I just wanted to see how far I’d come with the training and... well, now I know. I still have a lot to improve."

Adam nodded slowly at that, finding a certain logic in her reasoning. "And Piers?"

"He’s in class right now," Evelyne said as she briefly glanced toward the window.

Adam blinked in confusion. "In class? What time is it?"

"Ten in the morning."

"And what are you doing here instead of being in class?"

Evelyne looked at him with an amused smile as she arched an eyebrow. "Taking care of you, obviously. Missing one day isn’t a big deal. It’s not like I’m going to fail for skipping one elemental theory class."

Adam looked at her for a moment, slightly amused by her response. "Thanks."

"You’re welcome," she replied simply before changing the subject. "By the way, everyone’s talking about your fight. Most people are split between thinking you’re a complete lunatic or a combat genius. Some think you’re both."

"That was to be expected...," Adam murmured with faint amusement.

Evelyne laughed softly at that before turning more serious. "Speaking of which... are you okay? It was... hard to watch. I didn’t know if you were going to..."

"I’m fine," Adam interrupted her in a calm tone. "Or I will be eventually. I just need time to fully recover."

A comfortable silence settled between them for several seconds before Evelyne finally spoke again in a lighter tone. "Are you hungry? You must be starving after two days without eating."

Adam was about to say no when his stomach growled audibly, completely betraying him.

Evelyne burst into laughter at that as she stood up. "That answers my question. I’ll go grab something from the cafeteria. Don’t move."

"Wasn’t planning to," Adam replied dryly, which only made her laugh more as she left the room.

Adam remained there alone, lying down, staring at the white ceiling while processing everything that had happened.

He had won. He killed Kael Duskrin and completed the system’s mission.

His gaze shifted to where the system screen was still floating, now displaying a progress bar:

[Tamer System - UPDATE IN PROGRESS]

[Time remaining: 71 hours, 43 minutes]

[Loading improvements...]

[Optimizing guidance functions...]

[Adjusting experience parameters...]

Adam watched the screen for a moment longer before slowly closing his eyes, still feeling the lingering fatigue in his body. He simply settled more comfortably into the bed, waiting for Evelyne to return.

’Seventy hours,’ he thought as he felt the dizziness finally fade away completely.

’And after that... what comes next?’

He still had no answer to that question.

He simply had to wait and see what advantages this sudden update would bring, but if it helped him grow stronger in a shorter period of time, then he would accept it without complaint.

On the other hand, something that concerned him—though barely enough to think about it more than once—was Ansel Stone; he would surely do something against him.

After all, he had killed his friend...