ã€ŠOf Arms and Arcaneã€‹


 Prologue

    I am fading, the darkness is claiming my vision as I see the fuzzy image of armor clad people gathering around me.

    I hear the muffled voices of those around me pleading with me to keep my eyes open and stay awake.

    How did I end up on the ground? I am not so sur-.... Wait, the last thing I saw was an axe head coming towards me.

    Ah, so that''s how it is. My noggin got caved in, and for some reason, I cannot feel the rest of my body, in fact, I cannot feel anything. That''s one upside I guess.

    Is this my end? To die a kissless virgin? I had boundless energy as a child until now and had to expend it somehow, why did I choose martial arts instead of chasing girls? How did I go down this path?

    Oh right, I got hooked on shonen anime and manga, and it did not help that my dad brought the family along as he traveled for his work in the Asia region.

    To stop me from wrecking the house and driving my mum up the wall, my parents decided to focus my energy on martial arts classes, as my family moved to different regions and countries, I went to multiple classes, muay thai, karate, taekwondo, aikido, judo, kendo, wushu, and different styles of kung fu depending on where my family was currently located.

    It was a fun time of my life, meeting new people, eating different foods, and learning new martial arts¡­ But it was lonely, even though I could be considered well-traveled, I did not know many people as I was homeschooled, the only people I kind of knew were all my dad¡¯s business friends who came to visit every now and then.

    When I was 18, my parents decided to settle back down in the USA so I could further my education. I was born in the US but I don''t remember much, most of my life was spent in Asia and only came back twice to visit my grandparents.

    By this time, I was somewhat disillusioned with martial arts and only continued as a form of habit and to meet new people.

    My parents consulted with one of their friends about my future education and with my grades and interests, besides martial arts, I was recommended to go into Mechanical Engineering and/or Computer Engineering, my parents pushed for both.

    And just like that, I spent 4 soul draining years of my life buried in books, I barely had time to work out, let alone practice martial arts. I did not even have time to have the social life I craved while I was getting homeschooled.

    But I kept at it, I was close to my parents, so I knew the sacrifices that they had to make to give me a good life compared to the people I met in other countries to be able to send me to classes, and even this fancy expensive university.

    After traveling and meeting other people, I realized at an early age how fortunate I was and did not want to disappoint my parents.

    And the moment I graduated, I felt free again. But reality hit again, I had to join the workforce.

    Ended up at a tech company that designed prosthetics, and finally for the first time I had a social life.

    It was during one of the social gatherings after work, and as we were getting to know each other, was where I got to know Dave, a fellow martial artist.

    Dave practiced HEMA, or Historical European Martial Arts. Compared to him, I was raised mainly in Asia and thus, surrounded by Asian martial arts, but now I will have a chance to learn martial arts from the other side of the globe. This reignited my martial spirit and asked Dave if I could join a session to give it a shot.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    After a few lessons, I was hooked. The last time I had this feeling was when my family moved and I got to learn a new martial art.

    And as if that was not enough of a time sink, Dave also got me into MMA saying that it would complement HEMA, and after practicing with Dave using practice swords and MMA, I had to agree.

    Things got even better when we moved from sparring with padded armor to full on plate armor.

    The class had a few donated sets of old, beaten up, but still serviceable plate armor. That was when I went from hooked to addicted, as the sessions went by, I practiced with all sorts of weapons, swords, axes, maces, war hammers, spears, pikes, glaves, flails, and many other weapons.

    I even got into purchasing my own copies of manuscripts, fencing manuals, and illustrated treatises written by European masters and scholars.

    And as my income from my job was quite decent, I eventually saved up to buy my own armor, and after that, my room wall started looking like a medieval armory.

    After 2 years of practice, the instructor called me aside and offered me a position on the gym¡¯s team to try and make it to the national teams to represent USA internationally in medieval full-contact combat sports, or in its old French name, Buhurt.

    Naturally, I took the offer. And after competing in the nationals and internationally and taking home the golds, I had come to realize one thing.

    I was fucking good at this. Sure, every now and then I would get a broken nose from someone smashing my face through my helmet or getting my bones cracked every now and then, but it was a price I was willing to pay if I got to smash other people with full force.

    Compared to Kendo, I could go full force in whacking someone, smacking someone with metal just had a different feeling. And don''t even get me started on Wushu, that was just fucking choreographed dancing with weapons.

    My vision is getting dimmer, should not rant too much, where was I?

    Oh, right. The year after that me and my team took home Gold again. Which leads me to this year¡¯s competition.

    I got Gold in my 1v1 matches and as a team, we won a few group matches, and all that was left was the 150v150 match, that is where I ended up in this situation.

    I was on the strike team that would rush and attack any part of the opponent¡¯s team that stuck out or if we saw an opening to take down some of the opponent¡¯s numbers.

    It was during one of these clashes that my leather chinstrap got undone, this was followed by a mace blow to the side of my head, which sent my helmet flying off my head, and there was a two-handed axe already in motion towards my head, and before the referee step in or the two-handed axe wielder could redirect his strike, the two-handed axe caved in my skull.

    No matter how much they dull the edge of that weapon for the competition, the chainmail coif that was left on my head did not prevent my skull from getting caved in by that full-powered swing.

    And that is how I ended up lying on the ground with my brain juice leaking out of my head. I am so tired. I guess this is it for me. I should have asked that cute new girl out. How are my parents going to take this¡­. Dammit.

    Sorry Mum and Dad¡­ I¡¯m going to sleep now¡­.

    ***

    What am I hearing, is that people talking? I don''t recognize the language though.

    Wait, the international competition was held at some Switzerland castle, am I in a Swiss hospital? But what I am hearing is clearly not Swiss or any other language I have ever heard, but if I am not in Switzerland, where am I?

    Oh God! Is this the afterlife? I can''t see anything, is this purgatory? Or hell? Oh Jesus! Allah! Buddha!.... Odin? Please save me!

    That was when I felt a slap on my tender feeling ass and I cried out on instinct.

    "Waaah¡­ WaWaaah!"

    What the fuck, I made that noise, what''s going on?

    I struggle to open my eyes as I feel myself being manhandled and wrapped in something warm and fluffy.

    Shortly after I felt like I was handed over to something, I finally opened my eyes.

    Wow, that''s a huge woman, in more ways than one. But for all her hugeness, she looked to be covered in sweat and extremely tired, but beneath all that, she was obviously a beautiful woman.

    I try to move my hands but can''t, I look down to see I am swaddled from the neck down.

    My investigation of my current state of being was interrupted as the huge woman gently caressed my face, said something in her language, and kissed my forehead.

    I tried to talk to the huge lady to ask her what was going on, but the only sounds that came out of my mouth were things like "Waahbbwvv¡­" and other cute sounding noises.

    That''s when I heard the unmistakable sound of women fawning over something cute from the side, when I turned towards the noise, I saw a bunch of maids who were in the classic maid dress, not the fetish stuff.

    And beside them was a gruff looking man who was dressed in practical yet obviously expensive clothes like those seen on nobles in medieval period dramas, and he was walking towards me. When he was in front of me, he was truly huge, and the huge woman passed me over to him while saying something.

    As he picked me up, that''s when I finally saw it, there was a mirror on what looked like a dresser at the other side of the room, and in that mirror was the the reflection of the back of the man holding me, but more importantly, the man was holding a baby.

    This could not be, could it? So I purposely wriggled and saw my reflection doing the same. These people are not huge, I am small, and a baby¡­

    No. Nonononono¡­ ¡°Wa¡­Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!¡±

 Chapter 1

    Lady Amara Ironcrest tiredly giggled from the bed as she saw her husband Baron Alden Ironcrest try to soothe their newborn son. And after a few seconds of trying, and failing to do so.

    She reached out her hands, ¡°It''s ok Dear, pass him to me.¡± Alden passed the baby over to Amara to cradle but the crying continued.

    ¡°The young Lord is most likely hungry my Lady, It would be best to start with his first feeding.¡± the nearby midwife said.

    Lady Amara Ironcrest then proceeded to expose one of her breasts and pushed the teat to the baby¡¯s mouth, which was automatically latched on to and the baby quieted down as he started suckling.

    ¡°There, all calm now.¡± Amara said then looked at her downcast husband.

    ¡°Don''t worry dear, I am sure he will get used to you the more he sees you.¡± she told her husband who looked sad from his firstborn son crying upon being picked up by him.

    ***

    Why am I crying? Sure, it was a shock to myself that I died and woke up in this baby¡¯s body. Now that my brain is not slowly dying and I can think properly, my mind is somewhat calm as I try to process the new situation. But I for the life of me can''t stop crying.

    That was when I was passed back to who I assume to be my mother, this was followed by a woman in a more common looking dress saying something to my mother, and this was followed by my would be mother popping one of her boobs out that was bigger than my head and putting her nipple to my mouth.

    My mind and my mum told me not to suck the tit of a woman I don''t know, but my body, my body said YES! And latched on and sucking, which seemed to calm my body down. Now that my body was calming down, I noticed I was hungry, and the warm milk I was drinking was sating that hunger.

    After some time of drinking from this kind looking woman¡¯s tit, I am now feeling drowsy¡­ was this how I was like when I was a baby last time?... who cares¡­ tired now¡­ think later¡­ nappy time¡­.zzzzzz¡­

    ***

    When the baby finally fell asleep, Lady Amara Ironcrest turned to her husband while nursing the sleeping baby.

    ¡°So, what shall we name him?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I have thought about this for a while, and I want to name him after my late father, Luke, Luke Ironcrest.¡± Baron Alden Ironcrest.

    ***

    When I awoke, I found myself in a cot, when looked to the side, I saw a young woman in a maid¡¯s outfit reading a book.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Not wanting to disturb her reading, I tried to move around to see what this body could do.

    After squirming around for a while, I realized I could not do much, I was not strong enough to lift my own head and I could only flail my arms and legs around, I did not even have to strength to flip myself over, so I just laid there and stared at the filigree ceiling and very tasteful crown molding.

    But I can only stare for so long, I¡¯m bored, well I suppose that the maid is there to make sure I don''t die or something, but she was so engrossed in her book, she did not even see me flailing around, no fair, I want to be entertained too!

    So I do what babies do and make cute noises, which attract the maid¡¯s attention. When she looks into the cot and sees me doing the baby equivalent of blowing raspberry and raising my arms towards her in what I think is the universal sign of ¡®Give me uppies!¡¯

    And sure enough, the maid picks me up while making the equivalent of a baby voice in her language. Alright, got to make this convincing.

    I reach for her face and play with her nose and cheeks while I check out my surroundings, the first thing that catches my eye is the mirror on the dresser, the last time I saw myself in the mirror and started crying, I did not get a good look at myself, so now is as a good time as any to check myself out.

    I reached my hands out in a grasping motion toward the dresser and the maid followed where I was grasping at. When I was in front of the mirror, I ignored the maid making baby noise at me and took a long hard look at myself.

    God damm I''m ugly, well, as ugly as every 1 day old baby I have ever seen, hope those baby wrinkles go away.

    Next, I made a grasping motion at a bookshelf, then the biggest book I could see on the bookshelf. When the maid took me to a desk, opened the book, and started narrating to me while keeping her finger to trace the words where she was reading, I noticed that the alphabet they were using looked like a bastardized version of the old German alphabet I saw in some old untranslated sword instruction manuscripts.

    Wait a god damm second! The furniture and design of the room, the classical maid uniform, the way that man who I can only assume is my current father was dressed, and some old school looking books.

    Did I go back in time!?

    I looked around the room and found the door, I must see for myself! After indicating that I was interested in the door, the maid carried me and opened the door only to find my current mother along with another maid.

    The maid holding me conversed with my mother and my mother¡¯s smile grew wider as I could only assume my maid was telling my mother of my activities when I woke up.

    I was then handed over to my mother and my mother told the other maid something. That maid went to the fireplace knelt down, did some naruto hand sign bullshit, followed by saying ¡°Sol¡¯kath.¡±

    The moment the word left her mouth, a candle sized flame came to to life just above the tip of the maid¡¯s finger, and then proceeded to light the fireplace.

    Holy Fucking Shit¡­.. Was that fucking magic!?

    My mother clearly saw the amazement on my face and brought a hand in front of me, and with the flick of her fingers, conjured a ball of water the size of a baseball out of thin air.

    Holy Fucking Shit!¡­.. IT IS MAGIC!!!

    In all my excitement, my body reacted on its own and I proceeded to do baby claps while making very happy baby noise.

    I did not go back in time, I am in a world with magic motherfucker!!!

 Chapter 2

    Hey y''all, it''s your boi Luke, or at least I think that is what my name is from everyone calling me that, it is my second day of life in this new world, and I just learned that there is motherfucking magic.

    I kept pestering my mum and the maids to perform magic until my mother said something then carried me and exited the room with the 2 maids in tow, as we passed the hallway, we sometimes came across maids and butlers who bowed and greeted my mum.

    Okay, my parents are clearly loaded, but I think it is more than that, I will just have to wait and observe.

    Soon we arrive at a courtyard, and in said courtyard, there are a dozen or so men either lifting some weights or sparing with each other using wooden weapons, and I have to say, those are some impressive men.

    Hey, I ain''t gay, I can appreciate the hard work put into perfecting the male form that is loaded with pecs and wielding some impressive guns, which almost made me miss my current father, it seems like the baggy noble clothes he was wearing when I first saw him were hiding a lot.

    When my father caught sight of me and my mum spectating them, he said something to his sparring partner and they started sparring more vigorously.

    As I observed them, I could not help but be slightly disappointed. Their timing, balance, footwork, and understanding of the distance and range of their weapons were fine. But their skills and technique, I could only describe as¡­ primitive.

    They were literally just attacking or blocking while not taking full advantage of their footwork, or should I say their skills and technique did not seem to incorporate footwork.

    The only good thing I can say about this display is that their basic strikes are solid, and from the sound the wooden swords make when they clash, hit the ground, or hit each other, I would say they have monstrous strength.

    The other thing I need to take note of is their endurance and stamina, if the rather deep grooves in the ground from missed strikes are any indicator, Dad and the guy he is sparring with can take some monstrous beatings and still be ok, and also the fact that they seem to be going at full speed for more than 5 minutes already.

    Since this is a magic world, is there some magic at play here?

    Just as I asked myself that question, both sparring partners broke off and separated a few steps from where they clashed, and then I saw and felt 2 pulses.

    Both my dad and his sparing partner seemed to release an invisible pulse they threw back dust and sand within a 1 meter radius of themselves, after that pulse, I could see a glowing outline of their body and swords. What the fuck is goi-

    Literally in the blink of an eye, they clashed in the middle and started exchanging blows faster than I could keep track.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Their mighty blows and clashes were literally creating a wind that was buffeting my face until I saw Mum flick her finger and the air in front of me became fuzzy for only a second, and now I did not feel any wind.

    Was that a barrier? God dammit, why could I not have been isekai''d in an older body, now I will have to wait until I grow up to do all this cool shit, what I need is to pick up this world¡¯s language as soon as possible!

    The rapid sword flashes soon ended as the 2 fighters broke off and clashed with 3 more powerful strikes, on the 3rd and last strike, Dad shattered his sparing partner¡¯s wooden sword and sent him flying and tumbling a few meters away.

    Once again¡­ Holy Fucking Shit! That was some anime-level fighting, too bad their technique is so disappointing, but then again if you are fighting at that level of speed and power, is advanced technique even necessary?

    Yet again more shit I will have to wait until I grow up before I can find out for myself.

    ***

    As the days turn to weeks, and then to months, my only duties were to eat, sleep, and poop, and while I am not doing any of that, I am pestering my parents and whichever maid that is taking a shift with me to raid the bookshelf.

    I am now grateful that my parents in my old life brought me along to different countries. With each country I went to, even if not perfectly or even competently, I was still able to pick up enough of the spoken and written language to get around and interact with the locals.

    But compared to my previous life, I seem to be having a far easier time picking up the language of this world with all the reading being done for me. Is it true what they say about young children¡¯s brains picking up languages easily?

    By the sixth month, aside from some complex words, I am able to pick up on basic conversations that go on in the mansion, and I finally learned that my family¡¯s name is Ironcrest, which sounds pretty metal. (AN: I do not apologize for the pun.)

    So that makes me Luke Ironcrest. Apparently, we are not only loaded, but we are a noble family, I have not figured out the whole noble thing yet, will need to read up more on this.

    The only time I regret learning the language so early that people still think I am oblivious to their conversations, was when my parents were with me in private and they started talking dirty to each other, I did not recognize some words, but I watched enough TV to know they were about to do the nasty.

    Then they would pass me to a maid waiting outside and get to business. At this rate, I would not be surprised if I soon got a sibling, as I was an only child in my previous life I always wanted a sibling. When I asked my parents in my previous life about getting a sibling, they gave me a pained face and said no, I was young but old enough to know not to touch that subject, so I let it go.

    Today was my personal maid Alice¡¯s turn to take care of me, we entered the study and went to the usual shelf I have been reading from for the past 6 months and we cleared all the books at eye level, which was not saying much as Alice was 14years old and short.

    Now was the time to get that step ladder and go for higher shelves. When both of us were up and able to see the titles on the book spine, one book caught my eye ¡°The Basics of Magic: Volume 1¡±.

    My eyes went wide and my hands went grasping at the book with gold-embossed filigree dancing along the spine.

    ¡°Ah, Young Master wants to learn about magic, maybe you want to be a mage like Madam and those from her family.¡±

    ¡°Aah! Aah!¡± I motioned toward the book while making wanting baby noises.

    ¡°Young Master is so impatient. Ok, ok, calm down, big sis Alice will read it for you.¡±

 Chapter 3

    It took multiple shifts of maids and many a nap time, but I finally finished the book ¡°The Basics of Magic: Volume 1¡±.

    And I can say with utmost confidence as a man of science and having more than a decade of modern education under my belt¡­ that I did not understand half of what was in that book.

    The whole bloody book was riddled with terminology I did not know, I mean, sure, at this point, I could pronounce the individual words in my head, but I did not know what any of them meant or have any context to understand what the word meant.

    But even if I missed half of what the book said, the main thing I gleaned from the book was that when most people in the world use magic, they do not actually shoot fire or water, they are shooting a concept of fire or water, or in other words, they are shooting a mana that acts like fire or water.

    Another thing I gleaned from the book that disappointed and scared me, was the reason why there were no instructions on how to even get started with mana.

    It was because before one can learn magic, one must learn to sense mana. But techniques to sense and wield magic for the first time are usually not put in unrestricted books that any young child can pick up and read.

    This was done because it was tried before and it resulted in many unsupervised children trying to sense and wield magic before they were ready, only to get seriously hurt or die. Now it is a common practice and law in most countries that children taking their first steps into magic, be it as simple as non-circle/household magic like what the maid did to light the fireplace, be supervised by someone who can perform at least 1st circle magic.

    The ranking of magic in this world being, non-circle/household magic that can be used by quite a large number of people with a little training and practice, followed by 1st circle magic, all the way to the legendary 10th circle magic, and some saying there is a level that exceeds the 10th circle.

    This seriously dampened my spirits, but then again, I am not really a child am I? But how am I to learn to sense mana, if the instruction to sense mana for the first time is not in unrestricted books, what is this world¡¯s definition of restricted?

    That was a question that was answered a month later when my mum brought me along into her personal study and put me in my booster chair. After a while, of doing some personal research, she had to refer to some material.

    Mum went to an ornate fully wooden and polished bookcase and pulled an equally ornate key out of her cleavage. After inserting the key and turning it, runes and glyphs lit up all over the bookcase, Mum waited for a few seconds for the light to fade before opening it.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I was lucky that the bookcase was right next to me so I managed to get a good look at what was in there.

    There were some trinkets of both ornate and mundane in appearance, a fancy looking dagger, some jewelry, followed by a bunch of books.

    There were the basic looking books like, "Herbology Handbook: Mastering the Magic of Botanicals" or "Alchemy Made Easy: Transforming the Mundane into the Magical", all the way to the pompous looking and grandiose sounding titles like, "The Grand Grimoire of Arcane Elevation: An Opulent Odyssey into Mystical Mastery" and "The Tome of Mystic Mastery: Illuminating the Path to Unparalleled Wizardry".

    The latter books sounded like the author was blowing hot air up his own ass.

    After skimming through the titles on the shelves, my eyes finally landed on a dusty corner that had yet to be populated with books. In that dusty corner was a thin and slightly crumpled book, but the title was clear to me, "Introduction to Sensing Mana: 3rd Edition"

    Mum had already grabbed what she needed and was closing the case. I must get that book read to me! Baby Tantrum Powers Activate! I started crying while grasping at the shelf.

    ¡°Oh dear, what''s wrong honey?¡± Mum said as she left the bookcase open and rushed towards me to pick me up. She saw where my attention was and went toward the bookcase.

    As we got closer to the bookcase, I willed my baby body to ease up on the waterworks until I was just in front of the bookcase.

    Mum took a necklace from inside the bookcase and dangled it in front of me ¡°Does Luke want the shiny necklace?¡±

    Ok, I got to play this smoothly. I take the necklace and do what babies do, I shove it in my mouth. After sucking the necklace for a few seconds, I pretend to have my eyes wander to the book I wanted.

    After locking eyes with the book, I drop the necklace from my mouth and begin reaching towards the book in the dusty corner.

    Mum sees the book I want and grabs it from the shelf and picks it up, ¡°Oh my, does Luke want to become a mage like Mommy and Grandpa?¡±

    To that question, I did my best puppy eyes at Mum while pointing at the book.

    ¡°Kaah! Why is my son so cute?!¡± Mum said as she showered me in kisses. After she was satisfied, she sat me down in my booster chair, pulled her chair up next to me, and opened the book.

    ¡°You should not be reading this book at your age, but it is not like you can understand what I am saying.¡± Mum said as she stroked my head.

    Yes. Yes!! Soon all the magic will be mine! Muahahaha. As I engage in my evil victory laugh, what actually comes out of my mouth is an utterly cute happy baby laugh which prompts Mum to rain down kisses on me once again.

    No Mum, less kisses, more reading!

 Chapter 4

    Mum narrated the book and traced out the mana flow on the simple diagram of a human body, and because she thought I didn''t understand anything yet, she added a few more detailed comments on how the process is done and lamented the details that were missed out.

    ¡°But don''t worry sweety, the current 5th edition corrected most of this. This 3rd edition is from your Grandpa¡¯s time, we just forgot to dispose of this old edition, if someone follows this, they may get an internal injury if they are really unlucky. And besides, Mommy will be the one who will help you with your first steps to magic.¡± Mum said as she kissed my forehead and continued.

    After she finished the rather short book, Mum looked at the grandfather clock and said, ¡°Looks like it''s feeding time.¡± and whipped out a tit for me to suck.

    While I was having my regular dose of boob juice, I took the time to digest not only the milk I was drinking but what I just learned. If I boiled it down to its basic contents, mana is already in and around my body, I just need to differentiate the difference between my internal mana and environmental mana.

    Once I am able to do that, I should be able to use my internal mana to enact my will upon environmental mana.

    Currently, as things stand with me sensing mana, my situation would be analogous to my body being submerged in water that constantly maintains the same temperature as my own body. My brain knows it is submerged in water, but my body is having a hard time feeling the sensation of wetness due to everything being the same temperature.

    The same thing applies to my mana, the instruction book tells me that mana is everywhere, and my mum has shown me proof that magic is possible through the power of mana.

    Now I would need to create a situation where my mana surges fluctuate more than the environmental mana before I start feeling the difference.

    But that''s where the danger comes in. For a person who has never had his mana fluctuate before, if done too roughly, it could rupture one¡¯s mana pathways, and if not attended to immediately, could lead to being magically crippled or death.

    There was an excerpt in the book that says areas that suffer repeated environmental mana fluctuations, have a higher percentage of mages being produced, but that same percentage increase also applies to the child mortality rate. Grim stuff.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    While explaining that excerpt, my mum also said that the Royals, higher nobility, and the extremely rich send their children to the capital to enter what is known as a Mana Depravation Chamber. If there is no more mana around, it is easy to find your own mana, because within the chamber that person would be the only one with mana. But using the Mana Depravation Chamber is stupidly expensive, apparently, it is hard to totally extract mana from an area.

    But back to my situation of sensing my own mana. From what the text says, there is a breathing technique and an element of imagination in order to fluctuate my mana.

    It says I need to apply the breathing technique and while doing so, imagine a ball of power in the middle of my chest. After breathing in and out ten times, take one last deep breath, hold my breath as long as I can, then finally exhale and release the image of the ball of power. The text says to repeat this exercise until I start feeling a tingling or jarring sensation all over my body, and if I start getting an aching sensation in my chest, I am to stop and rest for at least a week.

    But all that is for later, my belly is full and it is nappy time.

    ***

    When I woke up, I was in my cot with Alice sitting beside me reading a book. But now that I am awake I have an important decision to make.

    Do I attempt to take the path to magic on my own, or do I be a good boy and wait until I am old enough? From what has been read to me, the age range most kids take their first step to magic is between the ages of 5 to 10 years old.

    But that is for snot-nosed kids who don''t have the mind of a fully grown man, I sure as hell am not going to entertain myself by stacking toy blocks¡­ I mean nothing wrong with stacking blocks, it would be pretty dope if I could build it super high and-. NO, Focus Luke! Magic awaits!

    The main question is, do I go through with this? To be honest, I isekai''d into a noble family, from what the servants say, my father is an accomplished fighter that did the King a huge solid during a battle, and my mum is a 4th circle mage, most mages linger between 1st to 3rd circle all their lives, apparently low-level mages can still make a decent living in this world. From the novels, manga, and anime I consumed, it could have been a lot worse.

    But no, I don''t think I can stand the boredom of babyhood. I got the instructions, I just have to go through with it, the only downside is the chance of dying.

    Wait a minute, I have a 4th circle mage as a mother, which means she is a pretty talented mage, and if what was read to me is to be believed, she would be able to sense if shit goes sideways right?

    The text did say "if not attended to immediately, could lead to being magically crippled or death.", what''s more immediate than Mum being beside me, basically a safety net.

    And if she notices and freaks out, I will just play dumb and make baby noises at her.

    Hey, I never said my plan was good, but it is a plan nonetheless. I hope there is no superstition about magical babies being the devil or something like that, that would suck major ass. .

 Chapter 5

    The next day rolls around, mum brought my sleepy head to the front yard. There I see my dad and a few of his men on horseback decked out in plate armor, along with around 50 men wearing chainmail and holding spears and shields, and lastly, 3 men wearing loose leathers, 2 of them had bows and the last one had a crossbow slung across his back.

    From what I hear when those around me are conversing, apparently, my Dad and his men are going to hunt down some Kobold that has been bothering one of the nearby villages, they hope to rout the kobolds and follow them back to their nest to finish the job.

    Apparently, kobolds, goblin, hobgoblins, and their like are considered pests, but pests to be taken seriously because they breed and mature fast. If the problem is not nipped in the bud, the small pest problem turns into a horde, and nobody would like that. If not taken care of, the villagers will die, and dead villagers don''t pay taxes.

    You might be wondering how I know what a kobold is even if I have never seen one, well, one of the perks of being in a noble house that had money, is that we can afford to buy expensive books, and one of those books was a bestiary with detailed pictures and description of different beasts and monsters.

    Sure, the bestiary has another name in the local language for kobolds, goblins, and whatnot, but I refuse to call them as such in my own head. My noggin, my rules.

    Dad walks up to us and kisses both of us, ¡°I should be back in a week, love you, I will be going now.¡±

    Mum gave Dad one last kiss and said, ¡°Take care, honey, come back safe.¡± and with that, they were off.

    ***

    After Dad left, Mum brought me into her study as she continued her research. I can see her drawing diagrams and magic circles and then pausing to refer to some material.

    Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any, LETS DO THIS!

    So the first step, imagine a ball of power in my chest, no problem, watched enough anime and cartoons to easily do this.

    Second step, take ten deep breaths, and on my 11th breath, I breathe as deeply as my baby body can manage and hold it there.

    After about half a minute, I could not hold it anymore and took a breath of air while releasing the image of the ball of power.

    Am I supposed to feel something? The only thing I am feeling now is the discomfort of holding my breath until I can no longer stand it.

    When I turned towards my Mum, I froze, she was looking at me¡­ no¡­ our eyes were not meeting, she was looking beyond me, I turned to where she was looking and saw only the wall, I looked back at her and after awhile, she shrugs and goes back to her research.

    Did she feel my mana and rule me out as a suspect because I am just a baby? Only one way to find out, let''s try that again while keeping an eye on her.

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    While she was doing her research, I repeated the exercise, and when I stopped holding my breath and released the image of the ball of energy in my chest, Mum''s head snapped towards me and this time she was not looking past me.

    Oh crap, does she know?

    "Was¡­ Was that you Luke?" Mum asked as she reached out a trembling hand to touch my face.

    Dammit, I assumed she would be able to sense if things go bad, I did not expect her to be that sensitive to mana, maybe she thought my first try at the exercise was a fluke.

    At this point, I think I should just go for it and continue the exercise, not like I can hide from her anyway.

    I started deliberately taking deep breaths in front of her, and by the 5th breath, Mum must have caught on to what I was doing and turned pale with worry as she scooped me up while loudly saying "Oh no, Oh no no no!"

    By the time she was done saying that, I was at the stage of holding my breath. Which pretty much confirmed her suspicions of what I was doing.

    Mum burst out into tears and sobbed while saying, ¡°No Luke, don''t hurt yourself!¡±

    That was when a maid and guard burst into the room, ¡°My Lady! Are you alright?¡±

    Mum rounded on them and shouted ¡°Send a rider with all due haste to my husband, tell him we have an emergency. Close the door behind you, only my husband may enter. Leave!¡±

    Mum then hugged me while pleading with me not to hurt myself, I could not stand to see the woman who showed me love and took care of me cry, but I did not dare stop the exercise halfway, the book did not mention anything about interrupting the exercise, and I am not going to stop in case I really do hurt myself.

    When I could no longer hold my breath, I gasped for air and released the image, I did not feel any new sensation. The only thing I felt was me being an asshole for making my mum cry. So I reached out to wipe the tears on her cheeks and gave her a hug, which prompted her to squeeze me back.

    About 20 minutes later, Dad literally busted the door off its hinges with his sword drawn and looking out for any danger, ¡°I am here my love, what happened?¡±

    Mum ran over with me in hand and hugged Dad, after which, she looked at the broken door, ¡°Let''s go to the bedroom before we speak.¡±

    Once the door was closed in the master bedroom, Mum told him what happened, ¡°- after that, I sent them off and said only you were allowed to enter. I was worried that if word spread of our baby taking the first step to magic on his own, it may attract the attention of other nobles, or even worse, rogue mage organizations.¡±

    Say what now?

    ¡°That''s good thinking Dear, is there any way to stop Luke from taking the first step to magic?¡± Dad asked.

    Mum shook her head and answered, ¡°No, he did the breathing exercise successfully twice, and it''s not like we can stop him from breathing, he is more than likely to do it again, and may eventually be able to sense mana, but I don''t think it will be so bad, without spells he can do little more than push around mana, that in of itself is not harmful.¡±

    Dad breathed out a sigh of relief, ¡°Good. I wonder how in the world he even knew how to take his fist step to mana anyway¡±.

    Mum looked down sheepishly, ¡°I¡­ read an Introduction to Sensing Mana instruction book to him¡­ but I still don''t know how he figured it out, he is still a baby.¡±

    Dad stared blankly at Mum and then said, ¡°You did what?¡±

    That was the first time I witnessed my parents of this life fight. I guess no matter the world, parents will sometimes fight.

 Chapter 6

    I could not stand my parents fighting because of my actions, so I did what only a baby could do, I cried to get their attention.

    And after giving them some time to settle me down, I showed affection to my parents, especially my dad.

    Eventually, my dad asked his 2nd in command to go complete the mission in his stead and reinforce the subjugation mission with 20 more of the household troops.

    I spent the rest of the day with my parents, and since there was no more hiding that I knew how to do the breathing exercises, I decided to try it after every feeding, and only when I am alone with my mum, don''t want anyone having loose lips that could attract unwanted attention.

    After doing the breathing exercises for the 4th time today, I felt a small ache in my chest.

    That was a clear sign to stop, especially after Mum gave me a knowing worried look and cradled me while stroking my head and asking me to stop.

    Sorry for worrying you Mum, I will try to get this over and done with ASAP.

    ***

    After the scare I gave my parents, Mum scoured all the bookshelves in the house and locked away any and all magical literature in her personal bookcase.

    Not cool, Mum, but understandable.

    While waiting for my body to recover from the breathing exercise, it was back to more reading, and there was not a moment that Mum let me out of her sight.

    Just like that, a week passed. Just to be safe, I decided to give myself a few days rest on top of the 1 week''s recovery period before I try the breathing exercise again.

    While I was taking a break from reading and doing some block stacking, luv me blocks by the way.

    Dad and an older looking man with white streaks in his hair entered the room, Mum, myself, and my maid Alice were in.

    ¡°Father! You arrived.¡± Mum said as she for up from her seat and dismissed Alice.

    It seems this is my Grandpa on my mother¡¯s side, Baron Rowan Silverbrook, a 6th circle mage, hi Grandpa! I faced him, raised both my hands, and made a happy excited baby noise. Grandpa was trying to put on a serious face, but I saw the corner of his lips crack into a smile. Muhahaha, you are not immune to my cute powers old man!

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    ¡°I left the moment I received the messenger bird, what seems to be the problem, the message sounded urgent.¡± Grandpa said as he turned back to Mum

    The adults took a seat around a tea table and Mum poured everyone some tea, then sat me on her lap before telling Grandpa of the situation.

    By the end of Mum informing Grandpa of my successful attempts at fluctuating my mana, his expression went back and forth between being excited and worried, especially about the part about me doing the exercise until the 4th time when she sensed I was stressing my mana pathways and I stopped on my own.

    Grandpa stroked his long goatee as he pondered the situation, then said, ¡°This seems like a good time for a vacation, and how better to spend this vacation than spoiling my newest grandson? We need to keep the people in the know small, so I and your mother will help babysit Luke to give you some time to rest. Your brother should be able to keep things in order while we are away, it is about time to push more responsibility of the territory to him anyway.¡±

    Grandpa then wrote a letter and passed it to Mum, ¡°Help send this to your mother later. Now, you said it has been a week since Luke has attempted taking the first step to magic, he should be ready to try again, do you think we can get him to try?¡±

    Mum hugged me tight and buried me in her generous bosom, ¡°No, it''s too soon, it has just been a week¡±

    Grandpa just waved off what Mum said, ¡°Oh come on, we both know that is just an exaggerated estimate so the author or book publisher does not have any legal action taken against them if anyone retries the exercise too soon. It usually takes only 3 to 4 days to recover.¡±

    The fucking liars! All the time I could have used to take my first step to magic.

    Grandpa continued, ¡°And besides, since I am here, there is no need to worry, I have prevented mana pathway rupture for many kids over the years, so this should be no problem.¡±

    Mum was not happy, but after mulling it over with Dad, Mum came to the begrudging decision that now was as good a time as any with Grandpa around and agreed.

    Grandpa clapped his hand, ¡°Fantastic, now how do we get him to start the breathing exercise?¡±

    The 3 adults tried to ask and prompt me to start with the breathing exercise, but I had to keep up my appearance and act baby like, so I just laughed at them and clapped at their amusing efforts.

    Then Dad had an idea, he started doing a very exaggerated breathing exercise in front of me, Mum and Grandpa caught on and followed along. Well, they put effort into this, time to start playing along.

    I started the breathing exercise along with them to the worry of my parents and excitement of my Grandpa. When I released my breath and image of the ball of power in my chest, I thought¡­ I felt something. But I could not narrow down the feeling.

    Obviously feeling my mana fluctuate, my Grandpa scooped me out of my Mum¡¯s lap and spun me around while laughing, ¡°We are going to have another mage in the family, and at such a young age, if he successfully takes his first step to magic, he may be the youngest human in recorded history!¡±

    Wait, Grandpa¡­ spinning¡­ too fas- ¡°Urrp¡±

    I threw up on Grandpa.

 Chapter 7

    It has been a week since Grandpa Rowan moved in with us. That day was the first time I did the breathing exercise in front of Grandpa, I managed to do it 5 times before the chest ache came about.

    Just to test out what Grandpa said about the instruction book being overly cautious about the recovery time after feeling the chest ache, I tried the exercise again after 3 days. Turns out there may be some truth to one week of recovery time stated in the book, because I only managed to do the exercise 3 times before the chest ache.

    At the moment, I am currently with mum in her study, and I was playing with my blocks when someone knocked and opened the door, it was one of the maids, ¡°My lady, your mother Lady Isabella Silverbrook has arrived.¡±

    Mum thanked the maid, picked me up, and made her way to the front door. At the front door was a woman who looked like an aged-up version of Mum if she were in her 40s and aged very gracefully, and beside her holding 2 humongous suitcases, was an old looking butler with his white hair slicked back and rocking a dapper looking mustache.

    But other than his hair and the wrinkles on his face, his body was ramrod straight, and even with the butler¡¯s uniform, I could tell he was well built.

    ¡°Winston, take the bags to the guest room and unpack.¡± The woman who I can only assume is my Grandma, Lady Isabella Silverbrook.

    ¡°Of course madam.¡± the butler Winston said with a posh gentlemanly voice as he carried the suitcases to converse with my house¡¯s servants.

    ¡°Hello Mother, it is good to see you again.¡± Mum said as she went to hug Grandma.

    After a short hug, Grandma looked at me, ¡°So, this must be Luke, may I?¡±

    Mum then handed me over to her, ¡°Hello sweety, it''s me, Grandma Isabella.¡± she then planted a kiss on my forehead.

    I liked my grandparents in my old life and this lady looks sweet and loving like they were, I''m going to give Grandma the cute grandchild special. Sorry Grandpa, but you brought the puke upon yourself, still love you tho.

    I reply to my Grandma with a squeal of delight while clapping my hands then proceed to hug her.

    Grandma broke out in laughter as the rest of the family watched, when she calmed, she looked down at me and said, ¡°This child is a dangerous one, if you are not careful, you may have grandchildren popping up all over the place when he grows up.¡±

    Thanks? I assume that is high praise?

    Grandma gave me a kiss on the cheek and passed me back to Mum, then she looked at Grandpa and asked, ¡°So, what is so urgent that you asked me to pack my stuff for an extended stay?¡±

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    We all retired to a tea room and after the maid poured tea for all of us, she was dismissed, after which my situation was explained to Grandma.

    After hearing all about what I did and that at the rate I am going, I may be able to take the first step to magic before I even turn 1 year old. Grandma just sat there for a few minutes sipping her tea in silence.

    When her cup was empty, Grandma spoke up, ¡°We are going to need to keep Luke out of the public eye. When his first birthday comes up, it will only be for the people we know we can trust, so no visitors. If what you say is true and Luke manages to gain access to the use of his mana, he may slip up and use magic on accident while playing around, if anyone on the cusp of becoming a 2nd circle mage or higher is close or observant enough, they may notice Luke just pushing around mana for fun. He may also be detected by Aura users if they are capable enough.¡±

    At that last comment, Dad also nodded in acknowledgment. Was he able to sense me fluctuating my mana? Dad did not seem to react much when I fluctuated my mana, but then again, my Dad always had a stoic expression, the only times I see him smile is when he is with me or Mum. But still, I did not take Aura users into account.

    I am not so clear on what Aura is, but from what was read to me, on a basic level, the Aura user uses a spark of mana in their own body to ignite their, for a lack of a better word, ¡°stamina¡±, and if an Aura user overuses their own Arua, it will literally make the body start eating itself like a super accelerated form of starvation. If the user pushes through this state, the user will eventually suffer permanent internal injury or death.

    Besides allowing the body to perform superhuman feats like what Dad showed me during his sparring, I am not so sure what else Aura can do.

    Grandma continued, ¡°And as foolish as it sounds, we are going to need to teach him magic the moment he can comprehend the spoken and written language. We will need to teach him just enough magic in order for him to control and suppress his own mana so that anyone looking at him or around him will see nothing more than a normal toddler.¡±

    After draining another cup of tea, Grandma released a long sigh and continued, ¡°The earliest we can safely introduce him to the public is when he turns 5, most of those children who are counted as ¡°Geniuses¡± or ¡°Talented¡± in magic would take their first step to magic at that age.¡± Grandma said with sarcasm when emphasizing those two words.

    She let out yet another sigh and continued, ¡°Unfortunately, we are just barrons from the border, unlike the higher central nobility, there are many nobles or organizations that can easily wipe out our houses and blame the neighboring kingdom. In fact, even introducing Luke at 5 years old and already able to use magic will bring attention to him, be it petty nobles or mage towers. Depending on how unscrupulous or desperate they are, they may try to kidnap Luke.¡±

    I sit there on my mother¡¯s lap, dumbfounded at what I hear, this shit is more serious than initially thought it was.

    ¡°There are two ways we can go about resolving this. The first way is to not let Luke leave the house until he is older and able to defend himself. Which I don''t see happening.¡±

    Yeah! Fuck that! This may be a mansion, but I don''t think I can stay cooped up in here for such a long time.

    ¡°The second way is for Luke to be impressive enough to catch the eye of the Royals or one of the more honorable Dukes. If he gets them to become his patron, most of the insects would not even try to lay a finger on Luke, and it will make the other higher nobility think twice before doing anything stupid.¡±

    Looks like I will need to get my ass in gear and get in touch with my mana ASAP. I guess this is the sucky part of noble life, fucking politics.

 Chapter 8

    More time passes as I recover from my last breathing exercise. In that time, my grandparents had taken over babysitting duties, and due to the current situation, of me taking my first steps to magic, Grandma convinced Mum to release all the unrestricted magic literature she locked away.

    Apparently, Grandma handles the more social and political side of things in the Silverbrook family and was easily able to talk Mum into letting me read the books about magic that she cleared from all the easily accessible bookshelves.

    Grandma stated that it would be best to get me immersed and used to magic literature while I am still young. Jokes on her, I am into that shit.

    ***

    Today is the 7th day since my last mana fluctuation exercise, for the past 2 days my grandparents have been trying to prompt me to try again, but I refuse. I choose to try again while I am in tip top condition, which is naturally after a belly full of milk and a nap.

    When I wake up from my nap, I see my grandparents sitting at a table beside my cot, Grandpa has a bunch of parchments in front of him and is scribbling stuff on them, while Grandma is reading a book while sipping some tea.

    I let out a tiny yawn which Grandma noticed and picked me up into her lap, ¡°Good morning, sleepy head, do you want to read with Grandma?¡± she said as she showed me a thick book with a well designed cover titled "A Treatise on Herbology: Volume 2".

    Maybe later Grandma, it''s mana time!

    I started my breathing exercise and my grandparents stopped what they were doing and concentrated on me.

    1st attempt failed, but I think I felt a slight tingle on my skin, 2nd attempt also failed but the tingle got stronger.

    I kept at it until the 6th attempt, and each time the tingle on my skin got stronger. The instruction book said this is the sensation I should be feeling, so that means I must be close.

    Against my better judgment, I push on to the 7th time, Grandpa and Grandma give me worried looks.

    Sorry, but I am too close, I don''t want to lose this feeling in another week of waiting.

    I push on despite the ache in my chest and when I release my held breath and image, I feel like something in my whole body seized up, and I notice something in the world around me was flowing on without me, and just as I noticed that, I felt a sharp and excruciatingly painful jab in my chest, it was so painful that I could not even breath or make any noise, the only thing I could do was curl in on myself and clutch my chest.

    From that sharp excruciating pain in my chest, I felt something from within me start leaking out of me and blend into the world around me, but not even a second after I felt the leak, a hand rested on my back and I felt something warm patch the leak.

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    A few moments later, the pain subsided and I gasped for breath the moment I was not paralyzed by the pain.

    If I were to suffer this in my old body, the most I would get is abit teary eyed, but I would just wipe it off and carry on with my day, I had worse when I had bone cracks or fractures. But in this baby body that had never experienced serious pain before, the only thing I could let out was cries of pain as Grandpa cradled me and tried to soothe me.

    Through my tear blurred vision, I could see a stupidly big smile on Grandpa¡¯s face as he looked up to Grandma and said, ¡°Call them here, Luke has taken the first step to magic. He had a minor rupture in his mana pathway, but with me keeping it patched, it should be back to normal within the hour.¡±

    Excuse me, But What The Fuck?! That pain was a ¡°minor¡± rupture? Then what is a normal or even a serious rupture? Do I just die on the spot?

    As I was crying myself to sleep, Grandma returned with my parents who burst through the door and went straight to me. Mum wanted to carry me but Grandpa said no because he was still using his own mana to hold the patch over my ruptured mana pathway.

    As I tired myself out from the pain and crying, and was falling asleep, I heard the grown-ups talk,

    ¡°So what now?¡± I hear Dad ask.

    To which Grandma replied, ¡°Now we keep Luke on a low profile and only have servants around him that we can truly trust, which means getting them to sign binding contracts and taking care of their families to ensure their loyalty.¡±

    As they continue their talks, the siren''s call to sleep beckons and I accept the call.

    ***

    When I woke up, the world looked different, there were ripples ebbing and flowing through the air. I wave my hand through the ripples and they deform around my hand like smoke before returning to its normal flow.

    Grandpa said I took the first step to magic, which is sensing mana. Are these flowing ripples mana?

    But besides the world looking different, I feel different, I can actually feel the ebbing and flowing ripples of what I can only assume is mana on my skin washing over me.

    It is just like the "Introduction to Sensing Mana: 3rd Edition" said, my body¡¯s mana is now distinct from the environmental mana, which enables me to sense the environmental mana, which means I can enact my will upon the environmental mana.

    I reach out my hand and try to grasp the mana only to have it flow between my fingers like smoke once again.

    Wait a moment, the breathing exercise had a component of imagination where I had to imagine a ball of power in my chest, does the same apply if I want to manipulate the environmental mana?

    I close my eyes and concentrate, I imagine an ethereal arm extending from my outstretched hand, and I wave my actual hand around.

    When I do so, I somehow get double the feeling of mana on my skin, like my arm had doubled in length.

    Before I could open my eyes to see what was up with this feeling, I was shocked by the loud shouts of someone behind my cot.

    ¡°YES! HE DID IT!¡± I opened my eyes only to see Grandpa''s hands coming towards me, scooped me out of my cot, lifted me high up, and started twirling me around while laughing and shouting. ¡°Not only can he sense mana, Luke can manipulate mana!¡±

    I can? Yay me! But Grandpa, you better stop spinning me or else-

    It was too late, I puked on Grandpa again.

 Chapter 9

    As the days went by, all the house¡¯s servants who had at least taken the step to magic were asked to sign this world¡¯s equivalent of an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) or be released from employment, those that were asked but did not sign would be given a letter of referral so they will have an easier time finding employment. All those who were asked signed.

    Fortunately, we are just a baron house and do not have an army of servants whose families we need to take care of now.

    Now that I can not only sense mana, but also manipulate mana, my grandparents often spend time with me using their mana manipulation near me to different create shapes which I try to imitate.

    One might think it is easy because it is just the use of the imagination to form shapes, but that person would be wrong, a general shape is rather easy, if you don''t mind the wobbly borders, blunt angles, and many other defects.

    Currently, even if I try to do a straight line, it still comes out as bent in certain areas and easily buffeted by the environmental mana flowing around.

    Apparently, when I first conjured an arm after taking my first step to magic, my parents and grandparents were overjoyed.

    From what Grandpa said, this was one of the first steps in mana manipulation. It was to visualize reaching out with my own mana. Most people imagine a tendril of their own mana, while I visualized an actual arm. From what the adults say, no matter how poorly formed the arm was, it was impressive for the first attempt.

    ***

    It has been a month since I was able to wield my own mana, and besides my training in mana manipulation with Mum and my grandparents, I have been spying on the maids that use the so called non-circle or household magic.

    Every time they light a fireplace or candle, conjure water to wet surfaces for wiping, or summon a localized gust of wind to blow leaves into a pile, they always do hand signs followed by a word that has no translation to what is commonly spoken around here that I could find.

    On the other hand, Mum and my grandparents can do the same feats or greater with a flick of their fingers, why is this you may ask.

    After having all the previously locked away unrestricted magic literature read to me, I found out the answer was rather simple. It all came down to practice and mana manipulation.

    All of magic is made of words of power, both written and verbal, most of the human kingdoms and empires use either Runes, Glyphs, or both.

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    While an experienced mage who memorized all the words of power he could, was able to pick and choose which Rune/Glyph to use, and with his well-practiced mana manipulation bring those words of power to life purely through the power of his trained mind.

    The common non-circle/household magic user did not have time to remember a whole bunch of runes and spend hours upon hours practicing their mana manipulation.

    A non-circle/household magic user would usually just memorize the most basic Runes, the hand signs associated with the specific Runes, and the sequence of Runes for the effect that they want to achieve. After performing the sequence of hand signs, throwing mana at it, and saying the keyword for the spell, the effect will take place. The downside of this method is that no matter how much mana you throw at this spell, the effect will stay at a static power and duration because all the parameters have already been set by the sequence of Runes.

    All of this reminded Luke of all the programming he did in his previous life to make a robot for his course project perform the actions he wanted.

    And like there were many programming languages in his previous world, in this world there were many different languages of power. Besides Runes and Glyphs, there were Eldritch Tongue, Draconic Script, Elemental Script, Arcane Sigils and so much more.

    But back to me spying on the maids. I have been trying to emulate what they were doing for weeks and am still unable to produce anything, in fact, my attempts at the hand signs and keywords were so cute to everyone around, even the maids, that they interrupted my practice with hugs and kisses. By the 3rd week, I was totally defeated, my baby hands were unable to make the hand signs, and my speaking parts were not developed enough to say anything complex.

    And so I lay here in my cot, defeated, as my Mum manipulated a mana circle in front of me to copy and I attempted to copy it with my own. But not all is lost, I can honestly say that I have improved in my mana manipulation.

    But I am still bored, everything has become somewhat repetitive with all this magic, all I have been doing is drinking milk, sleeping, pooping, having books read to me, practicing mana manipulation, and drinking more milk. I did notice I get hungry more often ever since I started mana manipulation training, thankfully Mum had ¡°equipment¡± powerful enough to handle my increasing appetite.

    Let''s try a change of pace. The next time I saw Dad, I clung to him and made a fuss when Mum and the grandparents tried to take me away for mana practice, this put a big smile on Dad¡¯s face, he rarely gets to hang out with me all day.

    ***

    Dad brought me to his study for the first time. Where Mum''s study is filled with books about magic, history, politics, and the like.

    Dad''s study is filled with different kinds of books, they were mainly body training instructions, a few weapon technique instructions, treaties on different massed battle strategies, metallurgy, outdoor survival, blacksmithing, and farming.

    But all that was only on a thin shelf in the corner of the study, the majority of the room was covered and decorated with weapons both melee and ranged, and armor, especially one suit of armor that looked badly damaged and purposely left unrepaired.

    When Dad saw where I was looking, he brought me in front of the dented and punctured armor.

    As he traced the dent lines and puncture holes, Dad wore a smile of pride on his face. "Let me tell you the story of how your old man became a baron."

 Chapter 10

    Dad got me into a comfy position in his arm so I could have a proper look at his damaged armor, it seems like it is story time!

    ¡°You see, your old man, not so long ago, was just a knight. But I did not come from any knight households, I was just a kid from a nameless village.¡±

    Well that explains a lot, Dad feels more down to earth and does not act very much like he comes from old money like Mum and my grandparents do.

    Dad¡¯s face darkened as he said the next part, ¡°and being a nameless village in the middle of nowhere did not speak to security. Every now and then we would drive off a bear that gets too close or whatnot, but we were not prepared for a bandit raid.¡±

    ¡°A bunch of deserter soldiers from one of the neighboring countries decided to come up and take over the village. When they went after the women and food, the men stepped up to resist. I was around 8 or 9 at the time and was there when the bandit leader was grabbing one of my lady neighbors, she did not take too kindly to being grabbed and shanked the bandit leader in the thigh with a tool she was carrying. This pissed off the bandit leader off enough to order his men to kill the whole village.¡±

    God Damn, shanking a bandit? village girls don''t fuck around. Then again she had good reason to carry around a shank, with all kinds of nasty beasts, monsters, and bandits around, I too would want to be armed to the teeth.

    ¡°My parents hid me away and went to help defend the village. Soon, the noise of fighting died down, and from the voices I heard, my village was lost.¡± Dad then carried me over to a worn-looking shield with a dulled silver insignia of a brick wall with turrets on each end, and I saw Dad¡¯s face brighten up again.

    ¡°But as I was crying and trying to keep my voice low, I heard shouts again and shortly after, the thunder of horse hoofs and battle. When I peeked out there were knights checking the area for any survivors, they were from the Order of the Silver Wall who were passing by when they saw the smoke from my village.¡±

    ¡°By the end of everything, I was the only one from my village who survived. The Knight Commander took pity on me and took me in as a page of the knight¡¯s order, from there I made my way up to a knight.¡± Dad said with much pride in his voice.

    ¡°As for how I became a baron. It was 3 years ago in one of the campaigns during this current war with our neighbors to our north. We were led by our King to siege a castle. When we arrived, we camped outside the enemy¡¯s castles preparing to siege it at first light the next day.¡±

    Oooo war stories, I do love war stories. And apparently, my country is in the midst of war, good to know.

    ¡°On the night before the siege, I was tasked to pass a report to the Order¡¯s Commander who was usually in the command tent with the King. When I got to the tent, the Royal Guards who usually guarded the tent, were missing. I assumed that was because the King retired to his personal tent. But the moment I got close to the tent, the sound of a military camp turned to shouts and the clash of weapons.¡±

    ¡°I rushed into the tent sword drawn.¡± Dad mimed drawing a sword.

    ¡°And tripped upon entering the tent over the dead bodies of the 2 royal guards that were supposed to be guarding outside. What I saw there was the Order¡¯s Commander on the ground with a dagger stabbed into his side and shoulder, and a man clad in black leather wrestling with him trying to plunge a dagger into the Order Commander¡¯s throat. There were 4 of the men in black were dead on the floor and 3 more of them were advancing on the king who was defending himself. And everyone in the tent was blasting Aura in scary amounts.¡±

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    ¡°Fortunately the assassins did not notice me. So I decided not to use my Aura in order to move unnoticed in the scuffle.¡±

    Dad got more and more excited as he mimed every detail he was narrating.

    ¡°The first thing I did was to sneak up on the assassin trying to stab the Order Commander and lopped the assassin¡¯s head off. After that, I sneaked up and ran through one of the assassins targeting the King.¡±

    At this point, I was as invested in the story as Dad was while he was moving around the room, participating in an invisible fight I could almost see.

    ¡°After running that assassin through, I could no longer stay unnoticed as one of the last 2 assassins turned to me and started attacking me. While their Aura was not as potent as any of the knights or the King, the way they fought seemed designed to kill knights and armored warriors.¡±

    ¡°As I fought the assassin, I soon noticed that I was totally outclassed in skill. But the more urgent situation as was the King was getting more and more injured as the fight went on. Our king may be an accomplished swordsman, but he did not have any armor on, and the assassin he was facing was clearly a master.

    As they fought, the assassin could not get a clean hit to kill the King, but the damage was building up and it was only a matter of time before the assassin kills the King.¡±

    ¡°So I had to finish my fight fast in order to help the king. So I took a risk. I purposely left my side open and the assassin took the bait.¡±

    Dad undid his shirt and his left midsection was a scar that I had not noticed before because he had other scars all over his body.

    ¡°When the assassin stabbed my side, I grabbed the hand that stabbed me and slashed down at the assassin. The assassin tried to defend himself with a dagger in his off-hand but that did not stop me from cutting him in 2.¡± Dad almost shouted the last part in excitement.

    ¡°After killing the assassin I was facing, I rushed the last assassin attacking the king, and that assassin clearly saw me coming. And I got to tell you, son, that assassin toyed with us, I would even go as far as to say he was taking his time to kill us with a thousand cuts.¡±

    ¡°At this point, both me and the King were bleeding out. Seeing our weakness, the assassin started showboating and telling us how we were going to die and other shit that I was too tired to understand. So my tired mind could only come up with the same strategy that worked earlier, I charged the assassin mid-taunt.¡± Dad pulled open the right side of his unbuttoned shirt and there was a scar where I think his right lung should be if I remember my biology classes correctly.

    ¡°Bastard got me right in the lung, but I managed to grab him in a hug and his majesty came up from behind me and drove his sword into the assassin¡¯s face before he used his other dagger to stab me in the back.

    By the end of it, His Majesty, the Order Commander, and I were all lying on the floor bleeding, and only His Majesty the King had any strength to make his way out of the tent to call for help. After an investigation into why such a scuffle did not attract any attention, turns out the master assassin was hiding a magic tool on his body that sealed off all sound in an area. And I just turned up in the right place and time to save the day.¡±

    ¡°And after saving the life of not only an Order Commander, and His Majesty the King himself, not only was the King obliged to reward me, he wanted to do so. That''s how your old man got bestowed the rank of baron, this land with the mansion we live in, and a sizeable amount of gold.¡± Dad finished with a pose and a puffed-up chest.

    I, of course being his son and liking good war stories, gave him a resounding baby laugh and claps. This made Dad so happy that he began regaling me with more stories of his path to knighthood.

    But while listening to Dad¡¯s stories, I could not help but wonder, what was the king doing on the battlefield, should he not be back at the capital managing the country and kingly shit?

    The answer I found out later on was, No, our King is kind of a muscle head who very much fights, which made for a lot of stress for the Ministers back in the capital.

 Chapter 11

    ¡°So what do you think about your dad? Pretty awesome right?¡± My dad asks as he holds me outstretched.

    Yeah, pretty damm cool. Letting in a non-lethal hit to get a killing blow is pretty metal, especially when it is a life-and-death situation. I have only done such things in my previous life while in armor and with blunted weapons, when I encountered a more skilled opponent, I would sometimes resort to sacrificing my hand getting hit in order to score a headshot. And my dad did it twice in one battle and came out alive.

    After a while of holding me outstretched and seeing me squirm around happily, Dad said with a sad face, ¡°It brings me joy to spend some bonding time with you, I am sometimes jealous that I don''t have much in common with you like your mother and her parents, I was never that good with magic, I only know enough to use household magic. Maybe we will have more to bond over when you are old enough to hold a sword.¡±

    Oh, come on Dad, don''t say that, I love you too, and I would love to play swords with you when I grow up. I reached out and hugged my dad which raised his spirit.

    ¡°Come on son, let me show you what your dad can do! To the training yard!¡± Dad pointed at the door and marched forward with me in his arms.

    We entered an empty training yard where there were training dummies, wracks of wooden weapons, weights, and other training equipment stacked along the wall. Beside all that, there were 10 boulders of different sizes with metal handles attached, they were in ascending order of size, the smallest one being half the size of a man, all the way to one that looked around 5 times the size of a man.

    Dad walked up to the smallest boulder and while he was carrying me in one arm, he single-handedly lifted the smallest boulder with his free arm like it was an empty plastic bag, ¡°We use these boulders to test strength.¡±

    Dad then began lifting boulders single-handed in ascending order, when he got to the 3rd one his arm was trembling. After putting the 3rd boulder down Dad said ¡°It seems this is my current limit.¡± Then he moved on to the 4th boulder.

    Hold on a moment Dad, if that was your limit, why are you moving on to the next one, I know you are flexing for me but you may injure yourself.

    Dad grabbed the handle of the 4th boulder and then I felt a short surge of mana from him, followed by a small physical pulse of pressure, this was the first time ever since I became able to sense mana that I have seen Dad use Aura.

    I concentrate my limited senses on Dad. I can feel some kind of energy that feels kind of like mana, but not quite. Is this what they mean by igniting stamina? That must mean that short surge of mana I felt was Dad igniting his stamina to activate Aura? Damm, I missed how it started.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Dad hefted the boulder over his head as his Aura flared, after a few seconds, he slowly put the boulder down and cut off his Aura.

    I naturally gave him excited baby claps which encouraged him to move on to the next boulder. This time I was watching very closely, I wanted to pick up on the interaction of his mana and what I can only assume is his stamina. It also helped that I was in skin contact with Dad, I should be able to sense anything going on more easily.

    Dad grabbed the 5th boulder and started up his Aura. I noticed the spark of mana at his body''s core around the abdominal region, from there, an energy I did not notice at first, but read in a book as ¡°stamina¡± caught on, for a lack of a better word ¡°fire¡± and produced the energy I recognized as Aura pumping thru dad¡¯s body.

    What even is that energy? I closed my eyes and tried to look inside myself and try to visualize that ¡°stamina¡± energy that I saw in Dad, but to no avail. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Dad give me a worried look, turn me around, and sniff my diaper wrapped behind then turn me back to face him.

    ¡°Huh, you had such a face of concentration I thought you pooped yourself.¡± Dad said as he continued with his strong man display and then moved on to onehanded weapon displays.

    Throughout our bonding time, I got to witness him activating his aura multiple times and I am still no closer to figuring out how to find that energy within my own body. Is this one of those things that I cannot find because I am still in a squishy baby¡¯s body? Or is there some kind of special training to unlock this energy?

    Maybe it is time to raid Dad¡¯s library this time.

    The next day, I tried to stick to Dad, but unfortunately, he was busy with paperwork. But I managed to cling on to him on the day after that and get him to raid his own bookshelf, and after a full day of reading to me, I found nothing in relation to training or utilization of Aura.

    I had hoped that it would be in the body training instruction books, but those were literally as they described. They showed different trainings, from different places, of different kinds, for different parts of the body. Literally a meathead¡¯s guide to getting bigger.

    Wait a minute, Mum locked away the restricted magic books, does Dad have instruction guides that are restricted also? And if so, where would he keep them?

    Looked around for anything that could hold such juicy restricted material, and my eyes landed on Dad¡¯s grand looking office desk that was sure to have lockable drawers.

    I pestered my way to the desk and Dad sat down with me. I reached out and tugged on his desk drawers to no avail.

    ¡°No no, that is Daddy¡¯s work stuff, no touching.¡± Ha! We shall see who shall win this battle of wills. I started crying.

    Dad eventually relented and unlocked the drawers to show their insides. They really were boring work stuff. Well, this sucks.

    After that, it was back to mana practice and being spoilt rotten by my grandparents.

 Chapter 12

    Even though I did not find any instruction manual for Aura, I did not give up on uncovering its secrets. To the delight of my dad and the disheartening of my Mum and grandparents who think I lost interest in magic, I stuck to my dad to see if I could glimpse any clues about Aura, or more specifically stamina energy, while he went about his daily duties and training.

    It was on this world¡¯s equivalent of Wednesday, (Yes, this world¡¯s dating system is much like my previous world¡¯s, the only difference is all 12 months have 30 days, no more, no less) which is the day I usually do not see Dad due to self-training, that I finally got the first hint of stamina energy.

    Dad brought me to a rather bare room that was lit with a torch and sat down cross-legged.

    Dad put me down between his legs and said, ¡°Daddy is going to meditate now, try to be quiet and maybe go to sleep.¡±

    He then sat up straight and started taking slow deep breaths. As Dad was doing his meditation, I was concentrating my senses on the flow of his inner energy, I already can sense what the mana is doing in his body, but I don''t see much of anything else.

    My hypothesis is that I am unable to sense stamina energy, I was only able to catch a glimpse of it when it was ignited by mana and became Aura, hopefully, whatever meditation Dad is doing will trigger something in his body strong enough for me to sense, as long as it is not mana or aura.

    A minute goes by, nothing. 5 minutes, still noting. 10 minutes, still not a bloody thing besides maybe the mana around his body trembling in pace with his breathing. What am I missing?

    Maybe I should try to imitate his breathing, so I sat up and leaned against Dad¡¯s stomach and followed the breathing of his body. After 15 minutes of doing so, I do not feel anything different.

    Noticing me emulating his breathing, Dad opens an eye to peep at me and chuckles, ¡°Oh? Trying to copy your old man? Do you want to be a knight when you grow up?¡±

    I look up at him and make excited baby noises.

    Dad laughs while patting my head, ¡°Haha, it is not so simple, one must learn to perceive the energy in one¡¯s own body, it is even harder than perceiving and controlling mana. Ah, I could remember the time when I was training to perceive my stamina energy. The knight order trainers would make us meditate before training, exercise us half to death then make us meditate again to let us try to perceive the difference, it was plain torture I tell you. But all that is for when you get older, for now just follow your old man in this breathing exercise.¡±

    Well shit, there is no way I am doing that method of training to perceive stamina energy. Maybe there are other ways, let''s try to put all that past life knowledge to use.

    I try to recall all the knowledge of meditation and breathing techniques I learned in China and Japan. Their teachings may defer slightly, but boil down to the same concepts.

    First, I must be relaxed, which I am while currently sitting on Dad¡¯s lap.

    Next is deep diaphragmatic breaths, in from the nose, and out from the mouth. Some of the schools I went to paired this with flowing movements.

    Next, I must be aware of my surroundings and myself. And in order to perceive this stamina energy, I need to zone out all distractions. Luckily we are in a rather isolated room. The first thing I try to zone out is my dad, which seems kind of impossible because I am sitting on him, but I accept him and his breathing as part of the environment, next thing I need to zone out is the ever-present mana within me and the environment.

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    But doing all that is fucking hard, which brings me to the final step, Visualization, just as I did to perceive mana in the first place, now I must try to un-perceive it. Is un-perceive even a word? Who knows, but I will try anyway.

    Time flies by, and I am able to successfully zone out my dad. I am not sitting on Dad, I am sitting on a suspiciously body temperatured hill and leaning on a tree, and as more time goes by, the waves of mana I perceive in the environment start to smooth out to nothing, and my mana pathways fade out from the visualized form of my own body.

    That is when I am abruptly brought out of my meditation by Dad lifting me by my armpits, ¡°Alright little man, I am done with my meditation, lets get you back to mommy, I still got paperwork to do.¡±

    Noooo, dammit, I was almost there.

    I let my displeasure be known by crying until I am passed back to mum.

    The days passed as I practiced my meditation to sense my stamina, and like the RPG games I played in my previous life, I visualized the yellow color of stamina energy flowing through my body. At first, I saw it as blips and flashes at different parts of my body before I lost track of it, and as I continued, one day, I first sensed it from my heart.

    From there, my sense of this new energy spread to my major arteries, followed by my internal organs, my muscles, and lastly my skin.

    Ok, so this may or may not be stamina, and now that I can sense it. Now I will need to confirm it, and the only way to do so is to stick with Dad again. My stamina is constantly flowing through my body even if I am not doing anything strenuous, I can only assume it is the same for Dad.

    The next day after being able to sense what I think is stamina, I attach myself to Dad after breakfast. And while he was carrying me, I made sure I was in direct skin-on-skin contact before trying to sense Dad¡¯s stamina, only to find that I could not sense any stamina energy like I could sense within myself. This needs more testing.

    Throughout the rest of the day, as I was passed around from the maids, Mum, and my grandparents, I tried to sense stamina energy from them in case Dad had some kind of passive technique to prevent his stamina energy from being sensed.

    The results were negative. From what the books say, everyone has stamina and mana no matter how minuscule the amount. I could sense their mana but not their stamina.

    So this leaves me with a few conclusions. Either I am too weak to perceive stamina energy from others, or stamina energy can only be sensed by oneself.

    The only way to confirm that this energy is stamina is to ignite it with a spark of mana, and I do not want to do that when I am not in the presence of the resident Aura expert, my Dad.

    So as I am laid to rest for the night, I practice with this new energy. I tried a few breathing techniques I learned in my previous life, to mixed results.

    Unlike mana which I had ease of control for both internal and external mana, the best I could do was speed up and slow down the flow of what i think is stamina energy, and I could not stop the flow or accumulate stamina in any part of my body or project stamina energy outside my body like I could do with mana

    Before my baby body could no longer stay awake, I mixed and matched different breathing techniques to go along with my meditation, and came up with 2 different breathing techniques, one to accelerate and one to slow down the flow of stamina energy in my body.

    Just as I optimized the 2 breathing techniques, sleep took me.

    ***

    I wake up the next day ready to finalize my experiment once and for all to see if this energy is indeed stamina energy.

    Mum fed me my morning boob juice before joining the rest of the family for breakfast. At the dining table where I was sitting in my booster chair between Mum and Dad, with my grandparents opposite me, I waited for them to finish breakfast and the servants to pour some tea before I began.

    If I am going to test out something potentially dangerous, it is better for my dad who is an Aura user, and grandpa who can use some basic healing magic to be in the same room.

    While they are idly chatting about what they are going to do today, I close my eyes and meditate to feel the flow of stamina energy. Then I copy what Dad did when igniting his stamina.

    At the core of my body, around where my solar plexes are, I ignited a spark of mana.

 Chapter 13

    I feel a hot sensation spread from my solar plexes all the way to the extremities of my body, and immediately, everyone¡¯s head snaps to me, their eyes in disbelief at what they are witnessing.

    I feel what I can now confidently say is stamina energy igniting throughout my body like propane catching fire. I feel¡­ powerful¡­ for about 10 seconds before slumping over, feeling all that power leave my body.

    While I can hear chairs being roughly shoved aside and glass shattering on the floor, my head is slumped sideways on the built-in table of my booster chair.

    And what I see in front of me is my chubby arm losing its baby fat at a visible rate. Which is definitely not a good sign.

    From the moment I slumped over, I tried to cut off the flow of stamina, but I could not. The moment even a sliver of stamina is produced by my body, it is consumed by the Aura ignited in my body.

    Not even 2 seconds after I slumped on my booster table, which felt like a long time to me, I was yanked out of my booster seat and was in Dad¡¯s arm while he was pressing his index and middle finger to my belly.

    Grandpa literally jumped over the dining table, knocking the tea set over without a care, and placed his hand on my chest.

    While this was happening, Mum broke out into tears while shouting, ¡°What''s happening to my baby?! Help him!¡±

    Grandma had to run around the table to hold her back while Dad and Grandpa diagnosed my situation.

    After a few seconds, Grandpa spoke up first while examining my thinning body, ¡°The Aura is consuming more stamina than he can produce, it is eating his body, can you do anything about it?¡±

    Dad nodded and replied quickly, ¡°His Aura is rampaging, and he is too young and untrained to control his stamina. I will attempt an Aura purge, be prepared to heal him, the purge will do some damage.¡±

    Dad pressed his index and middle fingers into my solar plexus and I felt a pulse of Aura that was not my own spread and canceled out my own Aura.

    As Dad¡¯s Aura spread through my body, I felt a burning sensation along with Dad¡¯s Aura, and not the good kind of burning when I ignited my own Aura. His aura saturated my whole body but stopped before it touched my brain, heart, and lungs and then the Aura retreated back into Dad¡¯s fingers. A couple of seconds after that, besides me feeling weak, my everything started to hurt, really bad.

    After Dad was done, he passed me to Grandpa, ¡°I have done what I could, but the purge took a toll on his whole body, I avoided his brain, heart, and lungs, he may die if I forcefully purge Aura from those places, you will need to accelerate the healing for the rest of his body.¡±

    Holy shit¡­ I think I fucked up big time. I can still feel the Aura around my heart is still burning weakly. Soon I felt the Aura in my brain start to fade as it ran out of stamina to burn, the Aura died out and I almost fell unconscious from the most lethargic feeling I ever felt in my 2 lives, the only thing keeping me awake was my whole body hurting.

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    The next to run out of stamina to burn was my lungs, which forced me to take weak, short, and shallow breaths to even breathe.

    That was when I felt the Aura around my heart start to get stronger, and as the saying goes, nature abhors a void, and the rest of my body was now a void of stamina or Aura.

    So as Grandpa started healing me, the Aura from around my heart started to spread to the rest of my body. I have to stop this!

    With pained and labored breaths, I put into action the breathing technique I formed yesterday to slow down the flow of the stamina-turned Aura.

    Dad who noticed that my breathing rhythm changed, placed his fingers back onto me, ¡°Luke is slowing down the pace of the spreading Aura!¡±

    Which was followed by a surprised ¡°What?!¡± from everyone else in the room.

    As I was healing, Grandpa, noticed my thin body was getting paler and called out to my Mum, ¡°Amara, Luke needs food, the healing is also taking a toll on his body.¡±

    Without hesitation or care for modesty, Mum whipped out a tit for me to suck on. At first, I was suckling weakly, but the moment the first drop of milk hit my stomach, I started sucking with all I had.

    While I was feeding, I was keeping track of the Aura spreading through my body, and even though slowed down, the volume of flow was still the same, I think it is still too much for my current body to handle. I need to reduce it more. But how?

    That was when I had a eureka moment. Aura is the ignition of stamina using mana, what if I further reduce or stop the flow with mana manipulation also?

    I gathered what willpower I had left from my lethargic mind and tried to contain the spread of Aura.

    This time it was both Dad and Grandpa who were surprised, ¡°He is containing the spread of Aura, how?¡±

    ¡°He is using mana manipulation to contain the aspect of mana in the Aura. but this cannot go on for long.¡± Grandpa replied.

    What? Why?

    That was when I felt it, I was essentially making an Aura pressure cooker, and I could feel my mana grip on the Aura starting to slip, and I did not want to see what would happen when it exploded, so I started slowly releasing my hold on the Aura and let it continue spreading. But this cannot go on, otherwise, I will be back at square one.

    Ok, if I cannot contain it, what else can I do? If I cannot contain it, maybe I can siphon the mana from the Aura.

    So using my mana manipulation, I started draining as much mana as I could from the Aura, which was not as easy as it sounds, especially when I was tired.

    It did not amount to much mana because Aura mainly consists of stamina, but after draining what mana I could, it did have a drastic effect.

    And as I was concentrating on siphoning the mana from the spreading Aura, Dad and Grandpa were getting more and more worked up as they did a live-action commentary.

    ¡°That''s a bold strategy, Alden, Let''s see if it pays off for him.¡± Grandpa said to Dad.

    When I was done, siphoning what mana I could from the aura that had spread to my whole body by now, I did not feel the hot sense of power I felt when I first activated Aura, or the overwhelming weakness when I crashed 10 seconds later.

    What I felt was the warm flow of low and slow-burning Aura safely flowing out of my body and dissipating into the environment, while my body was absorbing the small amounts of mana siphoned from the Aura. When I was confident my Aura was not going to exhaust me to death, I was too tired to do or think of anything else and finally fell asleep.

 Chapter 14

    After Luke fell asleep while suckling from Amara, and when his grandfather Rowan Silverbrook confirmed Luke was not going to die, Amara started shouting.

    ¡°What happened to Luke?! I want answers!¡± Amara said while looking like she was ready to bite off someone¡¯s head.

    Alden and Rowan looked at each other and exchanged a few questions and answers to confirm if they got the full scope of the situation, then they both nodded and Rowan spoke up, ¡°Luke somehow managed to ignite his stamina to form aura. How he even managed to perceive his stamina without rigorous training, or the fact that he is still a baby is unknown. But all the same, Luke is now an Aura user.¡±

    Alden then cut in, ¡°How he managed to perceive his own stamina energy is unknown, but how he managed to ignite his stamina was most likely Luke observing me using Aura and sensed me using mana to ignite my own stamina to produce Aura.¡±

    Rowan continued his explanation, ¡°I have never seen this phenomenon before, but Luke managed to partially absorb the mana out of the aura back into himself and made the aura flowing through his body less potent, which takes a lot of the strain off his body, and if my diagnosis of Luke¡¯s body is correct, his life is no longer in danger, for now, but I don''t think we can totally extinguish the aura burning in his body without killing him. Only Luke would be able to turn off his aura safely, but I suspect he is too young or does not know how to do it.¡±

    Amara still looking at the 2 men with a stormy face asked, ¡°So what does this mean for Luke¡¯s situation? Can we do anything for him? What if we bring Luke to the capital and use the Mana Depravation Chamber? We may be able to use it to do a total purge of the mana from his aura, that should solve the problem, right?¡±

    This time it was Luke¡¯s grandma, Isabella, who stepped in, ¡°I am afraid we cannot do that dear. The Mana Depravation Chamber is strictly guarded and regulated. What are they going to say when they see Luke? They will see a baby less than a year old capable of using mana manipulation and aura. It would be bad enough to have nobles and mage towers wanting to kidnap Luke for research, but if the Holy Inquisition gets wind of Luke¡¯s situation, we could be suspected of carrying out dark/unsanctioned research and possibly trying to turn Luke into an Abomination. In this case, both our houses, staff, and acquaintances would be interrogated, tortured, and then killed 7 generations down, not necessarily in that order.¡±

    Hearing this possibility made all of them go pale. The Holy Inquisition belongs to the Zagraf Theocracy, the Zagraf Theocracy is on a rather sizable landmass just off the coast of the main continent where they are now.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Besides the Kingdom of Hemton that had sworn allegiance to the Zagraf Theocracy, most of the kingdoms and empires on the continent tolerated them due to the believers in their own country, and besides the countries that totally rejected the Zagraf Theocracy and its religion, the Zagraf Theocracy¡¯s Holy Inquisition was allowed to roam the land to root out heresy and the dark arts wherever they may be.

    And the Argus Kingdom where Luke and his family were was among those lands the Holy Inquisition was allowed to roam, for now.

    Unlike the previous king who had an amicable relationship with the Zagraf Theocracy and its religion. The current king, King Argus IV, looked none too kindly upon the Zagraf church throwing their weight around in local politics and the sway they held on his kingdom¡¯s people.

    But until the Zagraf church was expelled from the country, bringing Luke into the public before he could control his powers was not a wise decision.

    ¡°So what can we do?¡± Amara said weakly while holding the sleeping Luke tighter.

    ¡°First thing first, Luke is no longer allowed to be seen by the soldiers or the public until he can keep his Aura and Mana under control and concealed, only those we have signed a binding contract with are allowed to see and interact with him. Or until he is at least 10 years old, if he is able to resolve his aura issue, he can have a public debut at 5 years old where he will be hailed as a genius for being able to manipulate mana at such a young age. Other than that, the only thing we can do is make Luke eat and rest as much as possible to regain his strength.¡± Rowan said with finality.

    ***

    I woke up with my mum¡¯s tit in my mouth and milk dribbling down the side of my mouth. When I looked out the window, I could tell from the position of the moon that it was just a couple of hours from sunrise.

    I lifted my hand to wipe the drool off my face and found my hand to be heavier than usual. When I saw the silhouette of my emaciated arm in the moonlight, the memories of what happened before I fell asleep came rushing back to me.

    Holy Fuck! I almost checked out of my 2nd life before I was even 1 year old.

    I looked inside myself to see if everything was fine.

    Everything was not fine, the aura was still going but at a reduced rate of intensity, all my baby fat was gone, and I am even losing muscle mass as I monologue to myself and anyone in the universe listening to my thoughts.

    That¡¯s when the hunger hit me, I quickly latch on the nipple that I just let out of my mouth and sucked for all I had, and before I knew it, my mum¡¯s boob was empty.

    Damm, this boob was almost empty.

    With all my strength, I desperately pull away the fabric of my mum¡¯s nightgown that was holding back the other boob and latched on to the teat of the new breast.

    My struggle for sustenance awoke my Mum, and when she looked down on my emaciated form, suckling like my life depended on it, because it did, she broke into tears while crying, ¡°My Baby!¡± over and over again while holding me tighter, which woke Dad who then proceeded to hug and comfort Mum

 Chapter 15

    The next 3 days of my life after waking up from almost killing myself was a shit show. The atmosphere of the whole house was gloomy. Mum, Dad, and my grandparents would always have sad and worried look on their face when they see my emaciated form.

    The other problem is that my appetite has grown so much that besides being supplemented with soft mashed up fruits, I was drinking more milk than Mum could provide.

    The conventional wisdom of child rearing in this world without the invention of baby formula, is to nurse the baby for a year. Which makes Mum very distraught at her inability to produce enough milk to nurse me, and all the maids that signed a confidentiality contract were too old or not with child to produce milk.

    So they had to get me a wetnurse, and we were in luck. One of the maids who is under a confidentiality contract told Dad of a young Holstaur couple that just moved to her village and just given birth a week ago.

    Now you might be asking what is a Holstaur. A Holstaur is a subspecies of a Minotaur, while Minotaurs are huge, muscular, covered in fur, and mostly live in tribes. Holstaurs are the Minotaur¡¯s smaller cousins that are still bigger in stature than an average human, are on average more physically powerful than a human, are not totally covered in fur like their Minotaur cousins, and mostly live in urban areas among the other races.

    The only difference between a human and a Holstaur is the cow ears, tail, legs from the midthigh down to their cloven hooves, and last but not least the ludicrous amounts of highly nutritious milk they produce.

    They are so prized for feeding the young that there are even noble lineages of Holstaur houses that serve as nursemaids for the Royal family and high nobility.

    Hearing news of a Holstaur couple with a newborn, even without references for previous employment or experiences of raising kids, was a godsend for my father because of the situation I am currently in.

    After hearing the news of the Holstaur couple, I saw my Dad almost swing the door off its hinges while calling for someone to ready the carriage and get the scribe, all while he literally slung the maid who gave him the information over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and ran out the door.

    When evening came, a Holstaur woman was escorted to where I was as Mum was holding and feeding me some mashed up fruits. Curious about who cam into the room, I turned to take a look

    God damn! This Holstaur woman is THICC in all the places that matter!

    The Holstaur picked the hems of her skirt and curtsied towards Mum, ¡°My Lady, I am Anna, at your service to nurse the young master.¡±

    Mum nodded, stood up, and handed me over to Anna. I could see the look in Anna¡¯s eyes that she was aghast at my physical state.

    ¡°I fed him all I could, and it was not enough. I supplemented with other foods but it was just not enough, and I do not think his stomach can handle the tougher foods yet.¡± Mum said as she covered her face and broke out in tears again.

    ¡°Worry not my lady, I will do what I can.¡± Anna said as she sat on a nearby sofa and undid the strap for her left shoulder and exposed her breast¡­. and that is a really big breast.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    I mean, she is a big lady who looks as tall as my dad, but even for a lady of her size¡­ that is ridiculous. Just that one boob is definitely bigger than my body. And it''s coming closer to my face.

    But at this point, I am so hungry that I don''t care. I latch on to that teat and suck hard. What fills my mouth is rich, creamy, and slightly sweet.

    I¡¯m sorry Mum, but her milkshake is better than yours.

    The minutes turned into an hour and I kept going.

    ¡°Oh my, he really can just keep drinking.¡± Anna said in surprise.

    Mum on the other hand felt relieved as she stroked my cheek, ¡°It is a good sign, see, even the color of health is returning to him.¡±

    Mum then rang a handbell to summon a maid, ¡°Please bring Mrs. Anna and me some dinner while Luke is feeding.¡±

    While waiting, my now relieved Mum started getting to know Anna better.

    Apparently, Anna and her husband Klaus were just married recently and moved to the village of Fieldhold while she was pregnant, just gave birth to a baby girl named Emma a week ago.

    When Mum asked Anna about the terms of her employment, she said she was offered 25 silvers a month with a house provided for her family, and her husband was also hired as one of the house servants.

    Now, I am not so sure how much buying power 25 silver has, but if housing is provided, it sounds like a good deal.

    While they were talking, the food arrived, and by the time Mum and Anna were done eating, so was I.

    Apparently, I was so hungry, that I almost emptied Anna¡¯s boob, I drank so much that her tits now look obviously lopsided. But this was the first time since I almost killed myself that I truly felt full.

    After basking in my fullness, a thought came to me.

    That was actually a lot of milk I just drank, where the hell is it actually going?

    I close my eyes and concentrate all my senses within.

    Fuck! If I am seeing this right, the low-intensity aura is making my metabolism shoot through the roof, why did I not think of this earlier?

    Was that chocolate bar commercial correct when it said ¡°You are not you when you are hungry.¡±?

    The longer I look and study what is happening to my body, I soon notice small micro vibrations going on in every part of my body, even my organs. The low-intensity aura stimulates every cell in my body. It is like I am¡­ constantly exercising?

    What? How does that even work? Is that why I feel weak? Is my body consuming so much nutrients that it has reduced me to this emaciated form?

    If so, Anna is the only one around who can provide a baby-friendly diet in large enough quantities to keep up with what I hope is just my body doing a 24/7 workout until I figure out how to shut down my aura.

    All this contemplation and the revelation of my hyper-calorie-burning body distract me so much that I do not notice pooping myself.

    Anna detects me crapping myself and brings me to a nearby changing station and gets me cleaned up.

    And before she retires for the night, she asks my Mum, ¡°My lady, is it okay if I bring my daughter Emma along to nurse at the same time as young master Luke?¡±

    My mother happily agrees, thinking it is a good idea for Emma and me to socialize.

    So it seems that I will be getting a playmate. ¡®Oh joy¡¯ I think to myself sarcastically. Adults treating me like a baby is one thing, having to interact with other babies is another, what the hell am I going to do with her? Make baby noises at each other and waste my time? I rather have a book read to me.

    Oh well, worst case scenario, I can just entertain myself by playing with mana.

 Chapter 16

    I wake up the next morning feeling better than I had in days, I guess that is what a good night of sleep digestion would do for you.

    Mum provides me with a snack by nursing me before I move on to the main course, we move to a room near the master bedroom to see Anna waiting for us along with another baby in a pink onesie sucking her thumb.

    This must be Emma, and she is as cute as a button with her floppy cow ears and swishing tail sticking out of her onesie.

    When we came closer, Emma¡¯s eyes locked onto me, paused for a few seconds, and then waved her left hand around excitedly while still sucking on her right thumb.

    That is super cute, so I respond with my own baby waves which gets Emma more excited.

    But as cute as you may be Emma, I am a hungry boy, and I got some drinking to do.

    As Mum and Anna settle in for women''s talk that I zone out, both me and Emma assume the position to be nursed by Anna.

    After a while, Mum left me in the care of Anna and my personal maid, Alice. Both of whom hit it off immediately and started chatting.

    While all that was happening, Emma was playfully tapping her still-soft hooves on my feet, and I replied in kind. I would wave at her but my hands are otherwise busy.

    Due to my unnaturally large appetite, Emma finished feeding before me and started waving in my direction.

    ¡°Awhh¡­ Emma is interested in young master Luke, so cute!!¡± Alice squealed.

    Anna single-handedly wiped Emma¡¯s mouth and burped her before transferring her to the same lap I was on.

    The moment Emma was beside me, she started playfully patting me. At first, I ignored her, but she continued until I could not take it anymore and grabbed her hands to keep them still.

    ¡°They are now holding hands, so precious.¡± both women fawned over us.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    After a while of shaking our hands back and forth, Emma let out a yawn, scooched in closer to me, and hugged me before closing her eyes.

    Both women let out hushed chuckles and said things like, ¡°Emma is catching young master Luke while he is young, so crafty.¡±

    As for me, I just froze there, not knowing what to do. So after a few seconds of Emma not budging, I relented to my fate as a hug pillow and continued drinking.

    It was then I realized that despite being born 6 months ahead of Emma, she is still slightly bigger than me. I sure hope this period of recovering from malnutrition does not set back my growth, I would hate to be a manlet.

    After I was done feeding, I too was feeling drowsy, so with Emma still huggin me, we were put inside a cot to sleep.

    ***

    3 months passed before I looked anything like a healthy baby.

    Grandpa did a check-up on me before giving me a clean bill of health. And I even grew a few centimeters taller, in fact, I am now the same height as Emma.

    At the beginning of those 3 months, while my body was still recovering, my appetite was still manageable by Anna alone, but as I got closer to a healthy weight, I started teething. That was when my appetite increased again.

    Now Mum and Anna had to tagteam to keep me fed, but it was not so bad for them because, when my teeth started to show, that was the first time I got to eat meat in this life.

    It may be minced, a bit bland, and mixed in with porridge, but meat is meat. Oh meat, how I missed you, my reunion with meat even brought a tear to my eye which got my parents worried until I wolfed down the rest of the meat porridge.

    Another thing that has been happening since around a month ago, was dad starting to spend more time with me turning his aura on and off repeatedly in the hopes that I can emulate him to deactivate my aura, all attempts to turn off the aura on my side has failed so far, but I will keep trying none the less.

    In this period where I am regaining my strength, I spent my free time playing with my mana, having books read to me, and playing with my toys, but now all of these leisurely activities have one difference.

    That difference is the presence of Emma. besides being my daytime sleeping buddy, or more accurately, her hug pillow, we now do most things together.

    Being an only child in my past life, I wonder if this is what it feels like to have a little sister, I can honestly say it is quite nice. Every day when we were together, she would hug me and I would pet her head. And sometimes when she gets bored of sucking her own thumb, she would grab my hand and suck on my thumb. I do not get the logic, but she is just a baby and I humor her.

    Now that I am back to full health, I think it is time to start practicing magic again, I have spent too long just recuperating. Hopefully, I will be able to find a way through magic to turn off my aura.

 Chapter 17

    Time flies by, and it is now my first birthday. It is a small affair, only my parents, grandparents, and those who are under confidentiality contract are in attendance.

    This also means Anna and her husband are here, which naturally means Emma is here too, and that is all too obvious because she is hugging me at the moment.

    She has been clingy ever since she met me, but I can''t say no to her, I mean come on! How can I say no to those big eyes and cute floppy cow ears that twitch every time I pet her head. She is like the sister I never had.

    As for my presents, my parents got me a new rattle and a few different puzzle toys from the ones I currently have, and from my grandparents, they noticed that I was running out of reading material, which was to be expected due to House Ironcrest being new and did not have generations to build a decent library of books.

    But along with the joyiest occasion of my birthday came the bad news. Now that I was 1 year old, I would be slowly weened, which means soon, there will be no more of that sweet nectar from Anna¡­ *sob*.

    But it was not all bad. Me being weened means more meat in my diet, in my case, even now I am eating a grown man¡¯s portion, except that the food is all mashed up for me.

    In other news, Mum is pregnant with my sibling. It happened about a week before my birthday, Mum got out of bed, fed me, and just as we were about to go to breakfast, Mum¡¯s face turned pale, and shoved me into Dad¡¯s arms and rushed to the chamber pot to throw up.

    That''s one thing I will need to fix when I get older. I will need to introduce modern plumbing to this world. With what I know of the current technological and magical capabilities of this world, I should be able to cobble something together. No way in hell am I going to live the rest of my second life without being able to take a proper shit in a sanitary environment or letting people, even if they are my servant, carry around chamber pots of my waste to dispose of.

    Unfortunately, from all my reading and observing my surroundings, magic is mainly researched and used for the application of combat and very rarely used for mundane things like daily conveniences. If I am going to live in this world, that is something I will need to remedy, I am a city boy dammit! I am not going to settle for shitting in an outhouse or a hole in the ground.

    Another thing to take care of is air conditioning, I miss my aircon in the summer, and as warm and soothing to look at as a well-stoked fireplace looks, there is always a smoky smell, and I had to smell that all winter.

    ¡ª

    A few days after my birthday, I be chillin in my crib, nibbling on my new rattle and pushing around mana for fun while waiting for my body to get tired and fall asleep.

    It has been almost a year since I became able to manipulate mana, and I can confidently say I have become pretty decent at it, no longer are the shapes I construct out of mana a bunch of wobbly lines.

    I mean they are not as well defined as Mum¡¯s or my grandparents but at least my square is no longer mistaken as an oddly shaped circle.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    And as I suck on my rattle, I try to take inspiration from what I know from my previous life. I imagine the beads inside of the rattle that makes the rattling sound, which brings back a memory of one of those animated educational videos that show molecules bouncing around.

    This then gets me thinking, how would mana respond when I apply the behavior of molecules to mana when I use mana manipulation.

    I reach out to the mana within arms reach of me and vibrate it as vigorously as I can for a solid minute, hoping I can create combustion, or at least some heat, but try as I might, nothing happens. Maybe I need to try it on something instead of empty air.

    I look around and swiftly decide that the bedding and wooden crib is a dumb choice, if I actually succeed, I will be burnt alive within my crib.

    I then look at my new rattle and have second thoughts, I don''t know why but at this age, my body compels me to bite stuff and the rattle is my current favorite chew toy, I would hate to burn it. But sacrifices need to be made in the name of science!

    I hold up the rattle in front of me and concentrate hard on the top part, vibrating a spot on the rattle the size of a coin.

    After a minute, I actually felt a rise in temperature of the rattle travel down the handle I was holding the rattle by, which shocked me out of concentration.

    To make sure I was not just imagining things, I touched the spot I was concentrating on and felt warmth.

    Just to double check I was not going insane in the membrane, I touched the back side of the rattle and it felt cool to the touch like any normal wood would feel.

    I touch the 2 sides a few more times, and yes, I am not crazy, I just warmed up wood by vibrating the mana on its surface, very cool¡­ but I think it takes more energy than normal mana manipulation because I am feeling real tired all of a sudden.

    ***

    I woke up the next morning, did the usual, and am now stacking blocks with Emma while pondering the implications of using mana manipulation to heat up my rattle last night.

    As I stacked blocks, I was not putting my heart or attention into it and Emma clearly noticed. She crawled around the blocks and tapped my shoulder until I looked at her.

    She then held my cheeks to focus me on her as she gave me a pouting look. Oh God, she is so cute when she wants attention.

    I bring Emma in for a hug and pet her head as she wriggles in delight. I can think about this magic stuff later, if I ignore Emma now, she will refuse to let go of me when she uses me as a hug pillow later.

    At night, the moment I am left alone in my crib with Alice reading a book by the candlelight some distance away so she does not disturb my sleep, I start with my next experiment in what I dub for now as Molecular Magic.

    Once again, the rattle is in front of me and I concentrate my mana manipulation on a single spot. This time, instead of vibrating the mana, I seize it and try to keep it as still as possible.

    Before I even started this experiment, my thoughts were that keeping some mana still would be a walk in the park. It was not so.

    Yes, I could keep the mana in one spot, but it was wobbling like agitated water in zero gravity.

    I exerted more of my will on the mana I held in place and the wobbling slowed down but never stopped.

    This lasted for around 3 minutes before I was too exhausted to continue. Now to see my results.

    Just to make sure, I touched the back of the rattle and felt its temperature as a control result, and then I touched the spot I concentrated on.

    It was¡­ cooler?

    I did a few back-and-forths with the control and supposedly cold spot.

    I think I did it? It is too slight to tell, maybe it is easier to tell the difference if I do it on metal? Will try again tomorrow, sleepy time.

 Chapter 18

    2 weeks had passed since my first birthday and I was being held by my hands as Alice assisted me in practicing my walking. I have spent the previous few months trying to stand by using my crib¡¯s railings and whatever I can grab as support. When I first got up on my own feet with the support of the wall, Alice screamed in delight and went to get my parents while Emma crawled after me making excited baby noises with a sparkle in her eyes.

    Since then, whoever was watching me at the moment would always encourage me to walk by propping me up as I put 1 foot in front of the other. Seeing what I was doing, Emma also wanted to try walking, but for now, her limbs were too weak and too unbalanced to do anything of the sort. It did not stop her from trying tho.

    But today was special. I think I figured out the balance of this baby''s body and I am ready to take the first step on my own.

    It was after breakfast and the family had retired to the tea room to chat about their plans and what they were going to do today.

    I wiggled out of Mum¡¯s lap and she gently let me down to the ground feet first. I hold on to Mum¡¯s hand as I take a few assisted steps.

    After I felt confident of my balance, I released the grip of Mum¡¯s fingers and started taking a few unsteady steps of my own. This caused quite a commotion from the family that was watching me, but I did not dare look back, least I lose my concentration and balance.

    I take slow deliberate steps toward the nearest wall, I stumble a couple of times making my family raise their voice in worry, but I quickly recover and move forward.

    When I touched the wall, my family cheered. I turned around to see my mother and the maids shedding tears of joy, while my dad and grandparents had a look of pride on their faces.

    Mum then couched and stretched out her hands, ¡°Well done Luke! Now walk back to mommy.¡±

    Not one to disappoint, I carefully made my way back into Mum¡¯s embrace, where she then proceeded to bring me into her cleavage for a suffocating hug.

    That night, the family and servants under the confidentiality contract celebrated my first steps. Emma was there with me, she did not know what the ruckus was about but she got the general positive vibes and spent the whole party stuck to me. At this point, the family considered her as my childhood girlfriend.

    ***

    Years pass and I am now 3 years old, and much has happened.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    I now have a little sister, her name is Charlotte.

    Just like Emma, Charlotte loves her big brother and even gets jealous when Emma holds on to me. But Emma does not care and has also taken to hugging Charlotte, eventually, Charlotte stopped being jealous when me and Emma showed her enough attention.

    But I am not the only one who just got a sibling, a few months after Charlotte was born, Anna gave birth to a bouncing baby boy named Otto, who I treat as my baby brother. By this point, our 2 families were very close and decided to socialize the 4 of us kids together regardless of our social status.

    My Dad who came from a humble background said it would be a good thing to avoid me and my sister growing up to be like some of the entitled lordling flops they had seen in the capital. While Grandpa agreed, Mum and Grandma had their doubts but went along with it.

    Another big thing that changed is my physique. As time went on and my appetite continued to grow unnaturally, my parents got worried. So the job to find out what was going on fell to the closest thing to a healer in my family, Grandpa.

    Grandpa went back to his home and raided his own library to research for months before coming back and diagnosing me again. That was how my family found out about the low-intensity aura (That I am still unable to turn off) making my body passively exercise 24/7, and as my body grew bigger, so did my appetite. This cycle of a high-protein diet and constant passive exercise has caused my body to bulk.

    Which leads to the 3 year old me, currently having the body of a 6 year old. A rather buff 6 year old. In fact, I am stronger and heavier than anyone my size should be, now the only ones who have no problems carrying me for long periods around are my Dad, Klaus, and Anna.

    But all is not that bad, because of my body growing a lot quicker compared to normal children, Dad decided it was time to allow me to do some sword training.

    Despite mother¡¯s protesting, Dad got me a child-size wooden sword which I excitedly took and started swinging around.

    While in the presence of anyone watching, I practice the basics of Argus Kingdom¡¯s army swordsmanship, which leaves much to be desired, but I better not show off to avoid questions I cannot answer.

    But now that I am 3 years old and have shown that I am not as accident-prone compared to other kids (Besides the whole almost killing myself with aura incident), I am given some leeway to explore the backyard of the mansion on my own.

    That is where the real training began, I had to shake off 3 years of rust from not practicing martial arts. I started with the basics of karate, taekwondo, kung fu, and muay thai, then I moved on to emulate the movements and motions of the more grappling martial arts like judo and aikido, too bad I don''t have anyone to practice my grappling with. Lastly, I moved on to martial arts that involved weapons, to aid in this endeavor, besides my new wooden sword, I borrowed a broomstick from the servants cleaning supplies. The broomstick may be a bit too long for me at the moment, but I will make it work somehow.

    During the first few days of practice, I would be gone for hours at a time, which would make Emma, my parents, and the servants worry. This led to questions that I did not want to answer, I ended up telling them that I was catching beetles, poking ant nests, and things along those lines, you know, gross boy stuff.

    They all gave me a ¡°boys will be boys¡± look and accepted my excuse. All except Emma, she is giving me the look like she does not believe me. Dammit, I think she is on to me, we definitely spend too much time together.

 Chapter 19

    My physique was not the only thing that had grown over the past 2 years, my mana manipulation has also grown by leaps and bounds, which is only to be expected when I one is a toddler with loads of free time and no responsibilities.

    In fact, mana manipulation is one of the most practiced skills that I have. I practice it before I sleep, while being carried around, while eating, and ever since I learned to go potty, while I take a dump.

    Along with the improvement of my mana manipulation, was my usage of Molecular Magic.

    Now I am able to start a fire within 5 seconds when I vibrate the mana on a piece of wood. As for stilling mana to make things colder, I am not able to freeze anything yet, but I am able to make a glass of water as cold as ice water.

    As for the other things I found out about Molecular Magic when experimenting, is that I can use the vibration of mana to accumulate kinetic potential.

    For example, I can vibrate the mana in the air and release the accumulated kinetic potential in a chosen direction for a gust of wind. Another thing I managed to do with the kinetic potential in the air is release it in waves, essentially making sound frequency.

    With some practice, I managed to imitate wildlife sounds and even pull pranks on the house staff by calling them from behind corners where nobody was, I stopped this when there were talks of ghosts and calling priests to do an exorcism.

    When I tested the release of accumulated kinetic potential on the ground, I found it to be a lot harder, most likely because it was solid matter. After a lot of trial and error, I managed to make a 5cm earth spike poke out from the ground, and after more experimenting I found it easier to shift the earth closer to the surface. It was especially entertaining when I rotated the earth beneath a trail of ants and turned them in a different direction, this confused the hell out of them about where they were going, it was a good laugh.

    In this world¡¯s magic, the conjuration of lightning started at the 1st circle spell called Spark, this spell throws a small jolt of lightning at the target, it might kill a bug or a small animal with heart issues, but it was nowhere near powerful enough to really harm anyone. It was mainly it was used to stun or momentarily incapacitate the target.

    But with my Molecular Magic, I don''t need no stinkin 1st circle spell. With my basic understanding of ions and a shit tone of trial and error, I managed to create an ark of electricity between my fingers. At first, I was not able to shoot it at anything, but after a lot more testing, I am now able to make it jump to my intended target, ease of striking the intended target depending on the target¡¯s electrical conductivity.

    The other thing I have been tinkering with my understanding of ions is magnetism. I have only started recently but I was able to figure out a way to attract small metallic bits in the training yard, as long as it was within around 10cm from my palm. More testing is needed.

    ***

    Spring is coming to an end, and I am currently having lunch with my family. Charlotte is currently sitting in my old booster seat beside me, looking around while waving her hands around like babies do, I scoop a small teaspoon of mashed fruit and bring it to her mouth to let her nom on the spoon.

    Usually one of the servants would be the one doing this, but every now and then I like feeding my baby sister.

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    While we were halfway through lunch, a young man who looked like he was in his early 20s came into the dining room, walked towards Dad with urgency, and presented him with a sealed letter.

    This young man is Humphrey, he is our house¡¯s butler. He was recommended by House Silverbrook¡¯s butler, Winston. In fact, Humphrey is the grandnephew of Winston, and after hearing how strict Winston was I don¡¯t think he would recommend Humphrey lightly, because if Humphrey screws up, it would also reflect badly on Winston and his family.

    ¡°Sorry to bother your meal, my lord, but an urgent letter has arrived for you.¡± the young man said.

    ¡°No worries Humphrey.¡± Dad replied as he took the letter, and when his eyes landed on the wax seal, Dad had a serious look come over his face. He then broke the seal and started reading.

    With every time his eyeballs went from side to side, Dad¡¯s face became grimmer.

    After a while, Mum asked, ¡°Dear, what''s wrong?¡±

    Dad looked up to see everyone and said, ¡°The Valorhelm Dominion has started up the war again, I have been assigned to be the commander of Fort Eldric, whose commander was assassinated recently.¡±

    Valorhelm Dominion¡­ wait a minute, ¡°Dad, is the Valorhelm Dominion the nation to the north? Are they the ones who sent assassins to kill the king, the ones that you fought off?¡± I asked.

    Dad nodded, ¡°Yes son, they are.¡± then he turned to Humphrey, ¡°Pass a message to the knight commander, he along with the 1st and 2nd squad are to prepare to leave tomorrow morning. Vice-commander and the rest of the squads will be in charge of the security of the territory.¡± Humphrey bowed and left.

    That day, my parents canceled all appointments to spend the rest of the day with me and my sister.

    When bedtime came, I saw the look on my parents'' faces and knew they were going to get busy tonight. I think I read somewhere that when faced with potentially life-threatening situations, the urge to procreate becomes greater.

    Well, can''t blame the old man. I may even get another sibling out of this.

    The next day at breakfast, Dad comes dressed in his gambeson with the Ironcrest coat of arms and looking haggard but happy, while Mum looks radiant. After breakfast is done, the family walks Dad to the courtyard where his men on horseback are waiting.

    He said his goodbye to the grandparents, gave Mum a goodbye kiss, and picked up Charlotte to kiss and hug her. Charlotte had no idea what was going on and just giggled at Dad¡¯s beard tickling her face.

    Finally, Dad knelt in front of me to look me in the eyes, ¡°Luke, the time has come for me to go away for a while. Duty calls, and I must answer.¡±

    I knew where this was going, but it was something I never experienced before. In my previous life, there was almost a certainty that I would always see my father again. Now in this world, after hearing Dad¡¯s war stories, I am not so certain of Dad¡¯s return.

    This realization hits me right in the feels, and even though I am a grown ass man on the inside, I have grown to care deeply for my current family in these past 3 years. My eyes began to tear up and my voice cracked as I said, ¡°Do you have to go?¡±

    All this time, I have never cried for no reason or thrown a tantrum, which had my folks a bit worried but let it slide after nothing negative came of it. So seeing me cry now was kind of a big deal for my parents.

    Dad brought me into a hug and said, ¡°Yes son, I must. Me and my friends are going to protect the kingdom.¡±

    Dad disengaged the hug and looked me in the eye again, ¡°And just like I am going to protect the kingdom and its people, you will stay here to protect your mum and sister. You are a big boy now, and the man of the house while I am gone, so can you be brave and do that for me?¡±

    Damn you Dad, how can I say no to that? I reply to him with a nod before he kisses me on the head and goes to mount his horse to lead his men. And we watch him as he disappears from sight.

    God dammit¡­ I¡¯m not crying, you¡¯re crying!

 Chapter 20

    It has been a month since Dad left for Fort Eldric, and the only thing keeping Mum at ease is the weekly letters that Dad sends home.

    In the meantime, even though I have not yet learned any 1st Circle magic, by now I have seen and copied all the hand signs and words of power that the servants use to perform household/0 Circle magic, and I have been experimenting with it.

    What I found out after getting my hands on whatever literature on the subject I could and a lot of experimenting, was that the words of power that we chant and the hand signs are actually stand in for the runes to control the element, range, and power of the spell.

    Thanks to my accelerated growth, by the time I was 2 years old, my mouth was developed enough to form proper words, soon after that it did not take me long to cast household magic, which should not be a surprise due to me trying and failing to do so from the crib.

    When I showed my family I was able to cast 0 Circle magic, my parents and grandparents were ecstatic and praised me for casting my first spells. When I asked them about runes in relation to the element, range, and power of the spell, they very quickly clammed up and started telling me that I would learn more when I got older.

    It was the kind of talk one would give a child about why it was a bad idea to touch a hot stove or running around with sharp objects. I grumbled and whined at them to tell me or at least give me a hint, but they stood their ground.

    I understood where they were coming from as responsible adults, but I still did not like it and pouted for the rest of the day.

    But now, after a year of research since first casting 0 Circle magic and practicing casting 0 Circle magic at Stumpy the backyard tree stump, I think I have come to the conclusion that the runes that make up household/0 Circle magic are gimped to begin with.

    How did I know this? Glad you asked. The first big hint was when was casting magic at Stumpy, I got the idea in my head to see what would happen if I messed with the runes using mana manipulation while casting. So I conjured a flame at the tip of my finger and visualized the string of runes that made up the spell in my mind.

    The first thing I messed with was the rune for the fire element, I was unable to do anything to this rune without the whole spell collapsing, so I moved on.

    Next were the runes that controlled the range, unlike the element rune, this set of runes was more resilient to my manipulation of its structure before the spell collapsed, but I did manage to get some tangible results, after bending the protrusions of the runes, I managed to make the small flame drift a few more centimeters away from my finger, any attempts to further alter the runes caused the spell to collapse.

    Lastly were the runes that controlled the power of the spell. Just like the set of runes that controlled range, I could slightly alter the size of the flame at my fingertip, and when I tried to do the spell without the range runes, power runes, or both when attempting to remove the limitations of the spell, it failed every time.

    It seemed like the whole spell was made in such a way to be linked to each other, if 1 part of the string of runes fails, the whole spell fails.

    Another thing I tried was swapping out the air rune with fire in the hopes that I could make fire travel further, but that also made the spell collapse. I guess they really only come in a set, and it also explains why the range and power runes are different for each element.

    The next big hint about my theory of the gimped runes was Mum and my grandparents clamming up and trying to change the subject while neither confirming nor denying my questions when I brought my findings to them. That may have worked on a normal child but not me, them acting the way they did was confirmation enough for me. So I dropped the subject and acted like they successfully distracted me.

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    Looks like I will just have to stick to training up my Molecular Magic in the meantime.

    ***

    In a private room of the Ironcrest mansion.

    Luke¡¯s mother, Lady Amara Ironcrest, was discussing a serious topic with her parents regarding her son¡¯s future.

    ¡°Mum, Dad. What do we do? My baby boy is physically growing up too fast and now he is starting to figure out the secrets of magic on his own. He is already isolated from the outside world due to his condition needing to be kept secret and the only children he will be able to socialize with are his sister and Anna¡¯s kids. If he starts down the road of magic and becomes obsessed with it like many mages do, what would become of him?¡± Amara said with a worried look on her face.

    After a while of pondering the situation, her father Baron Rowan Silverbrook started, ¡°Hmm¡­ if he has got this far with just the non-controlled magic literature and self-research, I think it would be best to start giving Luke some proper instruction on magic. So far he has shown to be a well-tempered boy and should be wise enough to handle this responsibility of knowledge. Besides, with his level of knowledge, it is better to start now in case he does something trying to cast proper magic and hurt himself.¡±

    Her mother, Lady Isabella Silverbrook, nodded in agreement and added, ¡°Agreed, we all know what happened the last time Luke tried something big on his own before he was ready for it, he almost killed himself with his own aura. And besides, we cannot waste Luke¡¯s potential. If he is able to cast household magic and recognize the limitations placed on household magic at his age, I foresee a great future for his career as a mage, or maybe even an archmage of the kingdom.¡± Isabella said with a twinkle in her eye as she thought about the political power it would bring to their families if Luke made it to such lofty heights.

    After more pondering and discussions, Amara concluded, ¡°So we are in agreement. Tomorrow, we will start Luke on the basics of magic and see how he takes it from there.¡±

    ***

    Ironcrest Barony, the town of Glenfell, where the Ironcrest mansion is located.

    A dingy inn near the slums, The Rusty Goblet Inn, was host to a group of 4 men who gathered in a rented room. They all came individually to avoid suspicion and were all waiting in silence.

    That was until a 5th man opened the door and walked in, he was greeted with daggers and throwing knives being unsheathed and ready to strike, but after seeing who it was, the 4 other men lowered and sheathed their weapons.

    ¡°You¡¯re late.¡± One of the men who was waiting said.

    The man who just entered the room said nothing to the accusation and took out from his cloak a folded piece of paper. ¡°The information we had before we got here is outdated, our target now also has 2 extra mages, one of which is a confirmed War Mage, Baron Rowan Silverbrook.¡±

    Another man spoke up, ¡°Good to know, but irrelevant, our mission is to kill everyone in the house. As long as we play this right and avoid the guards, we can kill them all in their sleep nice and silent. If everything goes well, we will be halfway to the border by the time the bodies are discovered.¡±

    The rest of the men nodded and another man said, ¡°If you say so, you¡¯re the boss of this opp.¡±

    The ¡°boss¡± of the men nodded and said, ¡°Right, get some rest, we move when the moon is high.¡±

    The men dispersed into the town and the ¡°boss¡± sat down on his bed to recap what he knew of the mission. They were sent to kill the fortress commander and his family. The lead assassin theorized that in the case that the attempt on the Fortress commander¡¯s life by another group fails, when news of his family''s death reaches them, it may affect the commander¡¯s state of mind when commanding the defense. Thus hopefully making it easier for the Valorhelm Dominion to conquer Fort Eldric.¡¯

    And even if both attacks failed, none of them here were master assassins, and the lead assassin knew that he and his men were an expendable resource.

    Besides, a border baron did not need a master assassin to deal with them, and this was the lead assassin¡¯s chance to move up the ranks if this mission succeeded.

    The lead assassin spread his equipment on the bed and did maintenance to prepare for the coming bloodshed.

 Chapter 21

    Deep into the night when all the lights were put out and most people went to sleep, shadows zipped between trees on the outskirts of the Ironcrest mansion.

    The 5 assassins silently and almost weightlessly hopped from tree branch to tree branch until they were close to the front gate of the Ironcrest estate, but still concealed within the shadow of the woods and well outside hearing range for the guards on duty.

    The lead assassin found a particularly large bush and jumped down behind it followed by the other men.

    When all the men were gathered, the lead assassin started talking in a hushed whisper, ¡°Alright, first things first, you all know the drill, split up to surround the estate and scout for any traps and vulnerabilities. Meet back here in an hour.¡±

    And with the end of that statement, all 5 of them practically vanished from where they were crouched as they zipped along the tree branches.

    The lead assassin chose a spot some distance from the main gate to do his reconnaissance. After waiting for a patrol of 2 guards chatting loudly about a new tavern girl in town, he effortlessly scaled the iron fence and landed noiselessly on the other side.

    He sneaked through the garden, dodged another patrol, and as he was about to reach the side of the mansion, he felt a small stone embedded into his left gauntlet start to heat up to an uncomfortable level.

    This made the lead assassin stop in his tracks, ¡®Something is emitting magic in front of me.¡¯ the assassin thought.

    When he backed away a few steps, the mana-sensing stone embedded into his left gauntlet started to cool down to normal temperature.

    He then checked his flanks for guard patrols and went around the side of the mansion while trying to feel out the size of this magical phenomenon.

    As he rounded the corner of the mansion, he detected a shadow approaching him doing the same thing, it was one of his colleagues. When they made eye contact, the lead assassin made hand signs to say [Meet] and pointed at the nearby garden.

    When the 2 assassins met behind some bushes, the lead assassin started while showing his left gauntlet [You felt the magic?]

    The other assassin nodded and pulled down his collar to reveal a choker with a similar-looking mana-sensing stone and signed back, [Seeing how you approached, I can safely say this magic is in a circle surrounding the mansion. I think it is an array.]

    Arrays typically refer to a magical or enchanted pattern, design, or formation that holds special powers or properties. These arrays are often used for various magical purposes and can vary widely in their nature and abilities.

    But in this case for homes, it is more common to see arrays for detection, warding, and protection.

    The lead assassin nodded and replied, [Now we just need to determine what kind of array it is.]

    The two assassins waited for another patrol to go by before going to the edge of where they felt the array¡¯s magic.

    The assassin leader took out a pouch and opened it to reveal a powder which he took a sparing amount of and scattered in front of himself, when nothing happened, he took a step forward and repeated the same thing.

    After a few more steps of doing the same thing, this latest scattering of powder revealed glowing lines and part of a rune on the ground.

    After scattering more powder along those lines to reveal more of the array, the other assassin recognized enough of the rune script on the ground to know what type of array it was.

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    He tapped the shoulder of the lead assassin and signed to him [Detection array.]

    The lead assassin nodded in acknowledgment and signed for them to complete the reconnaissance and meet up at the agreed location, he then took out another pouch of powder and scattered it on the glowing parts of the array, making the glow fade away.

    When the 5 men met back up outside the Ironcrest estate, they reported their findings to the lead assassin, ¡°So we are dealing with six guards on patrol, 7 more in the guard barracks, around thirty more in the main barracks, there is a light in the servants¡¯ quarters with an unknown amount of servants awake, and lastly a detection array. As for the possible ingress points, they are the backyard or the servant¡¯s entrance, but preferably the servant¡¯s entrance.¡±

    After the lead assassin summarised what they were up against, one of the men spoke up, ¡°A detection array? The Ironcrest family is a new family, how do they even afford one big enough to cover the whole mansion?¡±

    The man who came late to the meeting at the inn spoke up, ¡°From what I got from the info broker, it is most likely from the Silverbrook family, they have been around for a few generations, and the wife of the Ironcrest family was a Silverbrook. That most likely also explains why lord and lady Silverbrook are currently here.¡±

    What the assassins did not know was that the array was setup shortly after Luke had his aura accident and Lady Isabella Silverbrook, who specializes in arrays, setup the detection array in case intruders caught wind of Luke¡¯s condition.

    ¡°How they got the array is irreverent, but this changes the mission.¡± the lead assassin then took out a jeweled pendant.

    ¡°I got an array jammer, this means we only got around 5 minutes to complete our main objective. We kill the fort commander¡¯s wife and 2 kids first, if we have enough time we will slit some throats on the way out.¡± he then jerked his head to the man who was in contact with the info broker, and the man took out a folded paper with the blueprints of the mansion.

    ¡°We are aiming for the 2nd floor, the last room on the left for the wife, and the 2 closest rooms for the 2 children.¡±

    After all of them acknowledged, they did a last equipment check and re-entered the Ironcrest estate again.

    They circled around to the servant''s entrance and found the stick one of the men stuck on the ground marking where the array starts. The lead assassin then took out the array jammer, opened a compartment within it, and put a mana crystal into it.

    The moment he closed the compartment, the array jammer released a dim glow which revealed the array within a 10m radius for a second before it faded, and with a hand sign, the five men moved forward.

    ***

    While everyone else was sleeping, I could not, because I discovered how to shoot wind blades today while practicing molecular magic with Stumpy the backyard tree stump.

    While I was releasing accumulated kinetic potential into the air to make fallen leaves circle around Stumpy, the question came into my head of what would happen if I compressed the accumulated kinetic potential and not just release it willy-nilly like I usually do to throw air at things.

    The answer as it turned out was actually quite a lot of damage. When I released my first shot of compressed accumulated kinetic potential at Stumpy, it sheered a rough 1cm deep scar into Stumpy¡¯s hard dry wood.

    I wanted to experiment more but I was called in for lunch before I could cast it a second time, and after lunch, before I could escape the house to continue my practice, Charlotte wanted to play, and as much as I wanted to practice, how could I say no to that cute face. So I did my brotherly duty and entertained her while also teaching her this world¡¯s language while reading to her.

    So now that everyone was asleep, I went to the fireplace in my room and took a log to shoot magic at.

    Naturally, I got sleepy after casting my new spell, I even managed to cut 2 more logs in half before I went to bed to turn in early.

    ***

    I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to pee and also because I was feeling thirsty. After taking care of my business in the toilet attached to my room, went to get some water from the kitchen.

    I could have pulled the rope beside my bed to ring up a servant to request some water, but personally, I find it kind of a dick move for just a cup of water.

    So, when I exit my room to the corridor, I am surprised to find 5 men clad in black with daggers drawn.

    Well, this is going to be an interesting night.

 Chapter 22

    Border of the Argus Kingdom, Fort Eldric.

    It has been a month since hostilities heated up again with the Valorhelm Dominion and so far, the only action Baron Alden Ironcrest has seen were small squads of enemy scouts probing his fort defenses.

    But all the same, defenses and guards have been doubled due to the successful assassination of Alden¡¯s predecessor.

    Now, there was not a corner leading to his bed or work chamber that was not watched, no place he did not go without a bodyguard, and no food or drink he ingested without a food taster sampling it first. And Alden was getting tired of it real fast.

    But he knew it had to be done, so he sucked it up and carried on with his duty as those around him keeping him safe did.

    It was night time and he was reading reports for the day¡¯s activity, ¡°Let''s see what we got today¡­ enemy scouts spotted and chased back into the woods. Raid on a caravan delivering us supplies successfully thwarted, caravan guard captain Takos suspects those who raided the caravan were professional soldiers and reported in his own words ¡°Theys were too good at fightin to be bandits.¡±¡±

    When Alden was done with the reports and drafting some orders to be carried out, he leaned over his table and pinched the bridge of his nose.

    ¡°Dammit, I should never have become a noble if it brought this much paperwork, at least back home I had my scribes to help me with all that. But now with the situation being so tense, I cannot just roughly glance over the reports, I need to double-check everything in case there are enemy troop movements I missed.¡± Alden vented to himself.

    Soon after, he rested his head on the table and continued, ¡°I would prefer if they just attacked already, anything is better than day after day of paperwork¡­ now that I am a commanding officer myself, I forgive my old commanding officers for being cranky at us, I would have throttled the first recruit that stepped out of line myself if I had to do this much paperwork back then¡­ I miss my family¡­¡±

    As Alden was lamenting the monotony of military bureaucracy, there was a knock on his door. ¡°Come in.¡±

    One of his bodyguards peeked his head in and said, ¡°Sir, a runner from central command for you, says it is for your eyes and ears only.¡±

    Alden nodded and said, ¡°Send him in.¡±

    When the man stepped into his room, there was a nagging suspicion in the back of Alden¡¯s mind. Sure, the man was slightly older than those he usually saw in the Messenger Corps, but it was the eyes of the man that set off alarm bells in his head.

    ¡®Ok, let us not be over paranoid, he may have just had a bad day, and besides, he apparently has something important message from central command Alden thought to himself while adjusting the ceremonial knife at his waist before he stood up to receive the message.

    The man handed him a wax-sealed parchment with the royal seal on it. ¡°Sir, for your eyes only, and I await your reply for the message.¡±

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    Alden broke the seal and unfurled it only to reveal a blank parchment, ¡®What? Is this some kind of joke?¡¯ He thought to himself.

    It was then he noticed from his peripheral vision that the man jerked a bit and before he knew it, a dagger burst through the parchment and came towards his face.

    Reacting on instinct, Alden bent his upper body backward while kicking the now assassin back with his left leg. The force of kicking the assassin made him fall backwards and he used the momentum to roll backward while activating his aura and drawing his ceremonial knife.

    The moment Alden got back to his feet, the assassin was already rushing towards him with a second dagger drawn.

    ¡°ASSASSIN!!¡± Alden roared out with all his might while parrying a dagger strike and dodging a second strike from the assassin who also activated his own aura.

    The moment Alden alerted everyone of the presence of an assassin, a few things happened at once. A few men who were everyone assumed to be menials suddenly started sprinting to different locations. The first man who was near the food storehouse took out a small glass bottle with a piece of cloth sticking out the top and lit the cloth with a nearby torch, then he proceeded to run forward and threw the now flaming bottle at the food storehouse.

    When the bottle smashed against the building, the sticky liquid inside rapidly caught fire, and as much as the soldiers guarding the building wanted to chase the saboteur, putting out the fire was given first priority.

    Around the fort, other acts of sabotage were also being carried out. There was an attempted poisoning of the water well, an attack on the mages¡¯ quarters, and the gatehouse was also on fire.

    As for Alden, the moment he called out the assassin, his 2 guards burst into the room, and the moment the assassin found himself surrounded, he decided the do a suicide attack to take out his target who was armed with only a knife.

    As the assassin advanced toward him, Alden decided to do things in a very unknightly way and apply bar brawl tactics, which was to fight with whatever you had at hand. And at the moment, he was right beside his table with a stack of the accursed paperwork.

    So as the assassin closed in, Alden grabbed the heavy wood table, his aura-powered fingers digging into the wood, and swung the table that was longer than he was tall at the assassin who was in mid-air while pouncing at him.

    The table smashed the surprised assassin who thought he was still out of his opponent¡¯s dagger range, the blow was so hard that the table turned into splinters and the assassin was sent flying into the wall.

    The only thing that prevented the assassin from being a smear on the wall was his own aura, but his aura did not prevent the breath and sense from being knocked out of him.

    Just as the assassin¡¯s vision cleared up, an armored boot came to his face and snapped his head sideways, rattling his brain.

    As he tried to recover, his arms and legs tried and failed to respond to his commands. At that moment, he knew he had failed his mission. The assassin then proceeded to maneuver a glass capsule from under his tongue to his molars and bit down.

    By the time Alden¡¯s bodyguards secured the assassin, foam was bubbling out of his mouth and his eyes rolled back. Within seconds, the assassin¡¯s body went from spasming to limp.

    ¡°Shit! He killed himself.¡± Alden cursed and turned his attention to his balcony as he heard a lot of noise coming from outside.

    When he reached his balcony, he noticed a few places on fire and people being restrained, the only words he afforded himself were ¡°What the Fuck!?¡± before getting his shit together and barking out orders from his balcony.

    ***

    Back at the Ironcrest mansion.

    Luke and the men clad in black with daggers drawn were staring at each other for a few seconds before the five men burst into action.

 Chapter 23

    Throwing knives came flying at Luke with men sprinting toward him behind said throwing knives.

    Thankfully, the constant low burning aura allows my body to react in time and drop to the ground as 2 throwing knives embed themselves into the door behind me.

    At this point, my heart was going crazy as adrenaline started pumping through my veins.

    As I was recovering to my feet, I noticed one of the men was about to be on top of me with a dagger primed to stab forward and take my life. When the dagger lunged forward, I abandoned the idea of getting to my feet and rolled to the side and using the momentum of the roll to get back to my feet, right next to the tall accent table beside my room door with a flower vase on it.

    I grabbed the vase and chucked it at the man who just tried to shank me while shouting ¡°INTRUDER! ASSASSIN!¡± at the top of my voice, but with the body of a child, it was not very loud.

    The man to whom I threw the vase at brought his arms up and it shattered when it hit his guard, but there was another problem, another assassin came from my side and tried to stab me.

    I grabbed the tall accent table and brought it in front of myself to block the incoming stab, which I managed to block, but regardless of my successful block and my strength on par with a fully grown man, the difference in weight class was too great.

    The assassin¡¯s dagger stabbed into the tall accent table, lifting both me and the accent table off the ground and slamming me into the wall behind me.

    When I hit the wall, the air was knocked out of my lungs as I was pinned to the wall by the tall accent table with the assassin holding it in position with a dagger sticking into said table.

    And as I was pinned to the wall, I saw that the situation was not good. The guy I threw a vase at was coming to finish off my pinned ass and the other 3 assassins were now disregarding stealth and quickly moving toward my mum and sister¡¯s rooms.

    This was not good. I need to move and protect my family!

    I may be as strong as the average grown man, but these assassins were trained and definitely stronger than me, I tried to push off the table pinning me by grabbing the legs and pushing but I was not strong enough.

    I tried using my legs to push off the table, but my legs were too short and found nothing to push off of. This only left me with one avenue of attack.

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    I raise my right hand in a knifehand strike position, then gather and compress the mana for a wind blade I have been practicing until just moments ago.

    As the mana for my strike quickly gathered, the eyes of the 2 assassins facing me opened wide in shock as they both stared at their own gauntlet in surprise and then at me. So I used their distraction to launch my attack.

    I performed a swift horizontal knifehand strike in an arc that covered the 2 assassins facing me, sending a wide blade of compressed wind that caught the assassin who was keeping me pinned to the wall in his neck, opening a nasty gash and pushing him away at the same time.

    As for the other assassin, he managed to react in time, he switched his dagger to a reverse grip, and brought it up to guard his head along with his other arm. When the wind blade hit him, it left scratches on the flat side of the long dagger, shredded his leather gauntlet while leaving a bloody grove, and because he was taller than the assassin that got hit in the neck, the wind blade also ripped into his shoulders and pushed him back a few steps.

    ¡°The boy¡¯s a caster!¡± the assassin that managed to protect his vitals shouted, making the other 3 assassins who were about to reach their target¡¯s door stop and turn around. There in the pale moonlight shining through the corridor window, they saw one of their fellow assassins on the floor clutching his throat to staunch the bleeding that already made a small puddle of blood and the other man still standing but his arms hanging low with blood dripping from them.

    The final part of this scene is a child holding a tall accent table by its legs ready to strike.

    The moment the 3 assassins noticed this and processed their comrade''s warning, training took over and they rushed full speed at Luke because the worst thing anyone could do in a fight was to have their backs to an enemy caster, so now Luke had their undivided attention.

    As the 3 men were closing in on him, Luke decided he very much needed a weapon, and as much as he wanted to use the dagger embedded in the accent table he was holding as an improvised weapon, he knew it would take too much time, but as he looked at the table legs, he had an idea.

    ¡®I may not be able to get my hands on the dagger in time, but the legs on this table should be around the relatively the length of a long sword for my current body¡¯ Luke thought to himself as he raised the table over his head and smashed it down on the floor.

    What he was left with was a sturdy wooden table leg in each hand, Luke then let go of the table leg in his left hand and readied his stance as he now had both his hands on the table leg he still had. ¡®I was never that proficient at dual wielding, better stick to what I know.¡¯

    Before the first of the 3 charging assassins reached me, the door behind me burst open, and out came my Grandpa in his pajamas wielding a staff and shouting ¡°Assassin?! Where?!¡±, after a short look around, he locked eyes on the 3 assassins who stopped to assess the new threat.

    A split second after that, a second door burst open revealing Mum in a nightgown with lightning arcing between her hands.

    The last person to show up was Grandma wielding a wand with an orb of lightning at its tip. When my attention went back to the assassins, I noticed they all had throwing knives in their off-hands and were all pulled back and ready to launch.

    So there we were, in the first Mexican standoff of both my lives. We may not have guns pointed at each other but there was magic and cool assassin throwing weapons, so I say it about evens out in terms of the coolness factor.

 Chapter 24

    Lead Assassin¡¯s POV

    What the fuck happened? They were just facing a child, someone that young should have no business silent fast casting anything tough enough to hurt my men. Yet I have 1 man who is already as good as dead and another who is most likely combat ineffective.

    The worst part is that we are now surrounded by 3 known mages with spells at the ready and an alleged mage who has already taken out 2 of my men.

    I can already hear the footsteps of the guards in the distance on their way here. The only thing we can do is attempt to finish the mission and hope to get out alive.

    ¡°2, 4, Red. 1, 5, Blue.¡± I muttered low enough for only my men to hear and we burst into motion. What I said in code was for those 2 with me to attack Lady Ironcrest, while me and the injured man still standing will attack her son. At this point, if we manage to kill either of them, partial success is better than no success.

    ***

    Luke¡¯s POV

    The Mexican standoff when 1 of the assassins mumbles something under his breath and all the remaining assassins flair with aura and throw their throwing knives.

    2 of the 3 assassins with working arms threw a hail of throwing knives at my grandparents while bolting for Mum, forcing them to defend themself instead of attacking. The assassin who mumbled something threw his knives at me while charging, and as the throwing knives were about to reach me, the assassin who was wounded by my wind blade attacked at the same time.

    My perception of time slows as take in the situation, a fan of throwing knives is aimed at my current position and to my left, and the wounded assassin is attacking me from my right with a roundhouse kick aimed at my head, either way, I will be hit and thrown off balance and open for a follow up attack.

    But there is 1 thing I have that they think I lack, which is combat experience. I have been hit so many times during spars in my previous life, both armored and unarmored, that such an attack would not make me freeze from indecision.

    And since they are making me choose, the lesser of 2 evils, I choose the asshole who just threw a kick at me. I can¡¯t say I dealt with projectile attacks in my previous life, so I will stick with what I know.

    The fool, he should have aimed for my midsection, being a lot shorter than him gives me certain advantages.

    Hehe¡­ This reminds me of my previous life when I was doing a 1v1 armed tournament against a mountain of a man, I was having a lot of fun easily dodging him until I got careless and got hit by the gigantic man, and from what my friends told me, I actually did a full backflip before eating dirt and blacking out.

    Dammit, snap out of it Luke! More fighting, less flashback.

    In the case of this assassin throwing a kick at me. I used my smaller stature to my advantage and instead of blocking or jumping back to avoid the kick, I moved forward into his attack and dodged under the kick at the last moment.

    What I did next could be considered unsportsmanlike, but fuck these guys, they are trying to kill me and my family.

    When I was under the assassin¡¯s leg, I drove the broken table leg up into his family jewels. With my enhanced strength and positional advantage, my upward jab actually lifted the man off the ground.

    Through the impact, I felt something pop. I knew what it was, the assassin knew what it was, the assassin who threw knives at me knew what it was, and besides the man who I just hit in the nut sack, all males who witnessed what I did to the man brought their thighs closer together on reflex, and so did I.

    As for the assassin who I just hit, he let out a short but sharp yelp, and when his feet touched the ground again he crumbled to the ground while releasing a high pitched whine.

    I raised my stick and was about to finish off the prone man with a bonk to the head, but I was forced to parry the knife that was aimed at my throat.

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    Unfortunately for me, the assassin was bigger, heavier, and had his aura activated. So when I say parry, it was more akin to using my stick to push myself away from his dagger than me using my bigger and heavier weapon to deflect his stab.

    As I managed to take a few steps back from my assailant, I heard a crack of lightning and someone hitting the ground hard, followed a split second later by the scream of my Mum.

    When I looked over to where my Mum was, I saw 1 of the assassins twitching on the ground while the other assassin managed to get to my Mum and stab her. Luckily, Mum was fast enough to turn sideways and sacrifice her shoulder instead of getting stabbed in the chest.

    And as much as I wanted to go help Mum, I had my own assassin to deal with, out of the corner of my eye, my assailant was taking another swipe at me.

    His aura made him faster and stronger, but compared to Dad, his aura was weak. Even so, he was a shit load faster and stronger than me. I brought up my stick and barely deflected his knife strike, but that deflection cost me a quarter off the top of my improvised weapon.

    As I saw the assassin following up with another attack, I heard the bellow of my grandpa ¡°Get Down!¡±

    I dropped to the ground as I saw the look in the assassin¡¯s eyes go from concentration to alarm as he quickly changed direction, and a split second later a streak of lightning passed through the space where the assassin used to be.

    I took the time to check on my mum and saw that her assassin also disengaged her, and there was a smoldering black patch on the wall next to where the assassin used to be.

    Me and Mum seem to be the target of this assassination and Mum is injured, so I used this brief interference from my grandparents who were casting follow-up spells to get to my mum.

    As I got to my feet and sprinted to my mum, my assassin tried to intercept me but was forced to disengage by another bolt of lightning.

    When I got to Mum, she had an arm hanging limp while she was chanting and performing singlehanded signs.

    As I positioned myself between Mum and the assassins dodging spells, I saw the assassin that was attacking me do some hand signals, after which both of them sprinted to one of their downed men, picked them up, and hurled them at my grandparents as they were mid cast.

    Their lightning bolts hit the flying bodies but it did nothing to change their flight path as the incapacitated assassins crashed into my grandparents.

    The moment the 2 assassins threw their fellow assassins at my grandparents, they charged toward me.

    This is bad, you could even say that my situation was fucked. Mum is injured, my grandparents are knocked on their asses, and by the time they get up we may be gutted, I am only armed with a stick, and last but not least, from the look in the assassins¡¯ eyes, they are now taking me seriously.

    I sighed internally as I knew what I had to do, I had to reveal to my family my ability to use magic other than circle magic offensively.

    ***

    Assassins¡¯ POV

    As the assassins charged forward, they saw Luke raise his left hand and then swing it down in a diagonal cutting motion. Both of their danger senses screamed at them and they jumped out of the way of whatever their subconscious was warning them about.

    What the assassins felt as they dodged was a wave of air past them which was followed by the sound of the mansion tiles being broken, when they looked back, they saw a gash on the floor that mirrored the motion that Luke made with his hand.

    They may not have seen it happen, but they now knew exactly what happened to the 2 men who were dealing with Luke. They did not see or hear any hand signs or chanting besides the chopping motion. That meant Luke became a danger with unknown powers, and the unknown needed to be removed with all swiftness.

    They had already used all their throwing knives, so one of the assassins picked up the dagger of one of their fallen and threw it at Luke with all the strength his aura-powered body could muster.

    ***

    Luke¡¯s POV

    I saw the dagger coming, but I could not move because Mum was right behind me, if I dodged Mum would get hit.

    The only thing I could do to react in time was bunt the dagger. I was not able to position myself in time and I did not manage to catch the dagger in the center of the wood, but I did manage to hit the flat side of the dagger, making it change its course.

    Unfortunately, that change of course still gave me a deep slice to the left side of my body and knocked me off my feet to crash into Mum, which interrupted her chanting.

    As I looked up, the assassins were just a few steps away and my grandparents just got to their feet, they would not make it in time and neither would I if I wanted to cast another wind blade.

    So I did the one thing I dreaded, especially now that Dad was not around in case things went wrong.

    I released the floodgate for my stamina energy which I had kept to a trickle but never managed to totally shut off, and like pouring gas on a fire, my body erupted with power.

 Chapter 25

    Lead Assassin POV

    As the lead assassin closed in on the boy who was knocked down after having his side sliced open by a thrown dagger, his eyes widened in surprise as he felt aura pulse out of the downed boy.

    ¡®What kind of monster are the Ironcrests raising? Deadly silent magic and now aura? The reports say the Ironcrest family had a son 3 years ago, and after a while, they withdrew him from the public eye with only selected servants being allowed to see him. Unless there is another boy inside the room he came out from, this boy must be Luke Ironcrest. But he is too big for a 3 year old.¡¯

    With what looked like practiced ease, the boy pushed himself to his feet and dashed forward to meet us in battle.

    ***

    Luke¡¯s POV

    The moment I turned my aura on full blast, I could feel it, I was on a timer. Now that my body is more developed and has more energy to burn, I start feeling the strain of doing a high-intensity cardio workout even though it has barely been a few seconds since fully unleashing my aura.

    My world slows down as I rush forward while holding my stick in a defensive stance, ready to sell my life dearly to buy time for my grandparents and mum to get back into the fight or for backup to arrive.

    As we close into striking range, the only ones who I see at normal speed if not faster are the 2 assassins, and the worst part is that I have an inferior weapon to them, and since they took a quarter off the top of my weapon, I lost my range advantage and now have the equivalent of a short sword. I would have liked to use the dagger that they threw at me, but after it opened up my side, it kept going and clattered to the floor somewhere further in the room.

    The only advantage I have going for me at the moment is that I am at the doorway to my parents'' bedroom holding the chokepoint so I can¡¯t get flanked.

    I wanted to cast another wind blade now that the 2 assassins were so close together but I did not have time before the first assassin took a stab at me.

    I managed to parry the strike, but before I could counterattack, another stab from the other assassin came at my head. I could not raise my stick in time, so I ducked my head and shot out a low kick aimed at his knee joint.

    My leg impacted the side of his knee and there was a satisfying pop sound as the assassin shouted out from the pain of having his knee dislocated and fell to the side. With that threat neutralized for the moment, I turned to the other assassin only to see a fist directly in front of me.

    I turned my head along with the blow to reduce the impact, but it was not enough. I was punched in the forehead, this rattled me and opened a nasty gash above my right eye.

    My mind may have experienced taking a lot of blows in my previous life, but it turns out that all the muscle memory for reacting after taking a blow did not transfer over to my new body and needs to be retrained.

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    I staggered back a step while wildly waving my stick in front of me as I saw the assassin follow up the punch with a swing of his dagger, the pointed tip aimed at my midsection. The only thing I managed to do in time was to bring my left arm to my side.

    Then I felt it, an impact. When I glanced down to my side, the dagger was buried to the hilt in my upper arm, and a moment later I felt the sharp pain in my arm and side. The bastard! He stabbed me!

    The pain snapped me back into focus. I need to end this now!

    As I roared in pain and anger, I released my stick, shot my right hand out to grab the assassin¡¯s left sleeve to make sure he did not go anywhere, and gave my best soccer kick right between the assassin¡¯s legs.

    I felt the pop of the things that should never go pop as the assassin¡¯s eyes went bloodshot, but apparently, this assassin is made of sterner stuff. As if by pure willpower, he kept on his feet as he roughly yanked the knife out of my body and pulled back for another stab that I had no way of defending.

    The only way I am getting out of this alive is to do as Dad did to get his noble title, get stabbed in a hopefully non-lethal part of my body, and hope the dagger does not nick something.

    As the dagger was coming down on my jugular, I tried to raise my shoulder to intercept the blow only to hear 3 thuds in rapid succession and the assassin¡¯s whole body being pushed onto me. But the momentum of the assassin¡¯s attack could not be stopped, and with the assassin now so close to me, instead of my jugular being stabbed, I got a long nasty gash on my back as the assassin pined me to the ground.

    I react quickly and push off the assassin, only to notice that he is limp. When I sat up to get a better look at him, he had ice shards sticking out of him, 2 in the back and 1 in the back of his head. He was dead as a doornail.

    When I looked up, I saw my grandparents running over, and the assassin whose knee I dislocated had a few ice shards sticking out of him but he was still alive and trying to back away.

    When Grandpa reached the still-alive assassin, he held his staff by the butt end and with fine form, took a golf swing at the assassin¡¯s chin, knocking him out.

    ¡°Luke! Amara! Are you ok?¡± Grandma shouted as she ran up to us.

    I tried to take a breath before answering only to start a hacking cough that made me feel that I could not take in enough air. On my third cough, a spurt of blood came out my mouth and I started wheezing for breath as my left side hurt like a motherfucker.

    Grandma quickly put her ear to my chest as I breathed and then looked at the wound at my side, she then shouted, ¡°Rowan! Here! Now! I think Luke has a punctured lung.¡±

    She then turned back to me and pushed me to lie down. As Grandpa ran over to check on my injuries, I heard the armored footsteps of the guards closing in on us.

    That reminds me of my current aura situation. I need to shut that shit down fast before the guards see something they are not supposed to see.

    I remember the exercise I did with Dad in the hopes that I could off my aura. After a few tries, I feel something in me stop, it is a weird sensation, I feel¡­ still? static? I cannot put it into words as I felt the last dregs of stamina energy get consumed by the aura leaving me empty and terribly weak, even my labored breathing feels more labored.

    When I am sure that aura has totally left my body, I relax the reflex that cuts off my stamina energy and strength flows back through my body.

    As I feel Grandpa¡¯s mana flow to my wounds, I ponder why I failed to cut off my stamina energy until now¡­ but all that bullshit can wait for later. At the moment, my everything feels like shit and it is especially bad at the areas I got hit.

    Soon my family is swarmed by guards ensuring our safety and securing the assassins. As the bustle of activity goes around me, the voices of the people around me start to become muffled and fade as I close my eyes, tired from a sudden wave of exhaustion, and sleep takes me.

 Chapter 26

    The next couple of days after the assassination attempt at the Ironcrest estate were rather busy. The first thing Baron Rowan Silverbrook did after confirming Luke was stable and his daughter¡¯s shoulder wound was taken care of, was to send out a few messenger birds to a few of his war buddies to call in some favors.

    The next thing he did was to send a runner into town to report the assassination attempt to the local branch of the Royal Constabulary. Within the hour, even though it was in the middle of the night, there were more than 50 constables and officers swarming the Ironcrest estate collecting evidence and interviewing people.

    The only thing they were thankful for was that Luke was unconscious and Charlotte was hiding with her maid and did not see anything, this allowed Amara, Rowan, and Isabella to fabricate what actually happened and explain how Amara and Luke got injured and the damage to the surroundings.

    Nobody was going to believe a bigger than usual 3-year-old boy went toe to toe with assassins and beat them with magic and aura, and even if they believed the unbelievable truth, that would bring up a lot of questions that they could not and did not want to answer.

    After the initial investigation was done, they found in the possession of the assassins, mana sensing stones, mana detection powder and its neutralizer powder, blueprints of the mansion, and most importantly an array jammer.

    Array jammers did not come cheap or easy, it was a highly controlled item in all countries. Which begs the question, who were these assassins? After examining their approximate age, body build, body condition, and equipment, these assassins were determined to be low-level assassins, yet they had the tools to deal with mana, which was expensive, and an array jammer, things did not add up, why would any group waste such precious material on low level scrubs.

    That was until news of similar assassination attempts and sabotage happened along the border with the Valorhelm Dominion. Fort commanders and high-ranking military officers were the targets of assassination attempts, along with their families.

    And while most attempts failed, a good number of them succeeded, most border fort commanders were barons with a few viscounts, and not all of them could afford magic arrays or a massive amount of highly trained men-at-arms to guard them and all their families all the time.

    Those assassins who were captured or killed were found to have similar equipment and tools on their person. This suggested that these were disposable assassins of the Valorhelm Dominion who were mass-trained and sent to weaken the front lines and force the kingdom to spread thin its troops along the border, but not knowing when or where along the border the attack would come from.

    Hearing about the assassination attempts on the fort commanders, Amara became deathly pale and wanted to enquire about her husband¡¯s health, but before she could kick up a fuss, a letter arrived from Alden telling her that he was fine and not to worry.

    As for Luke, he was unconscious for 2 days straight and when he woke up, he could barely move his limbs, even opening his jaw made him actually feel strain in his facial muscles, ¡°What¡­ happened¡­ to me?¡± Luke croaked out weakly.

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    Luke¡¯s sudden noise shocked his personal maid, Alice, making her yelp in surprise and running out of the room to announce his awakening.

    Shortly after, Luke¡¯s mother, sister, grandparents, and even Emma along with her parents stormed his room to check on his condition.

    After a good once over of inspecting Luke¡¯s body condition, his grandfather Rowan Silverbrook announced the results, ¡°Other than severe muscle fatigue, he is fine. From now until he recovers, he needs a meat-heavy diet.¡±

    And after looking back at Luke, he added, ¡°Maybe cut the meat to bitesize first.¡±

    After that, everyone who was not involved in the assassination attempt was dismissed, and all that was left in the room were Luke, his mother, and his grandparents with serious looks on their faces. It was time to get their story of what went down during the assassination straight for when the Royal Constables came to question Luke.

    Luke¡¯s mum and grandparents wanted to push this talk back until he was older, but the seriousness of the situation needed to be impressed upon his allegedly young mind.

    ***

    As soon as everyone but Mum and my grandparents left the room all their smiles disappeared from their faces, which is never a good sign of things to come.

    Mum sat down beside me and took my hand into hers, ¡°Sweety, there are some things we need to talk about.¡±

    Well, shit. I remember that tone and words from my mum in my previous life. Not good, definitely not good. Were there more assassins? Everyone I knew came into the room to check up on me, did they do something else?

    ¡°Luke, just to confirm because all of us are not aura users¡­ did you manage to fully turn off your aura?¡± Mum asked, but from the look on her face, I think she already knows the answer.

    I nodded my head and answered, ¡°Yes Mum, what is wrong? You look worried.¡±

    Mum smiled, but I could see it was a forced one, ¡°Well dear, I am not so sure when, but some people are going to come by and ask you what happened when those bad men came to hurt us. And do you remember what we said never to talk about to other people?¡±

    I nodded again and answered, ¡°Never tell people I can do magic and aura.¡±

    Mum nodded and prompted me further, ¡°And do you know why?¡±

    ¡°Because I am too young and bad people will come and take me away¡­¡± my eyes opened wide as my mind raced, ¡°Is that why those people came to hurt us? Did someone tell on us?¡± I asked in a panic.

    ¡°No dear¡± Mum said as she calmed me down, ¡°Nobody told anyone about you¡­yet.¡±

    Yet? What do you mean yet?... the assassins¡­ not all of them died and they saw me use magic and aura.

    Apparently, the increasing look of terror on my face told it all and my mum said, ¡°So, now we need to tell you the story we told the Royal Constables so your stories match up with ours. Because if news of you being able to use magic and aura at your age¡­¡±

    I could see Mum was hesitant to continue and was trying to find the right words, but Grandpa finished her sentence, ¡°If news of you being able to use magic and aura at your age, the Holy Inquisition may get involved.¡±

    The Holy Inquisition? I was not expecting that, what do they got to do with me?

    Wait a second¡­ any kind of Inquisition, holy or not, has bad connotations in my book¡­ am I screwed?

 Chapter 27

    Ok Luke, calm down, who knows, maybe this Holy Inquisition may not be a bad thing in this world. So I asked Grandpa, ¡°Grandpa, what is the Holy Inquisition?¡±

    I should not have asked that question. The moment those words left my mouth, I noticed Mum and Grandma take in a deep breath while rolling their eyes and then adjust themself in their seat to get comfortable.

    Then the floodgates burst forth and I was stuck in bed for a crash course in geopolitics. The opening statements in my crash course in geopolitics had such academic and scholarly words and statements like ¡°pompous uptight inept pillocks!¡± and ¡°not recognizing light attribute magic even if it diddled them up the bum!¡±

    Long story short, the Holy Inquisition is a quasi-military arm of the Zagraf Theocracy which is located on a landmass just off the coast of the continent.

    Over the centuries, the Zagraf Theocracy has sent missionaries throughout the continent to spread their religion which resulted in them being the biggest religion on the continent, and once they were pretty much everywhere, their followers started to take on positions of power in every country.

    Be it the humble scribe or town administrator, all the way to a minister whispering into a king¡¯s ear, the followers of the Zagraf religion were there. Eventually, even priests were among the courts of kings to give council.

    Of course, most nations saw this for what it was and took action to separate religion from government, but with a huge chunk of the populous being of the Zagraf religion, they could not totally excise the church out of their country.

    During his lecture, Grandpa dedicated a good few minutes bitching about a single kingdom, the Hemton Kingdom, which was the country closest to the Zagraf Theocracy, just a few kilometers off the coast in fact. While other kingdoms and empires tolerated or outright banned the church, the Hemton Kingdom totally cucked to the Zagraf Theocracy and gave them a foothold in the main continent.

    They were not even conquered by military might, apparently a few generations of kings ago, the king of the Hemton Kingdom decided it was a fantastic idea to become the protectorate Zagraf Theocracy.

    Of course, prior to the Hemton Kingdom becoming a protectorate, a good number of high-profile people of the Hemton Kingdom died from a ¡°mysterious illness¡± or had an ¡°unfortunate accident¡±. Naturally, a lot of people called bullshit and there was unrest, but conveniently, there were a couple of religious knight orders from the Zagraf Theocracy ¡°on vacation¡± nearby, with their armor and weapons.

    The religious orders offered to quell the unrest and restore order, which the king readily accepted, and then shortly after, the Hemton Kingdom was dubbed a holy protectorate of the Zagraf Theocracy.

    The surrounding countries tried to call out the bullshit, but the king denied all allegations and swept the whole thing under the rug with the political backing of the Zagraf Theocracy and every Zagraf church around.

    Under normal circumstances, the other countries could not give 2 shits about what the Zagraf Theocracy did, but after this hostile takeover in all but name, the other countries became very wary of the churches in their borders.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°Grandpa, what does this have to do with the Holy Inquisition?¡± I said, interrupting my Grandpa¡¯s rants.

    ¡°Hush boy, I am getting there.¡±

    As Grandpa explained it, being a quasi-military, the Holy Inquisition was technically just glorified mercenaries with political backing from the Zagraf church and by extension the Zagraf Theocracy, so they were mostly allowed to roam the lands where the worship of the Zagraf religion held sway.

    They were ordained by the church to seek out practitioners of the dark arts, like Necromancy, Blood Magic, creating abominations, or punching holes in reality to commune with eldritch or otherworldly entities.

    The first and last of the dark arts mentioned were of particular concern. A necromancer, if given enough time and resources could raze whole cities to the ground and were a blight upon nations. As for punching holes in reality, things can get bad, and I mean really bad, the kind of bad that could potentially wipe out multiple small kingdoms and once almost wiped out a powerful empire close to a millennium ago.

    Usually, what comes out when someone punches a hole in reality without knowing what they are doing are harmless or could be taken care of by a group of adventures, but on the rare occasion, something that should not be anywhere near the land of the living crosses over and starts fucking shit up until it gets bored and leaves or gets put down at great cost.

    And take a good guess what necromancers and the majority of the malicious shit that cross over into our reality are weak against. If you thought light magic, you would be correct, and with the Holy Inquisition going around doing this on the church¡¯s dime, most countries were glad to leave them to their business.

    ¡°So you see grandson, the reason we need to doctor the events of the assassination is because if you are discovered to be using magic and aura at the age of 3, we may be suspected by the Inquisition of creating an abomi-¡± Grandpa was about to finish his sentence when grandma smacked him upside the head and mum threw a pillow at him and buried my head in her chest while asking me not to listen to the ¡°nasty old codger¡±, then scolded said codger about scaring me.

    And to be honest, I am scared, damm scared in fact, I was just currently too weak of body react.

    When everything calmed down and I ensured my mum that I was fine, they started filling me in on the cover story.

    The cover story was essentially that on the night of the attack, I heard a ruckus outside my door and went to investigate, seeing my family fighting for their lives, I threw a flower vase at the assassins which made an opening for my grandparents to attack, after which I chucked the accent table at the feet of another assassin to trip him up only for one of the assassins to attack me and that would be where I lost consciousness.

    There was more to the cover story but they said it would be better if I only knew certain parts in case I say something I should not know.

    Hopefully, with the testimony of an ¡®innocent¡¯ 3-year-old child, they would rather believe the victim than a bunch of assassins trying to bring trouble on their failed assassination targets. I sure hope this works.

    The next day, a Royal Constable showed up and was led to my room to listen to my testimony alone.

    When we were done talking, the constable let my family into the room.

    ¡°Lady Ironcrest, Lord and Lady Silverbrook, thank you for your time, and sorry to interrupt your son¡¯s recovery, this interview was just a matter of formality. The things the assassin would say to try to hurt a child, it disgusts me. But worry not, we got everything we could out of them and they would soon be executed by today, our prisons are too good for those scum.¡± the constable said while looking like he wanted to spit in disgust but caught himself before doing it in a noble¡¯s estate.

    That went well, but being mentally grilled took a lot out of me, nappy time.

 Chapter 28

    AN: I am back boiz! I still got Covid, but the worst of it is over. I am no longer getting high on flu meds, now I am still getting a little high cough meds. I will be uploading more Of Arms and Arcane this week, I will only resume uploading Unto the Ages next week.

    When I woke up from my nap, I noticed that on top of my weakened state, I was currently constricted by a cute holstaur girl with her head buried in my neck. Ever since I woke up yesterday, Emma has been especially clingy with me.

    She would insist on bringing my meals, helping me drink, and clumsily trying to feed me. It even got to the point where she tried to help me go to the toilet, that was when I had to put my foot down and either try to shove her out of the toilet or wait for her to go out of the room to do something before I hobble my ass slowly to the toilet to relief myself.

    I wanted to ask Emma to tone it down a bit and tell her that I was completely capable of taking care of myself, no matter how slow it took me to do so, but after seeing the worried and determined look on her face, I could not bring myself to do so.

    When I expressed my displeasure of my situation, Grandpa burst out laughing while Mum and Grandma hid their mirth about my situation behind their hands, but the look in their eyes said it all.

    They even teased me about it, ¡°Oh my, if this is the level of care she is showing Luke now, she would make a wonderful daughter-in-law in the future.¡± Mum said in a mock conversation with Grandma.

    ¡°Indeed, Indeed. I cannot wait to become a great-grandmother, they would have such cute children.¡± Grandma said with a more serious look in her eyes like she was giving me a silent command to make it happen, or else.

    The only thing I could do was let out a defeated whine ¡°Moomm¡­¡±

    Grandpa reigned in his laughter and petted my head while saying, ¡°It¡¯s ok Luke, at your age, girls are weird and icky to you, but you will understand when you grow up. For now, Emma is worried about you and this is her way of showing it, and as a man, you need to show appreciation and thank her for her care.¡±

    I wanted to say that I know that girls are not weird and icky and that I already understand because I am all grown up on the inside but I am just a kid, and so is Emma, especially Emma. His last point though, made me feel like an asshole for not appreciating what Emma is doing for me. In the end, I told them I would stop my bitching and suck it up.

    The 3 of them left with smug knowing looks on their faces.

    ***

    As time passed, I got better and was now able to carry out my daily activities. I was no longer as strong as I was when my aura was passively on and burning low, but that meant that I no longer needed to eat big man-sized portions of food to keep myself from withering to skin and bones.

    The other thing that changed after the assassinations was the Valorhelm Dominion escalating the war. During this period, we started getting news updates from Dad about the ongoing war with the Valorhelm Dominion.

    Within a couple of days of the assassination and sabotage attempts, the Valorhelm Dominion¡¯s main army attacked and sieged Fort Trim, which was next to Frot Eldric where Dad was stationed. It was reported that the assassinations of Fort Trim¡¯s commander, alchemist, and a good chunk of their mages were successful but worse than that, the water was poisoned and food supplies were destroyed, so even if the lower-rank commanding officers managed to put up a good defense, the fort would soon succumb to starvation and dehydration.

    It was possible for the mages to generate enough cold to condense water from the atmosphere, but that could only go so far for a limited number of people. They had already sent for help and all they could do was hold out until help arrived.

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    Ahh¡­ if only the conjured water was actually drinkable and not just a concept or aspect of water, life would be so much easier. That reminds me, water is a good element to practice next for my molecular magic.

    As for the help that Fort Trim was supposed to receive, that seemed to be an issue for the nearby forts like Dad¡¯s to provide. At the same time Fort Trim was getting sieged, Fort Eldric and a few other forts near Fort Trim had enemies show up on their front lawn.

    The Valorhelm Dominion sent a few nobles with their retinues, along with some Knights and Men-at-Arms to these other forts. The forces sent to the other forts were not big enough to siege the forts, but they were big enough to pose a threat in case the forts wanted to send reinforcements to Fort Trim.

    Without any commander in charge to coordinate the defense and with the reduced number of mages to cast spells, in a matter of 2 days, Fort Trim fell into enemy hands and they used it as a staging ground and beachhead for their invasion of the Argus Kingdom.

    The moment the beachhead opened, the Valorhelm Dominion sieged Fort Trim¡¯s neighboring forts for real, one of which happened to be Fort Eldric.

    From there, the Valorhelm Dominion raided further into the Argus Kingdom to sack nearby villages and towns. The bigger cities managed to hold due to their high walls until reinforcements arrived from the surrounding territories.

    The surrounding nobles mustered their house forces, raised levies, and coordinated with their neighboring nobles to hold or push back the Valorhelm Dominion until the Royal Army arrived.

    When word of the Valorhelm Dominion¡¯s invasion spread far and wide, villagers that were close enough formed militia forces under the instruction of retired knights or soldiers, this was followed by towns and cities doing the same thing even though the local noble of the town or city had their own forces guarding it.

    That was not to say this was the first time this was happening, when one has a neighbor like the Valorhelm Dominion, for those near the border, it had become a necessity for the past few generations.

    Eventually, the Royal Army showed up in force and started pushing the Valorhelm Dominion forces back. From the news we got from Grandpa¡¯s military contacts, quite a few of the enemy commanders were glory-hungry and set off to do their own conquering to rack up merit.

    But in doing so, they spread themselves too thin and the Valorhelm Dominion was pushed all the way back to Fort Trim, where it was the Valorhelm Dominion¡¯s turn to get sieged. And apparently after seeing the numbers of the Royal Army coming down on Fort Trim, the enemy commander decided wasting their own blood defending a siege was not worth it and retreated back to their borders and reinforced their own forts.

    But not before burning down Fort Trim on their way out as a last ¡°Fuck You¡± to the kingdom.

    After that, hearing the reports, King Argus IV who was on the front line was livid, he invaded the Valorhelm Dominion and surrounded 3 forts the Dominion¡¯s invading force retreated into and instructed his generals to not even bother capturing the enemy forts, and upon his instruction, barrels of oil were catapulted at the enemy forts, both on the walls and inside the walls.

    This was quickly followed by groups of war mages group-casting siege-tier fire spells and archers firing flaming arrows at the forts, naturally, the oil that was splattered all over the forts caught fire and the Dominion¡¯s forts turned into an inferno. Any who tried to escape or surrender, be they peasant or noble were put to the sword.

    The Royal Army only retreated after the bulk of the Dominion¡¯s army came to defend their border.

    All in all, the whole conflict from the assassinations till now took around 7 months, and the only reason a cease-fire was called was because winter was coming. And nobody except the barbarians up north were crazy enough to fight in winter.

    The moment the cease-fire was called, Dad and his men were cycled out for fresh troops to man the fort, and he came home to his loving family. When he showed up at the door, Dad sported some serious bags under his eyes and had a few new scars added to his body which he proudly showed off to the family as he regaled us of his battles to hold the fort.

    Apparently, the new scars were doing something for Mum because she kept on touching them and giving Dad intense looks when her parents were not around and when she thought me and my sister were not looking.

    With the predatory look Mum is giving Dad, I think I may have a new sibling soon.

 Chapter 29

    After returning home, it took Dad a week to catch up with administrative work that only he, as lord of the county, could authorize. Wanting to get his admin work over and done with, he was stuck in his study from morning to night with his scribes, the only time we saw him was during mealtime.

    And every time we see him, he has dead eyes as he complains to us that he would rather be back at the fort fending off the enemies of the kingdom than battling against the evil forces of bureaucracy.

    While Dad was recovering, Mum was not helping his situation by being¡­ overly active¡­ at night. How do I know this? Well, let''s just say Mum is a screamer and there is only so much soundproofing can do.

    One time when I was playing with Charlotte, I even had to make up an explanation on the spot when she asked me ¡°Big Brother, are mommy and daddy¡¯s ok? Mommy seems to be angry at Daddy and screams at him at night.¡±

    The question made me cough to clear the saliva that went down the wrong pipe, and the maid on duty softly chuckled while blushing, but before the maid could step in to explain, I replied ¡°Dad must just be showing off his fighting moves to mum, and Mum is just cheering Dad on.¡±

    Hearing that, I could see the maid¡¯s clenched lips as she was trying very hard to hold in her laughter, it did not help that Charlotte had a deep and serious face of contemplation before coming up with a conclusion, ¡°Is that why mommy is so happy in the morning and daddy is so tired because he stayed up to show off? That''s not fair I also want to see Daddy show off his fighting moves!¡±

    At this point, even I was trying to hold back my laughter as I told Charlotte that Dad¡¯s fighting moves are very dangerous and she will need to find someone around her age to show her fighting moves when she grows up.

    When Charlotte replied, ¡°We are around the same age, can you show me fighting moves?¡± I sputtered and tried to change the subject while the maid excused herself to the hallway to laugh.

    Father, I salute your sacrifice of sleep to make Mum happy, but please, for the love of all that is holy and wholesome, someone please have ¡®The Talk¡¯ with Charlotte.

    ***

    After Dad heard the news of me finally turning off my own aura he got excited to teach me and set a date a few days later so I could activate my aura with his supervision, in the meantime, it was back to more magic training.

    In the months after I recovered from muscle fatigue and Dad was defending the fort, I was far from idle. As promised, Mum started teaching me the basics of 1st circle spells, which I soon found out was not that hard¡­ at least for me.

    Turns out, 1st circle spells are just the unlocked version of 0th circle spells. They could now travel as far as the user¡¯s willpower could carry it, but the element rune in the sequence of runes was still counted as a ¡®lesser elemental rune¡¯, which was mostly non-lethal. Not to say it could not kill a weakened opponent¡­ like a rat or rabbit, but they were non-lethal to anything bigger than the size of a small dog.

    The 1st circle spells I learned were of the 6 elements. Earth, water, wind, fire, light, and darkness. I have no idea how light and dark count as elements, but when people use magic, they are using the concept of it, sooooo¡­ yeaaah, let¡¯s go with that for now, I will figure all that out later when I am more versed with this branch of magic.

    As for what the 1st circle of magic can do, for earth, water, wind, and fire, it is mainly shooting bolts of elementally attributed to mana around. When shooting the earth element, a pebble of pseudo-stone gets launched, and when it hits the target, the pseudo-stone construct shatters, Mum cast it at my hand as lightly as she could, and let me tell you, it hurts like catching a very fast baseball barehanded, if it hits someone on the head, it would be a bad booboo.

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    Water was mainly the same as earth but not as painful, it is cold though.

    As for wind at 1st circle, it did basically no damage, but it was a lot easier to control gusts of wind to push things around.

    Fire was, well¡­ fire. I could shoot it like I do earth and water. Upon impact, it would leave a light scorch mark and I found out the hard way that it was very easy for a stray shot to set a pile of dry leaves on fire. Mum scolded me for almost burning down the backyard, luckily she was there to put out the flames.

    As for the last 2 elements, light and darkness, they were just as their name advertised. 1st circle light was just conjuring a ball of light to illuminate the area. Darkness, on the other hand, was concealment, I could shroud myself in darkness to blend into dim areas.

    After learning all the 1st circle spells, I was rather disappointed. Even my own molecular magic was way better than this. But there were positives, even if I reproduced 1st circle magic with molecular magic, 1st circle magic cost a lot less mana and it was basically impossible to hurt myself while using circle magic, because in the end, the elemental attributed mana I was throwing around was ultimately my own mana, if I cast any of the 1st circle spells at myself, they would just phase through me, and at this point, I am proficient enough to cast the runes mentally as fast as I cast molecular magic.

    When I proved to Mum that I was able to cast 1st circle magic fast and accurately without chants or hand gestures, I was immediately moved on to 2nd circle magic.

    2nd circle magic was pretty much the same as 1st circle, but this was where things got lethal. In 1st circle spells, the only way to adjust the strength of the spell was to force more mana into the element and power control rune at the risk of the spell collapsing.

    In 2nd circle magic, I was introduced to amplifier and stabilizer runes. With these runes, the earth I cast could become bigger and harder, water turned into ice shards and I could freeze water if I pump enough mana into it, my gusts of wind became air bullets that hit like a punch and I could somehow use air element to generate lightning, fire could become¡­ hotter fire and I could do a short range flamethrower.

    As for light and darkness magic, it was a bit weird. The moment light magic hit 2nd circle was when I learned about healing magic, it was just a basic spell to speed up the body¡¯s metabolism and recovery to heal small cuts and bruises.

    This got me excited to be able to heal deep gashes like Grandpa did for me and Mum, but Mum quickly shot that down and explained that to become a true healer took specialized training. At Grandpa¡¯s level, it was counted as just dabbling in the subject. A truly specialized healer could cure diseases and even regrow lost limbs, and while I was amazed Mum left me with a grim warning.

    ¡°If you ever encounter a specialized healer, never ever fight them in melee. They are masters of the body, and all it takes is 1 touch to stop your organs, permanently disfigure you, or even paralyze you. They are monsters that are on a very tight leash in every country, if you ever encounter one, run as fast as you can.¡± Mum warned and I nodded my head furiously while imagining the horror of my own body turning against me with a slight touch.

    As for darkness magic, at 2nd circle magic, I learned the spell to manipulate shadows. Now instead of just shrouding myself to blend into dim areas, I could now also shroud a small area and create shadow silhouettes to use them for misdirection, which also seems to have great potential for some horror movie style shenanigans where fleeting shadows come and go at the corner of the protagonist¡¯s vision, or around corners.

    It took a while to practice with the 2nd circle spells to get used to the feel of balancing the amplifier and stabilizer in the rune sequence, but I eventually managed to get to where I could mentally cast within 3 months.

    When I moved on to 3rd circle magic, Mum warned me this was where things got hard and where the vast majority of mages could no longer cast spells through pure mental casting. When looking back on what I learned in the last 2 circles of magic, I thought to myself, ¡®I breezed through the 1st and 2nd circles, how hard could the 3rd be.¡¯ I was right and wrong at the same time.

 Chapter 30

    Even after a few months of starting on 3rd circle spells, I am still not able to cast it with just my mind like Mum and grandparents yet, and now that Dad is back and going to train with me, it is going to eat into my practice time for 3rd circle spells.

    It is not that I am having trouble casting 3rd circle spells, far from it, even with the increased complexity, I had no issue memorizing the increased number of rune and their sequence.

    The issue as it turns out to be my mana manipulation. Not that I am doing it wrong, the issue was my mana manipulation was not developed enough. Apparently, all the demonstrations and practice that I have been doing were just the basic level of mana manipulation.

    And basic mana manipulation was not cutting it to mentally upkeep the increased number of runes along with their complexities. So for me to successfully cast 3rd circle spells, I needed to use my basic mana manipulation along with chanting and hand gestures to upkeep the runes while casting.

    Seeing my own shortcomings and bringing it up with Mum. she then informed me on the levels of mana manipulation, which were Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. I asked what the differences were but Mum brushed off my question, and not to think about it for now, and agreed to teach me Intermediate Mana Manipulation. After testing me on my mastery of Basic Mana Manipulation and being satisfied with the results, started drilling me on the subject.

    Where once I was satisfied forming a solid square shape with mana manipulation, now I had to form a cube, now all my mana manipulation had increased a dimension, from 2D to 3D. Triangles now had to be pyramids and circles had to be perfectly round spheres.

    After the first day of failing miserably, I asked Mum what 3D shapes had to do with Intermediate Mana Manipulation, and she explained it as such.

    ¡°While the circle construct that contains the spell can easily contain the runes for 1st and 2nd circle spells, the number of runes used in a 3rd circle spell is pushing it for the circle construct. That is why with just basic mana manipulation, you were forced to supplement the spell with chants and hand gestures to keep the circle construct from collapsing.

    In the case you want to do pure mental casting for 3rd circle magic, Intermediate Mana Manipulation is a must. The reason you need to practice all these 3D shapes is that from 3rd circle spells and up, you will need to learn how to overlap multiple magic circle constructs with different runes, and the better you master your mana manipulation, the easier time you will have casting, and it will pay dividends the higher you go.

    You do not know how many mages do not bother training their mana manipulation beyond basic or the beginning of intermediate. They rather boast about how many powerful spells they have learned and supplement their shortcomings with foci tools and arrays, those are expansive, they will need to carry around more stuff and they will still cast slower than a mage proficient in mana manipulation.¡±

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    After that, Mum then started bitching about her academy days where other noble kids from richer and more affluent houses would flaunt the newest foci tools from famous artificers, while Grandpa, like strict Asian parents not letting their children use calculators in my old life while I was at my friends¡¯ house, did not allow Mum to use any foci tools and drilled Mum on mana manipulation as my previous Mum drilled me in my multiplication table¡­ the horror.

    But like Mum said, being proficient in mana manipulation paid dividends, and now unlike her lazier former classmates, she can now cast up to 3rd circle spells with but a thought and even cut short her casting time on 4th circle spells.

    All of this brings us to now, at the end of the last day where I can purely practice Intermediate Mana Manipulation before my magic training time is cut short due to my starting aura training with Dad.

    My practice with Intermediate Mana Manipulation has done wonders in improving the speed and power of my molecular magic, but compared to the examples shown to me by Mum and my grandparents, all the 3D shapes I produce are either, fuzzy, wobbly, or misshapen. It takes quite a lot of brain power to concentrate on all the faces of the 3D object I am conjuring.

    I have been at this practice for months and I still have not mastered Intermediate Mana Manipulation. Which is rather disappointing.

    Apparently, Mum notices me sulking and comes over to hug me, ¡°What¡¯s the matter sweety? Why so glum?¡±

    It is at times like this that I feel comfortable reverting back to a child-like state and confiding my problems with Mum. I returned her hug and told her about my difficulty with Intermediate Mana Manipulation and my disappointment in myself for taking so long in my attempt to master it.

    After hearing me out, she scoffs at my worries, ¡°Silly child, do you even know what age other children start learning Intermediate Mana Manipulation? They start at around 15 years old, that is 4th year of the academys¡¯ higher education, and Intermediate Mana Manipulation is counted as an optional subject. The fact that you already mastered Basic Mana Manipulation before your 4th birthday already makes you a genius, but don''t let that get to your head, talent without practice is wasted potential.¡±

    Ahh¡­ schooling¡­ again. Well, besides university in my old world, I have not experienced school life due to being home-schooled, who knows, could be fun. When I turn 8 in a few years, due to my family¡¯s noble status, I will be sent to the Royal Academy in the capital for 4 years of lower education and 4 years of higher education.

    From what I am told, it is not a rule, but nobles are obligated to send their children to the capital¡¯s Royal Academy, which, unlike the other 5 academies in the country, the Royal Academy is apparently some Ivy League level shit where nobles and rich families send their kids.

    I sure hope they are not a bunch of insufferable pricks like I always read in isekai stories back in my old world, who knows, I only have my family for reference and the way they interact with everyone, even the servants, seems pretty chill.

    Mum buries me in her bosom and continues, ¡°Do not be so hard on yourself, I know these past few years have been hard for you, but you are still a child and as a child, you should be playing. So how about when Dad is satisfied you can control your aura properly, we bring you into town for the first time.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± I said in a muffled tone into Mum¡¯s cleavage.

    My first time out of the estate, I will finally get to see the wider world!

    I will need to put on my big boy pants and give my aura training 200% effort to get this over and done with.

 Chapter 31

    The next day after breakfast, Dad said ¡°Luke, in an hour, meet me at the training ground with your training sword and wear something comfortable.¡±

    ¡°Ok Dad.¡± I replied excitedly to Dad who had a small smile on his face, but for some reason, Mum did not seem all that happy and looked at me with slight worry.

    Is it because I may hurt myself with aura again? I tried to reassure Mum that I would be fine ¡°It¡¯s fine Mum, Dad is here in case anything goes wrong, I may not have turned on my aura since that day, but I am pretty confident I will be able to control it.¡±

    Mum just nods while giving me a forced smile and says ¡°I know dear, I will be watching.¡±

    ***

    An hour later, I met Dad at the training ground, and sitting on the bench in the shade were Mum, my sister Charlotte, and my childhood friend Emma who insisted on training to be a maid while taking care of me after my run-in with the assassins and she was looking super cute in a traditional maid dress.

    While Mum was sitting there looking worried, Charlotte and Emma were sitting beside her swinging their legs and sipping juice.

    When I turned to Dad, I asked, ¡°So what are we going to do first? Do I turn on my aura now?¡±

    Dad just shook his head, ¡°No, we will not be doing that today, the first thing we are going to do is find out your body¡¯s condition. Today, you will exercise until exhaustion to see your limits, only then will I determine if it is safe to activate your aura or not.¡±

    Ohhh shit¡­ I can remember when I started doing "to point of exhaustion" exercise routine when my old co-workers introduced me to their gym and invited me to join him in doing reps, I foolishly obliged them because I did not want to come off as antisocial. After I was done with the gym session that day, my everything ached and the morning after was worse.

    This was the same guy who introduced me to Historical Medieval Battles, so in the end, I followed his insane routine and got used to it. But now, I was going to start again in a new and much younger, this is going to suck big time.

    Dad continued, ¡°While we are training, I am not your father, I will be tough on you, and you will not like it. While we are training, your only response will be ¡®Yes or No Instructor¡¯, do I make myself clear!¡±

    The change in atmosphere and intent coming from my Dad makes my ass pucker and my body straighten up, ¡°Yes Instructor!¡± I replied to my dad promptly, I knew where this was going, he being an army man usually has a low tolerance for lip or mouthing off. The other reason I snapped to attention promptly is because I want to make my dad proud.

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    ¡°Good, First, you are going to do some running.¡± Dad took out an hourglass and ¡°We will start off with a 10 minute run around the training ground, start off slow, GO!¡±

    I took off at a slow jog and Dad turned his hourglass. After what felt like a minute, Dad called for me to sprint at full speed, and a minute after that it was back to jogging. By the third set, I was utterly winded and barely trudging along, my jog became the speed of a fast walk, and my sprinting was just barely faster than my jogging.

    My lungs were burning and my legs were aching as Dad shouted me onward. Every now and then Dad slipped into drill sergeant mode and vulgarities almost spilled out of his mouth, the only thing that made him catch those words was the killing intent flaring out from Mum who was watching like a hawk.

    When the cardio torture ended, I was about to collapse on the ground but Dad stopped me and told me to walk around while breathing deeply.

    When Dad saw that my breath was almost back to normal, he announced my next exercise, ¡°Your next exercise is sword strikes, you remember what I taught you about the basic sword forms right?¡± too tired to sound off, I nodded in the affirmative.

    How could I forget these ¡°Basic Sword Forms¡±, they were so basic a child could follow¡­ ok maybe not, I have an unfair advantage.

    Dad brought me in front of a solid steel cross the size of a man that was covered in burlap and stuffed with straw, ¡°You will strike this dummy until I say stop, begin!¡±

    I got into a proper stance and started slashing at the training dummy with ease, after a few strikes, Dad stopped me and came over with a practice sword, ¡°That wooden sword I gave you as a present may be your size but it was made to be played with, after seeing your strikes, I know you can handle a real practice sword.¡±

    Dad compared the length of my current wooden sword with the real practice sword in his hand, then Dad¡¯s aura flared, and used a knife hand to chop the real practice sword down to a more appropriate length for me, ¡°Use this and continue.¡±

    I hefted the sword and felt its weight, this was some heavy and dense wood, I continued striking the dummy. For the first minute, things felt fine, but after that, the added weight started exhausting my arms.

    While doing my strikes, Dad would tell me to switch between slashing and thrusting.

    As I slowed down, Dad would shout at me to strike harder and faster whenever he saw me slow down. Eventually, I could not raise my sword. That was when he only gave me a minute break before sending me on a running interval training again.

    After 2 more sets of running intervals and sword strikes, I was dead on my feet, and from the increased killing intent blasting out from Mum towards dad made sure he stopped. I swear, the look on Mum¡¯s face looked like she was about to stomp over and wring Dad¡¯s neck.

    Mum asked Charlotte and Emma to help me back into the house and get me something to drink while she stayed behind to have a word with Dad.

    I would pray for your safety, Dad, but I am too damm tired. The moment the door closed behind me while Emma was supporting me, I could hear the muffled shouting of my irate mother.

    After chugging a couple of glasses of water, taking a bath, and a short lay down, the call for lunch was sounded and I came down to the dining table with Mum in a huffy mood refusing to look at Dad, and Dad looking dejected while picking at his food.

    Looks like Dad is going to be in the dog house for a while.

 Chapter 32

    AN: Hi Guys, sorry for the slow release, was busy clearing the back log of office work after coming back from getting COVID. Next few releases will be for Unto the Ages, I will only post Of Arms and Arcane somewhere in the middle of next week.

    The next day, even after a good night¡¯s rest, my body was still aching as I made my way to the dining area for breakfast.

    When my parents came for breakfast, Mum was glowing, while Dad looked haggard. Poor dad, Mum did not let him sleep last night, luckily I was too tired and fell asleep early.

    While me and my grandparents knew what happened last night to make my dad lose out on sleep, that being angry sex, Charlotte innocently and energetically greeted Mum and Dad.

    ¡°Good Morning Mummy! Good Morning Daddy!¡± Charlotte said while waving.

    ¡°Good morning sweetheart.¡± Mum replied with a smile while Dad replied with a groan of acknowledgment, which was swiftly followed by a swift hidden pinch from Mum.

    That pinch perked Dad right up and he greeted his daughter properly ¡°Good morning sweet peach.¡±

    ¡°Daddy, why are you so tired?¡± Charlotte asked, but instead of Dad answering, Mum who still had a pinch hold on Dad answered, ¡°Daddy is just tired from training with your big brother yesterday, Right Dear?¡± Mum said as she emphasized the ¡®Right Dear¡¯ to Dad while twisting the pinch.

    Being the wise man that he is, Dad readily agreed with whatever Mum said as they sat down for breakfast.

    After breakfast, Grandpa came along with me to the training ground to be on standby for healing. I met Dad at the training ground again but instead of the expected training, Dad was sitting cross-legged and asked me to join him.

    After sitting facing him, I asked, ¡°So what training are we doing today?¡±

    Dad simply shook his head, ¡°We will not be doing that training today, from yesterday¡¯s performance, you have demonstrated that your body¡¯s fitness is beyond anyone I have seen at your age, so I think your body is ready to safely attempt to train your aura.¡±

    My face brightens up with a smile, I will finally get to properly train my aura, and if I manage to have proper mastery of it, I no longer have to worry about my aura eating me alive.

    ¡°So how do we start?¡± I ask Dad excitedly.

    ¡°Well first things first, close your eyes and clear your mind.¡± Dad instructed and I readily obeyed.

    After a while of me taking a few calming breaths, he continued ¡°Do you remember the exercise I taught you last time when we were trying to deprive your aura of energy?¡± I nodded in response, ¡°Practice it now, shut off the supply of stamina energy, let your body feel weak, and then let the stamina energy refill your body again. Do it 10 times, let me know when you are done.¡±

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I did as instructed while pondering why the exercise to shut off my stamina energy did not work until I was forced to fully unleash my aura during the assassination attempt.

    My current untested theory is that when Dad injected his aura into my body to dispel my aura when I was a baby, it was like a complex machine was improperly shutdown, leaving a leak of stamina energy to supply the still burning aura, and the way it was fixed was me releasing my aura and using the exercise dad taught me to do a ¡°Proper Shutdown¡± of my supply of stamina energy.

    When I was done with the exercise of turning off my supply of stamina energy within my own body, Dad sat closer to me and put his index and middle finger to my chest, ¡°I am sure you know how to activate your aura, you may not remember it, but you did it as a baby. But just in case monitor the mana in my body.¡±

    Within Dad¡¯s body, a spark of mana ignited and what I know as his stamina energy flared into aura, after a few seconds, the vigorous flow was cut off and the aura was quickly brunt off.

    Dad asked if I saw all that and I acknowledged with a nod. ¡°Good, now it is your turn to try, after you ignite your aura, count to 5 and off it, if you don¡¯t off your aura by the count of 10 I will dispel your aura, and it will hurt.¡±

    I took a final deep breath and held it as I created the spark of aura and my stamina energy ignited. A familiar hot power flowed through my body, the euphoria of power almost made me forget to start the count, but luckily I quickly got my shit together and started mentally counting.

    After the count to 5, I released my held breath and took in another deep breath to perform the exercise to off the flow of stamina energy.

    By the count of 7, I felt the flow of stamina energy shut off and the aura in my body quickly burning out. The stamina energy remaining in my body was burnt through so quickly that I failed to catch myself and leaned into Dad¡¯s fingers touching the center of my chest.

    Only when I was confident all the aura in my body was exhausted did I dare to let stamina energy refill my body.

    ¡°Well done son. Now it is time to practice. If you want to use aura effectively during combat, you will need to get the timing down. If you get the timing of releasing and shutting off your stamina energy, you will barely feel the weakness from having your body drained of its strength. So get to it, I will be here just in case.¡± Dad said as he nodded to Grandpa and Grandpa took his leave.

    ¡°So there is no other exercise today? I just need to get the timing of deactivating my aura?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes, that is the only training for today.¡± Dad replied.

    Well, easy day! All I need to do is sit on my butt and get the timing of flexing my internal muscles, EZ.

    Or so I thought.

    By the time lunch came around, I lying on the ground panting with a stomach growling with hunger. I did not do any strenuous activity, but the feeling of weakness that flows through me whenever I release my stamina energy too late piles up over the many attempts leaving me feeling lethargic. And if I release my stamina energy too early, the newly released stamina energy will come in contact with the aura still active in my body and ignite all over again.

    Seeing that I was too weak to move, Dad said, ¡°Alright, this looks like all the training we are getting done for now.¡± Dad slings me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and hands me over to the maids to get me washed up and ready for lunch.

    As the maids are carrying my lethargic body away, Dad gives me a final training instruction for the day, ¡°Do the same aura training before while you are in bed, it will help you fall asleep faster.¡±

    I could only groan in response. This training is more tiring than I thought, but I have to remind myself that this is all for my freedom to see the wider world without the fear of my aura going out of control.

 Chapter 33

    AN: I am back! I am finally done with time consuming parts of my office work and will be able to dedicate more time pumping out chapetrs.

    It took me a few weeks of night practice before bed, but I managed to get the timing to deactivate my aura without feeling the lethargic side effects of cutting off my stamina energy.

    In those weeks, my days were busy. I had to spread my time between Mum¡¯s and my personal magic studies, sword practice with Dad when he does his training, and playing with Charlotte, Emma, and her little brother Otto.

    All this so I could finally see the outside world, so I am sure my parents would understand why I was excited when I finally managed to turn on and off my aura 10 times in a row without the side effect of feeling lethargic. I was so excited that I did not wait for the coming morning to announce my success and barged into my parents¡¯ room as they were about to get frisky.

    I ignored their awkward fidgeting as they straightened out their night attire, ran to Dad¡¯s side, and said ¡°Dad! Dad! I managed to on and off my aura without getting tired in between 10 times in a row! I think I mastered it!¡±

    Dad¡¯s eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed my shoulders ¡°Truly? Show me.¡±

    So I demonstrated turning my aura on and off repeatedly until he told me to stop.

    Dad was silent for a while until I saw tears well up in his and Mum¡¯s eyes, then he scooped me up in a hug while saying ¡°My Boy! My son will finally get to live a normal life!¡± and before I knew it, I was sandwiched when mum joined the hug.

    After a while of hugging, my muffled voice sounded out, ¡°So does this mean I can see the town like you promised?¡±

    ¡°Of course! We will make it a family outing.¡± Dad said as he tugged at a string next to his bed to summon a servant.

    A few minutes later as I was questioning Dad on the finer points of aura control, there was a knock on the door, followed by Ironcrest¡¯s head butler Humphrey stepping through the already opened door, ¡°Good evening my lord. You called?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Humphrey, cancel all my appointments for tomorrow and ready the carriage for tomorrow morning after breakfast, it is going to be Luke¡¯s first time going into town, and we are going to make it into a family outing.¡± Dad said.

    Quickly picking up on the implications of me going out of the estate¡¯s walls for the first time, Humphrey asked, ¡°My lord¡­ Does this mean Young Master Luke has finally¡­¡±

    Dad gave Humphrey a nod to answer his unspoken inquiry. Humphrey just nodded and replied, ¡°It will be done, my lord. I will ask the chef to make something special for breakfast. If that is all, I bid you good night my Lord, my Lady, Young Master.¡± Humphrey said as he bowed out.

    The next morning, my success was announced at the dining table and my grandparents were invited to come along with us in this family outing.

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    ***

    As we rode into town, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting the town¡¯s sanitary conditions to be more in line with medieval Europe, where it was overcrowded and people were throwing waste in the street.

    I was only partially correct.

    While the town was densely populated, it was a lot cleaner than I expected it would be. When I asked about it, it turned out that when a sizable number of citizens had access to 0th-circle spells to do simple chores, it was a simple matter of having some people who wanted to earn some pocket change do a quick cleaning in every district.

    But that was just for cleaning litter and using a bit of wind and water magic to keep the place pristine. As for the more gross stuff like excrement and the large amounts of trash generated by the other districts, the town had dedicated and highly paid people for that.

    A few times a day, a bunch of large horse-drawn carts which are the equivalent of my previous world¡¯s garbage trucks would go through the town to do what garbage trucks do, the only difference is that they double up as sewage disposal. It is a dirty job but someone got to do it.

    When I asked about a sewage system, they told me that building a sewage system was very, very, very expensive. Especially if it is to be built after the town has already been built.

    Apparently, only the capital and bigger, richer cities have sewage systems, which is kind of sad, but I still have not given up on my dream of proper plumbing and one day sitting on a porcelain throne to do my business while contemplating the mysteries of the universe.

    As we go along, we soon come by the commercial district. On both sides of the road, there are shops, restaurants, bakeries, and food stands. Being the hungry and growing boy that I am, I ask for some pocket change from my parents to go buy some savory-smelling meat skewers.

    Mum was about to ask the butler accompanying us to buy it on my behalf, but I stopped Mum and gave her the biggest puppy eyes I could manage, ¡°Mum¡­ I want to experience buying things.¡±

    Why did I insist on making the purchase on my own? That is because I genuinely wanted to experience the local culture like I did in my previous world when my family moved to different countries.

    Mum was not able to withstand my Kawa¨© no Jutsu and relented, she stopped the carriage, passed me a small coin pouch, and signaled the butler to accompany me.

    When I walked up to the meat skewer stand with a butler in tow, the man behind the stand revealed a wide smile and said, ¡°Welcome m''lord, what can I get you?¡±

    ¡°Good morning mister, can I get a meat skewer?¡± I said as I gave the man a copper piece as per the price stated in the man¡¯s signage.

    ¡°Of course m¡¯lord.¡± the man said with an upbeat tone, but instead of passing me only 1 skewer, he passed me a 2nd skewer while saying, ¡°Here''s another for the little lady, it''s on the house.¡±

    I turned back to see Charlotte looking at me out of the carriage window, I thanked the man and made my way back to the carriage.

    When I got back in, I handed Charlotte a meat skewer and said, ¡°Here, this one is for you. The nice mister gave us an extra.¡±

    Charlotte took the skewer and nibbled on it like a small cute animal would. Upon her first taste of the meat whose scent seduced my nose, Charlotte¡¯s eyes lit up as she made her way to the window of the already moving carriage and stuck her head out.

    ¡°Thank you, mister, the food is very yummy.¡± Charlotte shouted to the meat skewer vendor while waving, and then she sat back down and started nibbling again.

    Seeing her nibble food in her hands instead of using cutlery like we were taught is way cuter.

    As I enjoy my own meat skewer while watching my sister enjoy hers, the outing through the town continues.

 Chapter 34

    As we made our way through the commercial district, we made a few more stops to check out a few shops. While me and my sister raided the snack stands and bakeries, Mum and Grandma got into the shopping mood and stopped off at a few clothes and jewelry stores themselves.

    This naturally meant that Dad and Grandpa were dragged along to be asked by their wives things like ¡°Does this look good on me?¡± or ¡°Does this make me look fat?¡±

    So while the husbands were being tortured by questions with no correct answers, the butler was chaperoning me and Charlotte around to toy and trinket stores.

    ¡°We should bring Emma and Otto with us next time.¡± Charlotte said as she was licking a lollipop and walking with me hand in hand.

    I agreed with her, but as much fun as it has been tasting the local treats, I have noticed something since exiting the carriage and going on foot. Everywhere I go, out of the corner of my vision where they think I am not looking, people seem to be whispering with their attention focused on me.

    I even checked if the focus was on me specifically by separating from my sister for a moment to check out a trinket at the window while keeping an eye out on my surroundings, and sure enough, nobody was focused on my sister.

    When I got back to my sister¡¯s side, I let Charlotte lead the way while I slowed my speed to match steps beside the butler and whispered to him, ¡°Why are so many people focused on me and whispering?¡±

    The butler whose name is Digby nodded and said ¡°Very astute of you Young Master, as expected of a talent such as yourself. To answer your question, I must inform you of the rumors and gossip going on about you. Besides a few outrageous and ridiculous ones, the main speculation the citizens of the town have about you is that you were born sickly and were restricted to the mansion, and now that everyone sees you for the first time traveling with your family and calling Lady Charlotte, sister, people are wondering if their speculations were correct or not.¡±

    I nodded and thought about it for a while before saying, ¡°I get that people are curious, but this is rather uncomfortable having whispers behind my back.¡±

    ¡°I understand Young Master, but it can¡¯t really be helped, from their point of view your situation is a weird one. Usually, there will be gossip from the servants of the mansion, but due to your situation and the confidentiality agreements we signed, information about you has been restricted.

    As for all this whispering behind your back, I am afraid that is something you will have to get used to, especially when you enter into noble society in the future, which will be much worse, potentially career-ending. So don¡¯t worry about the whispers, you just need to show your face around more often for the people to get used to you.¡± Digby said as we trailed behind Charlotte.

    After visiting a few more stores, Mum and Grandma satisfied their shopping impulse and loaded half the carriage¡¯s storage compartment, Charlotte and I were called back to the carriage and we made our way to the next district.

    The industrial district.

    The moment we entered the industrial district, the noise of vendors promoting their wares and people bargaining prices, was replaced by the sound of¡­ well, industry. There were the sounds of hammers beating metal, wood being sawed, and commands being shouted to coordinate with each other.

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    As we rode down the street, I was told of the different crafting professions available in the town. First and most noticeable were the blacksmith shops, there were quite a number of them when compared to other workshops, Dad explained it was so because we were one of the towns closest to the border, so we provided weapons and armor to a few nearby forts.

    I got out of the carriage to see how the blacksmiths worked, it was 1 thing to watch videos online of people forging things, but seeing it in real life felt a lot more engaging and impactful. Soon after I started watching, a big burly man came out of the smithy while wiping his hands of soot and asked, ¡°Can I help you with something young sir?¡±

    I wanted to ask the blacksmith if I could give it a try, but I could see the rest of the blacksmiths were uncomfortable with my presence, and even if he obliged my request, it would take quite some time and keep the rest of my family waiting.

    I told the man I was interested in their work and was just taking a look, I thanked the man for his time and went back to the carriage.

    I could see they did not want me around while they worked, being observed by some noble kid with his parents nearby can be unnerving for normal people.

    The next thing I was interested in was the alchemy shop, they work with magical and natural ingredients to create potions, elixirs, and substances with various effects.

    When I entered the alchemy shop, I was greeted by the tinkle of a bell on top of the shop¡¯s door, as I looked around, there were some display cases and shelves stocked with small bottles behind the counter.

    The other thing that I noticed is that compared to the building, the alchemy shop¡¯s storefront was tiny, as I was wondering what the rest of the space was used for, my question was answered by the door behind the counter opening to reveal the rest of the alchemy workshop.

    After the door opened, the only thing I saw was the top of a wide-brimmed hat, which was soon followed by hearing footsteps and the wide-brimmed hat moving along the counter. Soon I saw the head the wide-brimmed hat was resting on as a middle-aged woman popped over the counter and took a look at me and Digby.

    ¡°What can I get you, kid?¡± the woman asked.

    Before Digby could correct the woman on the honorifics to use to address me, I asked the woman whom I recognized from my studies as a gnome, ¡°What potions do you sell?¡±

    The gnome woman smiled and pointed around the storefront while listing out her stock, ¡°We got healing potions, mana potions, stamina potions, resistance potions, antidotes, boosting elixirs, sleeping draught, and a few cures for minor ailments.¡±

    Hearing about healing and mana potions, I got excited and asked, ¡°Do healing potions heal injuries in an instant? How about mana potions? Do they instantly replenish mana after drinking?¡±

    The woman scoffed, ¡°Kid, don''t be taken in by those wild stories. Healing potions do not work like you are thinking, if you drink it, it will increase the rate of your body¡¯s regeneration, and also works to reduce bleeding when you pour it on the wound. As for the mana potion, it only increases the rate you regenerate mana.¡±

    That was disappointing, I bet if I isekaied into a world with an RPG system I would get instant recovery potions instead of this lame regeneration bullshit.

    The gnome woman did not seem to notice my disappointment and kept on describing the effects of the other potions.

    After she was done, I thanked her for the time, excused myself, and went back to the carriage.

    After the alchemy shop, we went by carpenter shops, jewelers, tailors, and tanners.

    I asked about the entertainment district, but my parents said that was for when I grew up.

    We rounded off the day with lunch at a restaurant and went back home.

    With all the things I have seen today, I was tempted to pick up a crafting profession for fun, but then I remembered my current commitment to my magic studies and aura training, I sighed and told myself, ¡®Maybe next time.¡¯

 Chapter 35

    The next day, Dad meets me at the training ground. And he gets me to do a few sets of basic sword swings and foot movement before we begin training.

    Once I was done with the warmup, I hopped to Dad and asked, ¡°So what are we doing first for aura training? Are we going to lift those rocks you showed me last time? Or try to outrun a horse?¡±

    Dad chuckled and shook his head, ¡°None of that. Your first aura lesson is to optimize your aura. By optimizing your aura, you will learn how to reduce or increase your aura output without wasting your stamina energy.¡±

    Wait a minute, is that not the same as me just closing off or reducing the flow of stamina energy? But I can already do that. Confused by Dad''s statement, I ask him as such.

    Dad nods and asks me to ignite my aura. After I do so, Dad ignites his own aura and walks up to me. ¡°Strech out your arm.¡±

    After I do so, Dad brings his arm up next to mine. The moment he did, the comparison was clear as day, while my translucent aura was wafting off my outstretched arm like it was on fire, Dad''s aura was a calm and smooth translucent layer.

    ¡°You see, son? All that aura wafting about is aura that is not doing anything and just burning away, that is stamina energy you are wasting, and the more you waste, the faster you get tired, and the faster you get tired the less training we can do.¡± Dad explained.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you mean the faster I get tired, the more vulnerable I am to an enemy?¡± I asked.

    Dad scoffed, ¡°Son, you are not at the level to worry about that yet. Having an optimized aura is the foundation of a powerful aura practitioner. Wasting too much stamina energy when you don¡¯t need it and you will get tired quickly, feed too little stamina energy to your aura and you will be overpowered by an opponent with better control than you. Now look at my arm.¡±

    The aura on Dad''s outstretched arm suddenly lost its calm and smooth layer and his whole body wafts with a huge translucent flame, when I compare our auras, Dad''s aura is like a campfire compared to my candle of an aura.

    ¡°This is me without optimizing my aura, basically what you are doing now. Most of the third-rate aura practitioners you will see next time will have an aura like this.¡± Then I felt Dad doing something with mana and then the previously wafting aura compressed down to make it look like Dad was trapped in water within zero gravity but followed his body¡¯s outline.

    ¡°This is aura optimizing done purely with mana manipulation. Most of the mages who practice aura stick with this method, while it does reduce stamina energy usage by quite a fair bit compared to not even optimizing it, most mages say they rather use their concentration on their spells and will only use this technique for running away in the case they are attacked.¡±

    ¡°Lastly,¡± Dad''s aura calmed and settled close to his skin in a smooth layer. ¡°This level of optimization is using stamina energy manipulation, and I will tell you now, it is very hard to do. What you see me do with my aura now is just the basic level of stamina energy manipulation, I have yet to advance further. Unlike mana, stamina was extremely hard to control, that is why we ignite it with mana so we can control our aura. First-rate aura practitioners and above have aura that looks like mine.¡±

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    I raise my hand to stop Dad, ¡°Wait, so if we ignite our stamina energy with mana and control our aura with mana manipulation, why can¡¯t we just optimize it with mana manipulation?¡±

    I exert my will of mana manipulation on the aura in and around my body, I try to bring it all in as close to my body as possible, I noticed the aura around my arm looks the same as the demonstration Dad showed me when optimizing aura with pure mana manipulation. I could get it closer to my body compared to Dad''s demonstration, but no matter how I tried, I could not get it as close or as smooth and calm as when Dad is using stamina energy manipulation to optimize his aura.

    Dad just silently watched me until I gave up and said, ¡°As you yourself have tried, mana manipulation can only take you so far, I have seen mages capable of Advanced Mana Manipulation trying and failing to replicate the results of stamina energy manipulation on aura, because, in the end, the base of aura is stamina energy, igniting it with mana is only to assist in controlling aura. Mana is passive and easy to manipulate, stamina is wild, it is what gives you and me strength and life, it does what it wants, controlling stamina energy takes great willpower and concentration, but in the long run, I promise you it is worth it¡±

    I thought about it for a while and nodded my head. If I am going to practice aura, I can¡¯t have people disrespecting me and saying I am some third-rate scrub, I have got to, as the saying goes, ¡®Git Gud¡¯

    ¡°So how do we get started?¡± I ask Dad.

    The only reply I got was a creepy smile. I have a bad feeling about this.

    ***

    Stupid training¡­ stupid weights¡­

    I felt my leg muscles burning from the shit load of running I just did, my arms are noodles from all the pushups I did and the weights I lifted, and my core is in agony every time I twist my midsection.

    Why am I in such a sorry state you might ask¡­ well, apparently the best time to feel the stamina energy truly interacting with my body is when the body''s muscles are exhausted. So now that I am truly knackered, now is the time for the second part of the exercise.

    I lie down and shut off the supply of stamina energy from the rest of my body. If I normally feel lethargic after cutting off stamina energy from the rest of my body, this time I almost blacked out immediately if not for Dad shaking and prodding me to keep me awake.

    After I centered my swimming vision, Dad instructed me to release stamina energy onto my body and concentrate on how it flows into every fiber of muscle and every organ. As I opened the floodgate of stamina energy, I felt strength flow back into my energy-starved muscles.

    My next set of instructions from Dad was vague as hell, ¡°You felt the flow right? Now do it again, and use your willpower to seize control of that stamina flow.¡±

    As I tried and failed a few times, I suddenly woke up with a snort in the bath while my personal maid Alice washing me, ¡°Oh, Young Master, you are finally awake.¡±

    Confused, I just answered ¡°Errr¡­ Yes? What am I doing in the bath, I was just training.¡±

    Alice giggled and said, ¡°Ah, yes, from what I know, your father said you fell asleep while training.¡±

    Huh¡­ well, every time I shut off my stamina energy I do become lethargic, I guess I really fell asleep during one of the reps. Dammit, why must becoming first-rate be so hard?!

 Chapter 36

    Time goes by and I am just a few months away from turning 5 years old, and much has changed. It seemed like all the ¡°attention¡± Mum showed Dad after coming back from the war had paid off, and I now have a new sibling.

    A bouncing baby boy named Cedric has been added to the family!

    But wait, there''s more, friend and wet nurse of the Ironcrest family, Anna, gave birth to another girl named Heidi just a month before Cedric, and during those months of pregnancy, I thank whatever Gods brought me to this world that I was not in the shoes of the husbands of 2 women who became pregnant buddies.

    If 1 pregnant woman having a mood swing was bad, having 2 of them together was worse, it just took 1 of them to have a mood swing to trigger the other. During those 9 months, it was almost a full-time job for Dad and Klaus to placate their wives.

    ***

    Between the time I started training aura with Dad and now, I have improved my magic by quite a fair bit, I am still stuck at 3rd circle spells, but I managed to improve my mana manipulation to the point that I can cast 3rd circle spells without hand gestures, and just use chanting and mental power.

    Training in Intermediate Mana Manipulation has also done wonders for my molecular magic. Where once I could only do gusts of wind and wind blades, now I can create a small localized tornado of wind blades. I tried using air molecular magic to fly, but have yet to get it right and always fall after getting a foot off the ground, and it takes a tremendous amount of mana to just get myself off the ground. Small steps Luke, one day¡­ one day.

    For water molecular magic, where I was once just shooting blobs of water and shards of ice, I can now shoot highly pressurized water that can cut through wooden logs (R.I.P Sir Stumpy VIII), and create ice constructs. The downside of water molecular magic is that it is dependent on environmental resources, if there is no water in the area, the only thing I can do with water molecular magic is cool down the ambient temperature around me.

    For earth molecular magic, where once I could only shoot pebbles, shift the earth''s surface, and make earth spikes shoot up from the ground. Now my earth molecular magic has taken a more utilitarian role, sure, I can shoot bigger rocks and make bigger spikes, but I eventually learned to make earth constructs like walls, pits, pillars, or even rough statues. Another thing I learned is a variation of shifting the earth''s surface, it started by shifting myself along the dirt without taking a single step, and after more experimentation, it turned into me skating along the ground like I was on a frozen lake.

    As for fire molecular magic, besides making the fire I shoot out bigger and more concentrated, I found little application for it besides maybe adjusting the temperature for cooking, but I could not test that theory because the kitchen was always occupied. The only other application was heating up metal, when I tried it on a small piece of scrap metal, it turned out I could double as a walking induction heater, it took quite a chunk of mana but I managed to get the metal hot enough to turn bright red.

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    Lastly, after tinkering around with molecular magic and trying to remember all my science lessons, I finally managed to create lightning with molecular magic, and it was fucking dope and scary at the same time. I managed to ionize air and water molecules in my surroundings to create an electric charge, and when I released the electric charge, the majority of the charge managed to hit my target (R.I.P Sir Stumpy XII), but a small bit of the electric charge also jumped to me upon release, I had a minor burn on my finger and the shock that ran down my body hurt like a motherfucker. Eventually, I learned to control it well enough to not shock myself, but it did not make it any less scary.

    Now, one might ask, ¡°But Luke, how have you done all this without anyone noticing?¡± and my answer would be that they knew something was up from when I was throwing around wind blades during the assassination attempt.

    After my interview with the Royal Constable was done, the more magically inclined members of the family started grilling me on how I was throwing around wind blades which should only be seen when I was capable of 3rd circle spells.

    Naturally, I played dumb. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to explain to them the theory of molecular particles, I instead explained by saying, ¡°I used mana manipulation to grab the wind and throw it at the bad guys.¡± pushing me for any more information results in me shrugging and saying that I just felt I could do it.

    After watching me demonstrate my molecular magic multiple times, and trying and failing to imitate it, Grandpa said that my molecular magic was similar to the Instinctive magic used by Magic Beasts, and after a discussion among the adults, they forbade me from practicing my molecular magic anywhere in the mansion or out in the open, if I wanted to practice molecular magic, I had to go into the woods connected to the backyard.

    Apparently, every magic tower on the continent might even go to war to try to get me and experiment on me if they learned I am capable of Instinctive magic. Mages throughout history have been trying to unlock the secrets of Instinctive magic, but so far, all have either failed or are keeping it secret from everyone.

    For security''s sake, we cordoned off a section of the woods large enough for me to train, and Grandma setup multiple detection arrays around the cordon-off area and linked them to a simple bracelet with a lowgrade mana crystal embedded in it just powerful enough to maintain the link to the arrays. If anyone goes past the arrays, the bracelet will heat up until it becomes uncomfortably warm.

    It was during the setup of the arrays that Grandma introduced me to the basics of creating magic arrays. It turns out that magic arrays are one of the few fields of magic that does not need the person setting the array to be able to use magic. All they need to know is how to structure an array and just power it with mana crystals.

    After asking Grandma more about arrays, she told me that some of the greatest Array Architects in history could not produce a lick of magic, and all I needed to be a successful Array Architects was a good grasp of Runes, geometry, and math. At the end of her explanation, Grandma looked at me, and I could practically see gold coins in her eyes, ¡°Luke, if you want to get some real gold, become an Array Architect like Grandma, there is no shortage of rich merchants and nobles who would shower you in gold to setup arrays for their security.¡± Grandma said while rubbing her fingers together.

    As I pondered her words, it did not sound like a bad idea. I will look into arrays when I have more time, then I will slap down some 21st-century math knowledge and see what comes of it.

 Chapter 37

    In those months, magic was not the only thing on my agenda, ever since I showed interest in taking my aura train seriously, Dad gave me a slap on my back with a look of pride on his face, and then he proceeded to take over my diet and training schedule. He even got into a shouting match with Mum and her parents about time allocation for his training.

    As they were arguing, I noticed the time in their schedule did not include much personal free time, this forced me to join the argument to fight for free time. By the end of everything, I managed to get 1 free day for myself.

    So once the schedule was written up, Dad wasted no time and started on my training, ¡°Ok son, we only have 3 days a week for our training, so here''s the plan, 2 days of physical training and 1 day of stamina manipulation training.¡±

    Hearing this, I scratch my head, ¡°Err¡­ what is the difference between physical training and stamina manipulation training? They are both physical training.¡±

    Dad nodded and said, ¡°Yes, in a way, I suppose they are, but here is the difference, during stamina manipulation training, you will exercise hard and fast to the point of exhaustion so you can better feel stamina energy flowing through your body, eventually when you manage to get a hold of your stamina energy, you will not need to exercise to exhaustion. As for your twice-a-week physical training, it will be less intense but spread throughout the day.¡±

    ¡°So what are we doing today?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Physical training, follow me, and do as I do.¡± Dad said as he started doing a slow jog around the training area, this soon escalated to running, and then full-on sprinting, after a few rounds of alternating between speed levels, we stopped the cardio exercise and moved on to other exercises.

    And like that, we cycled the training between high-intensity interval training, strength training, and balance flexibility training.

    During one of the breaks between training, I asked Dad while panting, ¡°Dad, I know having a strong body is important, but isn''t this a bit extreme? Could this effort not be better used for aura training?¡±

    Dad nodded, ¡°It is true that this training is hard and you could be training your stamina energy manipulation, but a strong body is another component of a first-rate aura practitioner. You can do stamina energy manipulation training a lot longer next time if you build up your body now while you are still young. And time is up, let''s start our next set!¡±

    I groan as I get to my feet and follow.

    During physical training days, my breakfast and lunch are stacked high with meats, carbs, and vegetables, for dinner, it is only meats and vegetables. As for the days I am doing aura-optimizing training, it is meats, carbs, and vegetables for breakfast, and only meats and vegetables for the rest of the day.

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    Naturally, sugar has been restricted from my diet, the only time I get some sugar is on my free day when sometimes I go into town and raid the local bakery.

    After some time, my physical training started to include sparring with Dad. At first, I started off using the basic forms that he taught me, but after I got comfortable with the rhythm of the spar, I started slowly incorporating the fighting techniques I learned during my past life.

    As my spars with Dad carried on from session to session, and I added in other techniques, I would occasionally see Dad¡¯s eyes widen in surprise as I pulled off feints or struck from unexpected angles, but even after pulling off all the fighting techniques I know of, reality denies me any hit on my dad.

    At the end of the day, compared to my child''s body, Dad is bigger, faster, stronger, has more reach and life and death experience behind him, and somehow can tell which of my strikes are feints.

    When I asked Dad how he could tell apart my feints from real strikes, he said, ¡°When you get more life and death experiences under your belt, you will be able to feel your opponent¡¯s intent, and at very high levels, fighters can strike without even showing intent, those are the truly dangerous people, the kind of people who live on the battlefield, or mad men without emotions.¡±

    Note to self, stay away from battle junkies and psychopaths with pointy sticks.

    ***

    Six months into stamina manipulation training, I finally got the barest of holds on my stamina energy, I quickly activated my aura, and when I tried to do as Dad instructed me to wrangle my aura, the sharp tongues of wafting translucent aura flames exuded from my body started to get rounder and closer to my body, but the closer the aura got to my body, the greater the pull of my stamina energy trying to break free.

    As I brought the aura flames quarter ways down to my body, the stamina energy in my grip thrashed and broke my hold on it, and along with my hold, went the feeling I got for grasping the stamina energy, and that meant I had to tire myself out and try again.

    Now that I was so close to grasping my stamina energy, Dad changed my 2 days of physical training to stamina manipulation training.

    After 2 weeks I finally managed to get the feel for my stamina energy and was able to manipulate my own stamina energy without needing to tire myself out. From that point forward my stamina manipulation training days all turned into physical training days and I will be practicing my aura optimization while I train.

    It was also from that point that all my training included an aura session of the same exercise I was doing, which also included my sparring session.

    During the sparring session, while using aura, I realized something. While all the techniques I brought over from my previous life were all well and good for keeping a superior opponent like my dad on his feet, they would only work on non-aura users. Now with aura added to the mix, most of my techniques are not as effective when an aura user can use superhuman abilities to attack from above and every clash can easily knock each other out of reach.

    I quickly realized I needed to rework all my techniques to work on anime-level fights.

 Chapter 38

    Time flies by in a blur of training, eating, more training, studying, eating, and last but not least training. Before I knew it, I was 6 years old. Apparently, this self-imposed regiment of training has made the adults worry about me.

    They did not want to discourage my hard work by asking me to stop training to go play, so they sent Charlotte and Emma to use their puppy eyes on me to get me away from training and go out on the town.

    The only reason I knew it was the adults who sent Charlotte and Emma at me was because I overheard them discussing their worries about my social life. They were afraid I was going to become some kind of training nut or a shut-in mage before I even became an adult.

    I have never been a parent, but I understand their feeling, even in my old life, I have heard of some cases of shut-ins who had been shut in for so long that they did not know how to function as a member of society. The other reason they want me to have some fun and spend some quality time with the family is because when I turn 8, I will be going to the Royal Academy and I will only be able to come back home during the mid and end-year breaks.

    So the moment I mastered 3rd circle magic to the point I could cast it via only mental casting, and I had a firm grasp on the basics of stamina energy manipulation for my aura, my training started to ramp down in intensity, and since I have proved to mum and dad that I knew my ¡°words and numbers¡± they let me off to have more free time.

    In my newly found free time, besides playing with my friends and helping them learn their words and numbers, Dad had also decided I was big enough to start learning horseback riding. Usually, this would be taught to me when I was older, but due to the growth spurt caused by years of my low-burning aura and adult servings of food, I was now tall enough to safely ride a horse.

    Unlike the war horses that Dad and his men ride on, my first horse was a gentle older mare named Misty. Misty is the stable master¡¯s first horse and is used to teach new riders and show younger horses the ropes of various tasks, so as she did for many riders before me, she is doing for me now. My only gripe is that she seems to be fond of munching on my hair if I stand anywhere near her or lead her around.

    After Dad was confident that I was competent enough to ride a horse, and after I had some time to recover from walking bow-legged from using muscles I never knew I had just for horseback riding. Dad asked me to follow him as he carried out his duties, basically a ¡°Bring your kid to work day¡±.

    My day of following Dad started not with adventure, but with paperwork. Fortunately, there were not many complaints or emergencies that warranted a lot of consideration, so me, dad, and his scribe were able to clear the day¡¯s paperwork within half an hour.

    After that, we mounted up and left the estate while accompanied by the same scribe who helped with the morning¡¯s paperwork and a few of Dad¡¯s men. We could have taken a carriage, but Dad wanted to put my newly learned riding skills to use.

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    We rode around town, did some inspections on the gates and walls, and eventually stopped off at the mayor¡¯s office and announced ourselves. Usually, it would be the mayor coming to report to Dad any news or happenings reported by the people, but since we were in the area, Dad decided on a personal visit.

    We were led to a waiting room by the mayor¡¯s secretary and served some tea and refreshments while we waited for the mayor to arrive. Soon, a portly man came through the door while greeting Dad, ¡°Welcome my Lord, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?¡±

    Dad stood up to shake the man¡¯s hand while saying, ¡°Drop the formalities Philip, we just dropped by because my son just learned how to ride a horse and I was using it as an excuse to bring him on a ride around town.¡±

    ¡°So, this is the young master Luke I heard so much about. Nice to meet you, young man.¡± Philip said as he turned to me and offered a handshake.

    After giving the man a handshake, he offered us to take a seat and he and Dad got to business. ¡°Any news on the bandits?¡± Dad asks.

    Philip shook his head, ¡°The only sightings so far lead to the forest northeast of us, but they are covering their tracks well. I paid a few hunters to see if they could find the bandit hideout, but it seemed like the bandit had someone who is adept at bushcraft and was able to obfuscate their trail. From the latest victims of their banditry the bandits'' number at least 50 men.¡±

    Later when I asked Dad about the bandit situation, it seemed like this was a relatively new bandit group that was mainly made up of deserter soldiers from the war Dad fought 3 years ago, and farmers/villagers who had their properties raised by the Valorhelm Dominion¡¯s invasion. Dad said it is a common occurrence for bandit groups to rise out of the aftermath of a war, and needed to be put down fast.

    One of the main issues is that usually, the bandits are trained men who know army tactics, which makes it a lot harder than a bunch of normal villagers.

    Dad sighed and said, ¡°If that''s the case, it seems like I will have to call in some professional adventurers to find these bandits. Once I get the bandit¡¯s location, I can mobilize my men to crush them, it is going to be expensive to attract a good team.¡±

    I heard of the Adventurers Guild before but I have not seen 1 in town before. When I asked about it, this time it was Philip who answered, ¡°Well, young master, it all comes down to money. Unless you are a wealthy high noble, or a border noble like your father whose duty is to secure our kingdom¡¯s borders, most nobles do not keep professional soldiers on the payroll because they are expensive. So while your father can send out soldiers to subjugate bandits or monsters, nobles and normal folk rely on Adventurers to do that job, they are kind of like mercenaries but managed by a guild with more exacting standards than normal mercenaries.¡±

    After explaining that to me, Dad asked the mayor to send a request to the Adventurers Guild about tracking down the bandits and moved on. After a few more reports, Philip flipped to the last page, ¡°Ah, I just got this report before you arrived, there are sightings of goblins by a farming village to the southwest of us named Millfield Village. Nasty buggers, breed like rabbits they do.¡±

    ¡°Make a copy of the goblin report, this sounds like a good excuse to stretch my legs.¡± he then turned to one of his men and said, ¡°Go ready the men, we are going on a goblin hunt.¡±

 Chapter 39

    Soon after we adjourned our meeting with the mayor, we were back home to get dressed up.

    When I met up with my father at the front yard, I was wearing some slightly oversized leather armor with a shortsword strapped to my side.

    When all the troops, along with a few hunters who were paid for their tracking skills gathered, we mounted up and made our way southwest to Millfield Village.

    Along with me and my dad, were 4 of his knights, 50 men at arms, 3 hired hunters, and a supply wagon with camping gear because we would be camping the night before we reached Millfield Village.

    As we left Glenfell and trotted along the road with men marching behind our horses, it soon hit me that this was my first time venturing into the wider world beyond the safety of the town walls, and it scared me a little.

    In the 6 years of my existence in this world, after comparing it to my previous life and even the kids I see in town in this world, I can safely say I have a pretty sweet life. I was born into a noble family, I have parents who seem to love each other and are not just together for political convenience, and I do not have to work to make ends meet like I see some kids in town need to do.

    So now that we are going to face off against some goblins and who knows what other fantasy bullshit, I am a little scared about what I will be facing, even with a bunch of armed men backing me up.

    Compared to the assassination attempt on my family¡¯s life, this time I am the one who is willingly putting myself in deliberate danger. I could have told my dad that I did not want to go on the subjugation mission, but seeing that I am the next in line to be Baron, I thought it prudent to see how it is done.

    After a few hours of travel, the hired hunters pointed us to a clearing that was regularly used for setting up camp for the night.

    As the subjection force pulled into the clearing and started setting up camp, Dad stopped a bunch of men from setting up the big tent for me and Dad. Instead, Dad picked up 2 extra normal tents that all the men were using and moved to the open area in the middle of all the men setting up their own tents.

    ¡°Ok son, this is your first time camping out, so it is as good a time as any to teach you how to pitch a tent.¡± Dad said as he passed me a rolled-up tent with its tent pegs tied to its side.

    Hehehe¡­ Oh, I know all about pitching tents, in fact, I do it every morning¡­ But in all seriousness, in my previous life, I heard about other kids going on school-organized outdoor camping trips, and being a home-schooled kid, I did not get to experience outdoor camping before, it did not help that my previous parents were not outdoors people, so I took this opportunity to live out some of the missed experiences from my previous life.

    We started with Dad¡¯s tent first, he explained to me the proper steps, measurements, and knots to use as we tied and hammered the tent pegs into the ground.

    Next was my turn to set up my own tent. The outcome was¡­ less than satisfactory¡­ even with Dad¡¯s verbal coaching, it ended up looking like it would collapse to a stiff breeze. Dad later went through my mistakes and fixed them with me, and after a few more minutes of fiddling around, I was the proud owner of my first tent.

    By this time, the call for dinner sounded and we ate before turning in for the night.

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    ***

    By late morning the next day, we arrived at Millfield Village where we met the village chief, and the news he reported did not make Dad or any of his men happy. The chief reported that the goblins had gotten bolder since sending the report to Glenfell, and now the goblins were targeting their livestock.

    Besides reports of 2 goats and a dog being killed by goblins, the news that made the subjection force frown was the number of goblins that took part in the raid on their livestock, which numbered somewhere about a dozen goblins.

    After walking away from the chief¡¯s house, I asked my Dad, ¡°What''s wrong Dad? There are only a dozen goblins, and we have more than 50 armed and armored, what is there to fear from just a dozen goblins? Besides, from what I read in the bestiary at home, goblins do not seem all that impressive.¡±

    Dad looked at me and sighed, ¡°Son, that bestiary at home only tells you about their basic characteristics, they do not tell you their social behavior or structure. If a goblin nest is capable of sending out a dozen goblins to get food and even dare to come near villages and kill livestock, that tells us that they are either truly desperate, which I highly doubt unless we are experiencing a drought, or in the more likely case, they have an evolved goblin.¡±

    Ok, I am going to need to get my hands on a more descriptive bestiary when I get back, so I asked, ¡°What do the goblins having an evolved goblin have to do with this situation? And what are evolved goblins anyway?¡±

    ¡°Well, son, from what has been studied of goblins so far, due to their quick rate of reproduction, when a goblin nest gets too big and there are too many mouths to feed, they will fight and the losers split off to find new hunting grounds, so seeing a dozen goblins at a time is a pretty significant chuck of a normal nest, and they would not risk that many bodies in 1 area unless they had alot to spare. So the only way for a goblin nest to get big enough to have enough numbers to spare is for an evolved goblin to take charge and keep all the goblins in line.

    As for your second question, evolved goblins are goblins that for some unknown reason evolve into a more advanced form of goblin. It could be a Hobgoblin, which in a sense is just a bigger and stronger goblin that is almost the size of a grown man compared to the child-sized average goblin. Or it could be a Goblin Shaman, they are only slightly bigger than an average goblin¡­ but can wield magic like you can.¡± Dad explained as he whispered the last part about magic to me.

    Dad continued, ¡°I just hope that if this is a big nest with an evolved goblin, that evolved goblin has not been evolved for very long. Because if given time, an evolved goblin mating with normal goblins will have a chance of producing evolved goblins from birth, and when the nest gets big enough with a decent number of evolved goblins, that is when they get bold enough to start wiping villages like the one we are in off the map in their ever-growing need for food, and to them, we are food.¡±

    Wow, the more Dad explains goblins to me, the more I understand why we treat them like pests, if we do not nip them in the bud, they will spread like a plague. This brings the question to my mind, the bestiary I read said that goblins can be found in almost all environments, so what happens if goblins go unchecked in the untamed wilds?

    When I brought this question up with Dad, he explained, ¡°We do not need to worry about goblins in the wilds, natural predators usually do a good job of culling their numbers. It is in tamed lands like ours that we need to worry about, we have chased out most of the dangerous predators that may cause us great harm, but those same predators also keep the goblin population in check, so now that the goblins¡¯ natural predators are gone, it falls to us, the ones who tamed the land, to keep the goblin population in check.

    But as history shows, from time to time, due to negligence or sheer bad luck, a goblin nest is left unchecked, and eventually, after the nest gets big enough, A Hobgoblin or Goblin Shaman would evolve into a Goblin Lord or Goblin Mystic. That is when towns and cities get wiped off the map.¡±

    In the last part when talking about the Goblin Lord and Goblin Mystic, Dad said with haunted eyes, ¡°Have you ever faced a Goblin Lord or Mystic before Dad?¡± I asked.

    Dad focused his eyes and said, ¡°Not personally, it was in my knight days with the Order. We caught a goblin horde led by a Goblin Lord early before it could do any serious damage to the kingdom, but that is a story for another time. I need to make preparations. Go check your own gear while I muster the troops.¡±

    Seeing that this situation was getting serious, I did as instructed and double-checked my gear while waiting for orders to move out.

 Chapter 40

    From Millfield Village, the hunters were led to the site where the livestock were killed by the goblins and tracked the goblins west, after taking a look at the tracks left by the goblins, it was so obvious that even your average peasant could follow. It seems that goblins do not put much stock in covering their tracks.

    We made our way west to a rocky and sparsely wooded area. We stopped at the treeline and waited as the hunters went ahead to follow the trail of the goblins and the dead livestock they dragged back.

    While we were waiting, everyone was waiting for the hunters to report back, a watch was posted as the men rested and checked their equipment again.

    After close to 2 hours, the hunters came back with their findings. They had to dodge around 30 goblins that were out foraging and hunting in small groups. When they followed one of the returning groups, they found a crack in the side of a hill that the goblins were going to and fro.

    Dad turned to his men who were listening in on the report and asked, ¡°So what do you think lads, 50 to 60 goblins?¡±

    One of the knights, Sir Ector, spoke up, ¡°Seeing that there are 30 goblins out and about in the same area, confirms the presence of an evolved goblin, so aye, I would say that''s about right.¡±

    Dad nodded and said, ¡°Alright, seems easy enough. Let''s do this by the book, corner and kill them, Tristan, take 10 men and handle the left, Emrys, 10 men to the right, and the rest of us will push up the middle to the nest. Each of our groups will take a hunter as a guide.¡±

    With that said, they broke off to muster the men into their teams. Not knowing what to do and feeling kind of useless, I asked Dad, ¡°Sooo, what is our role?¡±

    Dad looked at me and chuckled, ¡°No need to be so anxious Luke, today you are just here to observe.¡±

    ¡°That''s it? I thought I would be taking part in the subjugation mission.¡± I asked.

    Hearing this, Dad¡¯s eyes became sad, ¡°Son, I know it has been hard for you ever since taking your first life when the assassins attacked. Even I had sleepless nights when I took my first life, but don''t be so eager to spill blood, even if they are pests that need to be purged. I have seen many good men turn into monsters when they get too used to killing. I do not want that to happen to you.¡±

    I look down as I recall the nights I would wake up with a cold sweat while I was recovering from my long-term aura usage. Eventually, I was able to rationalize that those assassins were targeting my family and had it coming, so fuck them.

    After a few seconds of silence, I told Dad, ¡°It''s fine Dad, it''s not that. I just feel¡­ useless, while everyone around me is working.¡±

    Dad just pats me on the back while chuckling, ¡°Nothing to feel useless about son, you do not know what you are doing, so you are here to observe and learn. Nobody is expecting you to join in the subjugation right now. In fact, it would be dangerous for you and the people around you if you joined. So far, you have only learned how to fight on your own, but in massed combat, you must learn to fight with others beside you.¡±

    I already kind of knew how to fight in formation from my hobby in my previous life, but I kept my mouth shut. Who knows, a world that employs massed melee combat a hell of a lot more often than they did in my previous time period might teach me a thing or two.

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    Soon, the 2 knights and their men broke off from the main group on foot to engage the goblins on the far left and right. We gave them a 10 minute head start to get into position and start their attack before the main section led by the remaining 2 knights made their move.

    Spread out in a wide line, were groups of 2-3 men with the knights moving between them, all while me and Dad was some distance back to observe as we closed in on the goblin nest approximately 1km away.

    After some time, we started encountering goblins which were promptly and easily dispatched, and after seeing the goblins in the flesh for the first time, I understood why. They were just a bunch of ugly meter-tall skinny humanoids who were armed with pointy sticks as spears or shorter sticks that were used as clubs. Most of them did not even have a loincloth and were just walking around with their dangly bits flopping around.

    As we encountered more goblins, I noticed that they would mostly attack if they had numerical superiority, so if the group of goblins did not notice that the grouped-up men had other groups nearby, they would attack. If they noticed the other groups, they would always run away.

    The other thing I noticed is that all the goblins we encountered were male. Were all the females back at the nest to be used purely as breeding stock?

    Eventually, the crack in the hill came into view and Dad leaned over to whisper to me, ¡°If anything goes wrong and you need to defend yourself with magic, try to do it with circle magic while people are watching.¡±

    As I nodded, I saw goblins retreating into the crack from not only our direction but also from the left and right, no doubt the work of the other 2 teams that were sent out.

    When the last of the goblins entered the crack, the men at arms formed a shield wall encircling the crack with crossbows pointed at the entrance. Soon after, the left and right teams rejoined us and joined the shield wall, and the knights reported back to Dad.

    After studying the entrance, Dad asked Sir Lucan who was decked out in half-plate armor to scout the entrance. So after grabbing his shield and changing out his long sword with a short sword, he entered the crack with a lit torch.

    Sir Lucan entered the crack and after a few seconds of disappearing into the cave, there were sounds of goblin screeches, soon followed by the sounds of stones pelting off wood and metal echoing out of the cave.

    Soon after, Sir Lucan exited the cave backward with his shield up, when he was well clear of the cave entrance he reported his findings, ¡°After going in for a few meters, there is a right bend that narrows to the width of a single man, not much ceiling clearance either. The goblins were using that choke point to throw rocks at me.¡±

    Dad thought about it for a while then said, ¡°Going in single file for them to wack us on the other side is not an option. So if we cannot go in after them, we make them come to us. Get some men to gather some dried leaves and branches, we are going to smoke them out. Get the hunters to climb the trees to see if there are any other places besides here where smoke emerges, there may be other exits the goblins can escape from.¡±

    After the leaves and branches were gathered at the cave entrance, Dad turned to me, ¡°Turns out there is something you can do for this mission. Help light that pile and use wind magic to blow the smoke into the cave.¡±

    As I nodded and went to light the heap of dried plant matter, I heard Dad say, ¡°Ector, Emrys. Guard my boy, the moment a goblin pokes its head out, grab him and run.¡±

    As I was flanked by the 2 knights, I purposely used hand gestures to cast a 0th circle fire to light up the bed of dried leaves, followed by a 0th circle wind to blow the smoke into the cave.

    After a few minutes, the sounds of coughing started echoing out of the cave, and after a few more minutes, a shriek that sounded more guttural than the other goblins sounded out of the cave, that guttural shriek was echoed by a multitude of other shrieks.

    The moment we heard that, my escorts did not even bother to wait for a goblin to show its face and picked me up before running behind the shield wall.

    This is when the action begins.

 Chapter 41

    Soon after I was carried behind the shield wall and saddled on my horse, the cacophony of screeches got louder but seemed to be stalled behind the burning pile of leaves and branches at the cave entrance.

    For a few moments, the agitated screeches started to quiet down as if they were waiting for something, that was until the guttural screech sounded again, followed by a yelp and a scream, as out of the smoke, a goblin was thrown at the fire.

    The thrown goblin crashed into the burning matter and scattered the burning wood. As the goblin flailed around to get rid of the burning embers that were seared to its skin, it unwittingly cleared a path by knocking away more of the burning debris.

    When there was a somewhat clear path, the guttural screech sounded again like a war cry, and goblins started streaming out of the cave and beyond the curtain of smoke, directly into a hail of crossbow bolts from a line of men behind the shield wall.

    Before the crossbows could be reloaded, the next wave of goblins came rushing out of the cave and clashed against the shield wall. The men were using normal kite shields, so they had to bend low in order to compensate for the height difference, or else the goblins could easily duck under their shields and attack them.

    As the goblins clashed with the men, the front row of men cut down the goblins, and the goblins who survived or avoided the sword strikes of the front row were stabbed by the men in the back who abandoned their crossbows for spears.

    Within a minute, it was obvious that the men at arms were going to have a flawless victory as they were cutting down goblins like they were harvesting wheat. That was until the Hobgoblin who towered above the other goblins around showed itself, along with a bunch of better armed and armored goblins.

    The moment the hobgoblin and its posse exited the smoke, Dad commented to me as he pointed, ¡°It seems this nest had enough time to produce a natural born hobgoblin.¡±

    I squinted as I scrutinized the group that just appeared, and I noticed that one of the goblins was slightly taller and had more refined features compared to the surrounding goblins, that must be a juvenile hobgoblin.

    It seemed like the knights commanding the men at arms also noticed the goblins and hobgoblins that just revealed themselves, these goblins along with the juvenile hobgoblin seemed better fed and were wearing planks of wood held together by rope as armor and were armed with rusty daggers and farming tools, as for the adult hobgoblin, it was wearing a rusty chainmail shirt with some holes in it and was wielding a shortsword.

    The adult hobgoblin raised its sword to the sky and screeched out a war cry as it led its ¡°elites¡± in a charge. Dad just turned to Sir Ector and told him to handle it.

    Sir Ector just nodded as he charged forward, sword and shield in hand while shouting, ¡°Coming through!¡±, and with practiced motion, a gap opened up in the line to reveal a goblin standing in Sir Ector¡¯s way, only for it to get a shield bash that caved in its head as he strode forth to engage the hobgoblin¡¯s group.

    The moment Sir Ector cleared the line, the gap closed and I witnessed Sir Ector scythe his way through the goblins. Within mere seconds, he was before the hobgoblin, sword raised and slashing down with a well-practiced swing of many battles.

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    The hobgoblin barely managed to bring his blade up to meet Sir Ector¡¯s downward chop, but it only managed to deflect the blade from splitting its head in half and ended up biting deep into its shoulder despite the chainmail, almost taking off the hobgoblin¡¯s arm.

    While Sir Ector¡¯s sword was embedded in the hobgoblin¡¯s shoulder, the surrounding goblins and juvenile hobgoblin took the opportunity to strike at Sir Ector. But with fluid movement, Sir Ector blocked the strikes with his shield and kicked the hobgoblin away to dislodge his sword, then proceeded to behead a few goblins in a wide horizontal slash that also caught the juvenile hobgoblin in the neck who fell to the ground while holding its neck to stem the bleeding.

    Sir Ector did not waste time and advanced forward to stab the juvenile in the heart and walked forward to the adult hobgoblin who was getting back on its feet. When the adult hobgoblin looked up, Sir Ector just beheaded it.

    After seeing how knights in this world fight, I can say, that what they lack in technique, they make up for in pure brutal perfection of simple no-nonsense combat movement.

    After around a minute of the goblin elite being slain, the rest of the goblins on the field were put down, and the men used this pause to check their wounds. From what I could see, there were a few faces that got scratched, but nothing these goblins had on them could get past the thick leather and gambeson the men at arms were wearing.

    After the quick check was done, the knights rallied the men to stamp out the fire. After the fire was out and given a few minutes to clear, the knights called 20 volunteers and entered the cave.

    There is more to this subjugation? This should be all the fighters, are there more inside? I asked Dad about it and he said, ¡°I do not think you should be around for this next part?¡± as he started leading me away.

    ¡°But why? What is left? Aren''t we going to loot the cave to see if the goblins collected anything, the bestiary said goblins also like to collect shiny things?¡± I asked.

    Dad shook his head, ¡°This is something I do not think you are ready to witness. But when eliminating pests we must pluck them out, root and stem, or else they will soon return even stronger after learning from their mistakes.¡±

    I chewed over his words for awhile until it hit me. The goblin females and younglings, they are about to get Anakin Skywalkered. And as I asked myself if I could bring myself to do what I know needs to be done¡­ I was not so sure, but for now, it is safe to say I do not have the stomach to do what those men are about to do to the rest of the goblins.

    As Dad led me and 2 knights back to the supply wagon, apparently it was not far or fast enough as the screeches of goblins echoed out from the cave. As I heard the screams, I could not help but imagine human women and children in the goblins¡¯ position, bringing tears to my eyes as I futilely wiped them away.

    I am pretty sure Dad noticed me crying but pretended not to notice.

    After some time, 10 men at arms came out of the treeline and one of them went to report to Dad while the others went to get crates from the wagon.

    The reported goblin casualty was 93 goblins, including women and children, and 2 hobgoblins, it seemed like everyone was way off on their estimation of their numbers. As for the men at arms, they just suffered from some scratches and bruises, nothing a good rest would not fix.

    The next thing that caught my attention was the clinking of glass from the crates the men were unloading, and when I asked, it was explained that they were jars of some kind of preserving solution.

    The men at arms¡¯ pay also includes looting rights unless said otherwise, and some of the goblin, especially hobgoblin organs can be used in alchemy, so these men are going to harvest and sell the organs to get some extra coins.

    Gross, but who am I to deny these men the money that is just lying there? They have families to feed.

    Talking about family, I somehow feel tired¡­ emotionally. It would be nice to go home, hug Mum, and play with my siblings and friends to take my mind off of this.

 Chapter 42

    Time passes, it is now spring of my 8th year in this new world, and that means I will be entering the Royal Academy. School Arc!

    *Sounds of internal cringing*

    I already spent most of my previous life in the education system, I do not want to go through school again to learn what I already know¡­ but obligations must be met to upkeep the prestige of my house.

    I guess it is the same no matter the world, I need to go to school and get the certification that says ¡°Luke is a smart boi!¡±.

    *Sigh* The things I do for my family.

    From what I gathered, my curriculum for my lower education, which is supposed to last 4 years, includes languages, basic mathematics, etiquette, basic combat training, basics of magic for those who have magic, and for some unknown reason, music. Fortunately, music is an elective subject, and I always wanted to pick up the guitar. Are there even guitars in this world? I think I saw a bard playing the lute for coins at the town square before. At least I think it is a lute.

    I guess I could pick up an instrument, but I do not want to waste time sitting around with a bunch of snot-nosed brats. Fortunately, there may be a way around this, Mum told me that I had nothing to gain by staying in lower education, so I should aim to get a recommendation from Dad¡¯s boss, a one Earl Rupert Beaufort.

    With his recommendation, I can skip my lower education by taking the Royal Academy¡¯s lower education final exams straight away, and if I pass, I will go on straight to higher education.

    Along with that advice came a warning, if I took this route to accelerate my education, alot of attention would be drawn to me, especially the nobles of higher standing feeling offended by being outdone by some country bumpkin of a newly established noble house.

    Fearing the repercussions, I asked my parents and grandparents for their opinions, only to be scolded by Grandma, ¡°Silly child, that is not for you to worry about. You just fly as far and high as you can, it is the grownups¡¯ job to open up your path and protect you. Besides, most of those so-called ¡°High Nobles¡± have not done anything great in the past few generations, and few nobles of actual importance take them seriously.

    And attracting attention by being outstanding is not all bad. The king has many eyes and ears, if you show off your magic, and maybe your aura (even though you are abit young for it), word of your prowess would get back to the king, and knowing that muscle hea- *cough* I mean knowing his Majesty¡¯s fondness of martial pursuits, there is a good chance gaining his favor. That should keep most of the pests away.¡±

    These are all good things to know and consider, but I did not want to dwell on these things with the time I had left before I was subjected to the tedium of an education system. So for the past year, besides maintenance training while others were having classes, I have spent most of my time with my siblings and friends, playing and helping them with their studies, and I must say it was fun to just leave behind the training with aura and magic to just be a kid again without a care in the world.

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    The ones who knew and comprehended that I would be going away for an extended period of time became rather clingy after knowing how long I would be gone, namely my sister Charlotte and my childhood friend, milk buddy, and for the past few months, personal maid, Emma.

    Luckily both of them had to attend classes, so I could have some free time to myself, or else they would be stuck to me all day, and then Charlotte and Emma would get pissy at each other as they fought for my attention.

    I am just glad that Charlotte is still young and innocent enough not to pull noble rank on Emma, they treat each other like sisters and I hope that never changes.

    But as fun as my break has been, all good things must come to an end.

    ***

    I am currently in the courtyard saying my goodbyes to Mum, my grandparents, my siblings, and my friends. While Emma is openly sobbing, Charlotte is pouting while holding back her tears. She was then prodded by Mum, ¡°Come on honey, say goodbye to your brother, it will be a few months until we see him again.¡±

    After a few seconds of lip quivering, Charlotte ran and practically headbutted my chest as she sobbed into my shirt, this was soon followed by Anna prodding her daughter who also crashed into me with renewed sobs.

    As I petted their head, they began demanding daily letters from me, which I bargained down to once a week. When the time came, their mothers pried them off of me. I gave Charlotte a last kiss on the forehead and then moved on to give another one to my cute little brother, Cedric, who had no idea what was going on but cried along with his sister anyway.

    When all was said and done, me and Dad loaded up on a carriage. We left the estate with an armed and mounted escort and passed through the town, where our carriage linked up with 3 other less decorated carriages that were built to carry more passengers than comfort. These 3 other carriages carried other kids my age from town and surrounding villages who were deemed smart enough to have a shot at a Royal Scholarship.

    These Royal Scholarships were only for non-nobles because admittance and tuition fees at the Royal Academy cost more gold than most peasants see in a lifetime, and it was expected that nobles were rich enough to afford to send their own children to the Royal Academy.

    So understandably, this was a huge opportunity for these children and their families to improve their lot in life, and even if they failed their Royal Scholarship test, all was not lost. There were merchants and other minor nobility who would willingly snap up the failures and offer to sponsor their education at a less prestigious but still reputable academy, in exchange for this scholarship, upon graduation from higher education, they will be obligated to work for the scholarship provider for a set amount of time.

    This effectively guarantees the scholarship providers, who are willing to wait, educated and trained manpower for their business and/or territory.

    This reminds me of one of my colleagues in my previous life who had to serve in the military to get a scholarship. For some reason, he always looks back at his so called ¡°crayon eating days¡± with both love and hate whenever he regales us with the stupid things he and his friends got up to while in the military.

    This makes me wonder what to do with my life after my studies¡­ further my magical studies? Join the military? Join the Adventurers Guild and go gallivanting across the lands? Set up a small restaurant and introduce all the wonders of Asian cuisine to this world? Who knows, 1 step at a time.

 Chapter 43

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    It would take about a week and a few days to travel to Earl Rupert Beaufort¡¯s territory, and I have to say, the experience so far was bloody mind-numbing, in that time I had already read the books I brought along with me and I wished I had brought more.

    On the bright side, some of the monotony was broken as we visited new towns and villages. Especially the towns, when we reached them, Dad would bring me around to see the sights and try a few of the popular restaurants. If there was a noble in town, they would usually host us for the night, while the commoners were put up in the local inns, and accommodations were paid for by the Ironcrest family of course.

    The only notable or slightly exciting thing that happened was our escorts chasing off a pack of Gnolls that were keeping an eye on us, Dad says that these monsters would usually use blitz or distraction tactics to pick off the vulnerable or tail of a pack, which to the Gnolls, the convoy kind of looks like a pack.

    After the escorts scared them off with a charge, the Gnolls were reported to the Mayor of the next town we arrived at for the territory¡¯s lord to deal with.

    Another way we used to kill time was car, or should I say, carriage games like I Spy or 20 Questions, and talking¡­ lots of talking.

    During 1 such talk, I asked about Emma and her siblings¡¯ future education, she is just 6 months younger than me but born in different a year, so she would be starting her schooling next year.

    Unlike nobles and the rich, formal education was not a social obligation for normal commoners, for your everyday commoner, the only education that was needed was to learn how to read, and know enough math not to get scammed while trading.

    Dad told me not to worry, Emma and her siblings were practically taught beside me and my siblings and would have no problem earning a scholarship spot when their time came. It also helped that Emma would have the advantage of now being able to cast 1st circle magic due to Mum¡¯s tutelage.

    I can still vividly remember it was just under a year ago, Emma¡¯s excited face with her cute cow ears and tail waggling all over the place when she first became able to sense mana and was guided through her first use of 0th circle magic. Naturally, this makes Charlotte jealous of Emma having something more in common with her big brother, and asked Mum to teach her magic.

    And when Charlotte asked, Cedric, Otto, and Heidi turned on their puppy eyes to the max and asked my mum to teach them too. Their puppy eyes easily convinced Mum to agree to teach them, but she used magic as bait to force the kids to learn their letters and numbers and eat their vegetables first.

    Another thing Dad let me know about during our long talks was some of the politics I may face when I get to the Royal Academy. Apparently, there are 2 factions in the kingdom, which naturally bleeds over into the Royal Academy.

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    The 1st faction is the Royalist faction, the one my family is currently in, and the 2nd faction is the Noble faction, which by all accounts seems to be backed by the Zagraf church that the king is trying to suppress.

    The brief summary of the goals of these 2 factions, at least as far as I got before the boredom of hearing about politics started making white noise in my head, was the Royalist faction, as implied by the name, supported the Royal family. As for the Noble faction, Dad was not so sure about their goals, it was either to put one of their own on the thrown, through marriage¡­ or other ways, or to have the king as a puppet. But seeing the current king¡¯s antagonism with the Zagraf church, that was not likely going to happen.

    Dad also warned me of what I would be seeing at school. Knowing that I prefer to do for myself what most nobles would leave for their servants to do for them, he forewarns me of noble kids having servants in all but name following them around.

    What is so special about servants following their young master/mistress around you may ask, well, officially servants are not allowed on campus. Those attending the Royal Academy are supposed to learn to be independent, but there are grey areas that are impossible to enforce.

    Although it is frowned upon, many nobles from both factions, mainly the Noble faction, used the scholarship to get servants for their sons and daughters. The scholarship that is supposed to be for those who could not afford it but had proven themselves to be smart, was instead used to receive bribes and favors from government officials and merchant houses who wanted to send their own children to the Royal Academy, because despite being rich, not just anyone could enroll at the Royal Academy, but getting a scholarship spot sure helps.

    This sucks, I know because I knew some rich kids in my previous life that always had a hired maid around and they were bratty, now I am going to encounter noble kids who did not even need to wipe their own ass for their whole life, this is going to be insufferable.

    And I don¡¯t know how effective the child of a government official or merchant is going to be as a servant, it would be like a pampered brat serving a bratier pampered brat.

    That is when a thought came to me, ¡°Dad, aren''t we doing the same thing? When Emma and the others come of age and get a scholarship, people are going to think our family is abusing the scholarship system too.¡± I said with a frown.

    Dad laughs as he pets my head and asks, ¡°You don¡¯t intend to order Emma around like a slave do you?¡±

    Naturally, I shake my head, ¡°Of course not, we may not be related but she is like a little sister to me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, little sister, let''s go with that.¡± Dad says with a smirk. I know what you are getting at old man, will remember that. ¡°Just treat them like you usually do and things will turn out fine. Besides, at the rate she is learning, I don¡¯t think she will be skipping grades like you, so both of you will barely see each other.¡±

    Well, I guess that makes sense, when Emma starts schooling, I will most likely be 2nd Year of higher education while she will be 1st Year of lower education.

    After that conversation with Dad, the ride was mostly quiet until the convoy pulled to the side of the road for a lunch break. The servants following us start a fire and get a simple stew going, after it is done, the whole convoy gets together for a meal, even us nobles.

    Dad advised me to get to know and make friends with potential scholarship students, hopefully, some of them would return to our territory, but that is not likely, the pay and prestige of nobles and companies closer to the capital are far too attractive for the younger folks who recently graduated.

    *Sigh*, such is the plight of a new border noble, we do not have enough wealth or clout to attract hot-shot Royal Academy graduates.

 Chapter 44

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After the long travel, we finally arrived at the city of Ravenmoor in Earl Rupert Beaufort¡¯s territory. It was only when we got close to the city while our carriage was waiting in line, that I could appreciate the size of the walls that surrounded the city, it dwarfed the walls of my or any of the towns I passed through to get here.

    Seeing me gape at what had to be at least 20 meter tall wall, Dad leaned over and joined my wall gazing, ¡°Impressive isn''t it, but don¡¯t be too impressed, otherwise when you see the capital¡¯s walls you might be shocked.¡±

    As I was observing the walls, and studying its turrets, I saw a bunch of robed men descending the far side of the wall in one of those suspended scaffold things window washers used for skyscrapers, except it was wooden and not exactly OSHA-compliant.

    I pointed it out to Dad, ¡°Dad, what are they doing?¡±

    After looking at where I am pointing, and squinting a bit, ¡°Oh that, they Array Architects, same as your grandmother, except they specialize on a larger scale, they are most likely doing maintenance of the wall¡¯s defense array to defend against siege spells. Very expensive to have and maintain, but when actually getting sieged, it is worth every coin.¡±

    Wanting to see the designs of the defense array, I used my mana manipulation to reach my magical senses to the wall, what I saw instead of the geometric lines and runes that I usually see when I use the same method to sense Grandma¡¯s arrays, was a dense haze of mana with messed up lines, runes that made no sense, and just gibberish in general.

    As I was trying to make sense of what I was seeing, I felt the presence of a mana different from the wall¡¯s closing in on the patch of wall I was studying. Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry, I retracted my mana, retracted my head back into the carriage, and tried to look as innocent as possible. Nothing to see here.

    Thinking back to what I managed to see of that defensive array, remember Grandma said something about Array Masking in order to prevent people from studying the array and figuring out its weaknesses, I asked her about it, but she said she would only teach me about it when I got older and got if serious about being an Array Architect, tricks of the trade and whatnot.

    ***

    Eventually, it was our turn at the gate, Dad identified himself and showed his invitation from the Earl, and we were through. We made our way down the wide main road that had many inns and shops before turning off onto smaller roads that eventually led us to the city¡¯s keep where Earl Rupert Beaufort lived.

    After having our credentials checked again, our convoy was led through the gate. After we got through, the 3 carriages carrying the commoner kids were led in a different direction while our carriage was directed to the Earl¡¯s residence.

    When we pulled up at an immaculately manicured courtyard, we were greeted by a butler who led us to a drawing room, and served refreshments, ¡°Please enjoy the refreshments while waiting, Lord Ironcrest, my master will be with you shortly. Do let us know if there is anything else you need.¡±

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    After bowing, the butler left a maid to attend to us and left.

    After nibbling on some biscuits and sipping my tea, I leaned over to Dad and asked in a low whisper so the maid on standby could not hear, ¡°How much should I show off if I am tested?¡±

    Dad pondered on the question for a moment before replying, ¡°Keep it to 2nd circle magic but make sure to use chants and gestures. As for aura¡­ I think you can show you can use it, but do not use stamina manipulation, that technique is supposed to be too advanced for your age.¡±

    I nodded and went back to enjoying my refreshments.

    Around 15min later, there was a knock on the door and we rose to our feet to greet our host, the door was opened by a butler, and in came a bald and rather portly man with a most impressive imperial mustache that went well beyond the sides of his face and a long beard hanging down to his chest that was bound in bands of gold that were embedded with precious gems.

    This was a Dwarven beard straight out of the illustrations of the book ¡°Races of the World: Volume 1¡± that I read in my home¡¯s library.

    Before my mind could catch up to my mouth, I blurted out ¡°Dwarf?¡±

    The moment that word exited my mouth, I could feel the stares of everyone in the room.

    After a few awkward seconds, the bald and heavily bearded man who I could only assume was Earl Rupert Beaufort saw that my eyes were not connecting to his but his beard and burst out laughing while proudly stroking his mustache, ¡°Hohoho, High praise! High praise indeed that my beard mistakes me for a dwarf!¡±

    I then felt a hand grab the back of my head and force me into a bow as I saw my father bow beside me, ¡°My apologies for my son¡¯s outburst, Earl Beaufort, it will no-¡±

    Before Dad could continue, Earl Beaufort waved off the situation, ¡°Bah¡­ nothing to apologize for, most people who see me for the first time notice my magnificent beard first! And this beard does help when talking to the dwarves, they take beard grooming as a point of pride, prestige, and honor, and I am inclined to agree.

    Now then, Baron Alden Ironcrest, it has been a few years since we last met. I take it that since you bothered to come along with this batch of would-be scholars this year, that this young man next to you is your son. Luke, was it?¡± Earl Beaufort said as he ended the sentence with his gaze resting on me.

    The only thing I could do was fall back on the etiquette lessons Mum had been teaching me. Right hand over my heart, left hand behind my back, feet together, and upper body bow 45¡ã. ¡°Yes, Earl Beaufort, I am Luke Ironcrest. Pleased to make your acquaintance.¡±

    ¡°Hoho, such formality from one so young, but let us suspend the formalities, I dislike being so stuffy, especially in my own home.¡± the Earl chuckled.

    I gave a side glance to my father, and once he gave me a nod, I pulled the stick out of my ass and loosened up to a more casual stance as Earl Beaufort gestured for us to take a seat.

    After taking a seat, Dad said, ¡°As mentioned earlier, this is my first son, Luke, and he will be starting his schooling this year, which leads to a request of mine, Earl Beaufort. Please help with a recommendation for my son to skip the Lower education and go straight to Higher education.¡±

    The Earl¡¯s eyes turn serious upon hearing Dad¡¯s request, stares at us for a while as if to size us up, then releases a sigh, ¡°There are a few parents like you every year, Alden, a lot of parents think their child is some god-given genius. If I recommend him, I will be staking yours, but mostly my reputation when the Royal Invigilator gives him the final exam for lower education. Are you sure your son is ready for it?¡±

    Earl Beaufort then turns to me, ¡°Are you ready for the exam, Luke?¡±

 Chapter 45

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    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± I replied confidently to Earl Beaufort.

    After taking a few more moments to scrutinize me, he shoots me with a question, ¡°What is 34x3?¡±

    It took me a second to register his question and another 2 for me to reply, ¡°102¡±

    After that first question, the rest of his test questions did not catch me off guard, he quizzes me on basic arithmetic, fractions, and some math problem-solving, basically child¡¯s play. To test my language skills, he plucked a book from a nearby shelf, flipped through it for a bit, and asked me to read out loud.

    After narrating the page that seemed to be from a historical book about some lost kingdom, I was asked to explain what I understood of what I read from that 1 page. I explained what I could and readily admitted that there were some words I had not seen before and had no context to assume what they might mean.

    The Earl took back the book and next started narrating to me scenarios, after which, he asked what was to be done in said scenarios and their proper procedure. I could only guess this was a test of my knowledge of etiquette and responded accordingly until the point that I did not know what to do and replied as such.

    After my 3rd scenario of not knowing what the correct answer was, Earl Beaufort took a seat as I stood before him, ¡°Hmm¡­ from what I have seen so far, lower education would indeed be a waste of your time.¡±

    Fuck Yeah! I don¡¯t need to waste time with a bunch of dumb kids!

    ¡°The only thing left is basic combat training, it is not exactly a compulsory subject, but it will significantly impact your grades. In the case that you take the final exam, you can opt to be tested on your martial capabilities, and magic if you have any.¡± Earl Beaufort said as he gave Dad a questioning look.

    Dad just nodded, and said, ¡°In those areas, you will not find my son wanting.¡± he said with his chest puffed out, ¡°Luke has already mastered the basic sword forms, can cast 2nd circle magic,¡± he then leaned in closer and said with a lower voice ¡°and is aura capable.¡±

    At the last part, the Earl¡¯s eyes widened and the butler beside him choked, ¡°Truly? He is only 8.¡±

    Dad nodded and lied through his teeth, ¡°Yes, Luke first used aura 3 months ago, I have been training him to use it properly ever since.¡±

    The only thing the Earl said was, ¡°Show me.¡±

    As agreed with Dad, I limited myself to 2nd circle magic with chants and gestures. After going through the motions, with the chants and gestures, I touched the teacup in front of me. Within seconds, the tea in the cup went from having steam wafting from its surface to becoming tea-flavored ice with condensation vapors falling away from the cup.

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    Next, I activated my aura without stamina manipulation. My body ignited with translucent flames wafting from my body. I fished out a copper coin from my pocket and folded it with just my index finger and thumb, after which I deactivated my aura and placed the folded coin on the table next to the frozen tea.

    When I looked back up, the Earl and his butler were just staring at me, and soon the Earl had such a wide smile on his face that his glorious beard could not hide. He started giggling, which soon grew to outright boisterous guffaws.

    When the Earl got it all out of his system and got himself under control, he said, ¡°Ha. if this is what you can do now, you will have no problem with your higher education. I will gladly give you my recommendation. I would also give you one of my granddaughters if you would have her!¡±

    Hearing the last part, I could feel my blood stop. Am I getting engaged already? I looked to Dad to find a way out but he looked equally panicked. ¡°It¡­ Your offer honors us greatly, Earl Beaufort, but I will need to discuss this with my wife an-¡±

    ¡°What, my granddaughter not good enough for you!?¡± Earl Beaufort bellowed.

    Dad immediately shot up from his seat and gave the Earl a full 90¡ã bow, ¡°Nothing of the sort, Earl Beaufort, I jus-¡±

    ¡°Buhahaha¡­ Calm down, I¡¯m just playing, but seriously, consider it. Other than that, I think it is safe to say you should have no issue passing the final exam for lower education.¡± Earl Beaufort then turned to his butler, ¡°Please inform the Royal invigilator that I recommended Luke Ironcrest to take the final exam for lower education.¡±

    After the butler left to do as ordered, we settled into more casual small talk until the Earl brought the meeting to a close, ¡°The Royal Invigilator will most likely meet you tomorrow, but it has been a long journey to get here, please take your time to rest, someone will show you to your accommodations.¡±

    As we were being led away by a maid, Earl Beaufort called out, ¡°Oh, almost forgot, in 4 days there will be a banquet held for all of the nobles and passed scholars to mingle before all those being enrolled go off to the Royal Academy.¡±

    I later learned that in those 4 days of waiting for the banquet, all the would-be scholars that were sent from my and other nobles¡¯ territories would be taking part in tests by the Royal Invigilator to earn a scholarship spot.

    ***

    The next day we were invited to breakfast with the Earl. At the table beside the Earl, was a kind-looking and somewhat chubby middle-aged woman whom I knew from the portraits hung along the corridor as, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the Earl¡¯s wife. The other person at the dining table was a middle-aged bespectacled man with greying sideburns.

    When the Earl saw us, we greeted the Earl and his wife, and then the earl introduced us to the middle-aged man at the table, ¡°May I introduce you to the Royal Academy¡¯s Royal Invigilator, Albert Cox, he will be facilitating Luke¡¯s exam.¡± Albert gave a short bow from his seat, ¡°But all that is for after breakfast and maybe a spot of tea.¡±

    Without saying anything, the butler signaled the staff, and breakfast was served.

    After breakfast, as we were sipping tea, the subject of my exam was brought up, ¡°So when would young Luke be tested?¡± Earl Beaufort asked Albert.

    Albert put down his tea, dabbed his mouth, and replied while looking at me, ¡°We can start anytime before we leave for the Royal Academy.¡±

    Well, might as well get it over and done with, ¡°How about after tea?¡±

 Chapter 46

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    ¡°Wonderful, that makes my job alot easier.¡± Albert to Royal Invigilator said, ¡°In about an hour¡¯s time, the batch of scholarship test-takers that arrived yesterday will be taking their test, you can join them in the room to take your written exam. From what I heard from Earl Beaufort, you will also be taking the combat and magic tests?¡±

    I nodded and he clapped his hands, ¡°Wonderful, may I borrow your training ground for this test, Earl Beaufort?¡±

    After the Earl agreed, we sat around for small talk. Well, it was mainly the grownups that were doing the small talk, I zoned out until everything was brought to an end by Albert saying he needed to make his way to the test that was about to start soon.

    From there, I was told to follow Albert to take my exam. When I arrived where I would be taking my exam, I entered a room that had tables and chairs lined up in straight rows like one would see in a classroom.

    There I saw the familiar faces of commoner kids that traveled here with me. And they were all giving me a confused look, which is understandable. I am a noble kid, who could not get a scholarship nor needed it due to my social status, but I just kept quiet and went to the seat I was appointed.

    A few minutes before the exam was to start, test papers were handed out to all the test takers in the room, all except me. I was given 2 big envelopes that had a wax seal stamped with the Royal Academy¡¯s logo.

    When the time came to start, I broke the seals, and inside 1 of the big envelopes were 2 test papers, 1 was for language, the other was for math. The other big envelope contained a much thinner stack of papers that made up my magic basic theory test paper. And it seems I am given more than double the time the others in the room are to complete these 3 papers.

    After browsing through the questions on the papers, I almost chuckled at them¡­ this was not going to take long.

    ***

    Close to the end of the time allotted for scholarship test takers, I raised my hand to signal for an invigilator to come to me, when 1 of the assistant invigilators came to me, I handed him back the envelope with my exam papers inside.

    ¡°I am done.¡± I said in a low voice to not disturb the others.

    The assistant invigilator raised an eyebrow at me and asked, ¡°Are you sure? You were given more than twice the amount of time to complete the 3 papers, have you checked your work?¡±

    I just smiled and replied, ¡°Yes and yes.¡±

    The assistant invigilator just sighed as he took my envelope and brought it to Albert who started looking through my answers.

    After a few minutes of flipping through my answers, Albert stood up, whispered something to 1 of the assistant invigilators, and then pointed and gestured for me to follow him.

    From there, we walked in silence until we reached the training grounds where a few practice dummies stood.

    Albert instructed me to stand in a circle that was drawn on the floor and said, ¡°Now that the written exam is over, we will be testing your practical skill at magic. Manifest all the elements that you know, make sure to demonstrate your hand gestures clearly, and articulate your chants clearly.¡±

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    I did as instructed and cast the 6 2nd circle elemental spells 1 by 1, holding them in position around me with my mana manipulation. All the while, Albert was stone-faced as he continued writing something on a clipboard.

    He then pointed at the dummies that were about 50m away and asked me to use the 6 spells I was holding to shoot the dummies.

    Easy stuff, I do this for fun in my backyard. I sent all 6 spells down range at the same time to different dummies each, all of the spells scoring headshots. Albert goes back to jotting down on his clipboard.

    After he was done writing, Albert asked me to cast and hold the 6 spells again, when they were formed, I felt him exude his mana to touch the 6 spells I was holding around me. At first, it was like he was just feeling out my mana, then it felt like he was prodding at my spells, then at my hold on the spells. From there, it escalated to him trying to break my spell constructs and my hold on them.

    I tensed and gritted my teeth as I poured more of my concentration into my mana manipulation to keep my hold on my spells. It was obvious that he was testing my skill at mana manipulation, and I was not going to give in so easily.

    The seconds turned into more than a minute, and sweat poured down my face in concentration as I tried to fend off the ever-escalating attacks on my spell constructs, but this was a losing battle and I knew it. While I was obviously tired, Albert¡¯s face did not even twitch, it was like he was not even trying, and maybe he wasn¡¯t.

    A few seconds later, my concentration broke and he snuffed my spells 1 by 1 until none was left, and I was left panting. All Albert did was start to jot down something on his clipboard again, then said, ¡°30 minute break, and we will resume the test.¡±

    As I was resting, I was served tea and some sweet pastry by a maid on standby. It was then that I saw a stout-looking man in leather armor, with the Royal Academy¡¯s crest on it, enter the training ground and meet up with Albert.

    When my break was over, I went back to see Albert who was now with the man in leather armor.

    ¡°This is Mr Walt, one of my escorts from the Royal Academy, he will be assessing your performance and your basic combat abilities. In this part of your test, you will perform the basic sword forms, followed by a sparring match with Mr Walt. Any questions?¡±

    After saying that I had none, I was led to grab a practice sword and then to a sparring circle. ¡°Perform the sword forms.¡± Mr Walt said, and I complied.

    As I was performing, Mr Walt circled around me while observing my movement. When I ended my forms with a last stroke and settled back into an at-ease pose, Mr Walt said, ¡°Good. Before we move on to sparring, do you need a break?¡±

    To which I replied, ¡°Not needed.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± he said as he picked up a practice sword and got into a ready stance a few paces away from me. ¡°Then come at me.¡±

    I brought up my sword to a ready position as I studied Mr Walt¡¯s stance, and even though it looked like he had a properly guarded stance, I could tell from his size and poise that he was more used to a more¡­ shall we say¡­ hefty weapon.

    But even if I can observe that, I don¡¯t think it means much. I can tell from the bunch of scars and a split right ear, that he has either been in a bunch of life-and-death situations¡­ or 1 super fucked up life-and-death situation that gave him those injuries, my money is on the former, which means he is very experienced and like Dad, and may not fall for my tricks so easily, but there is only 1 way to find out.

    I start inching toward Mr Walt with the tip of my sword pointing at his neck, when we were close enough that our swords started touching (No Homo), I did a flick to tap the side of his sword and see how he reacted.

    Besides recovering to the center and flicking back at my blade, he did not do anything, so I decided to make my first move.

    This time, I gave a more powerful flick to the side of his sword, making it tilt to the side, then brought a chop down toward his now exposed forearm.

    Before my sword could hit his forearm, the hand that was about to get hit released its grip from the sword to avoid getting hit as Mr Walt hopped a step back.

    He then looked at me with a grin and said, ¡°That is the only free attack you are getting for this test.¡±

    Well, I tried. Looks like I will have to do this the hard way.

 Chapter 47

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    I got back into a ready stance as I saw Walt assume a looser stance, we stared at each other for a while before Walt started circling to my left.

    Keeping my guard up, I kept my feet close to the ground as I circled in the other direction while making sure I did not cross my own feet.

    We circled around each other until we were almost in each other¡¯s place, when Walt suddenly dashed forward. When he was almost in striking range with his sword raised in an overhead strike, Walt suddenly ducked and feigned to my right while jabbing his sword toward my stomach. Too bad for him that this is not the first time I have been on the receiving end of a move like that.

    With minimal movement, I parried the tip of his sword with the part of my sword that was closer to the guard, then I tilted the tip of my blade towards Walt who was now in an awkward position and lunged towards him.

    Having not the time to block or recover, Walt was forced to roll away and recover a few paces away from me.

    ¡°I see petty tricks would not work on you.¡± Walt commented.

    ¡°Not the first time I have seen that move, I spar quite a lot with my father after all.¡± I replied.

    ¡°Well then, I apologize for taking you too lightly.¡± Walt said as he took a proper stance again, brought his sword over his head in a high guard, and started inching toward me.

    When we got back into striking range again, Walt unleashed a few probing strikes which I had no way to retaliate to due to my reach disadvantage, the only thing I could do was wait for Walt to commit to a serious strike and take advantage of the lag after the strike.

    Said advantage soon came. After the 5th probing strike, Walt used his 6th probing strike and his superior strength to knock my sword aside, and then lunge at me.

    But it did not seem like Walt was very good at hiding his intentions, because throughout his probing strikes, I noticed him glancing at my left shoulder a fair bit, and as expected, the blow was aimed at my left shoulder.

    This made it easier for me to tilt my body to the side as his sword went past me, I then leaned forward into striking distance, brought my sword into a horizontal strike aimed at Walt¡¯s abdomen, and slashed.

    But my slash hit only air and Walt was a few paces away taking a few steps backward to kill his momentum. If my eyes were not lying to me, at the last moment before my strike connected, Walt somehow negated the forward momentum of his strike and launched himself backward out of my attack, all on the 1 leg he had forward at the time.

    ¡°How did you dodge that so suddenly, all on 1 leg?¡± I asked incredulously.

    Walt chuckled as he planted his sword into the ground beside him and grabbed the access material around the thigh area of his rather baggy trousers, the trousers that now were skin tight around his thigh revealed a thick thigh whose muscle definition could not be hidden behind such mundane fabrics. ¡°Hehehe. If you never skip leg day, one day even you can pull off such miraculous feats of strength, even without aura!¡± then he released his grip on his trousers and struck a pose that strained the buckles of his leather armor.

    Oh God¡­ he is as muscle-headed as Dad and his knights, but that does not mean he is wrong, all the bodybuilders I met at the gym in my previous said the same thing, and there is not a chicken-legged man among them.

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    ¡°Speaking about aura, I heard you were capable of it, how about we kick it up a notch.¡± Walt said as he retrieved his sword and activated his aura, and judging by how small the wafts of leaking aura were, it was clear that he was capable of stamina manipulation, it may not be as smooth as Dad¡¯s but leagues better than mine.

    In response to this, I flared my aura and did not use any stamina manipulation in order to hide my skill.

    Seeing that I was on a clock before I tired out from aura use, I made the first move and dashed forward, but just before I was upon him, the both of us feinted in different directions at the same time.

    Noticing that we both did the same thing, we came to a stop and looked at each other. As I looked at Walt, I don''t know why, but the ferial grin he had on his face was giving me the creeps.

    This time it was Walt who charged, and knowing I could not waste my time and energy dodging forever, I also charged straight at Walt.

    As we were charging towards each other, I had no intention of directly clashing with someone who was way above my weight class, so at the last moment, I adjusted my course to Walt¡¯s side and slashed.

    Walt easily blocked my blow as he very obviously let himself get carried off by the force of the blow. When he landed on the ground, he landed feet first and crouched down like a frog while tracking me with his eyes.

    Then he pounced at me with so much force that the ground beneath Walt¡¯s previous location was now a small crater.

    This hit was not 1 I wanted to take, even on a good day. So I jumped out of the way and let Walt make another crater upon stopping.

    Soon this turned into a cat-and-mouse chase as Walt chased me around while the both of us were leaving divots in the ground from where we pushed off.

    Every now and then we would clash, and naturally, I was at a disadvantage as Walt threw his weight around and knocked me around the area.

    Seeing that the flow of the fight was not going to change in my favor if things continued, I decided it was time to pull off some tricksies fighting moves I had been practicing ever since Dad handed my ass to me in an aura sparring match.

    As we charge each other to clash again, I decided to pull off a move that may not be seen as very knightly.

    Just as we were about to clash, I turned my feet sideways and dug them into the ground, this resulted in dirt and dust being kicked up towards Walt, after kicking up the dirt as cover, I rolled to the side as I heard the woosh of Walt¡¯s sword fly past where my body was previously.

    As I stayed still and quiet in the dust cloud, I heard the shuffle of footsteps and dashed toward the source of the sound, and when I saw the silhouette through the dust cloud, I struck¡­ only to be met with the feeling of hitting wood.

    The impact of my aura powered blow created a small shock wave that blew away the surrounding dust, revealing Walt blocking my blow from an awkward angle. Then he turned toward me with an even more manic grin.

    ¡°What Fun! I did not expect dirty tricks from a noble kid¡­ I approve!¡± Walt said, shouting the last part to Albert who was still jotting on his clipboard. ¡°But I think it is time to bring this test to an end.¡±

    The next thing I knew, I had the air forced out of my lungs as I was flying backwards. After rolling a few times on the ground, my sight rested on Walt with his leg sticking out behind him. I think he just donkey-kicked me.

    As I tried to catch the breath that was forced out of my lungs from that kick, I heaved and coughed a little as I drew in my breath, and when I opened my teared-up eyes from my coughing, there was a pair of boots before me.

    When I looked up, Walt¡¯s wooden blade was pointed at my neck, ¡°Do you yield?¡±

    I always found it to be kind of a stupid question to ask someone with a blade to their neck, but I suppose it is just a formality.

    ¡°I yield.¡± I said as I dropped my sword.

    It was then that Albert came over to me while clapping, ¡°Well fought young Ironcrest¡­ well fought. We have come to the end of your tests, please do rest up and we will inform you of your results tomorrow.¡±

    I nodded and thanked the 2 Royal Academy staff before being led off by the maid on standby to get freshened up.

    If Albert and Walt¡¯s expressions are anything to go by, my tests should have gone well.

 Chapter 48

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    After leaving the training ground, the maid on standby led me to a guest bedroom with a bath attachment, and it took me some time to reassure the maid that I did not need help bathing myself before she left me alone.

    When I turned around from fending off the maid, I noticed that my luggage was in the corner of the room, and there was a fresh set of my own clothes laid out on the bed, ¡°Damn¡­ The Earl¡¯s servants really know their stuff when it comes to service.¡±

    I made my way to the attached bathroom to undress for a hot bath that was already drawn for me. It was only as I took off my top that I noticed the bruises and abrasion I received during my spar with Walt.

    Of all the injuries I sustained, the main ones were the palm of my right hand from holding the sword that absorbed all the blows, my left arm that I used to brace the flat of my blade against to withstand Walt¡¯s blows, and finally, the foot shaped bruise imprinted on my chest from Walt¡¯s donkey kick.

    Fortunately, this was just a test, so I am pretty sure Walt was holding back alot to avoid killing me. And as I reflect on things, I am once again slapped with the reality of the difference in weight class, because as skilled as I am with weapons, Walt was competent and well-drilled in the basics to defend himself from my attacks and counters, while using his weight, reach, and speed advantage to kick my ass.

    He also has something that is hard to train naturally, which is real life and death combat experience. And the only way for me to experience that, is to have more assassins try to gank me, have bandits attack me, or be sent to the front lines when I get older. None of which I want to experience, yet no amount of training with Dad will help because I subconsciously know he is not trying to kill me.

    But all that is besides the point, now is the time to soak myself in this hot bath, relax for a bit, and get clean before meeting Dad.

    As I slowly lower myself in the hot bathtub, I wince at the fresh abrasions I received during the spar when they come in contact with the water, but I eventually submerge myself for a bit before my head emerges to rest on the lip of the bathtub and I close my eyes to enjoy the warmth.

    ***

    In a larger guest room somewhere else in the Earl¡¯s estate, Albert was sitting at a finely carved table while going through and marking some papers.

    And while Albert was marking, Walt was sitting on a nearby couch with his legs resting on the tea table in front of him, and from the restless tapping of Walt¡¯s shoe on the tea table to a tune only Walt knew, it was evident to Albert that Walt was bored, but it was not his job to keep his escort entertained, it was his job to invigilate, mark, and uphold the rigorous standards of the Royal Academy.

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    As he closed the folder that contained the exam papers of Luke Ironcrest and put it in his done pile, Walt asked him a question, ¡°So how did the Ironcrest kid do for his written exam?¡±

    Without breaking his stride, Albert took the next folder of exam papers to mark while answering concisely, ¡°Other than a few spelling mistakes, all his answers were correct. Especially the math test.¡±

    Walt gave an impressed whistle, ¡°That''s some smarts for a kid his age. How about his spell-slinging? The kid any good?¡±

    At this question, Albert¡¯s quill, which was dipped in red ink for marking, stopped above the paper in front of him as he thought back to Luke¡¯s magic practical test.

    After replaying the whole test in his mind, Albert said, ¡°He demonstrated his spells with a good level of control¡­ too good now that I think about it.¡±

    This caught Walt¡¯s attention as he took his feet off the tea table and sat forward to pay closer attention to what Albert was saying, ¡°Oh? How so?¡± Walt asked.

    Albert reached into a suitcase by his side, took out a folder, and opened it, ¡°In his file, it was declared that he had learned magic up to 2nd circle spells but was unable to cast without chants and gestures.

    But what I saw suggests otherwise. If what the file on him says is true, he would have at least slightly mispronounced some part of the chant, or slightly fumbled some of the gestures, causing some instability in the spells he cast, but I saw none of that. In fact, he was doing it like he was just going through the motions. At this point, I am even starting to suspect that he cast the spells mentally and did not put any intent into his chants and gestures.¡± Albert mused as he stroked his short, well-maintained beard.

    Hearing Albert¡¯s doubts about his assessment of Luke Ironcrest, Walt leaned back into the couch as he thought back to the fun bout with the Ironcrest kid, after replaying the fight in his mind a few times, Walt looked at Albert and said, ¡°Now that I think about it, I think I experienced something similar while sparing with that kid.¡±

    This broke Albert out of his pondering, ¡°Indeed? I did notice he lasted a lot longer compared to other testees. How was sparring with the young Ironcrest like, all I got out of you was that he passed.¡±

    Walt just grunted as he took a few seconds to put his experience into words, ¡°Well¡­ Fighting him made me feel like I was fighting them assassin types, he very quickly knew he would lose terribly in a direct clash, and resorted to tricks, misdirection, and using the environment to try and find an opening to strike. And it pains me to say he almost got me a few times. If we had the same build and speed, I would have lost the match. He may not be holding back on me like he was with you on magic, but for someone at his age fighting as he does, not to mention he learned aura recently. At this point, we got a bloody genius on our hands, and just imagine when his father teaches him stamina manipulation¡­ Do you think we will get a bonus for being his examiners?¡±

    Albert chuckled at their luck, of the many Royal Invigilators spread throughout the kingdom, it was his fortune to encounter such a talented young man who could be a great asset to the kingdom in the future, he also chuckled at Walt¡¯s last question and replied, ¡°I doubt it, but I am sure it would look good on our records.¡±

 Chapter 49

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    After getting clean, I went to meet Dad and told him about the written and practical exams. After a while of talking, a maid knocked on the door and informed us that the Earl would not be able to join us for dinner, so we made our own plans, Dad brought me to the city to do some sightseeing and asked the locals for recommended eating spots, because no matter the years Dad spent being a noble, hearty rustic cooking always had a special place in his heart, and after trying the beef stew and freshly baked bread from a highly recommended tavern, I had to agree.

    After dinner, we did more sightseeing and even visited a night market. Before it got too dark, we took a carriage back to the Earl¡¯s keep and went to bed.

    The next day, Dad and I were invited to breakfast with Earl Beaufort. Waiting at the table were Earl Beaufort and his wife, and also Albert Cox the Royal Invigilator.

    The Earl waved us in and servants guided us to our seats, ¡°Good morning, come, take a seat, I am sure you are excited about the results of your tests yesterday, but we can get to that after breakfast and some tea.¡±

    After breakfast, small talk, and morning tea, the Earl brought the conversation to Luke¡¯s results and handed the time over to Albert to let everyone know the results. Albert unfurled a scroll and read out, ¡°Luke Ironcrest, it is my pleasure to inform you that you have passed the written and practical tests with distinction. So without further ado. With the power invested in me by the authority of the crown as a Royal Invigilator, you, Luke Ironcrest, are exempt from attending lower education and will start your higher education at the start of this school year in a few weeks.¡±

    There was a small round of applause from those present, pats on the back from Dad and the Earl, followed by more offers of engagement with one of the Earl¡¯s granddaughters, and the offers became more aggressive when the Earl¡¯s wife, Margaret Beaufort, started extolling the beauty and virtues of their granddaughters.

    Dad and I were only saved by Earl Beaufort, when he noticed we were well and truly cornered by his wife¡¯s insistence. The Earl changed the subject while giving us an apologetic smile and his wife got the hint and backed off.

    ***

    After breakfast, we escaped the gaze of the Earl¡¯s wife who was looking at me like a betting man inspects a racehorse. I can almost feel her eyes boring into the back of my head as we left the room.

    But once we left the room, me and Dad were free to do more sightseeing to kill time until the banquet. And that''s exactly what we did until the night of the banquet.

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    Before we left for the banquet, which I was not really looking forward to, I was faced with the torture of social expectations in the form of clothes. To be more specific, button-up collar clothes, I hate them, I hate the stuffy feeling of them¡­ the only times I had to wear them were at weddings and job interviews, and now, even in another world, I cannot escape their grasp.

    I ended up in a navy blue formal garb with filigree stitchings and the Ironcrest family crest on my left chest.

    The Ironcrest¡¯s family crest which was given to Dad by the king, is a stylized mountain in the background with a downward-pointing sword superimposed over the mountain, the sword denotes the Ironcrests belong to a knight or martial house. Mage houses have a staff superimposed. And if a house produces reputable spellswords, who excel in martial and magical abilities, for 2 generations, the house that produces them will have earned the crossed sword and staff superimposed over their family crest. This is very prestigious, and many families try to attain this honor.

    The clothes look nice but I still dislike the button-up collar¡­ but I will bear with it for tonight. I wonder who even packed this in my luggage in the first place.

    I later met Dad in the hallway and we made our way to the banquet. When we arrived, we were let into the reception area there were already many people milling around and socializing as waiters went around with drinks and hors d''oeuvres.

    When I turned to Dad, I saw him looking around until he locked eyes in a direction and brought me along. Naturally, he gravitated toward the more martial and militaristic nobles that he recognized.

    He introduced me to some of his noble buddies and then asked me to go mingle with the other kids while the adults talked.

    The first thing I did was go to the bar and get myself a drink, fruit juice, and hold the ice, I can cool it down myself just by holding it.

    After taking a few sips, I turn around to scope the layout of the room to see how I should approach this whole mingling and socializing nonsense, don¡¯t get me wrong, I am not some kind of antisocial person, I just don¡¯t want to get involved in kiddy drama, especially noble kiddy drama.

    As I look around at the many kids my age talking with each other in their cliques, I notice 3 distinct types of people, 1st are the noble kids who like me, are wearing fancy clothes with their house crest proudly displayed on their garb.

    Next are kids in fancy clothes but without any house crest, and they are busy schmoozing with the noble kids, I can safely assume that these are merchant kids.

    The last group of kids was off in a corner of the room avoiding the noble kids, they were all wearing the Royal Academy uniform, and after looking at their faces, I recognized a few of the faces in that group, they were the commoner kids who pass the exams and got their scholarships.

    I sighed as I got up from my seat to do what is expected of someone of my station, I am most likely not going to like it, but I will at least need to introduce myself to the noble kids first before I go and try to hang out with the commoner kids.

    I just hope they are not as spoilt as I think most noble kids are.

    My sister turned out fine, it should not be that bad for the rest of these kids¡­ could it?

 Chapter 50

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    As I walked between the few cliques that formed and eavesdropped on their conversation, I was pleasantly surprised to find their topics of conversation not as snooty as I thought they would be.

    Sure, there were a few ¡°my father can beat up your father¡± or ¡°my family is richer than your family¡± conversations going on, but most of them were what 1 would expect from 8-year-old kids.

    Most of them were discussing what their favorite hobbies were, stories they read, or plays they watched, some of them were showing off trinkets or ceremonial weapons like the dagger I have strapped to my waist, and a few of them were even showing off what spells they could perform. This put some of the serving staff on edge, making some of the guards or butlers come over and ask them to avoid using magic, or at least avoid letting their spells fly.

    I guess they are too young to have any real prejudice ingrained in them yet, but they are still keeping away from the group of commoner scholars, and maybe the commoner scholars are doing the same and keeping away from the nobles. But it seems the merchant kids do not have the same aversion as some of them are also mingling with the commoner kids.

    As I browsed my options of groups to join and introduce myself, I locked on to a group of 3 boys who for lack of a better description, looked more¡­ academically inclined. In not so pleasant terms, nerds.

    I can do nerds, hell, most of my friends from my previous life were massive nerds, the only difference was they leaned too hard into larping and ended up in plate armor and whaling on people with blunt weapons.

    As I got closer to listen in on their current conversation, I quickly realized 1 of them was talking about bugs, more specifically, his beetle collection. I did not expect a noble kid to like playing with bugs.

    The 2 other boys were listening with rapt attention at the novel idea of keeping and raising bugs to watch them fight. While beetle boy was captivating the attention of the other 2 boys with the exploits of his prized beetle named Harris, I slowly and silently inserted myself into their triangle.

    It took a solid 10 seconds before 1 of the other boys noticed a larger than average 8 year old standing beside them and let out a little squeak, this made the other 2 boys do the same and did a small hop away from me.

    I chuckled internally and apologized, ¡°Sorry for frightening you, I was just interested in the stories about your beetles.¡±

    Hearing what I said, beetle boy puffed up his chest and huffed, ¡°I was not frightened¡­ just¡­ just surprised!¡± the other 2 boys echoed their agreement.

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    Deciding not to argue semantics with children, I stuck out my hand for a handshake, ¡°Hi, I am Luke Ironcrest, what are your names?¡±

    After some hesitation, beetle boy took the lead and shook my hand, ¡°I am Rupert Lockewood, this is Victor Thorne and Geoffrey Stirling.¡±

    While shaking their hands, I looked at their family crest. Rupert and Geoffrey are from mage houses while Victor is from a knight/martial house.

    After shaking their hands, I kind of drew a blank of what to talk about next, and as I wracked my brain for a subject to bring up that would interest 8 year old boys, the 1st thing that came to my mind and escaped my mouth was, ¡°Have any of you ever been out on a goblin subjugation before?¡±

    Nice work me, real smooth¡­

    But after giving it a couple of seconds for my words to massage their way into their minds, and excited looks to appear on their faces, it seemed like I made the right move.

    Like most young boys, even the more academically minded, they seem to be drawn to stories of battle and glory. So I told them a heavily edited version of the exploits of subjugation force to not scar their young minds.

    After I was done sharing my story, Victor complained, ¡°I wish my father allowed me to tag along to watch, but he says I can only come with him when my sword forms are ¡°up to standard¡±, he only takes my older brother along.¡±

    I tried to cheer him up and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder, ¡°Cheer up, there will always be monsters around to fight, no need to rush.¡±

    After my icebreaker story, it was easy to flow into the conversation. That''s 1 thing I like about kids, it is so easy to get along with them.

    After we spent some time chatting, other noble kids approached our group to say hi to the 3 boys in my group. Turns out most of the noble kids know each other from previous meetings that I did not attend due to my¡­ condition.

    I shook some hands and introduced myself to the noble and merchant kids, then nodded along as they talked about the latest fads that were coming from the capital, but soon got bored.

    As I looked for a way out, I saw 1 of the girls who was a merchant kid keep looking in the direction of the scholars in the corner, so I inched away from the group I was currently listening to and subtly moved towards her.

    When I was right beside her while she was looking at the scholars, I asked, ¡°What are you looking at?¡±

    She released a soft squeak as she turned to me and got her composure back, ¡°I¡­ emm¡­ my father asked me to make friends with everyone, and I was waiting for the right time to go over and greet that group, oh, I am Rowena by the way, you are Luke Ironcrest, correct?¡±

    ¡°I am, nice to meet you.¡± I said as I shook her hand and continued, ¡°I was also thinking of going over and greeting them, shall we go together?¡±

    As etiquette classes and especially Mum drilled into me, when escorting a lady, offer your elbow. So I did. Rowena blushed and held my arm as we started walking away from the group, I noticed a few glances but nobody said anything as they went back to their own conversations.

 Chapter 51

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    As I closed in on the scholars with Rowena in arm, we were easily spotted by the group we were approaching. One of the scholars prodded another with his elbow and jerked his chin in my direction to the other around.

    Once the rest of the group noticed us, they became very quiet.

    The silence was a little awkward, but I powered through and approached my target to break the ice. My target was one of the kids who I traveled here with. What was his name again? Jim?... Jon?... oh right, it was Joe.

    ¡°Hey there Joe.¡± I casually waved at him, making those around him give Joe looks.

    ¡°Mi''lord¡­ what can I do for you?¡± Joe greeted and asked nervously while bowing.

    To that, I just waved the formalities off, ¡°None of that now, we are here to socialize and are soon to be schoolmates.¡± Although we will most likely not run into each other due to me studying higher education. ¡°By the way, I see a few of our traveling companions are missing. How many of you made it?¡±

    Joe gave a somewhat sad smile and answered ¡°Only 6 of us Mi''lord.¡±

    There he goes with the ¡°Mi''lord¡± thing again, but I am not going to make a fuss over it, ¡°A pity, I wished more of them could make it. But from what I heard, all is not lost, apparently, some nobles and merchants are willing to give out scholarships for those who failed.¡±

    This was when Rowena decided to insert herself into the conversation, ¡°Oh yes, my father is 1 of the merchants that offer scholarships if they work for him when they graduate.¡± Rowena said bubbly.

    Hearing this, I saw some of the tension and anxiety leave some of the scholars¡¯ faces, no doubt relieved that their family or friends still had a decent shot of bettering their lot in life for themselves and their families.

    Thinking of what to say to ease along the conversation, I decided on a subject all the scholars faced in the last few days, ¡°So¡­ what were the exams like, what were you tested on?¡±

    After fidgeting abit, Joe replied, ¡°Emm¡­ we were given tests for our letters, math, and general knowledge.¡±

    Huh¡­ so they do not get any tests for etiquette or combat? I suppose that is what they are going to school to learn, and those who were rich enough to buy their way in like merchants and nobles are expected to know that shit already.

    ¡°So, were there any challenging questions?¡± I asked as a way to keep the conversation going, and as Joe talked, the other kids around started loosening up and joined in the conversation.

    The conversation soon sidetracked into their families'' work, most of them were the kids of farmers, while others were the children of small shops or various tradesmen. The conversation soon led to their everyday lives, their hobbies, and the work they helped their families out with.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    After hearing a few stories of what a normal kid goes through day to day, one of the braver kids asked me, ¡°So what do you do every day¡­ Mi''lord.¡±

    After giving it a few seconds of thought, I answered, ¡°Well¡­ because I will be protecting and managing the barony when I grow up, I spend most of my time reading and training my swordsmanship and magic, every now and then I would follow my father on monster subjugations when they are reported.¡±

    And yet again, I light up the imagination of the kids with the mention of ¡°Monster Subjugation¡±, but just as I was about to start my story, there was the ring of a handbell, followed by a butler inviting everyone to the dining room.

    As we entered the dining room, which in reality was a big ass ballroom, there were a few long tables joined end to end stacked with food and drink awaiting us.

    Servants soon came and guided us to what seemed like predetermined seats, which led to me sitting directly beside the Earl followed by my father. Naturally, this caused a lot of very obvious sideways whispering while eyeing me. I could even hear the adults asking who me and dad were.

    Before the the whispers went on for too long, all the guests were seated, and Earl Beaufort stood to address everyone, ¡°Welcome ladies and gentlemen. We are gathered here to celebrate the future of the kingdom, as these children take their first steps into the Royal Academy, it is important to¡­¡±

    After the first minute of the Earl¡¯s speech, I zoned out. By the time he was done, I swear he went on for 10min straight of extolling the virtues of the Royal Academy and the bright future of those attending it, and when I thought he was done, he followed up with another 10min of sharing anecdotes of his time at the Royal Academy. He was only stopped when his wife cleared her throat disapprovingly, after which the Earl wrapped up his speech and invited everyone to eat.

    After dinner, everyone went back to the reception area to continue mingling. I made my way to the scholars and continued my story of the goblin subjugation and was met with rapt attention as I recounted my experience.

    As I was talking, I could practically feel the stares of the surrounding nobles and trusted servants who escorted their young lords here. I purposely changed my position to lean against the wall to see what was going on and search for my Dad.

    When I spotted him, instead of the small group of military types he was talking to before dinner, he was surrounded by other nobles and merchants trying to strike up conversations with him, the other thing I noticed was other nobles and servants talking to the kids they were in charge of while eyeing me, then sending the kids in my direction.

    I wanted to run away, but I already met eyes with the kids who were making their way towards me and their parents, so I just stayed put and waited to see what they wanted and how this would play out.

    The first noble kid that arrived before me. He then asked a question with all the subtlety of a rooster announcing the sunrise, ¡°How come you got to sit next to Earl Beaufort during dinner?¡±

    Upon the question leaving the boy¡¯s mouth, I could see in my peripheral vision some of the nobles and servants facepalming.

    I had kind of an idea of why me and dad was seated next to the Earl, it was most likely to show others of the closeness or importance of our relationship, and maybe to keep the low level flies away from me. Or it could be just the Earl staking his claim on me.

    Either way, it was going to get bothersome for me, but only the future would tell if this was a blessing or a curse.

    As for the answer to the boy who blurted out the question and all those around who were eavesdropping, I gave my most innocent and naive looking face I could manage and said while shrugging my shoulders, ¡°I don''t know¡­ maybe because I complimented his beard?¡±

    After I said that, I could see the interest die in the eyes of the adults and they all turned their gazes at Dad.

    Sorry old man, you are going to need to take 1 for the team and fend off these busybodies.

 Chapter 52

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I managed to get through the banquet mostly unmolested by the prying questions of the adults using their kids as proxies and waited for Dad to finish politely fending off the last of the busybodies trying to strike up a conversation.

    When I made it back to my room, I freed myself of the restrictive formal clothes and slumped into bed, my social batteries well and truly drained.

    ¡°At least I do not need to dress so formally for a long while.¡± I mumble into my pillow.

    Well, better get to sleep, at the end of the banquet, the Royal Invigilator said there would be a briefing for the new students tomorrow after breakfast. Dad said it was more for the benefit of the scholars, but attendance was still compulsory.

    The next day at the briefing, it was as Dad said, Albert, the Royal Invigilator laid out the basic rules of the Royal Academy, what to bring, what would be provided, and that we would be departing to the academy the day after tomorrow. After a short session of Q&A, we were dismissed to make our own preparations.

    Before we stepped out of the briefing room, Dad along with a few other nobles and noble¡¯s stewards called the scholars they brought along with them, Dad gave the kids from our territory some money to purchase anything they needed and sent some of our escorts to chaperone the kids to make sure they don''t get mugged or cheated.

    As we left the room, I could not help but notice around a fifth of the scholars were not called by anyone, ¡°Dad, how come those kids were not called by anyone?¡± I said as I gestured to the leftover kids.

    To this, Dad just sighed, ¡°Son, when me and these other nobles here give some allowance to the scholars that we recommended, it is not a mandated thing, some of the nobles just send their subordinates to drop the children off here and leave.¡±

    To leave a bunch of 8 year-olds alone like that, that is some highly irresponsible shit right there, and it''s also saddening. I want to help them, but in the end, it is my father who holds the money, and I do not want to guilt him into doing anything.

    Just thinking about it makes tears well up in my eyes. As I feel my lips tremble, I hear Dad sigh and walk over the the leftover kids.

    He gathers the children, asks them who was the noble who sent them here, then opens his coin purse to give them an allowance and asks them to join the group we sent out.

    When Dad comes back to my side, I hold his hand, ¡°Thanks, Dad.¡± I said while giving his hand a little squeeze. My only reply was a manly grunt.

    ***

    We spent our remaining time touring the city and shopping, I did not have much I needed to purchase, so we shopped for some souvenirs for the family. We got a nice comb for Mum, some fancy sweets from a famous confectioner for the kids, and some foreign tea leaves for my grandparents.

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    On the day of departure, after a hearty breakfast, all the students were assembled before 15 identical large carriages, they did not seem to be very luxurious, but it looked like they could fit 10 kids each comfortably.

    Arrayed around the carriages was a platoon of 30 knights baring the Earl¡¯s coat of arms and 2 supply wagons.

    After a short speech from the Earl, we were promptly assigned our carriages, and our luggage was loaded up on the roof of the carriages.

    As we were about to board the carriage, I noticed something, all the noble and merchant kids had their luggage on the roof of their own carriage, which was to be expected, but the scholars who barely had any luggage with them seemed to have the same amount of luggage as we do.

    That was when I saw the last scholar¡¯s carriage roof being loaded up, all their meager amount of luggage was being loaded into the center of the roof, and then surrounded by fancier-looking luggage cases before having a tarp laid over it. So now when I look at the convoy as a whole, all the carriages look about the same.

    Seeing this, I begin drawing some parallels to a VIPs motorcade in my previous life, have identical vehicles travel in a convoy so any attacker does not know which car the VIP is in, or in my case, which carriages hold the noble kids.

    When we were done and all loaded up, I looked out the window to see a man in fancy armor, who I assume was the lead knight in charge of our security, was passed a cup with sticks sticking out the top.

    After giving the cup a good shake, he picks out a stick and shouts, ¡°13, go.¡± then he picks out another as 1 of the carriages starts to take off, ¡°1, go.¡± and my carriage starts taking off. ¡°Ah, I see, randomizing the order of the convoy.¡± I mumbled to myself.

    ¡°What?¡± 1 of the noble kids beside me asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, don¡¯t mind me.¡± I replied.

    I sure hope all this security is just a precaution.

    ***

    Sometime after the convoy to the Royal Academy left the Earl¡¯s keep, a disheveled man entered a rundown bar in a back ally and made his way to a corner table that was currently occupied by a shady-looking man who was currently being entertained by what most would describe as women of ill repute.

    ¡°Friend! What news do you bring?¡± the shady-looking man said as he copped a feel and squeezed 1 of the women who elicited a playful moan.

    The disheveled man, void of any expression, took a seat and eyed the 2 women the shady-looking man had his arms around.

    Catching his meaning, the shady-looking man grumbled, ¡°Fine, you girls go get yourselves a drink, me and my friend here need to have a word.¡±

    Once the 2 women sauntered off out of earshot, the disheveled man spoke, ¡°15 identical carriages, 2 supply wagons, and 30 knight escorts. All going to the Royal Academy.¡±

    The shady-looking man took a sip of his drink and said, ¡°Oh, is it that time of year again? I will run it by the boss and see how he wants to go about it. Any other info? How many noble and merchant kids are in that caravan?¡±

    The disheveled man took out a small slip of paper and slid it over, ¡°These are the are just the houses and companies we have confirmed the kids are from, the rest are just commoners.¡±

    The shady-looking man gave the paper a read and released an impressed whistle, ¡°Wow, looks like quite the haul this year, may even be worth the risk.¡±, he then reached under the table and tossed a small pouch over the table which the disheveled man easily caught.

    After checking the contents of the pouch, the disheveled man nodded and exited the bar.

    The shady-looking man downed the rest of his drink and stood up, ¡°Well, better go inform the boss.¡± then he looked at the 2 women he sent to get a drink beckoning him over suggestively, ¡°Maybe after 1 more drink.¡±

 Chapter 53

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    It has been 3 days since we left the Ravenmoor for the Royal Academy and I already wish for death.

    I am stuck in a carriage with 9 other noble boys who have never ridden anywhere for long periods of time without having their every wants attended to.

    The first day of travel was kind of alright, everyone got to know each other and talked the time away, I even taught them a few car games to pass the time.

    By the time we arrived at an inn that had already been pre-booked for us, my social batteries were dead and quickly dived into my assigned bed while trying to ignore the kids I was bunking with that somehow still had things to talk about after a whole day of travel.

    The next morning, the knights that were escorting us had the pleasure of rousing and rounding up all the kids to freshen themselves up, and eat some breakfast before getting back on the road. After watching them try to wrangle over a hundred 8 year olds, I do not envy their job.

    It almost matched the expression of herding cats, especially when it came to most of the noble kids and some of the merchant kids, the commoner kids who seemed to be used to waking early in the morning were almost done with breakfast before the first noble kid came down to the dining area.

    Excluding me of course, I knew that if I dawdled in bed, I would be waiting in line for everything. So at the rooster¡¯s first crow, I hopped out of bed, did my business, and was down with the first few commoners to get some chow. After which, I decided to hop inside my carriage and open a book while waiting for everyone else.

    The second day of travel was much more subdued due to the noble kids still being slightly cranky from waking up so early, it was a peaceful time for me to do some reading. It was from late morning onwards that they started getting restless and started making noise, prodding and irritating each other to entertain themselves and get a rise out of each other, it even got to the point that I had to stop a slap fight that broke out.

    The next day, those 2 boys engaged in the slap fight acted like nothing happened at all and were playing with each other, but that meant that they and every other boy were rowdy while I tied my jacket around my head to muffle their ruckus while trying to get some reading done, but try as I might, I could not concentrate with all the noise in the background.

    Then all of a sudden, the carriage came to a stop. Have we arrived at the next stop yet? I thought we would only reach in the evening.

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    As I unwrapped my head, the muffled sounds of children were silenced and I could hear the shouts of the knights outside barking orders.

    ¡°Bandits! Defensive formation!¡± I heard the shouts coming from outside.

    I turned to see my previously rowdy travel mates huddling on the floor of the carriage as close to the center as possible and as quiet as I had never seen them before. Curious to see these bandits causing the hubbub while my hearing was muffled, I peeped through the gap in the curtain to see knights positioning themselves around my carriage, and beyond that, I could see the silhouettes of people running along the treeline.

    ¡°It seems like all these security precautions came in useful after all.¡± I mused to myself as I gripped my ceremonial knife and hoped for the best while preparing for the worst.

    ***

    A day before the bandit attack, the shady-looking man who received the information at the bar was riding his horse hard through trees and thickets along a somewhat hidden animal trail.

    ¡°Dammit, I should not have let those whores sweet talk me into more drinks, now I am almost late, the boss would tan my hide we don''t have enough time to prepare.¡±

    As the shady-looking man kept riding, he soon came upon a more cleared out dirt road between the trees, that''s when an arrow was shot some distance in front of the horse, followed by a voice from an unseen person, ¡°Halt! Who goes there?!¡±

    The shady-looking man pulled hard in the reigns of the horse, brought it to a stop, and shouted back, ¡°Tim, s''that you?¡±

    After the shady-looking man replied, a man in a tree peeked around the trunk, ¡°Jay? How¡¯s you been man, yous been away for quites awhile.¡±

    Jay just waved, ¡°Yeah, catch up with you later, I got some important news for the boss.¡±

    Jay was then waved through and rode for a few more minutes before coming upon the ruins of what once was a small keep, but now was mostly reclaimed by nature. The holes in the stone walls were patched up with wooden logs and there was not even a gate where a gate should be, just 2 men guarding the entrance.

    Soon Jay entered the main hall where there were around 50 men eating, drinking, gambling, and even fighting with each other. And at the end of the hall was a tall wooden throne draped in fine fabrics and adorned with the skulls of both man and beast.

    Sitting on said throne was an absolute unit of a man with a scantily dressed woman in his lap feeding him some food.

    After dodging a thrown mug and evading a man being tackled by another man, Jay arrived before the throne and took out the paper with the information he bought, ¡°Boss, I think we got quite the haul this year. Bunch of noble and merchant brats on the way to the Royal Academy.¡±

    The boss, who was locally known in the area as Dome Dasher Dom, took the paper and gave it a read. After he was done, a feral grin came to his face as he suddenly stood up, making the scantily dressed woman fall to the ground with a yelp.

    ¡°Gather the rest of the boiz, we got a big score coming in!¡± Don shouted to those in the hall and was replied with cheers as the men ran out the hall to spread the word and make preparations.

 Chapter 54

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the knights surrounded the caravan, a bunch of bandits walked out on the main road, behind the tree they felled to block the road.

    Once they were in the middle of the road where the knights were staring them down, a big man from the bandit¡¯s side who was at least a head taller than the tallest man in the area stepped forward. On his face was a predatory grin and resting on his shoulder was a humongous mace.

    ¡°Well, well, well. What do we have here? A bunch of shiny knights playing escort for some noble brats, I see.¡± the large bandit said and was joined with snickers from the lackeys the large bandit brought along.

    That was when the lead knight came forward on his horse, ¡°You dare bar our way?! You do know whose banner we march under right?¡±

    The large bandit chuckled and reapplied, ¡°Sure I dare, there are more than a hundred of us and only 30 of you knights, and yes, I know you work for the dipshit Earl Beaufuck or whatever.¡±

    ¡°Insolent Brute!¡± one of the knights shouted in outrage at the insult to his lord¡¯s name and was about to charge but was stopped by a raised hand from the lead knight.

    Hearing the knight¡¯s outburst, the large bandit broke out in laughter, ¡°HAHAHA¡­ you knight types are sure easy to piss off¡­ insolent brute¡­ such a pansy comeback, you are not even trying to be creative and just stating the obvious. Am I Insolent? Of course I am. Am I a  Brute? Most definitely! Or my name is not Dome Dasher Dom!¡±

    At the proclamation of his name, the surrounding bandits cheered and the knights looked at each other in recognition of the name.

    Recognizing the knowing looks of the knights and the carriage driver of the 1st carriage, Dom continued, ¡°Oh ho, I see some of you know who I am, so I will make this quick. Hand over those noble brats and there will be no need for bloodshed, you have my word they will not be harmed, it''s not good for business after all. We would not want to lower the value of the hostages now would we?¡±

    While Dom was monologing, the lead knight was giving out hand signals behind his back to the rest of his men, and the message was passed along down the caravan line.

    ¡°You will get nothing, so this is your last chance, move out of the way or die.¡± the lead knight said while drawing his sword.

    To this, Dom released a dramatic sigh, ¡°And here I thought you would be smart with your fancy education and whatnot¡­ but it seems yo-¡±

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    ¡°NOW!!¡± the lead knight bellowed as he cut Dom off midsentence.

    Upon the lead knight¡¯s signal, a couple of things happened at once. The first thing that took place was the carriage drivers reaching under their seats to touch a metal plate and inject mana into said metal plate. From that spot, a previously invisible array lit up, and a blue-tinted translucent dome that encompassed the horse, carriage, and the nearby knights snapped into place.

    The next thing that happened was 7 knights, which included the lead knight, did a calvary charge toward Dom and his 2 accompanying men. And as strong as Dome Dasher Dom was, he was not confident in going head-on against a calvary charge, so he and his men jumped out of the way while shouting, ¡°Kill¡¯em!¡±.

    While everyone had their attention on the calvary charge, 2 of the knights dismounted and followed just behind the calvary charge while clad in aura. As the calvary charge jumped over the fallen tree to scatter the bandits, the 2 aura-clad men ran with their bodies close to the ground and practically tackled the fallen tree off the road to clear the road for the carriages.

    As the carriages start to move forward, bandits rush out from the treeline on the sides of the road to try and board the carriages, while arrows are fired at the knights and carriage drivers.

    As the carriages started picking up speed, the first of the arrows aimed at the knights and carriage drivers made contact with the blue-tinted translucent dome and uselessly plinked off what was now revealed to be a mana shield.

    Next came the charging bandits, at first they took swings at the mana shield which bounced their weapons off, that was until one of the more grizzled bandits took slow test pokes at the mana shield and their weapons managed to go through after some slight resistance.

    Seeing his weapons go through the mana shield, the grizzled bandit shouted, ¡°It is a projectile barrier, swing too fast at it and your weapon will bounce! Walk through the barrier first, then attack!¡±.

    Unlike a mana shield that can block anything from passing through, a projectile barrier only blocks objects impacting it at a certain predetermined velocity, but unlike a mana shield, it takes a fraction of the mana to operate and maintain.

    As the bandits pushed their bodies past the projectile barrier, the knights on the other side of the projectile barrier took the opportunity offered to them by the slight resistance of the bandits pushing through the projectile barrier to slay any bandits within their reach. But the knights were not the only thing they had to contend with, they had support in the form of the 2 carriage drivers per carriage acting as crossbowmen shooting anyone who got through the projectile barrier.

    Soon, the convoy got to a speed where the bandits on foot could not follow. ¡°Where are the riders?! Chase them down!... and somebody get me my horse!¡± Dom bellowed.

    After a few minutes of getting out of range of the bandit¡¯s arrows, the knight acting as rear guard picked up the sound of many hooves beating on the ground, but when he looked back, the road was clear, it was only when he looked into the woods that he saw silhouettes of horsemen  riding through the woods and slowly merging into the main road, so he shouted forward to warn the others, ¡°We have around 50 riders coming from our rear!¡±

    After the message reached the front, the lead knight shouted, ¡°Men, equip spears and follow me. We will show these fatherless whore-sons what a real calvary charge looks like!¡±

    The knights cheered and all but 3 knights, whose horses got killed while removing the roadblock, collected spears from the supply wagons and charged the chasing bandits.

 Chapter 55

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the knights charged toward the bandits in formation, they looked at the disorganized group of rabble scum on horseback approaching them with contempt.

    At the last moment before the clash, the lead knight shouted, ¡°Break!¡±, and the knights flared their auras and raised their spears as they split into 2 columns flanking and funneling the bandits between them.

    As the 2 forces passed each other, bandits were skewered like shish kebabs, spears were shattered, and men were thrown off their horses, some of the knights were also unhorsed by lucky strikes, and in 1 case, a bandit jumped from his own horse to tackle a knight, naturally when they got to the ground, the better-trained knights handled themselves a lot better and managed to stay alive.

    After the first pass, what was once around 50 bandit riders, were now less than 20, while the knights were all still alive, if not a bit roughed up, and some of those who were unhorsed had broken limbs from bad falls.

    Knowing that they would not survive another clash with the knights, the bandit riders scattered into the woods.

    After taking a head count and seeing that everyone made it out alive, the lead knight asked, ¡°Did anyone see the bandit leader, Dom?¡±

    This was replied to with a chorus of nos.

    This reply sent some of the knights into a panic, ¡°If he was not among those riders, then Dom must have gone directly after the convoy while these riders were a distraction!¡±

    The lead knight nodded and said, ¡°Indeed, we must return with haste. But worry not, the convoy is in good hands, the Royal Invigilator is no pushover.¡±

    With that, those who still had their horses rode hard after the convoy while, those who were unhorsed or had their mount killed, wrangled a ride from the horses of the now-dead bandits who were milling around.

    ***

    It has been a few minutes since I saw the knights ride off with spears in hand and I think we made enough distance from the bandits, so the worst should be behind us.

    As I slumped back into my seat, I saw my fellow carriage mates were still huddled on the floor, ¡°Come on guys, the bad guys are gone now, the knights have chased them off.¡±

    Hearing my voice, they asked me in their scared voice, ¡°Really?¡±, and just as I was about to say ¡°yes¡±, the voice of one of the coachmen shouted, ¡°Contact right!¡±

    I quickly pulled back the curtain a little to see what they were on about and saw about 15 horsemen merging into the main road from the woods.

    When these horsemen, who I now know are the same bandits, came fully out of the cover of the trees, all the coachmen readied their crossbows and took aim.

    That was when all the bandit riders coming toward us flared their aura. It may not be a refined aura, but that did not mean they could not deal some serious damage while they had it activated.

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    Usually, it would be a stupid idea to ride just next to a carriage while the coachmen were armed with crossbows, but the bandits did not fear being fired at because the projectile barrier was in place, the barrier works both ways, no projectiles in or out.

    And from the sound of laughter and taunts the huge rider in the lead was making, I can safely assume this is the so called Dome Dasher Dom that has been blessing us with his monologues before shit went down.

    Too bad I am in the 2nd carriage, or else I could have had a front-row seat to the play of generic bandit boss threatening knights.

    As the bandits got on the main road, they seemed to ignore the other carriages and headed straight to the front where I was.

    As the bandits were about to catch up to my carriage, there was a flash, followed by a sharp cracking sound, and I saw a bandit at the tail end of the rider collapse together with his horse.

    Immediately the warnings of ¡°Mage!¡± were sounded off by the bandits and I saw Dome Dasher Dom pull hard on the reigns of his horse and make his way to the back of the convoy where I presume the lightning came from, ¡°Half of you with me, kill that mage!¡±.

    On Dom¡¯s command, 6 other riders broke off and rode off beyond my sight, all I could hear after that was the sound of spells going off. As for the mage, it could only be Albert the Royal Invigilator that could be slinging spells of this caliber back there, I sure hope he does not get overrun, but I guess that is what Walt is there for, to act as a meatshield.

    When I turn my attention back to my side, I noticed shit is going sideways, 5 of the bandits went for the first carriage in front of me while 2 bandits went for my carriage.

    These bandits are what I guess would be elites of this bandit gang, because they seem to know how to handle invading projectile barriers without getting killed.

    Instead of just pushing through as the other fodder bandits did, these men pushed their weapons through first so they could swat away the crossbow bolts while the rest of their bodies and horses came through.

    When the bandits got through the projectile barrier, the first thing they did was throw knives and other projectile weapons at the coachmen and knights, before jumping and latching on to the carriages.

    Unfortunately, my carriage did not have any knights and only had the crossbow-wielding coachmen to defend us, which naturally was not ideal.

    From my point of view through the small window used to communicate with the coachmen from inside, I saw 1 of the coachmen slump over motionless with a knife embedded in his head while the other seemed to have a knife in his right arm and shoulder.

    As the injured coachman raised his crossbow to aim at the bandit that was now above him, the crossbow was kicked out of his hand, and was about to get stabbed by a raised dagger.

    In order to save the coachman, I did not bother wasting time casting circle spells, so I pointed at the dagger-wielding bandit and used a wind element Molecular Magic to shoot a compressed air blast.

    The air blast ripped a hole through the front-facing window, carrying along with it glass shards and wooden splinters to smash into the bandit.

    The force of the blast sent the surprised bandit flying onto the road directly in front of the horses pulling my carriage, where he was trampled and my carriage bounced twice due to the ¡°speedbump¡± we just ran over.

    ¡°TOMMY!!¡± I hear the other bandit bellow as he takes the other bandit¡¯s place in front of the driver¡¯s seat, ¡°You little bastard! I¡¯m gonna kill you!¡±.

    As the bandit shouted his threat, I noticed he had his mace already cocked back, ready for a swing, and that there was a high concentration of aura contained in the head of that mace.

    I quickly ducked down as the bandit swung his mace. After I looked up from the loud crash made by the strike, I noticed the whole driver seat was missing, coachmen and all, it was like a giant took a bit out of the corner of the carriage.

    But as impressive as this bandit¡¯s mighty mace strike was, I had no time to appreciate its destructive power. There was a bandit in front of me that meant to do me harm. That means it''s GO TIME!

    I draw my ceremonial dagger, get into a ready stance, and flair my own aura.

 Chapter 56

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the mace wielding bandit winds up for another swing, I aim to end this quickly and leap forward with my dagger aiming for his neck.

    From the look on the man¡¯s face, it was clear that I took him by surprise when I activated my aura and attacked him while winding up for another attack.

    As me and my dagger got closer to his neck, I saw the panic in his eyes as he brought his offhand to defend himself.

    When my knife bit into flesh, it was not the flesh of the bandit¡¯s neck, but the underside of the forearm. Just as I was about to pull my dagger back, the bandit overpowered me and grabbed my upper arm despite the action of doing so was ripping a bigger hole in his arm.

    Now that I was being held off the ground by my arm, I saw the bandit¡¯s mace starting its swing toward me.

    Seeing death approach me, I did the first thing that came to mind to stop the mace from hitting me. With my free hand, I grabbed onto the bandit¡¯s arm that was holding me for leverage and used my smaller child-sized build and lighter weight to my advantage.

    I swung my body up and kicked the wrist of the hand that was holding the mace, effectively stopping the momentum of the swing, and then I used my other leg to kick the side of the bandit¡¯s head.

    That kick I delivered was a thing of beauty, I felt the hefty impact and a nice sounding thud as I saw the bandit¡¯s head snap to the side, but something felt wrong. I then noticed the bandit¡¯s grip on my arm suddenly became tighter and when I looked back at the bandit, his head which was snapped to the side slowly turned back toward me to show me the results of my attack.

    When the bandit faced me, the only thing I saw was a rage-filled face, a red mark from where I kicked him, and a split lip.

    The next thing I knew, I was swung up in the air, and then violently swung back down on part of the broken carriage roof. I was easily smashed through the room and ended up impacting the inside of the carriage.

    When I was slammed down, the wind was literally knocked out of my lungs. Then I felt my body yanked up in the air and slammed 2 times more before I was released to slump to the floor of the ruined carriage. The only thing that saved my life was my aura which was keeping me in 1 piece and the wooden floor that gave way upon impact.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    As I opened my eyes and focused my swimming vision on the bandit before me, I saw him grab my dagger that had impaled his forearm and yanked it out with a pained grunt, ¡°The boss may be mad at me for a while after I do this, but I¡¯ma gut you like a fish with your own knife boy. This one¡¯s for ol Tom you just killed, and also for this nasty cut you gave me.¡± the bandit said while gesturing to his left arm he pulled my knife out form.

    He then proceeded to kick me in the stomach which sent me flying toward the other kids who ran to the back of the carriage. As I was trying to catch my breath and sit up, a boot slammed down on my neck and held me to the floor, ¡°Hold still, I got to cut those little tendons of yours so you can¡¯t run away, then later, we can have all the time in the world for me to properly gut you, but before I gut you, who knows, we could have some fun¡­ I have not had young boy in a long time, and especially not noble boys¡­ This would be good.¡± the bandit said with a sadistic look in his eyes.

    He then grabbed my left hand, I started struggling while trying to remove his boot from my neck with my other hand, and just as the perverted bastard was about to bring the blade to my wrist, I tucked my leg in, angled my lower body upward, focused all the aura I could manage into my right leg, and kicked up with all my might¡­ right between the bandit¡¯s legs.

    And once again, for the 2nd time in my life since the assassination attempt, I felt something pop from the impact of my kick that launched the bandit a meter away from me.

    The bandit actually landed well on his feet, but the expression on his face was as still as stone, for about 5 seconds before he dropped my dagger clutched his crotch, and released an agonizing roar of pain to the heavens. As the roar continued, it progressively turned into a more and more high-pitched shriek as the bandit collapsed face down to the ground.

    Seeing my opportunity, I forced myself to my feet and hobbled my battered and bruised body toward my knife, and without hesitation, picked it up, plunged it into the back of the bandit¡¯s neck, and ripped it out the side of the neck.

    As blood spurted out of the blood-gurgling man and the pool of blood got larger, I backed off and slumped down into 1 of the seats.

    After the bandit stopped twitching, I shakily stood up, walked over, spit on the bandit''s corpse while cussing it out while giving it a kick, ¡°Fucking degenerate¡±, then I went to see how the other fights were going.

    As I got to the roof of my carriage to see what''s up, I saw that the carriage in front of me was still in combat. Both coachmen for the first carriage were nowhere to be seen, 1 knight was slumped over unmoving on top of the luggage and the other 2 knights looked a bit scuffed up but still fighting, and the previously 5 lively bandits were now 4 injured bandits, 1 of them even had and crossbow bolt in where his kidney should be, so I at least know the coachmen went out fighting.

    It was then that I heard another explosion and looked behind to where Dom and his men went, what I saw was 1 of the rear carriages with its projectile barrier deactivated and 2 men on the carriage roof fending off bandits.

 Chapter 57

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Back at the 2nd last carriage of the convoy, 3 men were fending off 5 bandits.

    Those 3 men were Albert Cox the Royal Invigilator, Albert¡¯s escort, Walt, and lastly, the last surviving coachman on the carriage who had a hatchet embedded in the left side of his chest, he was breathing hard and wheezing from a punctured lung, but still relentlessly shooting and reloading his crossbow.

    The only reason the coachman was not dead was because the bandits had bigger problems to deal with than some rando plinking them with bolts they could easily defend, they were more worried about the mage that killed 2 of their group when they got close.

    The 4 bandits on horseback were doing all they could to keep the mage busy, because if they did not, their boss, Dome Dasher Dom, who managed to board the carriage, would be open to magical attacks from the mage. But even as Dom was able to board the carriage, he was unable to get to the mage because he was currently engaged in combat with the mage¡¯s escort, Walt.

    At this point in the fight, Albert was in a continuous loop of whack the mole with the 4 bandits on horseback trying to stop him from casting spells.

    Whenever Albert tried to aim his spells at Dom, the bandits would either try to close in to attempt a boarding action or disrupt his casting by throwing projectile weapons at him, and they had all run out of projectile weapons to throw, all except 1 bandit.

    It was not a projectile weapon per se, but it did have incredible reach. The 1 bandit that was the biggest threat to Albert at the moment was a bandit who was swinging an aura-infused meteor hammer over his head.

    The attack rate of the meteor hammer may not be very fast, but Albert was forced to expand a spell he readied just to play point defense with the incoming steel ball, lest he be battered by the meteor hammer. And whenever he cast a spell to try and take out the meteor hammer wielding bandit, the other 3 bandits would step in to play defense by manifesting their aura beyond their weapons and slashing at the incoming spell.

    In terms of energy expenditure, this was a very expensive way for aura users to counter spells, especially for low level aura users like them. They had to expand a significant amount of stamina to manifest their auras beyond their weapons, only for the aura and spell to consume each other out.

    At this point, Albert was very tempted to just throw down an Area of Effect (AOE) spell to wipe out the bandits, but he knew he was too close, so any AOE spell would most likely damage the carriage he was on and send them all flying. The other reason he was tempted to cast an AOE spell and be done with it was because as skilled as his escort was, Dom made up for his lack of skill with sheer brute strength and ferocity and was actually pushing Walt back toward Albert.

    Albert needed to find an opening to get an advantage to help Walt and he needed to find 1 soon.

    ***

    As i looked at the 2 battles, 1 just in front of me and the other many carriages down the line, I thought about which fight i could make a difference in. i looked at the fight on top of the carriage in front of me and quickly ruled it out.

    Why? Because there is no way in hell am i going to try to jump to a carriage 10 meters ahead of me, especially with its projectile barrier up, my whole body will most likely be considered as a projectile. I would most likely be bounced off or slowed down, fall to the ground, and promptly run over by the rest of the convoy. Besides, those knights seem to have things well in hand¡­ i think.

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    I looked behind to the other battle to see how i could help.

    4 riders seem to be harassing Mr Albert who in turn cannot support Mr Walt¡­ Hmmm¡­

    As i pondered on what i could do, an idea came to mind. Maybe i can disrupt the riders.

    Because i have many witnesses around, i use circle magic to try and cast an earth spike in the path of the bandit riders, but as my spell travels through the air, it impacts the projectile barrier before it hits the ground and fizzles out. ¡°Huh¡­ i suppose it''s called a projectile barrier for a reason, and most spells are projectiles i suppose. Let''s see if i can cast it within the barrier.¡±

    I looked directly off the side of the carriage and noticed I have slightly over a meter clearance between the barrier and the side of the carriage, so I decided to just have my spell just make a small hump, no worse than a mild speed bump in my previous world, and it works! The earthen bump passes through the barrier without issue.

    So if I want to create obstacles to obstruct and distract the bandit riders, I have to either disable this barrier so I can cast outside the barrier, or get the horses to shift out of the convoy line and cast the obstacles directly behind the carriage.

    I looked to the front of the carriage to see that along with the driver seat, the reins were also missing. Did that perverted bastard bandit destroy that too? Or did the reins just fall between the 2 horses?

    It was when i was looking for the reigns that i saw a glowing metal plate where the driver¡¯s seat once was. When i went over to it, i saw it was a simple Trigger Array that acted like an on/off switch.

    I filled my eyes with mana to see the array traces and followed the array line to the center of the carriage. Unfortunately, like most commercial arrays being sold, the array was scrambled to obscure its formation, but that was not important at the moment.

    What was important was turning off this barrier, and by the principles of deduction, this array was the only magical thing that could be producing the barrier, so i went to the metal plate and injected some mana into it.

    As soon as i did that, the projectile barrier dissolved and i leaned over the side of the carriage to get a better look at where i was casting.

    I started raising spikes, pillars, low walls, and even made some small ditches with a thin brittle crust of dirt to cover them.

    After i was done, all i could do was wait and watch, i may need to do more casting.

    ***

    Albert dodged to the side as the meteor hammer shot through where his head used to be and retaliated with a fire bolt he had on hand, which was promptly slashed out of the air by 1 of the bandits.

    ¡®Shit! Their timing and coordination are getting better as the fight goes on, if this goes on any longer, i may be forced to cast an AOE spell and pray the carrage and all within holds up.¡¯ Albert thought to himself.

    It was then, at the corner of his eye, that he caught the sight of earthen obstacles being raised in the path of the bandit riders. ¡°Clever boy¡±, Albert whispered to himself as he changed tactics.

    Instead of spells that had the firepower to take the bandits out should they hit, Albert started rapid firing weak 2nd circle spells at all the bandits in a bid to keep their attention off the incoming obstacles.

    After fending off and being hit by a few of the weak spells, the bandits decided to tank the spells and only defend their faces and horses, they did not even need to manifest their aura beyond their weapons to slash these spells without worry.

    Sure enough, the bandits were too focused on the spells flying at them to notice the obstacles in front of them. So when the first set of obstacles came up, their horses swerved from side to side to try to negotiate the obstacles, making them drastically lose speed and fall behind the convoy.

    The moment they were a safe distance behind the convoy, Albert was done weaving a 4th circle spell and cast it.

    ¡°Burning Impact!¡± Albert shouted as he pointed at the bandit riders who just got out of the obstacles. A brightly shining ember flew out of his finger and shot to the ground in front of the bandit riders. After a second of nothing happening, the ground suddenly erupted in an explosion of fire and dirt.

 Chapter 58

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Now that the distractions were eliminated, Albert turned his attention back to the fight between Walt and Dom.

    But after seeing his men being obliterated, thus leaving him to face a skilled fighter with a mage to backup said fighter, Dom knew it was time to cut his losses and run. ¡°Heh¡­ you got me good. I know when I''m beaten.¡±

    Albert who was readying a spell shouted at Dom, ¡°Then lay down your arms and surrender or els-¡±

    ¡°Oh, I''ll lay down my arms alright.¡± Dom interrupted, ¡°Right on your precious cargo!¡± with the speed and power of his aura enhanced body, Dom swung his huge mace down on the roof of the carriage he was riding on.

    The aura empowered blow pulverized the luggage cases they were standing on and proceeded to sunder the carriage they were standing on. As the carriage began to fall apart, the cries of the children from inside the carriage were rising in increasing alarm, and from the hole in the roof 4 well dressed children could be seen, 1 of them screaming in pain due to a mangled leg from the aura impact that pierced the whole carriage.

    ¡°Hehe, you can save those noble brats or chase me. I doubt you can do both.¡± Dom said before jumping off the crumbling carriage, tucked in his limbs, and hit the ground tumbling. When his momentum stopped. He got up and rushed into the woods.

    As for Albert and Walt, what Dom said was true, they really did not have time if they wanted to save the children.

    Albert turned to the carriage behind them and shouted, ¡°Turn off your barrier and move to the next lane, prepare to catch the children!¡± then he turned to Walt, ¡°Throw the children to the rear carriage!¡±

    The moment the rear carriage turned off its projectile barrier, Albert cast and channeled the spell Air Cushion, directly in front of the rear carriage¡¯s coachmen.

    Air Cushion is classified as a utility spell that does as its namesake, it creates a cushion of air to negate or slow the momentum of any object that comes in contact with the spell. Usually, this spell would be cast at a set location and the effect of the spell would last a few seconds, but in Albert¡¯s current situation, the set location he had to cast the spell was mid-air in front of a moving vehicle. This means Albert had to manually maintain the spell to make sure it stayed in front of the coachmen.

    The moment the spell was up, Albert shouted ¡°Now!¡±, and Walt who was already next to him with 2 kids tucked under his arms, threw the children one at a time at the shimmering spell in front of the rear carriage¡¯s coachman, he then jumped back down into the quickly falling apart carriage scooped up the last 2 children and jumped over to the other carriage under his own power.

    Walt then dropped the kids and reached out his hand and shouted to Albert, ¡°Jump!¡±.

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    Just as the carriage started to collapse under his feet, Albert released his control on the spell and jumped for Walt¡¯s outstretched hand. Walt caught Albert and brought him onto the carriage. When all the children were alive and accounted for, Walt looked around for any more threats.

    What he saw was the first carriage still under attack, he then turned to Albert and said, ¡°The first carriage is still under attack, i will go ahead.¡±

    Walt then jumped off to the carriage in front of him. Just as he was about to come in contact with the projectile barrier, he kicked off of it and made use of the repulsing force of the barrier to project him to the next carriage to do the same thing.

    He did this all the way until the 3rd carriage where he made an especially powerful jump off of the projectile barrier, over Luke¡¯s carriage, and onto the top front of the 1st carriage¡¯s projectile barrier where the horses were.

    From there, he made a few small bounces off the front of the barrier to kill his speed and was eventually slow enough to slowly pass through the barrier and stand on 1 of the horses¡¯ backs.

    The moment Walt got into the barrier, it was all over for the 4 bandits, they were pincer attacked and Walt made short work of the bandits.

    After making sure there were no more threats left to face, the knights slowed the 1st carriage to a stop and the rest of the convoy followed suit.

    When they came to a complete stop, Walt and the remaining knights went to take stock of the survivors and make sure no more of their charges were injured.

    When Walt looked into the 2nd carriage, he saw bloodied Luke standing above the corpse of a bandit with his dagger drawn and ready to defend himself.

    After looking at Luke and then down at the bandit with an obvious stab wound at the back of his neck, Walt already knew what happened but he had to ask anyway, ¡°You did this?¡±

    Luke, recognizing a friendly face, eased the tension in his body so much that even Walt and the children behind Luke could clearly see it, ¡°Yeah¡­ the bandit got angry at me after I blasted his friend off the carriage and got him trampled.¡± Walt just nodded and asked him to stay in the carriage for the moment.

    A few minutes later as Walt was checking on the other carriages, he noticed the knights who went to engage the bandit riders return.

    After the knights returned, they were briefed on the attack on the convoy and Dom¡¯s escape.

    Deciding to take a short break, half the knights went to sweep the surroundings for any remaining bandits while the other half went to set up a camp and retrieve the fallen luggage from the destroyed carriage.

    After a break to rest the horses, redistribute the now carriageless children into other carriages, and provide medical attention to the child with a mangled leg, they decided to push the horses and double time it to the next stop and make a report of their encounter with Dome Dasher Dom.

    ***

    Off in the woods, Dome Dasher Dom was running towards his base. ¡®Now that this raid failed, it is time to get out of this county, lay low, and build up another gang.¡¯ Dom thought to himself as he entered his base to gather what valuables he could carry.

    Once he entered his hideout, what he found was what remained of his riders and those who were shooting arrows at the ambush point, and none among them were his elites, ¡®Damn it, that must mean the rest of them are dead, now only the trash remains¡­ but I can work with that.¡¯

    Dom then gathered up all the men, ¡°Alright boys, We fucked this one up, so we are going to need to move before the Earl does a proper sweep and runs into us. So strip everything of value and let''s go! I want to be out of here within the hour! Move!¡±

 Chapter 59

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    A few things happened after reaching the next stop, which happened to be a small town, in the late afternoon. The first thing that happened was the kid who had his leg mangled was rushed to a proper healer in the town to get fixed up.

    Next was getting the whole convoy accommodated in what few inns the town had, and from what I overheard, Albert and the lead knight, who I now know is named Sir Isaac, decided that in light of recent circumstances, they would extend our stay in this town for an extra day.

    After being assigned my room, I went up and plopped down on my bed. A few seconds later, I heard my carriage mates timidly come into the room.

    I noticed that ever since we continued our journey after the bandit attack, they had been distancing themselves from me, I sometimes even noticed them try to avoid eye contact with me and steal glances when they think I do not notice.

    It did not take a Ph.D. in psychology to know what was up, these kids were scared of me. I pretty much offed 2 bandits right in front of them, these noble kids most likely have never seen a chicken get killed, much less another human, and my bloodstained sleaves were definitely not helping the situation.

    I have no idea how to ease their fear of me. The best idea that comes to mind is to mind my own business and hope they come to realize that I mean them no harm because the silence from them is getting awkward, I wanted silence to do some reading in peace, but I did not want the silence to be because of fear.

    To help the situation, I promptly changed into a fresh set of clothes and handed my bloodstained clothes to the inn¡¯s staff to launder, with a tip of course.

    Just as I got settled into a comfortable position in bed, there was a knock on the door followed by 1 of the escort knights entering the room and asking, ¡°Are all of you from carriage 1?¡±

    After we all nodded in the affirmative, he asked us to follow him. We headed out of the inn and all the way to what I assume is this town¡¯s mayor¡¯s office.

    Once we entered, we were led to a waiting room that already had 4 other boys inside, 1 of the boys was the one who had his leg mangled and was sitting there with a splint tied to his leg.

    A few minutes after we were seated, a knight would come and call 1 of us out of the room every few minutes. When it was my turn, I was called out and escorted to a conference room where Albert, with his writing materials, and the lead knight, Sir Issac, were sitting at a sizable table.

    After I was asked to sit, I was then asked about the sequence of events from my perspective from the moment we were stopped on the road by the bandits.

    I quickly realized that me and the boys in the previous waiting room were all from carriages that were directly attacked and that Albert and Issac were doing some kind of After Action Report. And since I had witnesses, I could not say that the 2 bandits that boarded my carriage, killed 2 coachmen, and smashed away part of my carriage simply disappeared or killed themselves.

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    So I decided to go with the pure facts and omit whatever I was not asked. By the end of it, it was confirmed that I did use a wind spell to throw 1 of the bandits in front of the horses to get trampled, the only lie that I told was that I used the 3rd circle spell Air Impact to do it and not my own molecule magic.

    Other than that, I told them exactly what happened during my fight with the bandit I stabbed in the back of the neck. After I was done with the interview, I was sent back to my inn where I got something to eat and turned in for the night.

    ***

    When the interviews were done, Albert put down his quill and stretched. Once he was done stretching, Issac said, ¡°I need a stiff drink¡­ and it seems you need one as well.¡±

    The moment those words left Isaac¡¯s mouth, a side door opened to reveal Walt, ¡°Did someone say drink?¡±

    A few minutes later, Issac, Albert, and Walt were in a booth at a small but cozy upscale bar, ¡°Nice place, how did you find it?¡± Albert asked Walt who led them here.

    ¡°Oh, while you guys were setting the brats in, I was scoping out the local watering holes.¡± Walt replied with a cheeky smile.

    Albert slammed his fist on the table, ¡°You lazy bastard! Is that the reason you frequently disappear at our stops? You were bar hopping? I thought you were settling the children in other inns!¡±

    Walt waved his hands dismissively, ¡°Pfft¡­ don¡¯t make such a big deal out of it. Besides, if I did not do it, I would not have found this nice little bar.¡±

    After some back and forth and some beers, Issac asked, ¡°So what do you guys think of that Ironcrest boy¡­ if the rumors from the maids back at the Earl¡¯s place are to be believed, Earl Beaufort seems to have an eye on him and even offered one of his granddaughters to try to bring him into the family.¡±

    ¡°Aye¡­ that kid¡¯s a sharp one alright, especially at his age. Had to become a bit serious when smacking him around during his evaluation.¡± Walt slurred from 1 too many beers.

    ¡°Indeed¡±, Albert said, ¡°I did some digging and found out his family was 1 of those targeted by assassins during the scuffle with the Valorhelm Dominion a few years ago¡­ by seeing his actions, I can only assume that seeing assassins attack him and his family may have motivated him to excel at such a young age. I can only hope he does not overdo it and break himself, it would be a waste of such great potential.¡±

    Issac sighed, ¡°Kids should not be witnessing death at such a young age, and he has already witnessed it on 2 occasions. On top of that, the report you are going to send is definitely going to garner him a lot of attention, the good and the bad kinds of attention. I don¡¯t suppose you can omit Ironcrest¡¯s involvement from your report?¡±

    Albert shook his head, ¡°If it was just the 3 of us witnessing everything, sure. But there are multiple witnesses, especially the children, and I don¡¯t trust them to keep their mouths shut, if word on the street differs from my report and it is investigated, I will get into big trouble for falsifying my report. Nothing good comes of that. The only upside is that my report will be seen by the Royals first, and hopefully, they will pick up on Luke Ironcrest¡¯s accomplishments and stake their claim on him before the Noble Faction tries anything funny to get their hands on him.¡±

    Issac raised his mug, ¡°We can only hope.¡±

    Albert and Walt raised their mugs and echoed Issac, ¡°We can only hope.¡±

 Chapter 60

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I get up early the next morning, freshen up, and make my way to the inn¡¯s dining area for some breakfast. And with the smell of bacon in the air, I already know it''s going to be good.

    When I reach the dining area I see the usual commoner kids who usually get up early and even a few noble and merchant kids who now get up early to beat the morning rush.

    The only major difference is that they are all giving me a wide berth and some of them give me nervous side eyes, it was mostly the nobles though. The commoner kids seem less on edge but still standoffish.

    I can only guess this means my carriage mates have spread the word of me killing the 2 bandits that tried to hijack my carriage.

    I doubt it is good for my reputation, but what can I do? The best cause of action still stands, keep quiet about it and let the rumor blow over. I am sure that eventually some exciting event will come along and make these kids forget I exist, it is not like these kids would be my classmates anyway.

    I quickly finish up my meal and let 1 of the escort knights know that I am going out to do some sightseeing in the town. Because the knights were also on chaperone duty, the knight I approached made a call for anyone else who wanted to join.

    Naturally, from the silent treatment I was currently receiving, nobody wanted to come along with me. Seeing that nobody wanted to come along, the knight gave me sad eyes like I was some kind of poor abandoned child.

    I just rolled my eyes at him and waved off his concerns before heading off into town, I have a full day to stretch my legs before we travel again and I intend to use every minute of it.

    After asking around, I got directions to the local food stand scene and made my way there.

    After getting something to munch on, I started browsing the local shops. There were the standard groceries, blacksmith, tailor, and other such shops one would expect to see in a town.

    Seeing nothing I really needed, I decided to visit the local bookstore to see what they had in stock, maybe I could pick up a book if it was cheap enough, without Dad around, I cannot afford to splurge, and books are 1 of the expensive things in this new world. mostly because everything is still written by hand.

    As I entered the bookstore, the bell attached to the door chimed, and an old man reading at the counter looked up from his book.

    After seeing me, a well-dressed young man with an armored knight by my side, he quickly connected the dots and rushes from behind the counter to greet me, ¡°Welcome young master, how may I help you on this fine day? Is there any particular book you are looking for?¡±

    I just gave the man a nod and replied, ¡°There is no need for assistance, I am just browsing for anything that catches my interest.¡±

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    ¡°Understood, if you need any assistance, you need only ask.¡± The old man gave a small bow and went back to his reading.

    As I browsed, I skipped the ¡°Fiction¡± section because at this point, I had come to terms that I was living out a life that would be seen in said fiction, so why would I read about other fictions when there is more to learn about this world.

    As I skimmed through the titles in the ¡°Non-Fiction¡± section, I saw many of the books I have read over the years and some. There were biographies and memoirs of famous long-dead people, history books of places and their politics, and books of science and nature, but I use the word science rather loosely because the book says the world is flat.

    Once I reached the ¡°Reference¡± section, the only thing I found different from other bookstores around was a book on the local flora in the area, which was not much help, so I skipped it.

    That was when I noticed a box in the corner with a ¡°Clearance¡± sign and a bunch of books haphazardly jumbled inside. Deciding that I had some time to see what made these books so bad they would be put on clearance, I went to take a look, could have some funny titles on them.

    And I was right, there were some dumb titles in here, like ¡°A Thousand Ways to Cook a Squirrel¡± and ¡°Jokes to tell your wife: Just Try to Survive After Doing So¡±.

    I did get a chuckle out of a few other titles, that was until I found a rather raggedy and scuffed up looking book at the bottom of the box.

    At first, I thought I was just seeing things, but as I got a better look at the book, I recognized the characters on the book cover, it was in fucking Chinese!

    After dredging up from my mind the language I have not used in so many years since my father from my previous life left China with us, I read the title ¡°Travels of Zhang Jun¡±

    I opened the book and on the first page, there seemed to be a message to the reader.

    ¡°To whomever may find this journal,

    My name is Zhang Jun, son of Zhang Wei & Li Ying, and I find myself far removed from my homeland.

    In an effort to document my experiences and preserve a connection to my past, I have decided to start this journal. Through these pages, I hope to capture the experiences and challenges of my journey, as well as share reflections on the parallels between my old life and this new one.

    If you are reading this, I would most likely have gone to meet my ancestors, so I ask a small favor of you. Please, if you have the means, endeavor to pass this journal along to my parents in the city of Chang''an, in the province of Shaanxi. Please give them my apologies for not being a filial son, and that though I am far from home, my heart remains steadfast in its love for them.

    In the pages that follow, I will recount my adventures, share my observations, and perhaps even offer insights gleaned from my experiences.¡±

    I flipped through the pages and saw that the journal was full, does that mean there is a 2nd volume of the journal out there?

    I dig around the ¡°Clearance¡± box once more to confirm if there is a 2nd volume, but there is not.

    Sad, but at least I have something interesting to read.

    To think, there may be more people like me out there who came from Earth, and seeing the writing style and the use of classical Chinese characters, this Zhang Jun guy might be from ancient China. So how old is this book? Is it going to disintegrate if I handle it too roughly?

    I carefully took the journal to the store owner and bought it for slightly under its weight in paper, which was dirt cheap, but I bet he was glad to get rid of the book with an unknown language from his store.

    With book in hand, I go back to the inn. There is much reading to be done.

 Chapter 61

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    We are on the last leg of the journey to the Royal Academy, and with such interesting reading material, I am thankful for the silence in the carriage, but not the reason for the silence.

    What I read of Zhang Jun¡¯s journal before I went to bed last night tells of his arrival in this world. Unlike me who was born into this world, Zhang Jun came into this world as he was. As for the how, he thinks it has something to do with what he calls ¡°Divine Lightning¡± which struck 1 of the bandits that had ambushed his group.

    The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and opened his eyes to a new sky in the middle of nowhere, just him, the clothes on his back, his satchel still slung on him, and his Jian (Traditional Chinese double-edged straight sword) by his side.

    As I read through the first few days of his journey, besides being slightly poisoned from eating a few of the local fruits and berries to stave off his hunger, he also ran into and fended off what he described as ¡°Demons¡±, but from the rough sketches of said ¡°Demons¡±, I could only assume they were just wandering goblins and kobolds.

    Reading a few days into Zhang Jun¡¯s journey, I got to read about his life before coming to this world.

    Zhang Jun was the 3rd son of a small escort family, he never had a talent for fighting like his bothered, so he decided to take another path and take the imperial exam so he could become a government official.

    He was on the way home from taking the exam with a bunch of other scholars when it started raining. When the group''s guide was leading them to some shelter, they were ambushed by bandits.

    Zhang Jun did what he could to defend himself with the sword his father gave him and what basics of swordplay he had learned over the years, but that did not help him.

    Some people were just born without the talent for fighting. Ironic, coming from an escort family whose job it is to fend off the very bandits that were accosting him.

    As he was knocked to the ground by a bandit and was about to be dealt the killing blow, he saw a flash of light from the stormy skies above and opened his eyes to this new world.

    After getting out of the goblin and kobold filled woods, Zhang Jun found a dirt road and followed it until he found a small farming hamlet.

    When he first encountered the inhabitants of the hamlet, he was met with suspicion, but after both sides having no idea of what the other was saying and seeing the haggard state Zhang Jun was in, an old couple in the hamlet decided to take Zhang Jun in.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    After a lot of miming, they came to an agreement that Zhang Jun would help them with their farming, and in return, the old couple, whose names were Ben & Irene, would teach him the local language and provide him provide house and board.

    2 months into the journal, when Zhang Jun was more familiar with the language, he started dating his entries using this world¡¯s dating system instead of just counting the days, and included the kingdom he was in at that time. The Duplis Kingdom, which if I remember my geography lessons correctly is on the far east of the continent, if I want to visit there, I will have to travel through a few small kingdoms to get there.

    For me, that earliest dated entry stated is around 64 years ago, if Zhang Jun is still alive, he is an old ass man by now.

    After the first few dated entries, Zhang Jun did not have any entries for his journal until a year later when he stated that he was leaving the hamlet to try to make his way in the world by going to a town to look for work.

    Upon his travels, Zhang Jun entered one of the larger villages close to town to rest for the night. That was where he first encountered the magic of this world.

    He was amazed. A common looking man conjuring fire to light a stove, a woman innkeeper summoning the wind to blow away the fallen leaves from her inn¡¯s entrance, a boy pulling water out of thin air to wash his little sister¡¯s hands, it turned his understanding of this new world upsidedown.

    These acts of ¡°Sorcery¡± as Zhang Jun called it, were straight out of myth and legend that he thought only grandmasters of martial arts or enlightened beings could achieve, not these average looking people. Zhang Jun even noted down that he suspected that he may have stumbled into a village of hidden masters or something.

    That gave me a hearty chuckle, which spooked my carriage mates.

    The only thing that snapped Zhang Jun out of his wonder, was observing that besides the 0-circle magic people were using to do chores, everything was¡­ mundane.

    When he mustered up the courage to ask 1 of the people who were so casually ¡°practicing sorcery¡± about the spells they were casting, he was called something to the effect of being worse than a country bumpkin for not knowing of the existence of magic and pointed Zhang Jun in the direction of an old retired mage.

    From there, he got acquainted with the retired mage and was taught the basics of 0-circle spells, beyond that, the rest of the pages were filled with Zhang Jun¡¯s illustrations of the hand gestures used for casting, the spelled out chants, and even a failed attempt of translating the chants into Chinese.

    By the time I got to the last page of the journal, it was clear that Zhang Jun had struck a deal with the retired mage to learn magic because, after the notes in regards to 0-circle spells, the rest of the journal was filled out with 1st-circle spell and magic theory.

    After finishing the journal, I lean back in my seat to think of what I am going to do when I graduate. I know I am expected to do as most nobles do, get married, pop out some kids for Mum, Dad, and my grandparents to spoil, and manage the territory, but I hope I would have a few years to go galavanting around.

    Hopefully, I can go abroad to the Duplis Kingdom and try to track Zhang Jun down if he is still alive, he may be from a different time period but we are from the same Earth¡­ at least I think we are, unless there is some multiple Earths shenanigans going on. We should have a lot to talk about, I can even give him spoilers of what happened around the world after he got here, should be a blast.

 Chapter 62

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The day has finally come, the convoy crests the hill, and in the distance, I see the gleaming white walls of the kingdom¡¯s capital, sprawled around the pristine white walls, were acres upon acres of farmland with farmers hard at work in the mid-morning sun.

    As we got closer, I soon realized Dad was right, these walls completely dwarfed Earl Beaufort¡¯s.

    After getting past the main gate, I looked up ahead to see another set of high walls elevated atop a hill, and within those walls was the Royal palace, resplendent and majestic with its tall spires reaching to the sky.

    Just as I was about done admiring the palace, the convoy turned left of the main road and the view of the Royal palace was cut off by the buildings that lined the road.

    It was then that I got to take a look at the people that made up the capital. The majority of them were human, but in the mix were gnomes, halflings, beast folk of all kinds, and even a few of the races that usually prefer to stay in their territory, like the elves to their hidden forests and dwarves to their mountain halls.

    And I know what most people are thinking, gnomes and halflings are basically the same thing, essentially tiny people, but that could not be further from the truth. Though they are similar in stature, they differ in body shape and culture greatly.

    Gnomes in general are more slender in build, and with them being short, it does not speak to physical excellence. But for what they lack in physical might, they make up for with higher than average magical potential and sharp creative minds that sometimes teeter into madness when it comes to tinkering with magic and machines, this usually happens to a good number of gnomish artificers, which leads to many explosions, which unfortunately leads to their insurance premium rates skyrocketing.

    Is it racist that gnomish artificers need to pay higher insurance premium rates? Yes, but as Grandma explained, ¡°In the past, the insurance companies were burned 1 too many times because those insane little gnomes blow something up every few months when ¡°Inspiration¡± takes hold of them. But I made good money when I was hired by an insurance company to set up defensive arrays to contain their mad tinkering.¡±

    I will need to ask Grandma about the rates she charged the insurance companies for her services. If the insurance companies here are anything like those from my old world, they must be loaded, and I could make some serious coin.

    As for halflings, they are slightly shorter than gnomes on average, but unlike gnomes, halflings do not have a knack for magic in general. Sure, they could cast magic like anyone else, but they could not do it for extended periods of time or use big spells due to their innately low mana capacity.

    To make up for this, halflings are stockier and quick on their feet. They usually work as thieves, assassins, spies, or any other sneaky profession.

    Now, one might think having a race of people that excels in doing these less than honorable jobs would be horrible for their reputation as a race, and you would be absolutely correct. But to balance this out, halflings excel in another area that everyone can appreciate.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    The Culinary Arts.

    There is a famous saying in this world, ¡°There is no such thing as a thin halfling chef.¡±, it is a stereotypical saying but true. Food is an extremely important part of their culture, it is so ingrained in their culture that when halfling families, restaurants, or even individual food stands have feuds, they would settle things with public cook-offs and let the public be the judge, and while mages and mage towers horde spells, halflings jealously guard their many family recipes and are even willing to die to defend it.

    Among high nobility, if you did not have at least 1 halfling among your kitchen staff, was your family even worthy of being called high nobility and not some border noble? Git Gud, scrub!

    As for the beastfolk, they were 2nd to humans in population and came in many sub-species, there were dogfolk (they would always insist on being called Wolffolk), catfolk, lizardfolk, and many others, even Emma and her family back home would be classified as beastfolk.

    But besides the usual beastfolk that I was used to seeing, my eyes lit up as I caught sight of something I had only seen in books so far, what could only be theorized as a divergent evolution from the usual beastfolk. Walking on the sidewalk, weaving between the people of the capital that towered over them, were cats, dogs, raccoons, and other normal-sized animals walking on 2 legs.

    Now, when I say normal-sized animals, I mean straight up mean a slightly bigger than avrage house cat walking upright, wearing a cute vest with an appropriate-sized backpack strapped on its back. These cute animals walking around simply called themselves, The Kin, and the only thing that different shades them from their more mundane animal counterparts were slight differences in their skeletal structure to allow them comfortable bipedal walking, and the look of intelligence in their eyes.

    The Kin counted themselves as beastfolk and usually kept to their villages in the woods, only coming into human settlements to trade the bounty of the forest for goods and items they needed.

    As my eyes were glued to the cute Kin, I felt the impulse to burst out of the carriage and kidnap 1 of them to give pets and belly rubs, but I restrained myself, mainly because I caught sight of another 2 races I had not seen in person before.

    Elves, from what I read, they are a somewhat insular people, preferring to stick to their forests to be among nature rather than the bustle of urban sprawl, but there were always a few that felt different and integrated into the wider society, these elves were usually appointed as a diplomat or point of contact by different elf villages.

    Then there were the dwarves. These dwarves, despite their impressive beards, were most likely young dwarves who came out of their mountain to experience the wider world before they returned to their great halls, it is somewhat similar to the Amish¡¯s Rumspringa back in my old world.

    When some years have passed, the young dwarf would return home without question. Rare is the dwarf that stays in the outside world. When asked what they are going home to, no dwarf has ever answered even under the pain of torture or death, even the rare dwarf that stays in the outside world guards this secret dearly while having a look of shame when asked.

    ***

    Finally, after many turns on the road, the convoy of carriages comes to a stop in front of the gates to the Royal Academy at the behest of a guard holding up his hand and shouting ¡°Halt!¡±, but this was not just any guard, this was a fucking gold armor plated Royal Guard that I thought was only seen in the Royal palace.

    But then again, it is the Royal Academy, so I should not be so surprised it is guarded by Royal Guards.

    Albert the Royal Invigilator comes up to the Royal Guards, he showed them something in his hand while speaking to them, and shortly after, we were waved through the gate.

    And so starts my school life¡­ again¡­ wait a minute, I was homeschooled so that does not count, and university does not count either, everyone there were adults by then. So could this count as my 1st school experience as a kid?

 Chapter 63

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After entering the Royal Academy, we were ushered into a lecture theater, given an orientation speech, told we would be starting classes in a week, and then given a tour around the school. After that, we were all issued our textbooks. When it was my turn to collect my textbooks, Higher Education textbooks were stacked atop the Lower Education ones, this drew more attention to me, but after days of getting looks from everyone around, I had learned to tune it out.

    Next was the uniforms for the nobles that were not revived any yet, we got our measurements taken, and given our uniforms, accompanying the uniform, we were issued a red cloak with the Royal Academy¡¯s insignia which denoted us as freshmen. After I received my red cloak and turned to leave and make way for the person behind me, the lady who handed me the cloak said, ¡°Hold on there, young man, I still have something for you.¡±

    I looked back to see the lady looking at a piece of paper, then reached under the counter and handed me a blue cloak that was for seniors in Higher Education. I once again walked away with eyes following me.

    After everyone was gathered once again, we were assigned our dormitories. And from seeing the trend of being assigned things for Higher Education, I was expecting to be placed with the seniors, but I was placed with all the first years instead.

    Just as I was about to leave to collect my stuff to bring to my new lodgings, I was stopped by a lady who I assumed to be one of the academy¡¯s functionaries, she had major no-nonsense secretary vibes, ¡°You Luke Ironcrest?¡±

    I nodded and replied in the affirmative.

    ¡°Excellent. Here is a list of courses and application forms to apply for the courses you want to take in your 1st year of Higher Education, please make your decision and hand in your application forms 3 days before classes start, if you have any questions about the courses, please approach the academy¡¯s guidance counselors. You got all that, hon? Fantastic. Bye.¡±

    As swift as the wind, the lady plopped a stack of papers in my arms and walked away before my brain could catch up to all the words that came out of her mouth.

    After giving the pile of paper in my hand a cursory glance, I shoved it in my suitcase and started hauling my luggage to my assigned dormitory¡­ Note to self, bring about the invention of luggage wheels at the bottom of the bags for easier travel.

    I soon catch up with the tail end of the kids from my batch and catch sight of the dormitory I will be spending the next few years of my life in, and I have to say, it is worthy of being in a prestigious institute such as this.

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    The dormitory stood as an imposing structure, rising three stories tall with a sturdy brick facade that exudes a sense of history and tradition. Its symmetrical design forms a perfect square, with each side adorned with tall windows framed by ornate stone trimmings. The central courtyard, a spacious area left open within the square structure, serves as a focal point, offering a tranquil oasis amidst the bustling activity of the school.

    Upon entering through the grand double doors, I was greeted by a spacious foyer adorned with polished wooden floors and elegant chandeliers hanging from the ceiling above. The walls are lined with portraits of esteemed alumni and past headmasters, adding to the school''s sense of heritage and prestige.

    The ground floor houses various communal spaces, including a large dining hall where students gather for meals, a well-stocked library filled with rows of bookshelves and cozy reading nooks, and a common room where students can relax and socialize.

    We were instructed to leave our luggage in the lobby as one of the academy¡¯s staff brought us on a tour of our dorm. Ascending the wide staircase to the 2nd and 3rd floor, I saw the dormitories, neatly arranged along spacious corridors.

    Going beyond the 3rd floor was the roof which had a lovely rooftop garden with numerous tables, and what looked to be huge¡­ copper tanks? I will ask about that another time. From this vantage point, one can enjoy panoramic views of the surrounding landscape, adding to the school''s picturesque charm.

    Throughout the campus, lush greenery and meticulously manicured gardens enhance the aesthetic appeal, creating a serene atmosphere.

    After the tour ended, we went to grab our luggage and headed to our assigned dorms. That was when I noticed that all the nobles and some of the merchant kids were going in my direction, while all the commoners and most of the merchant kids went in another direction. I later found out that they were heading to one of the two wings of the dormitory that were dedicated to shared rooms, but not me though, all the nobles and rich merchant kids get private rooms.

    As I was leaving, I noticed something, there were no girls anywhere here, and after thinking about it it kind of makes sense. The girls most likely got their own dormitories. There are 4 dormitories like this in the 4 cardinal directions of the campus, mine being the western one, and we can¡¯t have horny hormonally charged teenagers sneaking into each other''s rooms, that''s just trouble waiting to happen.

    Once I enter my room. I see it is outfitted with a comfortable bed, a study desk, and ample storage space, as I look further inside, I find a private bathroom¡­ and is that what I think it is?

    I went inside the bathroom and there it was, a faucet, after 8 years of washing my hands in a basin of water, it¡¯s beautiful. I recently reached out and turned the handle, and true enough, water came out of the faucet¡­ it brings a tear to my eye. It then dawned on me, that the water comes from those copper tanks on the roof.

    If they came up with the faucet, could they have come up with a flushable toilet? I turn around to look for the throne of solitude that I longed for, only to find a chair with a highly polished wooden seat with a hole where my butt is supposed to be, and when I look down that hole, my dreams are shattered, it is just a big bucket that can be taken out by a well-hidden door at the side of the chair.

    One day. One day, I will bring the glory of the flushable toilet to this world.

 Chapter 64

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After checking out my new digs, I took the course application papers and plonk down on the comfy bed.

    Let''s see what courses are available to me¡­

    On the first page, I see a few subjects that are deemed compulsory courses. They were Higher Language Studies, Higher Mathematics, Logic and Philosophy, History and Literature, Basic Natural Sciences, and a 2nd language of my choice.

    On the next page, were courses recommended for those who passed magic and combat practical for Lower Education, which apparently I did when Albert and Walt tested me at the Earl¡¯s place. Recommended causes were Advanced Spell Theory and Advanced Combat & Tactics.

    Besides the mandatory and recommended courses, there were optional courses like Battle Magic, Wards and Shields, Enchantment, Alchemy, Divination and Prophecy, and many others.

    As I read down the list, a few courses caught my eye. The first was what Grandma recommended, Array Architecture. Now, being a noble¡¯s kid, I was in no way aching for money, but if there comes a day that I go off on an adventure, it is an invaluable skill to have instead of selling my sword as a mercenary for some loose change.

    The next course I had an eye on was, Mana Smithing. From what I got from reading the course summary, Mana Smithing falls under the family of Enchanting. Where it differs from regular enchanting which was a lot more flexible and did not require the basics of blacksmithing, was Mana Smithing being inflexible with its base enchantments hammered directly into the metals, which made it almost immune to most forms of anti-magic or disruption spells that regular enchantments are susceptible to, and if there is synergy, it is possible to overlay regular enchantments on a Mana Smithed item for potent results.

    The only downside of this course is that Mana Smithing requires, and I am quoting here, ¡°Copious amounts of mana to practice.¡±, the other downside is that I can only take this course if I have basic knowledge in Blacksmithing and Enchanting, which means at earliest I can take the Mana Smithing course is in year 2 of Higher Education if I take a Blacksmithing and Enchanting this year.

    Now I am sure most people will think I am crazy or stupid for aiming for such a niche course, but I have a dream¡­ not the one about the flushable toilet¡­ but a dream ever since my previous life when I was first introduced to Medieval Combat Sports and donned plate armor. I dream of creating my own custom set of armor with full-temperature control to cool my body and an active ventilation system so I do not breathe my own exhaled breath in my helmet, I was basically half suffocating in my helmet until I got used to it, but that did not mean I liked it.

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    Back in the day when I had just started fooling around in Medieval Combat Sports, I actually tried to water-cool the inside of my armor with a 240mm computer radiator, hooked up to a small pump, and flexible tubes. The tubes were held together on the inside of my gambeson using hot glue, ducktape, zip ties, hopes, and dreams, while the 240mm computer radiator was mounted on my back and hooked up with two 120mm fans, and all this was powered by a power bank.

    Needless to say, my idea did not work out so well in practice, water circulation was regularly cut off by the tubes pinching when I moved, and it became an expensive mistake when I was knocked on my back and fucked up the radiator.

    My friends laughed and soon I sucked it up like the rest of them and came to enjoy the sport. But now? Now I had options, with magic I could imagine myself fighting in cooled armor with fresh air constantly circulating in my helmet.

    While others are sweating and cooking in their armor, I will be cool and comfortable, my movements unhindered and my focus unwavering, thanks to the meticulously crafted enchantments woven into my custom armor. Who knows, I may even find a way to make it power armor.

    Ahhh¡­. A boy can only dream.

    The last course that I had an eye on was called Languages of Power. Says here it is a course that studies the magical languages of ancient long-dead civilizations all the way to current modern magical languages like the glyphs and runes used in the spells I currently know.

    Being somewhat of a polyglot myself after traveling most of Asia in my previous life, and even picking up some European languages from the app with the friendly green owl. I was curious to see if any of the languages had anything to do with Earth, because if I could find Zhang Jun¡¯s journal, who knows if any of my fellow Earthlings came over to this world and made something of themselves grand enough to survive the rigors of time.

    After I was done looking through the course list, I looked at the course application form. After filling out my personal information, it came time to fill out the courses. Before I marked out anything, my attention was brought down to the footnotes.

    ¡°It is highly recommended that the applicant not exceed 4 optional courses due to time restraint and workload. If the applicant chooses to apply for more than 4 optional courses, please approach the academy¡¯s guidance counselors.¡±

    Hmmm¡­ let''s see. Advanced Spell Theory and Advanced Combat & Tactics are the recommended courses, but they are not compulsory, Those are 2 courses I am hoping to get out of the way in my 1st year, which leaves me with 2 courses for me to choose, but there are 4 courses I want to take, Array Architecture, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, and Languages of Power.

    I am somewhat struck by decision paralysis at this point. I guess I really am going to need to see the academy¡¯s guidance counselor.

    Well, it is still early in the afternoon and it is a school day, so might as well get this over and done with so I can relax until school starts.

 Chapter 65

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After half an hour of walking around and getting lost, I finally found the guidance counselor¡¯s office, when I walked in, there was a secretary at her desk, and behind that desk was a door with a name plaque with the name ¡°Frieda¡±, followed by some other titles on the door. I pass my partially filled-out course application form and my new student pass to the secretary and was asked to take a seat and wait for a bit.

    After a few minutes of twiddling my thumbs, a student exits the counselor¡¯s office and I am called inside.

    When I entered the room, I saw a woman who looked to be in her 50s or 60s, putting away a stack of papers, then she looked up at me, paused awhile, then smiled and asked, ¡°Hello, deary, what can I do for you?¡±

    I took a seat and said, ¡°Good afternoon, Mdm Frieda, I am here to consult about which courses to take, I am going to be starting my 1st year of higher education in a week.¡±

    ¡°Of course, but first let''s see your grades from your lower education.¡±, Frieda said as she picked up my documentation along with a folder from a tray at the corner of her desk.

    As Frieda looked through a file, which I assume is my personal info, her eyebrows started to rise as she kept reading. She then looked up to give me a good look over, then back down at my file.

    After a while, Frieda finally spoke as she gave me a final once over, ¡°You sure are big for an 8 year old.¡±

    ¡°My parents fed me well.¡± I replied with a shrug. I do not regret those years of accelerated growth when my aura was on a passive burn, but I am reluctant about doing it again.

    For all the good that it brought, it also came with the side effect of always being hungry. Being the son of a noble, food was of little concern to me, but ever since I became able to activate my own aura, I had come to realize how much time I spent actually eating while the aura was on passive burn, on a slow day I would have been eating 5 meals a day, 8 or more on days with physical activity, and now that I was busy with life and school in general, I would much rather not be bothered with stuffing my mouth throughout the day.

    ¡°Indeed.¡± Frieda replied with an unamused voice but continued professionally. ¡°So what can I help you with, young Ironcrest?¡±

    ¡°Emm, I¡­ have a few courses that I want to take, but besides the courses ¡°Advanced Spell Theory¡± and ¡°Advanced Combat & Tactics¡± that were highly recommended I take, there are 4 other courses I would like to take, but on the application form, it was recommended I cap it at a maximum of 4 courses total.¡± I then told Frieda the courses I would like to take.

    Hearing my concerns, Frieda nodded as she looked over my choices and asked, ¡°From what I can see of your records, you have a high aptitude for magic, so I understand you wanting to take up ¡°Array Architecture¡± and ¡°Enchanting¡±. ¡°Languages of Power¡± is good if you are aiming to be a scholar in the future. But why Blacksmithing? Excuse my bluntness, but you come from a noble house, and blacksmithing is usually looked down upon as somewhat of a¡­ commoner¡¯s profession.¡±

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    Blacksmithing is seen as a commoner¡¯s profession? Sure, it is tough and dirty work work, but where do they think those fancy swords and armor they use come from? Is that why the blacksmith back home refused to teach me? Was he afraid Dad would blame him for me picking up ¡°commoner sensibilities?¡±, not that I think Dad would mind.

    Seeing the inquisitive look on Frieda¡¯s face, I decided to tell her my plan, ¡°I actually intend to take up ¡°Mana Smithing¡± in Year 2 of higher education.¡± I pointed at the course list and continued, ¡°As it says here, he requires the basic knowledge of ¡°Blacksmithing¡± and ¡°Enchanting¡±.¡±

    Hearing my choice, Frieda showed a mild look of surprise, ¡°Are you sure about that? You did see the warning on that course, right? Even if you do have a high mana pool, it is going to take a lot out of you, especially in your 2nd year of higher education when the curriculum gets harder. If your mana pool is not up to the task, I guarantee you are going to be dead on your feet from mana exhaustion, it does not bode well for good grades.

    Only the more crafting focused students take up that course, in your case, I see from the remarks of the Royal Invigilator that you are highly adept at combat, casting, and even aura for your age, you have options, many great options that are not as taxing or niche.¡±

    Now that she mentions it, I may be underestimating their warning of ¡°Copious amounts of mana to practice.¡± when it comes to Mana Smithing. But that does not deter me from my dream. But I still want to try. That means the 4 courses I will be taking this year are ¡°Advanced Spell Theory¡±, ¡°Advanced Combat & Tactics¡±, ¡°Blacksmithing¡±, and ¡°Enchanting¡±.

    I guess ¡°Array Architecture¡± and ¡°Languages of Power¡± will have to wait until Year 3 due to ¡°Advanced Spell Theory¡± and ¡°Advanced Combat & Tactics¡± being a 2 year course.

    Just as I was about to fill out the course application, I saw 2 sheets of paper posted on the wall behind Mdm Frieda, they were course timetables, but the interesting part that caught my attention was the 1 on the right, it was titled ¡°Night Courses¡±

    ¡°Mdm Frieda, what are these night courses?¡± I asked while jerking my head to the night course timetable.

    She looked back at the timetable I was referring to and then back to me. ¡°Oh, that is mainly for alumni or outsiders doing part-time studies to attend classes.¡±

    An idea started to form in my head, ¡°Are we allowed to attend these night classes?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not, quite a number of full-time students attend them to brush up on what they missed out or don''t understand, and besides, your school fees paid account for your whole stay here at the Royal Academy, you technically are allowed to study any and every class, both day and night classes.¡±

    Apparently, I was giving a look on my face that showed my intentions so she continued, ¡°From that look on your face, I know what you are thinking and even though I can¡¯t stop you, I recommend against it, taking 4 subjects a day is already stressful enough, do not add more burden on yourself by taking up night classes.¡±

    Damnit, she got me. Although I doubt I am the first aspiring overachiever she has ever seen, so I guess she saw that coming.

    After asking a few questions, I filled in the course application with my 4 subjects and left to enjoy my week of holiday before school starts.

    Once I get out of the office, I go take a walk around the school to familiarise myself with the class locations.

    As I ponder my academic future, I feel somewhat impatient knowing that knowledge is all around me but I may not have enough time to fast due to other courses taking up time.

    So eventually, I decided to go against Mdm Frieda¡¯s recommendation and plan to take ¡°Array Architecture¡± and ¡°Languages of Power¡± during night class. Apparently, all I have to do is notify the lecturer directly 3 days before school starts, and boom, I will be in their class. Turns out the course application form was just a way for administrators to streamline the course registration process.

    And besides, worst case scenario, if I can¡¯t handle the pressure, I can drop the night classes and wait till Year 3.

 Chapter 66

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The days flew by as I spent my time exploring the campus¡¯ amenities and the establishments in the capital a short distance from campus. And frankly, I am blown away by the sheer variety of the products available.

    If I were to compare the disparity between the capital and back home, I would say, from weapons, armor, magical tools, and alchemic products, all the way to clothing, furniture, and household items, the variety and quality on display in the capital is like comparing a high-end department store that has everything to a mom and pop stores back home.

    But with all the positives of living in a big city like the capital, where merchants and traders flock to with all their myriad products, was the downside that came along with them.

    The first is the cost of living, just from walking around window shopping, buying snacks, and eating at the local taverns and eateries, I was paying almost twice the price for what I would pay for back home in Glenfell.

    Next was the tight living conditions and heavy traffic of this dense urban area, and along with that, came the smell of shit and piss that came from the occasional alley. All in all¡­. Not that surprising, I have seen worse in my old world when traveling through some of the cities in developing countries.

    After getting all the sightseeing out of my system, I buy a few snacks to bring back to my room and rest for the rest of the day. It is a big day tomorrow, 1st day of school and all that jazz¡­ just need to trudge through all the mandatory classes before I can get to the elective classes.

    ***

    The next day, I get up bright and early, hit what counts as a gym in this world, for a short morning workout, go freshen up, get some grub, and I am off to class.

    Through my tour of the campus, I already know where my class is. I made my way to classroom 5A. I open the classroom door to see a quarter of the class is already here and chatting with each other.

    As I entered the classroom, the room quietened like it does in old western movies when an unknown person enters a saloon and all eyes were on me.

    And like in those old western movies, I give a slight nod (I wish I had a cowboy hat to tip) and walk up the row of seats to the back of the class and took an aisle seat.

    Soon, the sound of conversation picked up as my new classmates started talking again, most of them giving me the side eye and were most likely talking about me and asking each other if they knew who I was.

    As I waited for class to start, I took out my Higher Language Studies textbook to get ready for class, I looked around and noticed that everyone seemed to know each other, even the students who entered the class after me.

    Now that I think about it, it may be the case that all these kids may have been together all the way from year 1 of lower education, and I was just inserted into their 5th year of school life. Oh well, I will just go with the flow and see what happens.

    Me and the other students wait as more kids start streaming into class. Around 5 minutes before class start, the door opens to a rowdy bunch of 5 kids, 3 boys and 2 girls.

    When they entered, I could feel the atmosphere change and saw a number of the kids avert their gaze to avoid eye contact with the rowdy 5. I have watched enough TV to know these kids were the popular kids and/or bullies in the class, and from their and the rest of the class¡¯s demeanor, they looked like trouble.

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    But that is not my problem, I just need to trudge through the mandatory lesson and get to the fun activities.

    Asi was trying to mind my own business, I saw one of the boys in the group look around, his gaze fell upon me, he then signaled some pompous-looking kid who seemed to be the leader of this group and they started coming toward me. It would seem like I caught their attention, either the universe is conspiring against me or this is just them checking out the new kid.

    When they got up to me, the pompous kid said loudly, while pointing at me ¡°Who are you, peasant? Never seen you before.¡±

    Sighing internally, I replied, ¡°I am Luk-¡±

    ¡°Doesn''t matter who you are,¡± he cuts me off, ¡°Move! You are in our seats.¡±

    This little shit is pissing me off, and before my brain could catch up to my mouth to provide a diplomatic answer and de-escalate the situation, a ¡°Fuck off.¡± escaped my mouth.

    The class was silent for a moment before the pompous little shit¡¯s face literally turned red and shouted, ¡°You peasant scum, I will teach you to respect your betters!¡± as he raised his arm to strike me.

    As the sloppily thrown fist came toward my face, I easily slapped the hand out of the way and pushed him back into his group, ¡°That first punch was free, try that again and you are really going to get hurt.¡±

    As he steadied himself, he once more stepped forward to confront me, but less confidently this time, ¡°Bastard! Do you know who you are dealing with?!¡±

    I gave him a deadpan look, truly sick of this immature bullshit, ¡°No, not interested, but I have a feeling you are going to tell me anyway¡±

    The pompous prick puffs out his chest, emphasizing a coat of arms below the small sewn-in emblem of the Royal Academy, the sewn-in patch of what I assume is a noble¡¯s coat of arms is one with a downward-pointing sword superimposed on it, which means he belongs to a knight or martial house.

    Was I also supposed to have my house¡¯s coat of arms on my uniform? Nobody told me that.

    ¡°I am Oswald Berkeley, son of Marquess Alan Berkeley. Who do you think you are to lay hands on me!¡± the asshat Oswald practically announced to the whole room.

    Being mentally too old for this shit, I waved off Oswald and his hype group who has been throwing in their own verbal jabs, and said, ¡°I care not who your daddy is, stop acting like a sniveling child and fuck off to an empty seat before I really ¡°lay hands¡± on you.¡±

    Impressively, Oswald¡¯s face got even redder than before as he shouted in rage and threw a haymaker at me.

    It was so wide and telegraphed that I would bet even my sister could dodge it. I have given him a chance to walk away, but he chose violence.

    I leaned back in my chair as Oswald¡¯s fist flew past my face, I grabbed the thrown fist and pulled it further forward to bring him off balance, and with my other hand, I grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the table.

    Before Oswald could slump off the table, his 2 male lackeys bum-rushed me. The first of the lackeys was some lanky bucktoothed motherfucker, for him, I simply gut-kicked him into the opposite table, his back slammed into the edge of the table and he was down for the count while clenching his lower back in pain.

    The second lackey was more on the chubby side and was almost upon me, for him I grabbed my rather thick textbook and slapped the shit out of him. This changed the course of his charge, missed me, and crashed head-first into the chairs beside me.

    When the guys were down, I pointed my textbook at the 2 girls and asked, ¡°You two are not going to do anything stupid, right?¡±, to which they vigorously shook their heads.

    That was when I heard the door close partially loud. When I turned to look, I saw a middle-aged scholarly-looking man.

    He looked at me, looked at a file in his hand, back at me, then at the shivering girls standing before me and boys groaning on the ground. He then took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let out an epic sigh.

    With that sigh, I know that he knows what happened. And if this school was as bureaucratic as I think it is, that meant more paperwork for this man who I assume is the teacher.

 Chapter 67

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Professor Theodore Fairfax was walking down the hall to begin the first day of lessons for his class of students. As usual, he was proud to be recognized as one of the best teachers to be put in charge of a class of A-class students for the past 4 years, 5 if everything went well this year.

    The A-class students were counted as the cream of the crop for the school, and he would do his best to make sure it stayed that way.

    As his footsteps reverberated down the hallway, he reminisced back to 4 years ago when he was assigned to the class of children who were just 8 years old, they were so cute back then, some of them even crying for their parents on the first day of school.

    Speaking of 8 year olds, Theodore opened the folder of the new student who would be joining his class this year.

    ¡°Luke Ironcrest¡± he muttered to himself as he re-read through the information packet of his new student. ¡®Skipped lower education by passing the final exam provided by the Royal Invigilator and was highly recommended to be put in my class. Shows high aptitude in magic, and combat, and is even able to manifest his aura. Truly a high-achieving student, and he is all mine, if he does well, it would do wonders for my performance reviews. I just hope those troublemakers don¡¯t pick on the small boy.¡¯

    As Theodore neared his classroom, he could hear a familiar voice that he did not want to hear, ¡°I am Oswald Berkeley, son of Marquess Alan Berkeley. Who do you think you are to lay hands on me!¡±

    ¡®Damned Oswald¡­ first day of school and he is already causing problems for the commoner kids, why could he not have stayed as cute as he was when he was 8.¡¯ he grumbled internally to himself as he picked up his pace.

    ¡®How many times have i reprimanded him in the last 2 years when his attitude started changing? What in the world is he being taught at home? I swear this is all because of his older brother¡¯s influence and the crowd he hangs around.¡¯

    When Theodore was a few steps away from the classroom, the sounds of commotion came from the classroom, and he opened the door to the sight of Oswald Berkeley sliding off a table, Ralph Winters on the floor clutching his back in pain, and if the sound of that groan is who he thought it was, that would leave Owen Highlark somewhere behind the table, most likely in bunch of chairs that have been suspiciously pushed together.

    Then the boy sitting in the middle of this mess, was pointing a textbook at the 2 girls, Gwendolyn Skycast and Lavinia Cronwald, as he said, ¡°You two are not going to do anything stupid, right?¡± to which the girls seemed agreeable with the suggestion.

    It was then that Theodore decided to make himself known by closing the door deliberately loud and made his way to the front of the class to get a better look at what was going on.

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    As Theodore looked at the boy who was still sitting down, he did not recognize him, which could only mean this was his new student.

    But after getting a better look, this boy looked nothing like any 8 year old he had ever seen, he was too big for one, with his size, he would fit in with the other boys in the class.

    Theodore decided to give the information packet another check to make sure this was the right child, ¡®Let¡¯s see here¡­ Luke of house Ironcrest, Age: 8, blah blah blah¡­ Ah, here we go, Black of hair, Brown of eyes, fair of skin.¡¯ he looked up to confirm that the boy matched the description, and he did.

    Theodore was still not certain of Luke¡¯s identity due to his size but decided to shelve that for later.

    He then turned his attention back to the 5 idiotic troublemakers and released a long sigh. He then put his finger to a metal brooch he was wearing in the design of the Academy''s crest and released mana into it.

    Once the brooch started glowing, Theodore spoke, ¡°This is Professor Theodore Fairfax from class 5A, please send someone to my classroom to bring 3 students to the infirmary.¡±

    ¡°Will do Professor.¡± a buzzing voice replied from the brooch.

    Theodore then sternly looked at Gwendolyn and Lavinia, and asked them to go back to their seats, he then turned to the boy who was supposedly Luke Ironcrest, and asked the boy to come before him.

    When the boy was before him, Theodore said, ¡°Before anything else, please introduce yourself to the class.¡±

    The boy turned around to face the class and announced, ¡°I am Luke Ironcrest. I will be your classmate for the next 4 years.¡±

    Theodore waited for 2 seconds for the rest of the introduction, but there was none, ¡®No age? Place of birth? Hobbies?¡¯ Theodore asked in his mind, but decided to leave it at that, he would let the boy open up on his own.

    Now to the situation at hand, ¡°Thank you, Luke. Now that introductions have been made, please tell me what happened here.¡± Theodore said, gesturing to the 3 groaning boys around where Luke was sitting.

    Luke then replied with a calmness that was unusual for a child his age, like what he did was just a matter of course, ¡°Oswald came up to me and rather rudely asked me to vacate my seat despite other seats being available, i rejected his request and he resorted to violence. After i defended myself against his first attack and gave him a warning, he decided to invoke his father¡¯s name to persuade me, i then asked him to go find another seat, and he once again decided to attack me, which led to the current situation.¡±

    ¡®Figures. I knew Oswald and his group would one day bite off more than they could chew, and today they picked the wrong target, it is sad, but from the reports, they picked a target that has been in more than 1 life or death altercation. As for Luke, he is not only smart but also eloquent too. Nice.¡¯ Theodore thanked his lucky stars that he was Luke¡¯s form teacher, with this brief chat with Luke, he was even more hopeful of having an excellent performance review, and hopefully, he would be selected to be a Dean when one of the old Deans retire.

    It was then that 3 men came into the classroom and Theodore pointed them to the 3 troublemakers on the ground, where they were promptly carried off.

    Theodore then nodded to Luke, ¡°We will talk later, come find me after school, go back to your seat and we will start class.¡±

 Chapter 68

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    My first day of compulsory subjects went by rather monotonously for most subjects, I was just going through the motions as the different subject teachers did their ¡°first day of school¡± introductions and a primer on the subject they were teaching.

    And all throughout, I received the same reaction from my classmates as the ones I got from my carriage mates after killing those bandits, although to a lesser degree. Depressing, but i am sure they will come around.

    Of all the subjects, the only ones that caught my attention were History and Literature, mainly for the History part, and Basic Natural Sciences, it was interesting to see the way this world looked at physics, and found out that they got most things right, and that magic, or mana in particular, bent some laws of physics in certain situations.

    As for the class of the 2nd language of my choice, it was the only class that was not held in the same classroom due to other students selecting different languages. We all split up to attend the classroom for the specific language we chose in our application.

    For my 2nd language, I chose the Elven language¡­ No! It was not because of any influence from a story of short people going on a journey to throw a ring into a volcano!... Ok, maybe a little¡­ Fine! A lot! Shut up! You''re the nerd!

    When I entered the class and took a seat while waiting for the Elven language teacher to show up, I could not help but notice that a fair chunk of the students in the class were also elves.

    Curious about what use Elves would have to attend an Elven Language course, I asked an elf I was sitting next to.

    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Luke Ironcrest.¡± I said as I offered my hand for a greeting to the elf boy beside me and was politely reciprocated with a handshake as he replied with his name, ¡°Hello, I am Finrod Felagund, pleased to make your acquaintance.¡±

    After getting the introductions out of the way, I asked, ¡°If you don''t mind me asking, why are there so many elves taking the Elven Language course? Is it not your first language?¡±

    Finrod nods his head knowingly, ¡°This is not the first time me and the other elves are asked this. We take this class mainly because we were born and raised in human lands and don''t spend much time using the elven language, so we take this class to learn more of our native language.¡±

    Just as Finrod was done explaining to me, the classroom door opened to reveal a tall slender elf woman walking in.

    She had long blond flowing hair, vibrant green eyes, and full lips, a beauty by most standards. When my eyes went below her face, I was disappointed. Unfortunately, her beautiful face came with a less than well-endowed or proportioned figure.

    Sure she had some semblance of an ass, but her chest area¡­ let''s just say carriage drivers would have more complaints of bumps on a normal road compared to her chest¡­ the gods are cruel at times.

    As the teacher comes to the center of the class, she looks around at the class, and her eyes lock on mine, ¡°You! Why do you have a look of pity in your eyes?!¡± the elven woman said while pointing at me while covering her chest with her other arm.

    Damnit! She is sharp! Did I even show a look of pity for her cutting board of a chest on my face? Quick me, act dumb!

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    I tried to give my best surprised face and looked around myself like she is pointing to someone else. Finrod was inching his seat away from me.

    Eventually, when the pointed finger did not move, I gave a questioning look and pointed at myself.

    ¡°Yes. You! What''s with your look, huh, you got a problem?¡± the elf lady shouted, almost childishly.

    Playing dumb, I shook my head and said, ¡°What? What are you talking about madam? I was not giving a look to anyone.¡±

    After scowling at me for a few more seconds, she then huffed, stood up straight while adjusting her dress, and mumbled loudly ¡°I will let it go this time.¡±

    After adjusting herself until there was not a hair out of place, she introduced herself, ¡°I am Lirelle Starflower, and I will be your teacher for the Elven Language course for the next 4 years.¡±

    Soon after introductions were made, Lirelle got straight to business with teaching.

    ***

    After 2nd language class, there is an hour''s break before the first of the elective courses start. And as requested, I went to Professor Theodore¡¯s office.

    When I arrived, I expected it to be a staffroom where teachers had their own cubicles, but I was sorely mistaken, turns out the school was rich enough to afford every teacher their own office¡­ at minimum.

    I later learned that Deans/Heads of departments or distinguished teachers had their personal research labs attached to their office, compared to other less reputable Acedemys, this is a serious flex.

    After being let into the professor¡¯s office, I was sat down on a comfy sofa opposite Professor Theodore, ¡°Do you know why I called you here today?¡± Theodore asked.

    I nodded, ¡°I assume it is in regards to me beating up Oswald and his 2 other followers?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ I understand that you have¡­ experience in real-life combat, but did you have to resort to such accessive use of violence? Oswald had a broken nose and the other 2 had some bad bruising¡± Theodore asked.

    To this, I sighed, ¡°Professor, I already gave them a warning to leave me alone, if they stuck to words, I would have left it at that, but they struck first, I gave them a chance and they tried again. At that point, what was I to do? Let them hit me?¡±

    ¡°No. At that point, you were supposed to go get a teacher.¡± Professor Theodore responded rather heatedly.

    I shook my head, ¡°Professor, I take it from Oswald¡¯s group¡¯s behavior this is not the first time they have caused problems of this nature?¡± I asked, only to have silence as my response, pretty much confirming my question. So I continued, ¡°I thought so, the only reason they continue this behavior is because they have not met any true consequences, always hiding behind their family name. I have 4 years left in this institute, and I would rather not waste it on the likes of Oswald and his ilk.¡±

    Having said my piece, I sat there with folded arms and as stern a look as I could muster.

    After a few seconds of silence, Professor Theodore released a sigh, ¡°I understand your point of view, but I would ask you to adhere to the Academy''s rules, I will let you off with a warning this time, next time, there will be disciplinary action.¡±

    Oh? Then what of my attackers? Do they get off scot-free? I was tempted to ask out loud but let it rest to not extend this meeting.

    After getting chewed out a bit more, I left the room to get a quick bite and head to my elective courses.

    ***

    In the hollow gap between the walls that separate Professor Theodore Fairfax¡¯s office from another office, was a man in a janitor''s uniform and a face so average and generic, that if he walked into a crowd, he would blend in seamlessly.

    As he observed the target of his observation leave the room and Professor Theodore Fairfax stay on his couch to pour himself a cup of tea, The man in a janitor''s uniform silently closed a small slit he was using to observe and eavesdrop on the conversation and made his way to the next location he could observe his target from.

    As he navigated the secret passages, he muttered to himself, ¡°Interesting kid.¡±

 Chapter 69

    AN: By the laws of the internet, I will do my duty and be the first to say, Nice.

    I made my way to my first elective course of the day, which was Advanced Spell Theory. Instead of a classroom, this course was hosted in a huge lecture theatre that could easily seat more than 300 people.

    As I overheard the conversations from those around me, I learned that all these students are Year 1 Higher Education, or as others call it, Year 5 students.

    Soon after taking my seat, a wizened old man enters the lecture theater and introduces himself to the students as Professor Thaddeus Northwind.

    Besides going over the spiel of congratulating our young minds for taking the first step on the path of true knowledge, the first thing that catches my interest is him using what I assume is a light illusion spell to project the syllabus for the year.

    The other thing that caught my eye is the syllabus itself. While we were to learn the theory behind different schools of magic, the one that caught my attention was Summons & Golemancy.

    Mainly it was the Golemancy I was interested in, I read a basic outline of this school of magic, and the short summary was that Golemancy is the practice of bringing inanimate objects to life. This sprouts ideas inside my head of incorporating Golemancy into my future super armor, who knows, it may become a power-assisted armor or even help me automate mundane tasks.

    Too bad the syllabus states it will only be taught towards the end of the year.

    After the introduction and starting the class on subjects that Mum and Grandpa already taught, the school bell rang, indicating the class was over, and I was off to my next course, Enchanting.

    My next classroom was located in a part of the school that seemed to be suspiciously more structurally reinforced compared to the rest of the school, outside the classroom, there were metal beams securing the walls, and inside the classroom, the walls were actually lined with metal plating.

    When I looked at the state of the furniture, I could not help but notice scorch marks, gouges, and other forms of damage, even the other students are looking around uncomfortably. What in the world have I gotten myself into?

    Soon, after class was supposed to start, the door to a connecting room was kicked open to reveal a human woman in heavy plate armor carrying a male gnome by the scruff of his shirt. The gnome was covered in soot, was rocking a messy Albert Einstein hairdo, and 1 of his eyes seemed to be stuck permanently pointing slightly off-center.

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    While the gnome was folding his arms and pouting like a child, the armored woman marched to the front of the class and plopped the gnome on a step ladder behind a podium, then took her place a step behind the gnome.

    ¡°Alright, let''s get this over and done with, your stupid class was interupti-¡± the gnome started his tirade, but cut himself off when he clearly felt something was wrong, and true enough the armored woman behind the gnome had materialized a small club form somewhere and had it raised, ready to clobber the gnome.

    ¡°I mean, what I meant to say was¡­ Welcome to the Basics of Enchanting, I am your teacher, Professor Bixby Goldensprocket, and this brute that threatened me to come here away from my research is Brunhilde.¡± Bixby said while using this thumb to gesture to the armored woman behind him, and got a light wack to his head in response.

    While rubbing the top of his head, Bixby muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, ¡°Alright fine, lets get this over with.¡±

    He then slammed the table and addressed the class, ¡°Alright, all of you, shut up, listen up, and pay attention. I will only allow questions after the lecture is over.¡±

    As the lesson began, me and the class were introduced to the basics of Enchanting. It all started with an enchanting table. It did not necessarily need to be a table, it just needed to be any surface that held an enchanting array circle painted/drawn/carved on it, another caveat was that the item to be enchanted could not exceed the bounds of the enchanting array circle.

    So, why a table? That was because depending on the material the enchanting array circle was on, it could greatly affect the potency and/or attribute of the enchantment end product. And the size of the enchanting array circle was a significant factor in the amount of mana used, the bigger the circle, the more mana is needed.

    Another reason for using a table was due to the tables being designed with mana-insulating legs because of mana¡¯s tendency to flow along whatever it touches, in a normal table¡¯s case, from the table to the legs and into the ground to disperse. If people wanted to have a huge ass enchanting array circle on the ground, they technically could, but the amount of mana-insulating material required would be prohibitively expensive, and if they forego the mana-insulating material, a good chunk of mana would leak from the enchanting array circle and even introduce instabilities from the mana in the ground interfering with the enchanting array circle.

    Another thing we were introduced to was the importance of different components, catalysts, and reagents, along with their different elemental attributes or mystical properties.

    By the end of the introduction presentation, I was convinced that Enchanting was somewhat tied to Array Architecture and Alchemy, and when I asked as much during the Q&A section at the end of class, Professor Bixby looked at me and nodded. ¡°Good catch. As you further your studies, you will soon realize that the schools of magic you see today borrows a bit of knowledge from each other, that is why you see so many of our alumni return for more classes long after their graduation.¡±

    After some time of answering questions, the bell rang, and Bixby dropped the question he was answering halfway and practically sprinted back to the door he came from, followed by the armored woman Brunhilde walking after him.

    My next course is one I have been anticipating for a long time, even from my previous life. Blacksmithing.

 Chapter 70

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    For my Blacksmithing course, I was pointed to a more¡­ industrial¡­ section of the school, for lack of a better word.

    When I reached the building where the Blacksmithing class was to be held, me and a bunch of students found ourselves standing in front of a warehouse with multiple thick chimneys sprouting from its top.

    After entering a room with multiple identical workstations in orderly rows, I looked around to check out my classmates, after a while of looking around, I noticed there were only guys around, and a distinct lack of house coat of arms on any of their uniforms, meaning they were commoners or nobles like me who did not bother putting my family¡¯s coat of arms on my uniform, so I can assume the counselor was telling the truth, nobles really don¡¯t go for jobs like blacksmithing.

    When it was about time for class to start, a door next to the teacher¡¯s workbench opened, and with that door opening, revealed a workshop that released a cacophony of noise, hammer blows, files rasping, the sound of molten metal splashing, and other unknown sounds of industry. All those sounds were cut off when the door closed behind an auburn-bearded dwarf whose arms were thicker than my thighs.

    Curious of such perfect noise isolation, I poured mana into my eyes to take a look, what I saw was the whole wall was covered in an array, but I could not see it clearly, most likely because the array was on the other side of the wall. The only array I could see was the one on the door, but besides the structure of the array, the runes within the structure were obscured from my sight.

    Before I could analyze the array further, the dwarf introduced himself, ¡°Good afternoon lads, my name be Haldor Steelbeard, and I will be teaching you the basics of blacksmithing. And before any of you ask, No, I will not teach you the techniques of dwarven smithing, and if you keep insisting on me or any other dwarf, you are looking for a beat down.¡± Haldor said with a tinge of seriousness in the part about the beat down.

    After Haldor stared us down, or up in this case due to him being the shortest in the class, he shouted at us to each take a seat at a workstation.

    When we all got to our seats, Haldor started, ¡°Alright, unlike other courses where they yap on and on about the greatness of their subject, you all know why you are here, you are here to learn the sacred art of turning metal into something great, be it the humble nail used in carpentry, all the way to a mastercraft weapon. You are learning the art that builds and destroys empires, and before I allow any of you to so much as breathe near one of my ingots, you are going to get to know your tools and how to use them.¡±

    We were then introduced to our tools, the humble anvil and the function of its different parts, tongs, and many types of hammers. Once introductions to our tools were over, it was time for some familiarization with said tools, we were each given a crumpled piece of scrap metal and instructed to beat it flat while Haldor walked around to give instructions and correct mistakes.

    When the bell rang, Haldor shouted to the class, ¡°Alright, good day of practice. Next class, we will start on some theory of metals and their properties, followed by a practical lesson on the basic techniques. Class dismissed.¡±

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    After putting the tools back in their place, I wipe the sweat from my forehead and stretch my arms. All this hammering has sufficiently warmed me up and I feel ready to take on my last class of the day, Advanced Combat & Tactics.

    ***

    Before making my way to the training grounds where the lesson is being held, I go back to my dorm room and get changed into what counts for PE attire as per the recommendation in the notes for this course, which is a simple shirt emblazoned with the academy¡¯s crest on the back and long pants, all made out of some thick fabric.

    I get to the training grounds ahead of time and it seems like this lesson is like Advanced Spell Theory, pretty much the whole Year 5 cohort that preferred swing weapons around was attending this class.

    When I arrived at the training grounds, most people did not have any reaction to my arrival, but I noticed a few familiar, and even some unfamiliar faces talking while looking at me, and surprise surprise, most of them had a coat of arms over the left side of their chest, in other words, nobles.

    This most likely means word of me beating up those 3 chuckle fucks in the morning has made its rounds.

    Not wanting to bother myself with this schoolyard bullshit, I take a seat on a bench to wait for class to start.

    While kicking some dirt to pass the time, the training grounds become oddly silent as everyone seems to be looking in my direction, and then I hear the sound of multiple footsteps coming in my direction.

    When I turn toward the footsteps, I see Oswald, his 2 lackeys, and 12 other boys behind them. All of them strutting their stuff as they puff themselves up and walk towards me menacingly¡­ Well, as menacingly as a bunch of 12 year old boys can be.

    When the bunch of boys came up to me, I lazily got up from my seat, cracked my knuckles, and walked toward them, as Oswald opened his mouth to say something, I interrupted him, ¡°From the amount of backup you brought, I see you did not learn your lesson this morning, you here to take this bench too?¡±

    Slightly thrown off from me interrupting him, he paused for a bit to register what I said before going red in the face and growling out, ¡°Come to the storeroom after class.¡±

    At this blatant command to call me into an ambush, I raised an eyebrow while wondering how stupid they thought I was before answering lazily, ¡°Nah, don''t feel like it. I¡¯m flattered, but I don¡¯t swing that way, you boys can go and have your gay orgy.¡±

    Apparently, I replied loud enough that quite a number of other people heard it and started snickering, while Oswald and his posse started sputtering.

    ¡°What! NO! You filthy lower noble that is little better than commoner trash! You tarnished our hornor this morning, and we are going to settle it!¡± Oswald shouted.

    I just shrug, ¡°Oh yes¡­ the 15 of you are so very honorable.¡± I said with as much sarcasm in my voice before spitting to the side, ¡°The bunch of you you would not know honor if it diddled you up the bum as you do to each other in the storeroom you are trying to lure me into.¡±

    Before Oswald and his gang were about to spew out their comebacks, a shout rang out through the training ground, ¡°FALL IN!¡±

    When I turned to where the voice came from, a grizzled white-haired man stepped up on the stage in front of the training grounds, followed by 5 other men standing just below in front of the stage.

    Seeing that the instructors had arrived, Oswald and his boys gave me the stink eye as they moved to follow the order.

    ¡°This is not over Ironcrest.¡± Oswald said in a low tone as he walked away.

 Chapter 71

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    As I followed the command to fall in, I followed behind the other kids lining up and fell into line.

    When all the students were lined up, the grizzled man bellowed toward us, ¡°Good afternoon students, most of you know who I am. For those of you who do not, I am Matthias Greyham, but you will address me as Sir, Instructor Greyham, or just Instructor. Am I understood?!¡±

    As one, all the students shouted back, ¡°Yes Instructor!¡±

    This display of regimentation sets the tone of the class for me, so I kind of know what to expect. It is the same regimentation I see when Dad is training troop formation with his knights and troops.

    ¡°Now¡­ you all have come back from a long break, let us see if you have been keeping up with your fitness. We will start with a warmup. 2 laps around the field, GO!¡± Greyham¡¯s order was met with grumbles as they started moving toward the field.

    ¡°NO BACKTALK, IT IS 3 LAPS NOW!!¡± Greyham bellowed out in response to the grumbles.

    I take off running at a leisurely pace. It''s leisurely for me anyway. I was in front of the majority of the class but not the first, no point in exerting more effort than necessary for just a warm-up.

    Upon finishing my first lap, I was one of the new in the lead, so I looked to see who was around me and saw about a dozen boys and 4 girls keeping pace with me, and most of them seemed to be from martial noble houses.

    When I completed my 3 laps, I worked up a nice warmup sweat, but I was not winded, I then looked around to notice that only half of the guys and 1 girl finished at my pace while panting heavily. We then made our way to the water station while waiting for the rest to finish.

    While sipping water, me and the early finishers looked at each other somewhat awkwardly, and me not being a social butterfly by any standards, just kept to myself while the others chatted or kept to themselves.

    After a few more minutes, the last student crossed the finish line and after being given some time to rest, we were called to fall in once again.

    ¡°Pathetic! It really seems a lot of you have been slacking off during the break. Let''s hope your sword forms do not disappoint me as much. Collect a practice sword and fall back in!¡±

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    After all of us were back in line with a wooden sword in hand, Instructor Greyham shouted again, ¡°Kingdom¡¯s basic sword forms, BEGIN!¡±

    I do as instructed and begin the sword forms Dad taught me. As I flowed from form to form, the sound of my sword wooshing through the air, I saw the other 5 instructors who accompanied Instructor Greyham walking around with their own wooden swords, barking at students, and correcting any student who was not performing up to standard.

    ¡°Again!¡±, ¡°Faster!¡±, ¡°Sharpen your swing on the down stroke!¡±, ¡°Raise your guard higher!¡±, ¡°Keep going!¡± the assistant instructors shouted as they walked among the students. Every now and then, Instructor Greyham would shout at someone from atop the stage to correct them, and other times, he would flag one of the assistant instructors to go assist a student, but in the end, he remained stoic and stoned-faced until the last bell of the day rang and he called a stop to the exercise.

    The moment the stop was called, many of the students dropped their swords and bent over while panting worse than they did after the run. There were only a few, me included, that were left standing upright, the rest were on their ass catching their breath.

    While everyone was resting, Instructor Greyham bellowed again, ¡°Sloopy. While a few of you obviously practiced, I can clearly see the majority of you did not, I will fix that soon before we even touch on the Tactics part of Advanced Combat & Tactics. I will see all of you tomorrow. Dismissed!¡±

    With that, many of the students started dragging their feet in the direction of the Year 5¡¯s dormitory. Even Oswald and his possi seem too tired to even acknowledge my existence as I see them sluggishly exit the training grounds.

    As for me, while I am tired, I have a few hours to freshen up and rest before night class. Fortunately for night classes, it is only one extra long session on the subject, otherwise I do not think even I will be able to bear 2 different subjects with me as tired as I am now.

    But first things first, I am tired, hungry, and I stink.

    After going back to my dorm to freshen up, I went to the canteen to get some grub, all that exercise made me hungry.

    When I got to the canteen, I was told that it was too early for dinner, but it turns out that they used the leftovers from lunch to make some sandwiches and set them aside for hungry growing boys like myself, all I needed to do was ask and soon I was walking back to my room with a bunch of meat-laden sandwiches.

    After scarfing down my sandwiches and resting for a while, it was time for dinner and I was off to my first night class, Array Architecture.

    As I walked from my dorm to the main academy for the 2nd time today, the sky was orange with the setting sun.

    When I entered the class for Array Architecture, I was met with a whole different demographic of students. Seated at the desks were around 30 men and women who looked in the age range of 18-40s, and some of them were giving me inquisitive looks.

    I gave a nod to the people in the class and made my way to an empty desk to wait for class to start.

    When the time came, a blond bespectacled man who looked to be in his mid-30s, pulling behind him a trolly filled with books, ¡°Good evening, I am Professor Donovan Arcwright, as you can guess, I will be teaching you the art of Array Architecture. Please come to the front to collect your textbook and we will get started.¡±

 Chapter 72

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    As the lesson started, the curriculum for the course was laid out for us. The first few lessons would be the basics of Array Architecture, which Grandma already taught me. What I was waiting for was the lessons on Custom Rune Scripting to modify or create brand new arrays, and Array Obfuscation.

    When Professor Donovan, gave a brief explanation on Array Obfuscation, he noted that that part of the subject will put our Custom Rune Scripting to the test when we try to obfuscate our arrays.

    And finally, the last subject in this course that greatly interests me, is Array Deciphering, the art of deciphering complex or obfuscated arrays. This is an optional subject that will eat into my break after the year ends. This subject will not be in the final exam but will account to improving my grades.

    As I sat through the lecture on the basics of Array Architecture and flipped through the provided textbook, I noticed that there are quite a few advancements in the Array Architecture field compared to Grandma''s textbook from her time in the Royal Academy that she used to teach me with.

    Overall, despite me knowing most of what the professor is teaching, it was an enjoyable lesson.

    When the lesson ended, unlike other classes where the professor was off to the next class, the professor stayed around to answer any questions, more as a professional courtesy among adults I''m sure.

    While some were chatting with the professor, others started chatting and introducing themselves to each other, as for me, I am well and truly tired, mentally more than physically, and all I want to do is crash into bed and let oblivion take me.

    As I was putting my stationeries into my satchel, a distinguished looking gentleman in his late 40s with a bitchin mustache and monocle walked up to me.

    ¡°Well, hello there, young man," he began, his voice carrying a refined accent that hinted at him being a learned man. ¡°I couldn''t help but notice your keen interest in tonight''s lesson. My name is Marquess Winfred Montague, and I must say, I''m delighted to see one as young as you take the pursuit of knowledge so seriously.¡± The Marquess says with an outstretched hand for a handshake.

    I shake his hand and reply, ¡°Thank you for the kind words, Marquess Montague, I am Luke Ironcrest. Today is my first day of Higher Education, so I am just seeing if I can handle the load, if these night classes eat too much into my schedule, I might need to drop night classes.¡±

    Hearing my reply, the Marquess let out a short chuckle, ¡°Well then, study hard, but do not forget to give yourself a break sometime.¡± after saying that, he gave a look like he was thinking of something, ¡°Ironcrest¡­ Ironcrest¡­ where have I heard of that family name before?... oh right! Was your father one of the fort commanders in the war a few years ago?¡±

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    I nodded, ¡°Yes, my father is Baron Alden Ironcrest.¡±

    ¡°Ahh, that''s right. Good man.¡± he said while patting me on the shoulder.

    After that, we engaged in some small talk, but during our chat, a question in the back of my mind has been bugging me, ¡°Marquess Montague, if you don''t mind me asking, why do you attend the Academy directly? I thought most nobles would hire a private tutor instead of making their way here.¡±

    The Marquess lets out another chuckle, ¡°Well, I am semi-retired already. I manage a rather peaceful land near the capital, so as soon as my eldest son was ready for responsibility, I started roping him into management of the territory. That leaves me with quite a lot of time on my hands, time I can use to pursue my true passion, magic¡­ it also allows me to get away from my wife and those harpies she calls friends.¡±

    It was at this point that others joined in our conversation. After some time of chatting, I excused myself on the count of needing rest for a full day of school tomorrow and went to crash into my bed.

    ***

    Around the time Luke was attending his night class, Oswald Berkeley was being escorted through the Year 8 dorm by a Year 8 student until they arrived at a certain dorm room door.

    The older student jerked his head toward the door to gesture Oswald forward. Oswald, with a nervous look on his face, stepped forward and knocked on the door.

    A few seconds later, Oswald heard, ¡°Enter¡± come through the door.

    When Oswald entered, he was met with a well lived in room with furniture and decoration that definitely was not supplied by the school, and on the far end of the wall, hung a banner depicting the coat of arms of the Berkeley family and a sword mounted below it.

    And in front of that banner was Oswald''s older brother Edmund Berkeley.

    ¡°Hello brother. I heard you had an eventful day¡± Edmund said while adjusting the mounted sword.

    ¡°I¡­I can explain. He¡­ he just caught me off guard, that''s all!¡± Oswald stuttered out.

    ¡°Is that so? I take it you are going to rectify this mistake? We can¡¯t have some upstart Baron family¡¯s kid tarnishing the Berkeley name, can we?¡± Edmund asked while turning around and sitting on a chair facing Oswald.

    ¡°N-No, of course not!¡± Oswald almost shouted out.

    ¡°Good, good¡­ I heard you have another session of Advanced Combat & Tactics tomorrow. And if I know anything about Instructor Matthias Greyham, I know he will hold sparring matches between students. Use that time to teach this Luke Ironcrest a lesson on why the Berkeley house is known as one of the kingdom¡¯s greatest blades. Defend the family''s honor¡­ by any means necessary.¡± Edmund said, with an ominous tone at the last part.

    ¡°You mean with aura? If I get caught hunting him with aura, I could get in big trouble!¡± Oswald asked nervously.

    Edmund just snickered at Oswald¡¯s worry. ¡°Little brother. There are hundreds of you in the class. If they want to do duals in a timely manner, they are going to need several fights at the same time, and with only 6 instructors, you may get a chance to strike when the instructors are not looking. How you go about it is up to you, just get the job done.¡±

    Shortly after their chat finished, Oswald was making his way back to his dorm while thinking up scenarios to engage Luke tomorrow.

 Chapter 73

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    On my second day of school, I wake up, do my morning routine, and check my timetable to see what today''s classes will be. Besides the mandatory subjects, from today onwards, the elective courses will not happen every day, but they will be twice as long, which is good, there are only so many different things I can learn in one day before I feel burned out.

    Let''s see¡­ today¡¯s electives are¡­ Enchanting and Advanced Combat & Tactics

    The day went on as normal, one lecture after another, the only downside was Oswald and his group of idiots giving me dirty looks and shit-talking me from across the room loud enough that I could hear them. To this, I decided to ignore his ass and act as if he did not exist, for some reason this made him angrier and when the teacher left the class, he shouted dumbass stuff like ¡°How dare you ignore me!¡±

    Well, you know what? I am just going to ignore you even harder now!

    Eventually, the time came for the last mandatory lesson of the day, 2nd Language class, which is kind of the only class I am interested in, of all the mandatory classes, the Elven Language is the only thing I truly do not know anything about and I want to learn.

    As I took my seat and waited for the Elven Language teacher, Lirelle Starflower, to arrive, my Elven Language classmate, Finrod Felagund sat next to me, looked around conspiratorially, and leaned in to whisper to me, ¡°Hey Luke¡­ are you the same Luke Ironcrest that got into trouble with Oswald Berkeley?¡±

    I raised a questioning eyebrow at Finrod and replied, ¡°Unless my father has a second family and named that son Luke, otherwise I would say that is indeed me¡­ Why? What is that idiot Oswald doing?¡±

    Finrod took another conspiratorial look around before whispering, ¡°I heard from a friend of a friend of a friend, that Oswald is planning to pull something today at that class you fighting types like to take up.¡±

    ¡°You mean Advanced Combat & Tactics?¡±

    ¡°That''s the one. Word is, Oswald was chewed out by this older brother who is in Year 8. Something about you staining the honor of his house.¡±

    I huffed at that statement, ¡°With the way he behaves, I do not know if they even have any honor to stain.¡±

    Finrod sucks air thru his teeth at my statement, ¡°Be that as it may, I think it would be prudent to keep statements like that to yourself. Don¡¯t want to start any feuds between noble houses now do we?¡±

    I studied his face for a moment, then released a sigh, ¡°Noted. And thanks for the heads up. Though I can¡¯t promise the no feuds thing, if Oswald keeps things up and acts on his threats, I do not intend to just lie there and take it.¡±

    Finrod nods and tells me to take care, as the teacher enters the class.

    So it is going to be like that, Oswald? Let''s see what bullshit you pull later.

    ***

    At the start of Enchanting class today, we were greeted with another spectacle.

    A grumpy-looking Professor Bixby Goldensprocket was marched into class ahead of the armored Brunhilde who was holding a rolled-up parchment threateningly over a lit candle. All the way to the podium, Bixby was loudly complaining about his research being interrupted, then proceeded to point at Brunhilde and accuse her of taking his research hostage.

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    ¡°The research is innocent, take me instead¡­ back to my lab.¡± Bixby shouted in a last-ditch attempt at hostage negotiation.

    The only response he got was Brunhilde inching the rolled-up parchment closer to the candle.

    ¡°Stop!... stop¡­ you win¡­ I will teach the class.¡± Bixby said defeatedly as he marched up the podium to start the lesson.

    It was a lot of dry theory, but I was enjoying it while jotting down questions to ask during the end of the lesson¡¯s Q&A season.

    ***

    Once the bell rang for the end of the Enchanting lesson, I went back to my dorm to get changed and made my way to the training grounds.

    Let''s see what Oswald has installed for me.

    When the instructors arrived and the call to fall in went out, I could not help but notice that Oswald and his posse just so happened to fall in around me.

    After some warmup exercises and demonstrating the forms, Instructor Matthias Greyham shouted from atop his stage, ¡°Now that we are all nice and warmed up, we shall have our first sparring session of the year! Let us start with an exhibition match to get the blood pumping. Any volunteers?¡±

    Upon hearing this, one of the bigger kids near me whom I recognized from Oswald¡¯s posse raised his hand, ¡°Sir! I volunteer! But I also want to see what the new guy is made of!¡± he said while pointing at me.

    At this declaration, I could see many eyes locking on me, the instructors¡¯ included.

    Sensing that some bullshittery was afoot, Instructor Greyham gave me a questioning look that asked ¡®Do you want to do this?¡¯, to which I replied with a bored shrug, might as well see what level of fighting skills these kids have.

    After giving the OK, we were waved over to the stage Instructor Greyham was on.

    There we stood, me, an unknown dipshit I did not bother asking the name of, and Instructor Greyham who was standing between us.

    ¡°Are you ready?¡± Instructor Grewham, asked the both of us, once we both nodded, he shouted ¡°Fight!¡± and backed away.

    As I stood there ready to take on whatever attack was coming, instead the dipshit started talking while swinging his sword around to show off his ¡°Skillz¡±. ¡°I am Arnold Baskshield, and today I will put you in your place, Ironcrest!¡±

    Having just about enough of this crap, I rush forward, smack his wooden sword to the side, opening him up for an attack, and performed a simple front kick to his stomach, sending him to the floor, ¡°A fight is no place to be posturing, take this seriously before I break this sword off in your ass.¡±

    While my descriptive threat got a few chuckles from the crowd, Arnold seemed to be fuming as he got back to his feet and charged me while shouting.

    His first blow was an overhead strike, which I easily sidestepped, the missed strike was followed up with a diagonal upward strike which was easily dodged by taking a simple step back.

    Arnold then jumped forward while performing a diagonal downward strike, seeing that there was no easy way to dodge without exaggerated movement, I caught his blade with the guard of my sword and parried the sword to the side, this caused me to be close in enough to ¡°lightly¡± boop Arnold on the jaw with the pommel of my sword.

    This made the boy stagger back while holding his mouth. When his hand came away, it revealed a busted lower lip¡­ oops¡­ I missed the jaw.

    Seeing his own blood, Arnold gets angrier and charges at me swinging, all technique out the window.

    After some blocking and dodging, I saw all I needed to see from him and decided to end this. I waited for Arnold to perform a vertical slash, and after a few strikes, one finally came towards me.

    As the strike was about to hit me, I turned my body to the side, barely an inch away from the path of the strike, and jabbed my sword directly into Arnold¡¯s solar plexus. This strike crumpled Arnold to the floor into a heaving and retching mess.

    And while he was incapacitated, I put the tip of my wooden sword to Arnold¡¯s neck and looked at Instructor Greyham.

    The instructor raised his hand in my direction and shouted ¡°Winner!¡± as medical staff made their way to Arnold.

 Chapter 74

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    Prior to the exhibition match, Instructor Matthias Greyham was somewhat worried about the other noble kids picking on the new boy, but within the first few opening moves of the match, he realized he had nothing to worry about.

    After announcing Luke Ironcrest as the winner and Arnold Baskshield was brought aside to be taken care of by the healing mages, he turned to the other students.

    ¡°A commendable performance for the first match, now we will move on to the next part of the sparing session.¡± He then turned and gave a signal, 4 mages made their way to the empty part of the training grounds and started raising chest-high 10-meter by 10-meter stages.

    By the time they were done, there were 20 stages and he started shouting a gain. ¡°There are 20 stages, this will be a test of your skill and endurance. The rules are simple,¡± he then hefted a big hourglass on a table,  ¡°when the last grain of sand hits the bottom of this hourglass, the winners left on the 20 stages will not owe me 5 lap runs around the train grounds while swinging their sword! If you are knocked out, fall off the stage, or yield, you lose and must vacate the stage, and for the few of you who already know how to manifest your aura, don¡¯t. Aura is forbidden in this sparing match.¡±

    Seeing the student¡¯s face go white, Matthias knew he had them motivated. ¡°Each stage will only have 1 on 1 combat, and if I see any stages without any participants challenging the current winner, people will be ¡°volunteered¡± to fight on the available stage. If you lose, it does not matter, you can try to retake your stage or try to take another stage. And if any of you are hurt, the healers are on standby at the side. Your time starts now!¡± with that, Matthias flipped the hourglass and the time started.

    ***

    I smiled as I made my way toward the nearest stage, but I did not manage to be the first on any of them due to being the furthest away as I was walking down the stage after kicking that Arnold guy¡¯s ass when this King of the Hill game mode was announced, but no matter, I already see my classmates engaged in combat and they do not seem so tough.

    I did not bother searching for any specific stage and waited at the closest stage for the current duel to be over.

    The moment the duel ended, I hopped on the stage before anyone could, and being the sporting chap that I am, I gave my opponent some time to catch his breath from his previous match.

    When I saw the boy had recovered, I asked, ¡°Are you ready?¡± he nodded while giving a serious and cautious look, clearly wary of me after seeing my exhibition match.

    I ready my sword and wave the boy forward to let him have the opening move.

    The boy charges me and opens with a thrust toward my chest, which I deflect with ease using my own sword. From that weak attack, he is obviously feeling me out. After a few more attacks targeting different parts of my body, he finally makes a real move by feinting an overhead strike but transitions it into an attack from the side towards my midsection.

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    I avoided this blow by taking a step back, his wooden sword grazing the loose fabric of my shirt.

    ¡°Nice attack,¡± I complimented the kid, ¡°now it''s my turn.¡± I dashed forward as the boy tried to make me keep my distance by stabbing his sword toward me.

    I went low, dodging a thrust aiming for my chest, got well within his guard to grab his collar with an available hand, and turned around into him butt first. When we were in the position of him spooning me, I jerked my butt up, which lifted his feet off the ground, and threw him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes to the floor.

    This drove the wind out of the boy¡¯s lungs and before he realized what happened and why he was on his back, I had my wooden sword to his neck and asked, ¡°Do you yield?¡±

    When he got to his senses a couple of seconds later, he nodded, ¡°I yield¡±.

    I offered a hand and the boy, obviously a commoner from his disposition and lack of coat of arms, hesitatingly took my arms as I helped him up.

    I then petted him on the shoulder as he turned to walk off stage, ¡°Well fought.¡±

    I then turned around to see who my next opponent was, only to see my stage surrounded by Oswald and his goons, and by the look on their faces, I could already tell what they were thinking.

    I am pretty sure they know they cannot beat me 1 on 1, so Oswald plans to send his goons to tire me out before he comes and finishes me off.

    As the first of the goons come on stage, an idea comes to mind as I smile at goon No.1.

    The moment he brought his sword up, I ran towards him and stuck. Within 3 moves, I managed to knock away his guard and started beating him up until he shouted ¡°Stop! I yield! I yield!¡±

    As goon No.1 hobbles off the stage, goon No.2 runs on stage and attacks immediately. This time, I beat him in 5 moves before he surrendered.

    By the time goon No.6 stepped onto the stage to attack, I looked like I was breathing heavily as each participant took more moves to defeat.

    When I defeated goon No.10 it looked like I was almost fighting him to a draw, but a ¡°lucky¡± strike to the jaw knocked out the goon.

    It was then that Oswald stepped onto the stage, as he swaggered over to me and started talking shit loud enough for those around the stage to hear, ¡°Not so tough now are you, Ironcrest. Well¡­ I am going to enjoy beating you like the dog you are!¡±

    Hearing the shit coming out of his mouth, I could not help but snort a laugh, which sparked Oswald¡¯s ire ¡°What so funny you bastard?!¡±

    After getting my laugh under control, I replied, ¡°You swagger up here like you actually did something and say you are going to beat me like a dog¡­ You? Beat me? A coward like you had to send others to do your job for you before you think I looked weak and came to deal the ¡°finishing blow¡±. I bet you get your butlers to chew your food for you before spitting it in your mouth to swallow, that''s how weak you are.¡±

    My comment gets some laughter from the crowd of students that formed around my stage to see me demolish Oswald¡¯s goon squad in record time, this pissed Oswald off big time and he readied his sword while screaming at me. ¡°Shut up! Last time you faced me without my sword! Now I will show you what it means to face the blade of house Berkeley!¡±

 Chapter 75

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    Oswald charged me and opened up with a flurry of measured strikes, leaving me little room to counterattack, by the 10th strike that I parried, blocked, or dodged, I had to admit, he was better in swordplay than the goons he threw at me, this Berkeley family did a good job grinding the basics into their kids.

    Once I opened some space between us with a hop backward, Oswald looked at me with some confusion on his face, ¡°How are you not tired? Are you using some boosting potions?¡±

    I just chuckled at his confusion and replied, ¡°Nope, I was just acting weak to lure your cowardly ass here to face me, I was getting tired of smacking your lackeys around and decided it was your turn.¡±

    Hearing my response, I saw Oswald¡¯s face contort into a few different expressions as he pointed his sword at me and shouted, ¡°You!... You!!... Die!!¡± and then charged me.

    I decided this brat¡¯s bullshit has gone on long enough and it was time to teach Oswald a lesson, traditional Asian style, as the old saying goes, spare the rod and spoil the child.

    I charged forward and met Oswald mid-charge, our swords clashed, I angled my blade to let his sword slide off, but in response to that, he also tried to angle his blade to be in an advantageous position for a follow-up strike.

    Seeing what he was up to, I used my back leg to kick Oswald¡¯s front leg, sweeping it off the ground, and making him lean forward into our locked blades.

    The moment I felt the change of weight on my sword, I stepped aside and let Oswald stumble forward while trying to regain his balance, which I gladly helped him regain.

    The moment Oswald passed me, I rotated the grip on my sword 90¡ã and swung my sword toward his butt with all the speed I could manage, but only exerted just enough force that my sword does not fly out of my hand.

    When the flat side of my wooden sword made contact with Oswald¡¯s ass, a loud *THWACK!* echoed out across the training ground, followed by a girly scream coming out of Oswald¡¯s mouth as he arched his back and hopped forward while clutching his butt cheeks.

    And as Oswald was hopping around, I noticed the surroundings had become rather silent, when I looked around, quite a number of fights had come to a stop to look in my direction, and even the instructor was joining in the staring. That was until one of the students on a nearby stage decided to take advantage of his opponent¡¯s lack of concentration to win his duel, that was when the other stages got their shit together and remembered they were in the middle of a match.

    After a few seconds, Oswald finally got himself under control and turned to glare at me with tears in his eyes while clutching his butt with one hand while pointing his sword at me with the other.

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    As I saw he was about to spew more rubbish from his mouth, I quickly shut him up by charging and attacking him. This forced him to get a grip and hold his sword with both hands to fend me off.

    Deciding that the smack on the ass would be the first of many smacks, I went on the offensive and toyed with him throughout the fight, with every few blows Oswald managed to parry or block, I managed to slip in smacks with the flat of my sword somewhere on his body.

    After 3 minutes of smacking Oswald around, both his cheeks were swelling, welts all over his exposed skin, and no doubt there were more under his clothes.

    I have to say, I am rather impressed with the perseverance of this brat who came from a noble house, with the tears flowing from his eyes, I expected him to give up and surrender 2 minutes ago. I guess he is from a martial house for a good reason.

    But by now, beating him is just sad, so I will give him an out, ¡°Give it up Oswald, there is no honor in me beating you further, nor disgrace in you yielding to a superior opponent. Yield and walk away.¡±

    Hearing this, Oswald started seething, then I saw his eyes look from left to right as if he was looking out for something, and then he smiled.

    That was when I felt it, it was faint, but I felt it, Oswald somehow stealthy activated his aura, there were no translucent wafts of aura or anything like that, outwardly it looked like nothing happened, if I had just a few steps back, I would have just mistaken it as a light breeze, and if did not know what the pressure of aura felt like, I would not have connected the dots to recognize it.

    It was just a pulse of the aura activating before the feeling blended into the background, but I am pretty sure he still has his aura activated, I guess this must be one of the reasons the Berkeley family has risen so far just by being a martial house, they most likely have their own aura technique.

    Before I could form more theories in my head, Oswald bolted toward me at superhuman speed.

    Knowing it was a bad idea to meet him head-on, I waited until the last moment and rolled backward as Oswald tried to take my head off, I managed to dodge his blade by mere millimeters as I rolled off my back and pushed myself onto my feet as Oswald zoomed past me.

    The moment I got to my feet, I turned around to see Oswald ready to charge again. I was sorely tempted to unleash my own aura, but I knew that if I did so, everyone and their mothers would notice it as plain as day. Maybe I should have experimented on how to safely activate my aura on a low burn, maybe I would have even the odds a little more, Dad did say it was hard to detect even with his mastery of aura, but that is a problem for another day, now I got to find a way to beat up this kid short of killing him, and him using aura is not making it any easier.

    Lucky for me, this is hardly the first time I have fought a physically superior opponent, the only difference this time is that the physically superior opponent is around the same height as myself, so I have some getting used to that.

    For the next 5 moves, I did nothing but parrying or dodging while throwing in some counters with my own sword before I noticed a pattern. He seems to be aiming for my head while ignoring my counters, letting his aura-empowered body eat the damage of my wooden sword.

    I did not want it to come to this, but I had to take his fight seriously now. I changed my grip from the flat side of the blade back to normal and walked toward Oswald, ¡°Grit your teeth, Oswald, you are not going to like what comes next.¡±

 Chapter 76

    AN: Sorry for disappearing for a week, peak period at work. If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As I walked toward Oswald, he was getting ready to charge me again. The moment he took off in my direction, I ready myself. Instead of having my sword in front of me, I had it in a low ready position while my left hand was up at the ready as if I were going to catch the blade, which was not far from the truth.

    I already know where he is aiming, so now it is all down to timing. When Oswald closed in and started his swing for my head, I jumped forward into his swing before it had great momentum and caught his wrist.

    From there, I did to Oswald what I did to my first opponent, I threw him, but I was not as gentle.

    With a swift movement, I pulled Oswald forward with my left hand while getting low and slide-kicked his foot that was currently pushing off the ground, this made Oswald airborne directly over me, and that was when I brought my right fist that was gripping my sword right into his gut with an uppercut while pulling him toward the ground with my left.

    This maneuver slammed Oswald on the ground, hard, knocking the air out of him, and before he could get up, I walked past him and swung my sword at the side of his knees, which made him cry out in pain.

    ¡°You may have aura protecting your body, but that just makes them tougher, not invincible, now get up, your beating is far from done.¡± I said in a volume just loud enough for only Oswald to hear.

    This time, as Oswald hobbled to his feet with the help of his sword, I could see fear and hesitation in his eyes, which made me wonder, why is he so persistent, is it some warped sense of noble¡¯s pride? Or is it this older brother that Finrod told me about?

    Before I could ponder any further, Oswald was on his feet, limped a few steps toward me, and started swinging. Now that he is not throwing around his body at superhuman speeds, I can handle this without using my aura, and I am not going to be gentle this time.

    Since he has his aura on, that makes him sturdier than normal, but that is not that big of an issue, I just need to hit him in the weak or sensitive areas of the human body.

    As Oswald attacks me, it turns out it is not much different from before, sure, the swings were faster and I had to dodge a lot more than blocking or parrying compared to before, but it was manageable due to Oswald¡¯s attacks falling into somewhat of a pattern.

    After giving Oswald a few free strikes to confirm his pattern, I made my move. My first counterattack was when he raised his sword high to strike me down, this revealed his armpits, which were all so full of nerves, which made it such a juicy target.

    As Oswald brought his sword down, my sword came from below and jabbed into his left armpit. This made him flinch back in pain and opened him up for me to rain blows on him, I targeted his joints and any weak points I could hit, but I avoided his temples, neck, and groin.

    After half a minute of relentless beating on Oswald, he crumpled and curled up into a sobbing ball. Seeing this, I no longer had the heart to continue. And when I looked up, I could see the other students around looking at me with fear in their eyes.

    ¡°Fuck¡­ not again.¡± I whispered to myself as I finally noticed Instructor Greyham looking at me from the back of the crowd of students, when our eyes met, he started making his way to me with a healer in tow, ¡°Fuck¡­¡±

    When Instructor Greyham came in front of me, he looked me up and down as the healer carried Oswald away. ¡°What is your name boy?¡±

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    I straightened up and replied, ¡°I am Luke Ironcrest, Instructor Greyham.¡±

    After studying me for a few seconds more, he announced, ¡°Luke Ironcrest, has passed the test, this stage will now be vacant for others to duel.¡± then he turned to me and said, ¡°Follow me.¡± and walked off stage.

    He led me to the main stage, turned, and asked, ¡°Was it necessary to go that far?¡±

    After reflecting for a bit, I may have gone a tiny bit too far¡­ ok fine, I was being vindictive and immature for my mental age and went way too far. I could have given him a few light smacks, flex on him, and thrown him off the stage. ¡°No¡­ I went overboard, I could have just ended it by throwing him off the stage.¡±

    ¡°Good, at least you still have some sense in you. Now, do you know why I did not step in to stop the match?¡± he asked.

    I gave him a questioning look, not knowing where this was going. ¡°No?...¡±

    Instructor Greyham huffed and said, ¡°Because if you did not beat him up, I would have done it for disobeying my instructions about using aura.¡±

    At his declaration, my eyes widened in surprise as I asked, ¡°How did you know he was using aura? I barely felt him using it and I was just next to him.¡±

    Instructor Greyham snorted at my question, ¡°Ha!... Boy, I have been using aura decades before you were born, I did not need to feel it, I knew it from how he was moving and taking hits that would have incapacitated him. If he had beaten you I would have broken a few of his bones and reported him to the disciplinary department, but I will settle with you beating him into a crying mess.¡±

    So he does know about Oswald concealing his aura, maybe he can give me a hint on how it''s done, ¡°How did he even do that? When my father and his knights manifest their aura, it is always visible.¡±

    He smirks at me as he says, ¡°Greedy little shit aren''t you, that just means your family is still using the standard way of using aura, there are a few families that know how to do it, and a few different ways to go about doing it, in fact, I just did it right now.¡± he said as he pulled out a copper coin and folded it with two fingers as easy as if it were paper.

    I am currently closer to the instructor than I was to Oswald and I did not feel anything. ¡°How? I did not sense any change.¡±

    Instructor Greyham waved off my question and replied with mock outrage, ¡°Don¡¯t compare me to that young Berkeley boy, he had at most been practicing aura for a year and could not conceal it properly. But that is enough small talk.¡±

    Then Instructor Greyham went back to being stone-faced, ¡°From what I can see of your swordsmanship and unarmed combat, you do not fight like a noble or knight, who taught you how to fight like that?¡±

    Fuck, I did not think of a cover story on how I know the techniques I know, orthodox armed combat in this world did not have much in the way of punches, kicks, or takedowns, how am I going to explain this away?

    It was then that Zhang Jun¡¯s journal came to mind and an idea started to form.

    ¡°Err¡­ Not to brag, but when I noticed the other students were not as skilled, I thought I had some leeway and tried to mix Kingdom¡¯s basic sword forms with techniques from an unarmed combat manual in a foreign language that I found.¡± I lied while looking sheepish.

    He stared at me for a good few seconds and from the look in his eyes, I could tell he did not buy my bullshit for a second but decided to let it go, ¡°From now on, any form of sparing for you will be done only with an instructor. If I have you sparring with the other students, they will end up demoralized.¡±

    He then called over one of the assistant instructors and said he would be my partner until the sparring session ended and walked off.

    When the last grain of the hourglass fell, I was dripping with sweat, throughout the remaining time, the assistant instructor kept me on my toes. With his advantage in strength, speed, height, and reach, he slowly ramped up the intensity until I started taking small hits from him and stayed at that level until the time was up.

    Soon we were dismissed and I drained a few cups from the watering station before I dragged my aching body back to my dorm to rest before night class, I just hoped I had enough energy to concentrate in class.

    ***

    After dismissing the students and saying goodbye to his assistant instructors, Instructor Matthias Greyham went to the Administration office and requested information on Luke Ironcrest.

    What he saw in the file made him grin from ear to ear, ¡°How fun.¡±

 Chapter 77

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I snorted awake as I heard the dinner bell ring and went down to get some dinner before going to my first night class for Languages of Power.

    I was the first to get to class, so I got to see the room slowly fill up, and like my Array Architecture class, the first thing I noticed is the age demographic, but this time, besides myself, the youngest person in the class looked to be in his late 40s, and the oldest looked like he was going to kick the bucket at any moment.

    As the adults mingled while waiting for the professor to arrive, more than 1 elderly man and woman gave me candy and head pats like I was their grandkid after we introduced ourselves to each other.

    Soon, the time came for class to start, and the classroom door opened to reveal a short, slightly hunched old lady wearing glasses and walking with a cane/mage staff.

    As she entered and closed the door behind her, she glanced around the classroom, and for a split second, I could have sworn her eyes locked onto mine, and for some reason, all the hair on my body rose as I got goosebumps.

    And then, as she addressed the class, an unexplainable feeling of calm came over me.

    I must just be tired from the sparring I did with the instructor, yeah¡­ all I need is a good night¡¯s sleep and I will be right as rain.

    ¡°Good evening class, as I am sure you all know, you are here for the course, Languages of Power, and I will be your teacher for this course, Professor Sageira Drackot.¡± She said as she nodded to her students, some of whom were most likely as old or older than her.

    ¡°As for the curriculum for this course, we will start with a language of power that many of you are familiar with, Runic script or Runic Language, but for simplicity''s sake, I will refer to it as Runic script. All of you here use Runic script in the spells you cast, but it is so much more, it is a language unto itself, and if you know how to use it correctly, you will be able to go beyond just mixing and matching different runic script in the spells we use every day to get a slightly different result. If you know exactly what you are saying in Runic script, you can literally cast custom spells on the fly, like so.¡±

    She then lazily waved her hand at the stacks of textbooks on her desk while chanting, and as she chanted, I recognized some of the words she chanted. I recognized the words for distance, velocity, target, and a few others, they were the same words that I memorized when learning 0th circle magic.

    After a few seconds of chanting, the textbooks levitated to the over 60 students and gently landed on our desks.

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    At first, one might think, ¡®Big deal, she floated some books, I could float some books with wind magic.¡¯, but when I really think about it, in the span of less than a 7 second chant, she imbued the spell with instructions to target more than 60 objects and move them to over 60 different locations, and the finesse of the wind magic applied was so refined that I almost mistook it for telekinesis if not for the gentle wind buffeting my hands on the table when the book came close.

    As I looked around the class, I could see that most of the class came to realize the same significance of what Professor Sageira just did.

    Seeing the look on our faces, Professor Sageira nodded and continued, ¡°And that is just Runic script. Besides Runic script, for this year we will be touching on Sylvan Language, which is a language spoken by forest spirits, fey creatures, and nature deities. Sylvan scripts are used for communicating with nature, casting nature-based spells, or entering the Feywild. If any of you know the elven language, you will realize the two share a lot of similarities due to the elven language being an extremely striped down version of the Sylvan Language.

    After that, we will finish off with Elemental Script, and I specifically say ¡°script¡± because besides high-ranking elementals, elementals cannot talk, they mainly communicate by sharing concepts and emotions with each other, but they can still communicate with Elemental Script that they all know, there are a number of different elementals but we will be concentration on the main 4 Scripts associated with the four elemental planes (earth, air, fire, water). Elemental scripts are used to control elemental forces and cast elemental spells.¡±

    After the introduction of the curriculum, we started our lesson with Runic script and were instructed to open our textbooks. The rest of the class went along very much like my Elven Language class, learning the words, their meanings in different contexts, and even grammatical structures.

    By the end of the first class, I was bursting with ideas on how I could augment or edit the spells I currently knew, and I would have tried it the moment I exited the classroom if not for the warning to not experiment with new spells without supervision.

    That last comment was obviously aimed at me, which started some good-natured old people laughs at my expense.

    As I stood up, I expected to stay around to do some polite socializing, but for some reason, everyone had some kind of glazed-over look on their faces as they started saying things like, ¡°I have an early start tomorrow.¡± or ¡°I have another engagement I need to get to.¡± in a monotone while quickly making their way out of the classroom.

    Seeing this creepy as fuck situation, I decided to make myself scarce and quickly walked after the others, but was stopped by the voice of Professor Sageira.

    ¡°Luke Ironcrest, would you mind staying back for a while? I need to have a word with you.¡±

    At those words, my body froze in position mid-stride, I tried to shout for help, but my body did not respond, the only thing that was working as it should was my mind feaking out and my heart being on the verge of exploding from beating too fast.

    When the last of the night class students left the classroom, I felt the mana warp the classroom, and there was utter silence, the only sounds I heard were my heart beating and Professor Sageira''s slow methodical breaths.

    ¡°Now, would you do this old lady a favor and come over here, let me take a good look at you.¡±

    Hearing her, my body moved on its own as I turned around and walked towards Professor Sageira. She still had the guise of a kindly old lady with a gentle smile, but to me, it looked like I was walking towards the maw of a monster.

 Chapter 78

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    Professor Sageira Drackot, or at least that was the name she was currently known by, was making her way to her class from one of her favorite places, the library.

    She internally grumbled as she walked to class, she would have liked to stay in the ever-growing library of the Royal Academy, but she made a deal to at least teach one class, and she did not break deals. So after sifting through the extensive list of subjects, she decided on night class for Languages of Power due to it having more mature students on average.

    When she entered the class, she did what she did with every new batch of students, she took a look at her new students, or more specifically, their souls.

    There was a lot one could learn from observing a soul, unlike the fleshy disguise that every mortal wore and presented to the world around them, the soul bore no such deception, and she could see their true selves.

    This was one of the reasons Professor Sageira Drackot took the form of a short and hunched old lady. The idealized form of the human body she used for her previous aliases brought out the darker sides of the souls of both men and women, lust, envy, greed, and sometimes, outright hostility. That''s why she chose her current form, besides madmen, who would show such dark emotions towards a kindly old lady.

    As she scanned the room, there was an abnormality that caught her eyes, two actually. First was a young boy in a night class taking such a dry subject as Languages of Power, the second was the mark on that boy¡¯s soul, it was the stigma of one who has experienced death, and there was only one type of being that she has ever seen the stigma of death on, the undead.

    She quickly averted her gaze to not give herself away, but from the way the boy tensed up, she knew he noticed something, so she exuded her soul energy to soothe her target¡¯s soul and he mellowed out.

    She then took attendance, found the boy¡¯s name was Luke Ironcrest, and took a mental note to investigate the Ironcrest family after this.

    As she proceeded with her lesson, she kept an eye on how Luke was acting, and by all accounts, she had him captivated with the lesson, ¡®It is either this undead is actually enjoying the lesson, or the necromancer is extremely skilled at making infiltrator type undead that is able to act very well.¡¯

    The moment the class ended, Professor Sageira Drackot silently conjured a mental illusion spell and cast it through her feet, cloaked the spell with earth mana to send it through the stone of the room¡¯s floor, making it indistinguishable from the passive magic that fills the building, and into every student but Luke.

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    When the spell took effect, it caused them confusion and brought up a random task from their subconscious that prompted priority in completing it.

    As all the students left the room, she flexed her soul¡¯s strength to dominate Luke¡¯s, stopping him in place, ¡°Luke Ironcrest, would you mind staying back for a while? I need to have a word with you.¡±

    Once it was only the two of them in the classroom, she cast the spell, Sealed Space, and beckoned him over to her, ¡°Now, would you do this old lady a favor and come over here, let me take a good look at you.¡±

    ***

    Once I was standing in front of Professor Sageira, she started levitating and circled around me, observing me like a prime piece of meat, then she grabbed my wrist and I felt a foreign mana scour every millimeter of my body before my wrist was released.

    ¡°Your master has made something interesting. Such a young body, but much more magically developed than most adults, and also capable of manifesting aura. Tell me, what kind of undead are you? You are the first living undead I have ever seen or heard of.¡±

    After a few seconds of me doing some confused internal screaming, she said, ¡°Oh, how rude of me, you can¡¯t move at the moment, let me fix that for you.¡±

    The moment I felt my head could move, I let out a terrified and not so manly scream, followed by, ¡°Professor, why are you doing this?! What are you talking about?!¡±

    The next moment, I once again found myself unable to move or speak, ¡°Interesting, you being able to act on your own instead of reverting to a feral state despite being in my Sealed Space spell and cut off from your master means you are capable of independent thought, making you a higher form of undead.

    But do you have a sense of self-preservation? If you do, I highly recommend you answer my questions honestly. Why have you infiltrated the Royal Academy and who is your master?¡±

    I once again felt my head released from whatever force was holding it in place, ¡°I did not infiltrate anything! I am here legitimately, I have no master! And why are you calling me an undead?! Do I look rotten to you?¡± I replied with a mix of fear and anger, but mostly fear.

    Professor Sageira stared at me for a second, then she blinked, her eyes changed to that of a reptile¡¯s with a slitted pupil and yellowish golden sclera, and overflowing with power. This time, I froze out of fear instead of the weird force that paralyzed me.

    After staring at me with those golden eyes and tilting her head from side to side, she said, ¡°You seem to be telling the truth¡­ could it be brainwashing?... There are ways to get around that, and the fact that you are alive and have a functioning brain makes it easier, a few pokes of mana to your brain here and there, and we can bypass all that pesky brainwashing and get right to your memories, all we need to do is take off the top of your skull.¡±

    She then floated a bit higher in front of me as I saw the fingernail of her right index finger grow a few centimeters and started glowing with power, ¡°Hold still, this might hurt.¡±

 Chapter 79

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the sharp fingernail closes into my forehead, I struggle to free myself, but to no avail, I could not even move my pinky finger or twitch an eyebrow.

    Failing to move my body, I concentrated internally to see if I could force my way out of this situation with aura.

    I flexed my stamina energy in anticipation of igniting it with mana to manifest my aura, but a feeling of wrongness came over me as I did so. As I pushed my stamina energy to cycle, it did not respond to my will, it was almost stagnant, just enough for my body to sustain itself.

    If I manifest my aura with my stamina flow in this stagnant state, I will have a short-lived burst of power, followed by me either becoming extremely weak or even unconscious.

    But at this point, I did not see much choice in the matter but to risk it. As I ignited the spark of mana in my chest, I saw Sageira¡¯s eyes shift to my chest, and the sprake of mana was swiftly extinguished.

    ¡°Now now, young man, we can¡¯t be letting you do something reckless like that now can we?¡± she chided.

    At this point, her fingernail has dug past my skin and is digging into my skull, but has yet to penetrate it.

    Failing to activate my aura, I now try to fend the mad old woman¡­ thing¡­ off with magic. I flex my mana manipulation to see if my mana is in the same situation as my stamina, and thanked the heavens that it felt normal.

    Seeing that I am unable to move in order to form gestures with my hands, or say anything in order to chant, I had to cast a 3rd circle lightning spell purely with mental casting.

    At such close range, Sageira could not dodge my spell and the bolt of lightning hit her right in the face, which resulted in the relief of pressure applied to cut into my skull.

    But that was only for a moment before, ¡°Oh ho. You can already cast at the 3rd circle level with pure mental casting. Well done I suppose, but we also can¡¯t have that.¡±

    She then used the blood from my forehead to draw something on my cheek while chanting in a language I did not know. When she was done, my eyes that were stuck in position, saw a purple glow from below me, and just above me I saw the edge of an array circle small enough for just me.

    Then the pressure of the fingernail started digging into my skill again.

    While bearing the pain in forced silence, I quickly cast another lightning spell, but as the spell left my body, I felt the spell construct break down and fade before it could get an inch away from my body.

    Noticing my failure to cast spells as I felt her breach my brain case and was making very small finger motions to saw it open, she started commenting on what she did to prevent my casting.

    ¡°Interesting isn¡¯t it? The spell array I cast is in the language of the Deep Ones, mortals who look upon them almost always go mad, and their languages that I embedded in the array does much the same to most branches of orderly magic. The logic and rules of Runes crumble and erode in the presence of such illogical madness, and only the enlightened can see the methods to the madness.¡± She lectured as she was happily sawed a couple of inches away from the insertion point.

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    Fuck Fuck Fuck!! I am very much Fucked! If what she says is true, that means no matter what spells I cast, it fails the moment it leaves my body. That means I only have one option left, my only way of casting without magic without relying on Runes, just pure mana manipulation. Molecular Magic.

    I will my mana into the floor and shoot an earth spike from between my legs, up toward Sageira¡¯s chest.

    From the look in her eyes, my earth spike surprised her for a moment before she raised her other hand and took it straight on her bare palm. The earth spike that I trained to the point that it could punch through tree trunks was stopped by a frail-looking hand.

    No! Snap out of it, me, think later, fight now!

    As Sageira crushes the earth spike in her hand, I send another two earth spikes at her while I ionize the air beside myself.

    This forced her to use both her hands to block the earth spikes. At the moment she crushed the earth spikes, I had another surprise ready for her.

    I released the charge from the ionized air, which in turn released an arc of lightning at her outstretched hand she used to block the earth spike, and this time, from the twitching body and grimace on her face, she really felt it.

    Unlike the lightning bolt I cast earlier, which was just me casting the ¡°concept¡± of lightning, the lightning I cast this time was the real deal and as natural as it got outside of a lightning storm.

    A moment after Sageira got struck by my lightning, I felt the force holding me in place vanish, and I gasped a deep breath before gathering mana in my right foot and stomping down, this caused an earth pillar as thick as a tree to shoot up from under Sageira, sending her into the ceiling.

    Did I really need to do the stomping move? No. But I found it helped a lot to visualize my will upon what I wanted to happen.

    At this point, I was fighting to kill. My family told me to keep Molecular Magic a secret mainly because of people like this crazy bitch who is trying to poke around in my brain, and now that she has seen my secret, only one of us is leaving this room alive, and I would prefer it to be me.

    Seeing that she was able to block earth spikes with her bare hands, I was not confident that smashing her to the ceiling would finish the job. I gathered mana in my hands and started swinging, this sent a flurry of wind blades into the dust cloud where I presumed the pillar met the ceiling.

    And to finish off the combo, I took a deep breath before I drew as much oxygen out of the air, vibrated the air in front of me beyond the point it could easily light wood on fire, and forced the pure oxygen in a stream, through the superheated air, and towards where Sageira was.

    This resulted in the pure oxygen igniting into a blowtorch of translucent blue flame engulfing the old lady who was now pushing herself off the ceiling.

    As the high pressure jet of flame came in contact with Sageira, her hair was instantly incinerated off of her body, followed by her clothes, and finally her skin.

    As her body started to char and her eyes popped from the intense heat, Sageira''s body eventually came to a stop.

    A few seconds later, my blowtorch sputtered to a stop as I finally released the breath I was holding and bent over to hyperventilate for a while.

    After I caught my breath, I looked back up at the burnt corpse of Sageira standing on my pillar with her hands on the ceiling.

    ¡°Fuck, that was too close. Got to get out of here before someone comes around to see what the ruckus is about.¡±

    As I made my way to the exit, I was wiping the blood out of my eye that came from the deep ass cut in my forehead. How am I going to explain this injury to the healers?

    I opened the door and stepped forward, only to walk nose first into some kind of invisible barrier.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± I cussed as I held my nose in pain.

    Then it hit me, the feeling of this barrier¡­ it has the same feeling as that spell Sageira cast, what was it called?... Sealed Space?... And if the spell is still active, that means¡­

    I slowly turned around to see Sageira standing next to my raised pillar without a hair out of place.

    She released her cane/staff to let it float on its own and started a slow clap, ¡°Impressive, most impressive.¡±

 Chapter 80

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    ¡°What the fuck?...¡± I whisper to myself under my breath as I look at Sageira, then up at the burnt figure that was supposed to be her.

    ¡°Did you enjoy the fight?¡± Sageira said in the same sweet tone Mum uses when she sees me coming home from playing in the woods.

    She then snapped her finger, and the burnt figure of her on the pillar evaporated into motes of light, leaving behind a transparent bubble in the shape of a humanoid figure that started to dissipate into nothing. Was I fighting some kind of illusion? An illusion that had enough physical presence to stop the pillar from making contact with the ceiling?

    ¡°It has been some time since I have come across one of the civilized races is capable of using Instinctive magic like magic beasts do¡­ but you manage to pull it off without a specialized mana organ, in fact, you can use multiple elements. You may not have demonstrated it yet, but I can assume you are able to manipulate water too, can¡¯t you?¡± she said as she started walking toward me with that frail old woman walk.

    But seeing what she is capable of, I know better, whatever she is, she is anything but a frail old woman. ¡°What are you? And what do you mean Instinctive magic?¡± I almost growled out as I manifested my aura and reached to my side for my ceremonial dagger, but realized I left it back at the dorm when my hand grasped nothing.

    ¡°Oh hoho¡­ you are in no place to be asking questions young one, only answering them.¡± she said as she advanced toward me, her cane floating at her side ¡°Now be a dear and tell me what I want to know while you still have a tongue to speak. What is an undead like yourself doing in the Academy?¡±

    As I backed up against the wall while trying to look as threatening as possible, I tried to buy time by talking, ¡°I already told you, I am just a student here. And why do you keep calling me an undead?¡±

    After letting out an old lady chuckle, she answered, ¡°It is because your soul is marked by the stigma of death, silly. Only people who died would have the stigma of death, and who else would have the stigma of death and still walking around if not an undead?¡±

    Wait, what? My soul? Stigma of death? Does that mean¡­ when I died and reincarnated in this world¡­

    ¡°Oh? From the look on your face, you have an idea of what I am talking about, so you know you are undead.¡± Before I could further follow that train of thought, I was shoved against the wall, this time by a very tangible and physical force, the strength of which slightly embedded my aura-empowered body into the classroom¡¯s wall.

    Unlike the unknown force that held me still the first time, this felt like what I could only describe as a telekinetic pressure pressing me in place against the wall, and even with my aura, I could not fight against this pressure.

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    Resorting to magic, I once again ionized the air in order to zap Sageira, but the moment the mana left my body to do my bidding, she unleashed from her body what felt like a hurricane of mana, shredding any mana that so much as peeked out of my body.

    I was now well and truly helpless. In the face of such overwhelming power, I was going to die, I would no longer see the loving faces of my family, the house staff that took care of me¡­ Emma¡­ I will not be able to say goodbye to any of them.

    Tears streamed down my cheeks as doom in the form of an old woman floated up to me until we were at eye level, she once again extended her long fingernail to my forehead in order to finish the job, ¡°Last chance to tell me what I want to know, because there is a good chance you become a vegetable after I am done with your brain.¡±

    As I despaired, I did what was most likely not a great idea, but at this point, this was the only way I saw that I had a chance of surviving.

    ¡°I am reincarnated into this world after I died in mine!¡± I shouted as I clenched my eyes closed and waited for Sageira to get on with the craniotomy in case she did not believe me.

    As a few seconds passed in silence, I was still held against the wall, and could still feel the mana hurricane still going on around me. After waiting for a few more seconds of nothing happening, I opened an eye to see what was going on, only to see Sageira staring at me with scrutiny.

    ¡°You seem to be telling the truth¡­ I have only heard of the concept of reincarnation, never seen one before.¡± Sageira said as she continued her scrutiny of me.

    ¡°S-So does that mean you ain''t going to open my skull and poke around in my brain?¡± I asked sheepishly.

    ¡°No¡­ No, I am not.¡± Sageira replied, but was that a tinge of disappointment in her voice? Better not tempt fate by asking.

    ¡°So can you release me?¡± I asked.

    After thinking about it for a few seconds, she answered with a huff, ¡°Fine, but I have some questions for you, understand?¡± she asked, but it felt more of a command, and realistically, I was in no position to say no. So I nodded.

    The mana hurricane died down, and I fell off the wall as the force pushing me against it disappeared.

    Now with a free hand, I started wiping the blood out of my eyes, and was about to tear off my sleeve to use as a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding when Sageira spoke up, ¡°Let me take care of that for you.¡±

    She tapped a finger on my forehead and the cut on my head started itching like a motherfucker! But it only lasted for a few seconds before the feeling faded, when I touched where she was cutting my skull open, my skin was undamaged, and there was no mark, nor did I feel any indent on my skull from having a bad head boo boo, like I did in my previous life when I banged my head against the corner of a table hard enough to leave a small gouge on my skull.

    As I was inspecting my head, Sageira said, ¡°Sit, I have questions that need answering.¡±

    She then waved her hand, and the very fucked classroom started to unfuck itself as furniture started moving back into place and the damage done to the classroom started to fix itself. At the same time, a table and two chairs set themselves between us, and she gestured for me to sit.

 Chapter 81

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    ¡°So¡­ you are telling me you came from a technologically advanced world that is devoid of mana or magic, in any of its forms?¡± Sageira clarified with me after spending the last few hours telling her about my first life while she kept interrupting with questions.

    ¡°Well, as far as I know¡­ mana and magic are relegated to the realms of function, fantasy, charlatans, and con artists trying to start weird sex cults. If magic actually exists in my old world, it is most likely a secret that is being kept from the majority of the population.¡± I replied while giving a tried shrug.

    Hearing this, Sageira leans back in her chair while picking up and stirring a cup of tea from a tea set I somehow did not notice appearing.

    Seeing the lull in the conversation, I took the chance to ask a question of my own, ¡°Emm¡­Professor Sageira, when I attacked you with magic¡­ why did you call it Instinctive magic¡­ are there others that can do the same thing I can do?¡±

    After taking a sip of her tea, she rested her cup on the table and asked, ¡°Luke, have you ever fought magic beasts? And I am not talking about goblins or kobolds.¡±

    Shaking my head, I answered, ¡°No, my father only lets me tag along on goblin or kobold culling missions, anything bigger than that, he would only bring his knights. Why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°Unlike goblins or kobolds who have more in common with the enlightened races in the way they apply magic, magic beasts cast magic very much in the same way you did, be it instinctually or with the help of a specialized mana organ in their body, over the millennia I have been around, I have only ever seen around ten people use Instinctive magic. But unlike those special individuals and magic beasts who can cast only one element, at most two, you seem to be capable of casting multiple elements without issue. Now why is that?¡± Sageira asked the last part as she leaned forward with predatory eyes.

    I leaned back at her powerful gaze as I stammered out, ¡°I, umm¡­ as long as I know the makeup of an element and how it behaves, it becomes a lot easier to manipulate when you know what you are looking for. Take water for example, what is water made of?¡± I asked her.

    Sageira looked at me like I was an idiot, ¡°Water is made of water, what else could it be?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes and no.¡± I then requested a candle and a cup of pure water if she had it, she waved her hand, and a candle and a glass bottle of water floated from under the teacher¡¯s desk over to me.

    I opened the cork and set the bottle on the table, ¡°What you said is true, water is water, but what makes up water is the real question.¡± I said as I got into the swing of the impromptu chemistry lesson I saw online, but now with the help of some magic and mana.

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    I willed the water out of the bottle into a ball between us, ¡°Water is actually made out of two gases, and with a little persuasion of electricity or lighting, we can separate the two.¡± I then ionized the air on the left and right of the ball of water and started zapping it.

    After a minute of sending a continuous low current into the water ball, there were two hazy balls of gas that I captured with Molecular Magic, or Instinctive Magic as Sageira calls it.

    Once I got what I needed, I put the rest of the water I had not used back into the bottle, walked a few paces away from the table, lit the candle, and placed it on the floor, ¡°From the water, I extracted these two gasses, what we call Hydrogen and Oxygen in my old world.¡± I said as I gestured to the two balls of gas when I introduced them, the Hydrogen gas ball being almost twice as big as the Oxygen ball.

    ¡°Fascinating, your people were able to perform such feats and you say magic did not exist in your world. Are you sure?¡± Sageira asked, her eyes changed to their reptile slit pupils as she observed the whole process.

    ¡°Yes, I am sure this is not magic, this is what can be achieved with science. Oh, by the way, there are some errors in the Natural Science class textbook, I will point it out to you later. Moving on.¡± I turned my attention back to the lit candle.

    ¡°That flame spell I shot at your illusion was using Oxygen to feed my flames, like so.¡± I brought the Oxygen ball in front of the candle and directed a controlled flow at the candle, this accelerated the candle¡¯s fire as the candle wax started to melt away at a fast rate. I stopped before the candle got halfway.

    I then took many steps back away from the candle for my next demonstration. ¡°This is the other gas that makes up water, Hydrogen.¡± I sent the ball of hydrogen at the candle, and upon contact, there was a boom, accompanied by a ball of fire, and the candle sent flying.

    ¡°As you can see, once the components and behavior of the elements are understood, it becomes a lot easier to manipulate with mana and do different things with it. Which brings me to my own questions, what do you mean ¡®most¡¯ magic beasts and people like me can cast only one or two elements, that implies there are others that can cast three or all elements, and what are you? Because I am pretty sure you are anything but a sweet old lady.¡± I asked with some trepidation.

    Sageira looks at me with her slit reptile eyes, then showed me her teeth with a grin, but they were not the teeth I saw before while we were talking, they were sharp pointed fangs that looked like they were used to rend flesh from bone. ¡°Those two questions have kind of the same answer in this case, there are magic beasts who manage to live long enough to gain enough wisdom and intelligence to manipulate mana in ways that their more simple kin are not able to, as for people like you, there are those who gained insight and control over one of two elements like you do, but most of them are the results of magical exprements that implant magic beasts¡¯ mana organ into their bodies. Then there are things like me.¡±

    Suddenly, Sageira¡¯s aged wrinkled skin started morphing into white scales, horns started to grow from her forehead and curve back, her body started to grow in size and she unbuttoned her robe and tossed it aside before it tore apart from her growth.

    She then got onto her hands and feet as her neck elongated, from there, other parts of her body started to grow, her face started growing into a snout, leathery wings sprouted from her back, and a tail grew from her rear.

    As Sageira ballooned in size, I was forced to back up as the table and chairs were pushed aside to make room for Sageira¡¯s new size.

    When half the classroom was filled, before me was a classic western style white dragon.

    ¡°Holy shit¡­¡± was the only thing I could mutter to myself.

 Chapter 82

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    This¡­ this is much more than I can take in a day.

    I slump my ass into a chair that was pushed near me and gawk at the white dragon that is easily 30 meters from snout to tail. ¡°Y-You¡¯re a Dragon!¡± I fought a fucking dragon and lived¡­ ok, she let me live, but I will count it!

    From what I read from the bestiary, dragons are one of the pinnacles of might among beings in this world. While little is known about them, it was noted that only dragons that reach a certain age or level of intelligence are capable of civilized speech and higher thinking, and while young dragons are less intelligent and more feral, they must never be underestimated as dumb beasts, at the end of the day, a young dragon is still a dragon.

    As for Segeira¡¯s white color, it denoted her affinity for light magic, which explains her realistic illusion of her double burning to death. But this is not to say she is limited to light magic, as demonstrated by her toying with me like a cat, it just means that she is able to use light magic with more ease compared to other elements. This same explanation applies to the other colored dragons.

    Hearing my outburst in regards to her race, Professor Sageira Drackot, if that even is her name, rolled her eyes at me and sighed, ¡°Here we go again¡­ Yes, I am a dragon, you are a human, I am huge, you are puny, and I could swallow you whole in one bite. Go on now, get it out of your system, and get over it.¡± she said as she lounged with her forearms folded on the ground and the tip of her tail lazaly swishing around.

    After taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I told her, ¡°Ok, I''m fine now.¡±

    She nodded, ¡°Good, now where was I?¡±

    ¡°You were at ¡®Then there are things like me¡¯.¡± I reminded her.

    ¡°Ah, right, when I refer to things like me, I am mainly referring to the more long-lived magic beast races, we may start out with one or two affinities of Instinctive Magic, but with age and wisdom, we start to adapt what we learn to other elements, and if we are lucky and come to learn the magic of the civilized races.¡± Sageira said as she demonstrated Instinctive Magic, followed by some circle magic.

    But as I observe her casting, I notice that while the amount of mana she is using for circle magic is somewhat normal, she is using a shit load more mana than me for the same results when using Instinctive Magic, but her use of Instinctive Magic makes my Molecular Magic look like a retarded child¡¯s drawing compared to Da Vinci¡¯s Mona Lisa.

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    While she demonstrated she could do my earth pillar and wind blades, she was not able to replicate my oxygen-rich flamethrower. Still, she could make realistic elemental versions of small woodland creatures frolicking around, while I could only do basic shapes.

    Apparently, I was too obvious with my staring at her casting Instinctive Magic and said, ¡°From the look on your face, I think you see the difference in the way we use Instinctive Magic, while we are both using mana manipulation and force of will to produce an effect, I directly manifest the full effect, while you do relatively small manipulations to produce the effect.¡±

    I nodded at her observation, ¡°True, though I never fingered out how to cast Instinctive Magic like you do, and even if I did, I would most likely be exhausted by the third cast if I do it like you do.¡±

    As my mind raced with questions about this dragon before me, one particular one came into my head, if this is her true body, where does she displace her mass when in human form? ¡°By the way, I have been wondering this for a while now, how did you transform into a human? Is it a spell or is it just a dragon thing? How do you fit so much¡­ dragon¡­ into a small human body, or is your human form all just an illusion?¡±

    ¡°Are you calling me fat?¡± she growls as she glares at me, and I froze up in terror as to what my question may have implied.

    After a tense five seconds, she burst out laughing so loud that I had to cover my ears from the sonic attack, when she calmed down, she padded a paw in front of me and said ¡°Relax, I jest, it tickles me when I pull that on the civilized races. As for your question, it is a spell called Polymorph, it is a combination of highly complex healing magic to shape the body and Spatial magic to store my excess mass.¡±

    Hearing her words, my eyes open wide in alarm, ¡°Spatial Magic?! Isn¡¯t that highly illegal and dangerous? You know, punching holes in space and reality for dangerous things to come through?¡±

    Sageira just scoffs at me, ¡°That is because there is always some idiot among short-lived races that think they can handle bending the fabric of space and end up breaching it, resulting in mass casualties, and when all resistance in the area is wiped out, it comes after the wildlife. In the last thousand years, I had to put down two seriously dangerous entities that breached into this world. Unlike them, I know what I am doing, so it''s safe.

    Besides, When you say ¡®so much dragon¡¯, this is not even my full size, I am actually well over a hundred meters in length.¡± she said as she looked proud of her size.

    She then looked up at the clock on the wall, ¡°The day is late, and you young ones need your rest, I will find you another time to continue our discussion, go on now.¡± she said as she pushed me with her tail toward the door, and before I knew it, I was outside the classroom.

    As I stand in the hallway, I suddenly feel the tension that I did not know I was holding on to release, ¡°Fuck my life¡­ it''s only my second day of school and I already almost died¡­ fuck it, I am too tired for this shit, I¡¯m going to sleep.¡± I hurry off to my dorm before anything else exciting could happen to me tonight.

    ***

    Slightly before Luke¡¯s night class started, Oswald was escorted from the infirmary to his brother¡¯s dorm room by one of the older boys.

    Once again he knocked and was asked to enter, and there, sitting on a couch was his brother, Edmund Berkeley. ¡°I heard you had another eventful day, that does not bode well, brother.¡±

 Chapter 83

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    ¡°B-But broth-¡± Oswald stammered out before he was silenced by Edmund raising his hand.

    ¡°I already heard of what happened, did you have the chance to use your aura during the match?¡± Edmund asked and got a ¡°Yes but-¡± in reply before he cut Oswald off again.

    ¡°Then do you mind explaining how you still managed to disgrace our house¡¯s name? Were you drunk or high on drugs to perform so poorly and lose to an obviously tired opponent?¡± Edmund asked while the anger in his glare increased.

    This time Oswald blurted out his answer before his brother could interrupt him, ¡°That is because he was only acting tired!¡±

    After some silence, ¡°Explain.¡± was the only thing Edmund said before Oswald told his brother of the fight from his point of view.

    Once Oswald was done, Edmund rubbed his chin while contemplating, ¡®This Luke Ironcrest is obviously more skilled than my brother and beat Oswald while he was using aura, but even as skilled as he is, he is of lower noble standing and has shown disrespect to my house.¡¯

    Edmund¡¯s contemplation was broken when Oswald asked, ¡°Brother¡­ are you able to help me resolve this? Or should we bring this up with father?¡±

    With that question, Edmund returned his glare to Oswald, ¡°This little tiff you have with Luke Ironcrest never goes near Father¡¯s ears, do I make myself clear?¡± Edmund said sternly.

    Oswald gulped and nodded his head in agreement, but still asked, ¡°But why?¡±

    Edmund sighed as he looked at his younger brother, there were days he wished he was not born the eldest who had so many responsibilities put on his shoulders as the heir to his father¡¯s title. But as the heir, he was taught many things that Oswald did not have to learn as much of, one of which was politics.

    ¡°Because if we bring this to father¡¯s attention, it may become an official conflict, and no matter if we win or lose, we will come out looking bad. If we win, our family¡¯s enemies and detractors will say we are bullying a new rural noble, and if we lose to the son of a new rural noble, our long-standing reputation as one of the top martial families will be tarnished. While this conflict is kept within the grounds of the academy, we are given the benefit of the doubt that we are just young, stupid, and learning.¡± Edmund explained.

    ¡°As for what I can do to help you, I cannot directly intervene, it will not look good for me to beat a boy three years younger than me¡±, Edmund said, not knowing that Luke was much younger. ¡°Instead, what I can do is train you. From today onwards, you are to meet me at my dorm¡¯s training hall after school. When you are ready, you will challenge Luke Ironcrest again and remove the stain on our family¡¯s honor.¡±

    ***

    A few weeks passed after my first encounter with the lady dragon known as Professor Sageira Drackot, and after every Languages of Power night class, she would keep me behind to chat for some time.

    That was how I learned about elder dragon territories and the Argus Kingdom being part of her turf, and instead of laying around in a shiny hoard all day like most dragons, she was more attracted to knowledge and magic, so she cut a deal with the Royals to make the Royal Academy¡¯s ever-growing library her new hoard so she could bask in the accumulated knowledge of the many brilliant minds throughout the ages. And she has been doing this for a few hundred years.

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    When I asked her how she kept her cover, she explained that as the years passed, she would age her disguise until a certain point, and then she would use the same kind of illusion she tricked me with while we fought for the first time to create a new middle-aged woman disguise.

    Then the kingdom will come up with a name and background for her, and all important people in the know would just rubber stamp all the supporting paperwork to get her new alias to take over her old alias. She would then show up at the Royal Academy alongside her illusion and introduce it as her replacement while announcing her retirement. After a few days of farewells for her old alias, she would polymorph into the appearance of her new alias and take over.

    In return for letting her claim the Royal Academy¡¯s library as her ¡°dragon''s lair¡±, she would stop any major kingdom destroying natural disasters that were not of their fault and beyond the kingdom¡¯s ability to resolve, but she would not interfere with their politics or wars, be it internal or external, even if the Argus Kingdom get invaded and conquered, it would not be her problem, worst-case scenario, she would transport the library to her hideout and see if the new administration would take the same deal.

    But other than chatting, I also used my one-on-one time to go over some things I learned during her lesson and compare notes on our different uses of Instinctive/Molecular Magic.

    After giving her some basic chemistry/physics lessons, she quickly picked up on how I cast Molecular Magic. The same could not be said for my progress, I was told to concentrate on the ¡°essence¡± of the element and will it into existence, I can only assume it is in a more metaphorical sense because even after repeated attempts, I can only feel that I am on the cusp of pulling something off. Until I succeeded, I was just burning mana at a prodigious rate.

    In other news, Oswald and his goons have been quiet ever since I whooped their asses during the sparring session and only acknowledged me enough to give me dirty looks. Other than that, I have been having a great time with my other subjects. I breezed through the mandatory subjects except for eleven language classes which were at around the same level of complexity as any other new language I have ever learned.

    Advanced Spell Theory kept my interest because it went into more in-depth theories and applications than the basics I was taught at home.

    During Advanced Combat & Tactics classes, we learned of large and small group tactics, and different tactics used in war, be it on open grounds, attacking or defending during a siege, and even proper retreat tactics. After a few practical exercises to apply all the theories we were taught, I was kind of banned from taking part in student-on-student exercises due to me being an unfair advantage for whichever team I joined, I would only be included if it was an instructor vs students exercise.

    To make up for my exclusion from the group activities, Instructor Matthias Greyham assigned some assistant instructor trainees as my ¡°group¡± and ¡°enemies¡± during student-on-student exercises, and during the sparring portion of the class, the assistant instructors would take turns sparring with me so I do not get used to fighting just one person.

    Next up was Enchanting class, we were all learning how to draw a schematic before we even so much as touched an enchanting table.

    We were all given small chalkboards and given schematic problems to solve or build schematics with a certain purpose, this saved a lot of precious paper, it reminded me of algebra questions asking me to find x or y.

    On the blacksmithing front, the first new lessons were more theory-heavy, but as the classes progressed, we started making simple things like hooks, nails, rivets, horseshoes, simple tools, and small decorative Items.

    Lastly was his night class for Array Architecture, I learned about the different grades of mana crystal, their uses, and placements in arrays, other than that, the Array Architecture class was very similar to the Enchanting class, in the way that we were also issued chalkboards to draw out arrays during class.

    Overall, classes were rather enjoyable and my days fulfilling, and with Oswald piping down, a few of my classmates actually started chatting with me, most of them being from noble families, as for the commoner students, the most I could get out of them was a casual ¡°hi¡± or a hand wave to greet me, but it is a start, baby steps, we will get there one day.

 Chapter 84

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    As the days went by, and the timetable for the next month was posted in the classroom, I noticed that for three days straight, Advanced Spell Theory and Advanced Combat & Tactics classes overlapped and took the time slots of the other electives for those who were in those classes.

    This activity was just labeled as ¡°Outdoor Exercise¡±.

    When I asked around what they meant by Outdoor Exercise, it usually meant that we were going outside of school grounds. And you know what that means?

    It means this will be my first-ever School Field Trip! YAY!!

    When the day came for said Outdoor Exercise, a few hundred students from both classes gathered at the assembly grounds. There we were met by Professor Thaddeus Northwind and Instructor Matthias Greyham, along with their assistants from both classes, and behind them was a fleet of carriages that looked to prioritize seating capacity instead of comfort.

    When everyone was assembled and attendance was taken, Instructor Greyham¡¯s voice boomed across the assembly grounds, ¡°Good morning students, today is a rather special event. As I am sure all of you have noticed, the classes of Advanced Spell Theory and Advanced Combat & Tactics have gathered here, we have gathered with the objective of performing a joint exercise to show and practice how magic and martial fighters team up to combat challenges.¡±

    Instructor Greyham then gestured to the side where an old, scarred, buff-looking old man was standing, ¡°And a special thanks to the Capital¡¯s Arena Master, Theo Ferrimen, for allowing us to use his arena during its downtime, and supplying the challenges.¡±

    The last part of the sentence piqued my interest, what did he mean by ¡°supplying the challenges¡±?

    But before I could think of it much more, we were herded on the carriages, and out the academy¡¯s gates with mounted royal guards leading the way.

    From there, we traveled further into the capital than I had ever explored. Even with the royal guard clearing the way for us, It took almost an hour of twists and turns before turning onto a main road that revealed what looked like a five-story high colosseum look-alike.

    But instead of the unwashed masses flocking to it to sate their blood thirst, there were people sweeping and cleaning up the surroundings while others dangled off scaffolding suspended from the top to clean the walls.

    ¡°Wow, must have been a rowdy crowd yesterday.¡± commented the carriage driver as we closed in on the arena.

    Soon we entered the arena and were ushered up to the stands. Once the last of the carriages were offloaded and students seated, Instructor Greyham vaulted over the hand railing and down into what was dubbed ¡°The Pit¡± where all the combatants fought.

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    He then looked up to the students in the stands and once again his voice boomed out, ¡°As I said before leaving the academy, you are here today to learn and experience joint combat, and this is a taste of what you will be doing today.¡±

    He waves his hand to what I assume are arena staff, then turns to the assistant instructors, and then points out three martial and two magic assistant instructors who made their way down to the pit.

    As for the arena staff, he signaled someone outside of the pit, and the portcullis near the arena staff opened. From the tunnel beyond the portcullis, other arena staff started dragging ten unconscious goblins out into The Pit, and surprisingly, for some reason, none of the goblins woke up from the rough treatment.

    I guess I now know what Instructor Greyham meant by ¡°supplying the challenges¡±.

    After the goblins were in a pile, the arena staff looked at Instructor Greyham and received a nod. From there, other arena staff brought out a bunch of crude wooden clubs, chucked it in front of the piled-up goblins, and then, took some kind of powder from a pouch and blew it at the goblin pile before running into the tunnel as the portcullis closed behind them.

    Shortly after the powder landed on the goblins, they started sniffing, and then the goblins snorted awake while blowing out their noses in agitation.

    ¡°Combatants ready!¡± Greyham shouted as the five assistant instructors got into their combat stance, but this shout also drew the attention of the goblins who were just getting their bearings.

    ¡°Defend yourselves!¡± Greyham shouted as he jumped up to the stands in a mighty bound.

    When he was clear of the pit, the goblins scrambled for the clubs available to them and rushed the five assistant instructors.

    These goblins seemed more feral than what I saw in the wild, I guess with all of us in the stands looking at them, and the goblins knowing they have nowhere to escape, they most likely feel like cornered rats, and we all know the sayings about cornered rats, they show their teeth.

    As the goblins charged over to the assistant instructors, the two mages who positioned themselves in the back quickly cast a spell that we had learned a week prior to this field trip, it was the Augmentation spell.

    Augmentation is a spell to imbue certain attributes or temporary buffs to equipment, some examples are hardening, sharpness, decreasing weight, or imbuing one of the six main elements.

    Upon learning this spell, me and a few other students asked the professor if we wasted our time taking up Enchanting as an elective subject, but he assured us that it was not a waste of time.

    Unlike enchanting, Augmentation only allows one buff or attribute to be cast on one piece of equipment at any one time, whereas Enchanting allows multiple effects on a single piece of equipment, and it does not use a decent chunk of mana to cast Augmentation. We were also warned to not imbue lightning unless it is for the caster¡¯s own equipment due to lightning traveling through the weapons to shock the wielder.

    Another downside of using this spell was that it accelerated the wear and tear of equipment that was not already enchanted, alloyed with a magical metal, or made of mana-conductive material.

    At the end of the day, this spell is used to increase the odds of our survival and the odds of putting the opponents in the ground, you can replace or repair a sword, but you cannot repair death¡­ unless you are a necromancer, but that is beside the point.

    By the end of today, there is going to be a lot of practice equipment that needs repairing¡­ I guess that is why there is a Blacksmithing course, it is pretty much free labor for us to practice repairing all this incoming damaged equipment.

 Chapter 85

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the first of the goblins crashed into the line of assistant instructors, it became glaringly apparent to me that they were restraining themselves to a considerable degree.

    Instead of cutting the goblins down where they stood, the three assistant instructors were fighting more defensively and were doing more shoving with their shields than striking with their swords, and the mage assistant instructors in the back were keeping to first and second circle spells to stun, distract, or cripple the goblins.

    This demonstration went on for a solid minute as the melee-oriented assistant instructors did a fantastic job of moving around to keep the mages from getting flanked.

    After that minute passed, one of the mages in the back said something I could not pick up, and the melee fighters performed big swings that threw or scared off the goblins they were engaging, making them back off.

    Once the goblins backed off, the melee fighters jumped back closer to the mages who peeked out between their rank and started firing small wind blades and fire bolts at the goblins.

    This barrage of spells killed or crippled the goblin force until there were only four left standing and recovering from the magic assault. Seeing the very obvious opening, the melee assistant instructors took that chance to charge in and cut down the remaining goblins with minimal resistance.

    When the last goblin fell, Instructor Greyham was in The Pit once again to address the students, ¡°And that, my students, is how it is done by the book. And as you all grow in skill and competence, you will be able to clear a group of goblins of that size in a scant few seconds.¡±

    He then looked around at the crowd of students and said in a more somber tone, ¡°From the look on a lot of your faces, this is the first time many of you have seen the death of anything remotely humanoid, and I understand the aversion. But it is a rough world out there, and even if those of you who are more academically inclined decide to live the life of a scholar mage, you will most likely travel, and on your journeys, there is a good chance you will run into things like this.¡± Gresham said while pointing to the corpses of dead goblins that were in the process of being dragged away by the arena staff.

    ¡°Better you learn to defend yourselves here under the supervision of your instructors before you learn the hard way that out in the real world, goblins are the least of your problems.¡± Finishing his speech, he allows a few seconds for his words to sink into the student¡¯s heads. Then he shouted out instructions again.

    ¡°Ok, now we are moving on to the part where we show you the ropes. Shortly, you are all going to gather in The Pit, I want the students from Advanced Spell Theory on my left, Advanced Combat & Tactics on my right, and those who are currently taking both classes to meet me in the center. Let''s move people!¡± Instructor Greyham said as he performed an ear-splitting clap that prompted everyone in the stands into movement.

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    I followed the crowd down, and since I was in both classes, I made my way to Instructor Greyham, when everyone was gathered in their respective groups, there were just over fifty of us among the Year 5 cohort.

    Instructor Greyham then guided us to a side of The Pit to make space for the two bigger groups.

    ¡°Alright, you are all gathered here to learn of your place in a fighting formation, which is most of the time, the role of a skirmisher. While the mages are doling out damage on the enemies, and the pure melee fighters are busy defending the mages, the skirmisher¡¯s job is to perform hit-and-run tactics to harass the enemy to open them up for a killing blow from your allies, and if you get the chance, take out the enemy¡¯s leader.¡± Instructor Greyham said as he paced back and forth while lecturing us.

    ¡°But before we start, answer a few questions and answer them truthfully, how many can silent cast second circle magic without hand gestures or chanting?¡± to which, me and three other guys raised our hands and were asked to move to one side.

    ¡°Next, second circle magic with only chanting, step to the side.¡± he said while gesturing to my small group which was about to get a lot bigger, as around thirty more students joined my group.

    ¡°Next, those who can at least silent cast first circle magic without hand gestures or chanting.¡± this time majority of the leftovers joined my group. All that was left was four guys looking rather embarrassed and nervous.

    Instructor Greyham walked up to the four leftover people, ¡°I think it for the best you go over the Advanced Combat & Tactics and rethink your taking of the magic courses you may have registered for, if you cannot silently cast first circle magic competently by now, I think it is better you stick with swing a sword. please proceed to the Advanced Combat & Tactics class. Tell the instructor I sent you.¡±

    After the four downcast students left the group, Instructor Greyham turned to us, ¡°As for the rest of you, I will be instructing you on how to fight like a skirmisher¡­¡±

    From there, Instructor Greyham instructed us on different strategies and techniques used to survive as a skirmisher, which at our low level of experience meant using fast and short ranged first to second circle spells to stun, restrain, or blind our enemies, giving us the time we need to attack, counterattack, defend, retreat, or maneuver to a more advantageous position.

    When Instructor Greyham moved into a short Q&A session, there was one question that caught my attention, ¡°Instructor Greyham, were there any skirmishers in the demonstration by the assistant instructors? Those in the front line did not seem to cast any magic.¡±

    Instructor Greyham just nodded at the student¡¯s question, ¡°A good observation and valid question¡­ I am sure you noticed the huge disparity in our numbers compared to the two other groups?¡±

    To this question, me and the gathered students nodded in agreement, ¡°Well don¡¯t get used to it, out in the real world, it is rare to find someone who can wield a blade and magic at the same time competently, there are pure melee fighters who act as skirmishers out there, but instead of spells, they use the tools of thieves and assassins to compensate for their lack of magic. The only reason there are so many of you gathered before me is due to the gathering of talent at the Royal Academy, and even as I train you on how to be a skirmisher, I will most likely find some of you unfit for the role.¡±

    After answering a few more questions, Instructor Greyham decided to get on with the lesson and pointed at me, ¡°Ironcrest, get up here.¡± then he addressed the rest of the students, ¡°I will now demonstrate how a skirmisher fights.¡±

    Oh shit¡­

 Chapter 86

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    ¡°Ready yourself.¡± Instructor Greyham said as he pointed his wooden sword at me in a casual stance.

    Once I ready myself, he dashes towards me at almost superhuman speed. It is slightly slower than Dad dashing at me without aura, but if I compare their ages, Instructor Greyham is extremely spry for an oldtimer.

    I raise my sword to ready myself and anticipate the incoming strike, but that is when Instructor Greyham raises his sword in a totally impractical stance that I have never seen before, like some weeb who bought this first katana.

    His blade was in front of his face, covering his eyes¡­ how am I supposed to take someone who does that seriou- ¡°GAHH!!!¡±

    As I was wondering what Instructor Greyham was doing, a bright light flashed from the front of his blade, blinding me. The only thing I was able to do was to bring my guard close into my body as I closed my eyes tight from the pain of getting flashed.

    Next thing I knew, I felt a strong whack to my wooden sword that almost disarmed me, but I caught my sword and took a wild swing in the direction I thought the attack came from but hit air, and then I felt my legs get swept out from under me as the blunt tip os a training sword met my shoulder.

    As I was blinking the spots out of my vision, I found myself on my ass with a wooden sword pointed at my neck.

    ¡°Again.¡± Instructor Greyham said as he turned around and walked back to his starting position.

    I got back on my feet, now more wary of magical trickery, but seeing what Instructor Greyham did to get the better of me, I kind of grasped an idea of what he was aiming for, he was being tricksy.

    Once again, Instructor Greyham charged at me, but this time he charged in while using something I had only read about. Single-handed gestures to help speed up the casting of spells he could not purely mentally cast.

    In the blink of an eye, he was done with his preparation and outstretched his off-hand in my direction, and a haze of darkness crept toward me and blocked my line of sight on him. The only way I could tell where he was, was his barely audible footsteps that told me he changed directions and was coming at me slightly off from his last seen approach.

    I immediately jumped backward to avoid fighting in the dark haze and heard the woosh of his sword barely miss my chest. As I jumped back, I mentally cast a first circle wind spell to blow away the haze, but when my wind spell came in contact with the creeping haze¡­ nothing happened.

    Does that mean this haze is pure darkness? I hold a hand above my head and cast the same flash spell Instructor Greyham flashed me with.

    The moment my first circle light spell flashed, the dark haze was blown away, to reveal Instructor Greyham was hiding in a thin part of the dark haze I thought he could not fit in, and that he was too close for comfort.

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    In response to revealing his position, Instructor Greyham casts a first circle wind spell, but not at me, he did it to the ground a couple of meters in front of me, kicking dust up at me.

    I quickly countered with my own first circle wind spell to avoid dust being blasted in my eyes, and as I was lowering my hand from casting the spell, Instructor Greyham burst through the clash of wind and dust as he raised his sword to strike me.

    With no time to put both my hands on my sword, I raised my sword in my right hand over my head and braced the tip of the wooden sword on my left shoulder, just in time for the blow aiming for my shoulder to hit my sword and slide off, but even if I defended against the blow, I was still thrown off balance due to the weight difference in the force that could be applied.

    As I stumbled to the side from the blow, I decided to make use of my side stumble to jump to the side, did a roll, and got into a sprinting position, from there, I pushed off the ground towards Instructor Greyham and met him blade to blade.

    Knowing I would not be able to do anything to overpower him without aura, and even though it was not said, I knew that overpowering my opponent was not the moral of the lesson, instead of manifesting my aura, I grabbed Instructor Greyham¡¯s main sword arm and cast a first circle Spark spell.

    This made Instructor Greyham spasm and threw me off of him with the sheer strength of his arm.

    I went flying a good five meters before hitting the ground and rolling for a bit, and as I stopped rolling, Instructor Greyham sounded out, ¡°Well done.¡±

    By the time I got up to reorientate myself, one of the healers was already at my side checking on my condition.

    ¡°Did all of you see how I fought? This is how you can fight to take advantage of weak spells to greater effect and provide openings to attack your opponents.¡± then he turned to me, ¡°Nice last move there Ironcrest.¡±

    One of the boys raised his hand, and when he was allowed to speak, he asked, ¡°Sir, what was nice about the last move? He grabbed you and you sent him flying.¡±

    Instructor Greyham nodded and turned to me, ¡°Ironcrest, explain what happened when you grabbed me.¡±

    After telling the class that I cast the Spark spell and shocked him, Instructor Greyham took over, ¡°None of you saw it because we were in direct contact, but shocking an opponent is a very effective way to incapacitate an opponent. Was I much weaker and he continued shocking me, I would have been wide open for him to strike me with his sword. And even with how it currently played out, I was vulnerable for a few seconds, a few seconds that I could have caught an arrow or spell to the face in a real fight.¡±

    After he was done explaining, another hand went up, this time it was some kid from a martial house from the look of his coat of arms, ¡°Sir, are we to learn to fight like that? It kind of looks like the way thieves and other¡­ less savory people fight, without elegance or honor.¡±

    Hearing this Instructor Greyham gave a somewhat disappointed shake of his head, ¡°Yes. That is because it works¡­ if you are having a one-on-one dual in front of more polite company where you are more likely to survive, sure, by all means, fight with elegance or honor¡­ but outside of that, let me assure you, you will be given no such luxury. When you enter the real world and find yourself in a fight to the death, nothing is off the table, eye gouging, aiming for the groin, poisons and hidden weapons, you name it, they will be used if your opponent wants to live another day.

    What we have been teaching you in basic swordsmanship for the last four years is how to handle your sword, what I am teaching you in this class is how to apply it along with your magic, but most importantly, how to survive. Can¡¯t swing your sword if you are dead, can you?¡±

    From there, Instructor Greyham taught us when and how to best use first and second circle spells to cover our approach or retreat, and how to use them to open up our opponent for follow-up action.

    After that, we were given some time to practice some quick-cast spells of our choice, followed by letting us spar against Instructor Greyham and his assistant instructors to finish the lesson off.

 Chapter 87

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After almost a whole afternoon of vigorously moving my body and casting spells while doing so, I was so wiped out, that I spent most of Professor Sageira¡¯s night class bobbing my head as I tried to stay awake. By the end of the lesson, I had a few white marks on my head from having Professor Sageira pelt me with small chunks of chalk when I actually fell asleep.

    At the end of the class, my older classmates showed their worry for me by asking if I was fine and if I was keeping up with the rest of my school life. That was until I complained to them about my ¡°Outdoor Exercise¡± and how I was being trained as a skirmisher.

    After I said that, I could see the pity in their eyes, and patted me on my back while saying things like, ¡°We believe in you¡± or ¡°Such is the burden of the gifted¡­ take care of yourself, young Ironcrest.¡±

    When I asked them what they meant by that, they waved off the question and vacated the classroom. And instead of having my usual talk with Professor Sageira, she just threw a piece of chalk at me and asked me to go straight to bed.

    And so I did.

    The next day after the mandatory classes, we were once again gathered at the assembly grounds and taken to the Arena.

    From there, we did some warm-up, and then Instructor Greyham instructed us to form lines of fighters, mages, and skirmishers.

    After we were lined up, the instructors separated us into groups consisting of two mages, two fighters, and one skirmisher. But eventually, they ran out of skirmishers and made up for it with the leftover groups having either an extra mage or fighter on their team.

    As expected, my team was made up of the balanced two fighters, two mages, and me, the skirmisher, and I did not know any of them. But from the looks they gave each other, the rest of my team was at least acquainted with each other, and from the looks of things, my two fighters were of common origins, while my mages were from noble mage houses.

    When we did a round of introductions, for the mages, we had a guy and a girl, both from Viscount families, the boy¡¯s name was Henry Carroway, and the girl was Arabella Pembroke. As for the fighters, there was Dave and Sam of Dunmire, on the count of both of them coming from the village of Dunmire.

    As soon as all the teams were formed, Instructor Greyham shouted to the assembled teams, ¡°Yesterday, you were taught of your roles in a fight, today, you are going to put what you have learned into practice.¡±

    With a signal of his hand, the area mage staff and assistant instructor mages combined their power to raise partitioned walls in the oval Pit they used for fighting. When the dust in The Pit settled, The Pit was revealed to be partitioned into six equal parts.

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    ¡°Twelve teams will enter The Pit, two teams per partition. The teams will fight each other for five minutes, and whether win, lose, or draw, you will be cycled out, this will continue until I say otherwise. But for now, you all need to decide amongst yourselves who will be the leader within your team, you have five minutes to do so. Your time starts¡­ Now!¡± Instructor Greyham said as he flipped an hourglass.

    The moment the hourglass flipped, the two mages of my team said ¡°¡°I will be the leader.¡±¡± practically at the same time. Then they glared at each other, then they started bickering, then started trading insults and boasting of the accomplishments of their family, like it makes them more worthy of becoming a leader.

    While the two mages were bickering, I turned to the fighters and asked, ¡°This happens often?¡±, to which they shrugged, and Sam said, ¡°They are just doing what nobles do, squabble over the prestige of leading¡­ no offense to your noble self of course, Lord Ironcrest.¡±

    I just waved him off, ¡°None of that Lord stuff with me, keep that for when we are in official situations.¡±

    They looked at each other, and then Dave asked, ¡°Why did you not suggest yourself as leader? I am pretty sure everyone knows you are the strongest in the team, you are the only one who was able to keep up with Instructor Greyham during training.¡±

    Sure¡­ keep up with Instructor Greyham¡­ I am barely keeping up while sparring with him, and I am damned sure he is holding back. He may not have my technical skills, but that did not matter much, Instructor Greyham¡¯s sword style may be rather basic compared to mine, but he has a lifetime of perfecting it and the real battle experience to back it up. Compared to me who spent his first life always covered in full plate armor and only getting hit by blunted weapons, it was obvious Instructor Greyham could whoop my ass seven ways to Sunday.

    As for why I did not want to throw my hat in the ring for the leader position¡­ well, I just did not want to butt heads with a bunch of kids who are jumped up on the power of their family¡¯s name. As for my leadership skills, I had experience in leading a team of five for a tournament in my previous life but found that I was just about average, leadership wise, there were others among my friends that were better at commanding, and besides, I have never fought in tandem with ranged fighters like mages or archers before, that changes the whole dynamic of combat, and from my point of view, I think those in the back like, like mages, would have a better picture of the battlefield while front liners like me can just concentrate on fighting.

    ¡°I could, but I don¡¯t want to get involved with that pissing match, besides, it''s just an exercise, and we have never fought together before, I rather just go with the flow for now and see how it goes.¡± I answered while leaning back in my seat along with the boys and waited for the nobles¡¯ dick-measuring contest to conclude¡­ but I think that is the wrong metaphor to use, one of them does not have a dick to measure¡­ but whatever¡­ details, who needs them.

    As the minutes pass, and the sand in the hourglass trickles down, they have yet to come to a decision, and I notice some of the noble kids, including the two from my own team are still arguing, so I decided to put a stop to it.

    I got up, walked over to the bickering pair, and stuck my hands in their faces, ¡°Stop! We do not have much time left.¡± I then fished out a coin from my pocket. ¡°We will decide this with a coin toss, whoever wins the toss will be the leader first, and the other will be the leader for the second round, agreed?¡±

    Their eyes met and they both nodded. I turned to Arabella Pembroke, ¡°Ladies first, heads or tails?¡±

    ¡°Heads¡± Arabella replied, and I turned to Henry Carroway and said, ¡°That makes you tails.¡± before tossing the coin in the air.

 Chapter 88

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    My team and I made our way to The Pit, or at least a partition of it. There we came face to face with another group of five, along with two assistant instructors, one of them being a mage, the other a fighter.

    When we all arrived, the fighter instructor called our attention, ¡°In this five-on-five match, the winner is decided upon defeating the whole opposing team or getting the opposing team¡¯s leader to surrender, if we decide that you are defeated or ¡°killed¡±, we will ask you to leave the fight. Magic will be restricted to second circle spells and below, and all sharp weapons are not allowed during this match, if you are holding on to any weapon other than your wooden training sword, please pass it to me and it will be returned to you after the match.¡±

    After some of us nobles handed in our ceremonial weapons, the mage assistant instructor then raised a pedestal of earth, placed an hourglass on it, and said, ¡°Are both teams ready?¡±

    At that question, we all got into our formation. Our opponents went with fighters and skirmisher all in the front and mages in the back, while my team went with fighters up front, skirmisher in the middle, and mages in the back.

    When both teams gave the signal that we were ready, the fighter assistant shouted, ¡°Fight!¡±

    ¡°Charge!¡± Henry Carroway, who won his leader position by coin toss, yelled as he began casting an Augmentation spell.

    Unlike the other team whose front line was charging us at full speed, Dave and Sam listened to my instruction and performed their ¡°charge¡± at a rather sedate jog, with me a step or two behind them.

    As our two teams closed in on each other, I kept an eye on where the enemy front line was looking. I saw that one of their fighters eyeing Sam, while the skirmisher was eyeing Dave, as for the last fighter, it may have looked like he was looking at me, but his gaze was slightly off from me, he was looking at Henry who outed himself as the leader when he gave the charge command.

    The moment the melee fighters clashed, the fighter eyeing Henry sidestepped Dave who thought he was about to be doubled-teamed by two opponents and headed straight for Henry, and as we planned earlier in a quick and dirty discussion for our team¡¯s formation, knowing that I am the strongest in the group, Henry decided to play it safe while testing the waters for our first round and put me in the middle to defend the mages.

    So, I did my job and positioned myself between the mages as the boy was gunning for Henry. This boy charging toward me in order to get to the Henry was huge for a twelve year old, compared to the rest of the kids, this corn-fed motherfucker looked like the kid that was held back a grade for a few years.

    When the boy was in striking distance of me, he unleashed a wide horizontal slash at me, and I could tell that his attack was more to get me out of the way instead of hitting me, and I am pretty sure I know why he is avoiding a fight with me despite me being smaller than him.

    By now, the whole Advanced Combat & Tactics class knew that I was a special case due to me being the only one to spar with the instructors during our class, and he knew he had no chance of winning against me, so he was trying to go direct for Henry.

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    I bent backward as the swing came at my chest, I expected him to use my change in posture to run around me and attack Henry, but instead, he surprised me by transitioning his sword swing into a shoulder change that caught me head-on while I was off balance, and as I was falling over, I saw that his eyes were still locked on Henry. That is when I realized I underestimated him, his plan was to take the shortest path possible and run me over to get to his target.

    To salvage this situation while I was still falling, I dropped my sword, reached up, grabbed his training armor by the armholes, and used all my body weight to give a sudden tug with my right arm.

    This caused the charging boy who was leaning forward while carrying his momentum forward to fall forward and on his side from the sudden extra weight. The boy who took the brunt of the fall was stunned for a moment and I took advantage of that by scrambling to his back and locking one of his arms behind him while I had a knee on his other shoulder.

    I then cast a second circle Spark spell, held it in my free hand, pointed my glowing hand at the pinned boy¡¯s head, and looked at the instructor for confirmation of my ¡°kill¡±.

    The fighter instructor nodded and shouted, ¡°Mason, you are out.¡±

    Hearing that, the boy, who I now knew as Mason, stopped struggling under me, so I released him and went to retrieve my dropped sword. After that, I looked around to see how the rest of the team was doing.

    From what I saw, they were not doing good. Despite having the Decreasing Weight Augmentation spell cast in their practice swords, Dave and Sam were not doing good, unlike them, their opponents were from noble houses and most likely had their family¡¯s fighting style and better coaching at home, so while Dave was barely holding his own, Sam was totally on the back foot and was being pushed back more and more towards me.

    As for the mages, they were stationary, busy having their own magic dual with the opposing mages, lobbing spells over the fighter¡¯s heads, and completely oblivious to their crumbling front line.

    ¡°God dammit Henry.¡± I cussed softly as I saw our glorious leader totally engrossed with spell-slinging instead of leading. But all this criticism will have to be saved for later, for now, I will need to save the fighters¡¯ asses and clean up this shitshow.

    The first thing I do is rush to help Sam. When I got to Sam, he was about to get a hit to his chest when I came in between him and his opponent.

    ¡°Go help Dave.¡± I said to Sam as I engaged Sam¡¯s opponent. When Sam¡¯s opponent saw who he was dealing with now, he clicked his tongue in annoyance as he changed into a more defensive stance, but that did not help him out much.

    I tried to bait him into striking at me so I could disarm him, but he did not take the bait and stayed in his defensive stance, wasting my time. So if he was not going to expose himself, I would do it for him.

    I jumped toward him, locked swords, put my foot behind his, and pushed. But this boy had better reaction than I thought and quickly recovered his footing, as we were locked in a contest of strength, I decided that if my pushing did not work, I would let him do the pushing instead.

    I put more strength into the pushing contest while pretending to try to get his sword out of the way, and when I felt he had committed to the push, I swiftly stepped to the side and stuck my foot out as he fell forward and tripped over my foot.

    As he stumbled a few steps forward to recover, I was already behind him with my sword to his neck, ¡°Surrender.¡±, I said as I tapped my blade to his neck, and he raised his hands to acknowledge his defeat and walked to the side.

    When I turned around Dave and Sam were finishing up their fighter, and after that, we had an easy time steamrolling the remaining mages.

    After the assistant instructors announced our victory, we made our way back to the stands, and everyone had proud smiles on their faces, especially Henry. As we took our seats in the stands, I killed the mood by saying ¡°We need to talk¡± in a serious tone.

 Chapter 89

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    ¡°So, what did we do wrong?¡± I asked my team. The initial looks I received in reply were surprise, confusion, annoyance, and anger.

    ¡°What do you mean what we did wrong? We won did we not? Why are you asking questions like this?¡± Henry said with annoyance in his voice.

    ¡°Yeah, what is your problem? And who are you to ask questions like this, you are just from a Baron house, barely a noble!¡± Arabella said in anger with a haughty attitude.

    To this, I just turned and gave the two noble mage brats a cold stare, the kind of stare only a person who has died and taken lives before could give, and they immediately clammed up.

    I focused on Arabella and said, ¡°Who am i? Well, it is as you said, I am just the son of a relatively newly ennobled Baron, and I am also someone who can kick both of your asses combined, and everyone knows it.¡±, then I focused on Henry, ¡°And you, you want to be the leader so badly, but besides shouting ¡°Charge¡±, you did not do much leading at all, you were too busy having a magic dual, did you even notice our front line crumbling?¡± I asked as I pointed my thumb back at Dave and Sam.

    ¡°Wh-Well it did not happen so it''s fine isn''t it?¡± Henry rebutted with a flustered expression.

    ¡°It¡¯s ¡°Fine¡± because I am stronger than most, but that is not the point of this group exercise. Can you say the same thing if I was not in your group? Dave and Sam were at a disadvantage when facing off against the last group and they are not going to get any better in the next few minutes, that should be where your leadership should come in and organize and assist the front line.¡± I chastised Henry, but in the same vein, I also felt kind of bad for bringing Dave and Sam into the lecture, they were doing their job properly.

    ¡°Oh yeah? Since you are talking like you know it all, what would you have done?¡± Arabella snapped at me.

    I sighed and answered, ¡°For starters, one of you mages should have assisted the front line with spells or more augmentation for their armor while the other mage countered the opponent mages¡¯ spells, even if it meant losing ground in the spell battle. And besides, why were both of you rooted in place while casting spells? If you had just walked around while casting, you could have dodged half the spells they threw at you.¡±

    At this question, Henry and Arabella shouted at me things like, ¡°What do you know, you are not even from a mage family!¡± and ¡°You say it like it is a simple thing, with the speed and quantity of spells we are casting, do you know how much concentration that takes, let alone move around while doing it? Can you even do it?¡±

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    To which I blurted out, ¡°Yes I can¡­ wait, can¡¯t you?¡±

    The two mages were about to shout something at me again when they froze with their mouths open and looked at me dumbstruck, and shook their heads in the negative.

    Are they shitting me right now? ¡°What is the highest circle of magic can both of you cast now?¡± I asked.

    They both looked at each other and replied ¡°Third circle.¡±

    ¡°Mentally, or with chants and gestures?¡± I asked to clarify, to which they answered with the latter.

    Hearing this, I bury my face into my palms. My Advanced Spell Theory class has started the basics of third circle magic, and nowhere in the curriculum does Intermediate mana manipulation come up. With the time it took me to get the hang of Intermediate mana manipulation, it is most likely a class of its own.

    But nonetheless, I expected the children of noble mage families to have at least started learning Intermediate mana manipulation by now, one of the exercises to train Intermediate mana manipulation was moving around and multitasking as the spell was constructed.

    With my face still buried in my palms, I asked, ¡°So neither of you even started on the intermediate stage of mana manipulation?¡±

    ¡°No, why would we do that when we have magic foci tools?¡± Henry said as he raised his cheap academy-issued practice wand, it was a basic thing that allowed the students to focus their magic slightly better, but I am sure they have much better personal magic foci that can hold runes to assist their casting. ¡°Besides, do you know how long it takes to master it? We rather spend time learning more spells, we will leave that for when we get older.¡±

    Mum was right about these noble kids, they rather boast about how many powerful spells they have learned and supplement their shortcomings with magic foci tools instead of learning to manipulate mana better in order to use magic with a lot more versatility.

    ¡°Well, if you actually got your mana manipulation up to the intermediate stage, you would be able to cast first and second circle spells with little to no effort.¡± I said as I cast multiple second circle spells of different elements into the air at the same time with a simple hand wave.

    After my display, the two mages were silently staring at me, in fact, they were not the only ones who were silent, I looked around to see the mages of other teams also silently staring at me. ¡°Shit.¡±

    Not wanting to be in such an awkward environment, I dragged my team to a more secluded area in the stands, and once we were all seated, I carried on as if I did not just show off I was capable of intermediate mana manipulation.

    ¡°So¡­ I can safely say the both of you are not able to cast while moving around?¡± I asked and the two mages nodded rather timidly all of a sudden, all their haughtiness evaporated into nothing.

    I sighed and asked them to gather around and looked at Arabella, ¡°You are going to be the leader next round, so let''s get some planning done before we are called again.¡±

    I dug around in my pocket, pulled out five silver and five copper coins, and placed them on the bench, ¡°While we are waiting, we will run through some scenarios.¡±

 Chapter 90

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Sometime later, my team was once again called down to The Pit where we met our opponents.

    After taking a look at them, I did not recognize any of their faces from the skirmisher group, meaning that this team most likely comprised of three fighters and two mages. But what made me weary of them, was because they had dog beast folk boy among their group, which most likely meant he was the main damage dealer or tank of the group.

    Why am I weary you might ask? I was mainly weary for Dave and Sam. Because on average, while they were weaker in the area of magical arts, beast folk excelled in areas of physical and melee matters, and there are many stories of heroes or champions that come from the dog folk. So if this dog folk boy decides to target Dave or Sam, there is a chance he would steamroll them before I can do anything.

    I mean I could steamroll my opponent and come help out, but I had told the team that from now on, I would fight more passively and keep it at the level of just ¡®entertaining¡¯ my current opponent, while Arabella gives out commands. Be it fighting or spell casting, I will keep it to their level, even if it means casting spells at their speed.

    As we got closer for the assistant instructor to address us, the opposing team seemed to recognize us, or more specifically, me, and from the hushed whispers and the dog folk eyeing me with challenging eyes, I highly doubted that the dog folk boy was going to go after Dave and Sam.

    Soon the assistant instructors sent us to our corners, and when we were ready, we were given the signal to fight.

    As I predicted, the dog folk boy charged at my team, leaving his own team in the dust.

    We were in the same formation as our first round, so the dog boy decided to plunge straight through the gap between Dave and Sam while blocking their strikes, that was where he met his objective, me.

    He clashed swords with me, and after three strikes, we clashed again and locked swords. As our swords were locked, he said to me, ¡°Hey, you are the strongest in class right? I see you are the only one who only spars with the instructors, does that mean if I beat you, I will be the strongest in class?¡±

    That is a rather simplistic way of seeing things, but then again, I have heard that the cultures of some beast folk from tribes, clans, or villages far from towns or cities can be a wee bit¡­ feral. Especially those who live in the woods or isolated areas, and this dog folk boy is the most feral I have seen so far.

    I ignored his question and pushed the dog boy away with a kick to the stomach, making him stumble backward and recover his stance before he charged me again.

    As I was blocking, dodging, and parrying the blows that came toward me, I heard Arabella shouting out commands like we planned.

    ¡°Augment: Lightweight! Henry, cast the other augment spell, I will cover you.¡± I heard Arabella say from behind me and saw Dave, Sam, and my blades shimmer with a dim glow.

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    I then heard Henry cast his Augmentation spell for hardening, and the melee fighters on my team, including me, had our simple practice armor start glowing with a similar light as our blades, but a different color.

    ¡°Alright! Hold off those spells, I will help the front.¡± Arabella said, and after a few seconds, I heard her shout, ¡°Sam, duck!¡± followed by what looked like air bullets flying past me and slamming into the boy Sam was fighting. Before the boy hit by the air bullets could recover, Sam had his sword pointed at his throat, and the downed boy was called off the field by an instructor.

    This led to Dave and Sam ganging up on the other fighter as the opposing mages tried to salvage the situation by both casting spells at our team''s fighters. Apparently, they did not communicate properly and left themselves open to a barrage of spells from our mages, knocking them out of the fight, but not before taking Sam down.

    So as the rest of the group finished off the fighter engaged with Dave, I decided to wrap up my fight. As I was concentrating more on what was going on with my team, I did not hear what the dog boy was saying to me for the past few seconds, for some reason, he was sounding rather agitated.

    ¡°Fight me seriously! Why are you holding back!¡± I now hear him shout at me. But I could not really take him seriously. Sure he was strong, fast, and had a good sense for fighting, but that was it, I did not really see much finesse in his strikes, just raw strength that I could easily parry away from myself.

    I parried his sword to the side, turning his body along with it, that was when I sent a swift kick to his butt, making him stumble to the side as I said, ¡°Now is not the time or place for me to fight seriously, wait for Advanced Combat & Tactics to get back to its normal schedule and come find me during sparring sessions if you want anything more serious.¡±

    For some reason, he took umbrage with what I said and charged at me while shouting. I dodged his downward slash with a sidestep and delivered a wack to his leg that made him break his stance. This made him stumble a little to catch himself, during his stumble, his hands were flailing for a moment which presented me with a nice opportunity to disarm him.

    I aimed for his sword hand and gave it a light smack to his knuckles, making him yelp in pain and drop his sword. When he recovered, he was looking down at the flat side of my blade pointed at his neck. ¡°Bonos, you are out.¡± I heard the instructor shout from the side.

    Hearing this, the dog boy growled at me and stomped off. All that was left was Dave¡¯s opponent who was defeated a few seconds later in a rain of blows and spells.

    After we were declared the winners, I congratulated the team and we made our way to the stands. As we exited The Pit, I saw the fighter assistant instructor give me an appreciating nod. Turns out they noticed me holding back and appreciated me doing so for the educational purposes of this exercise.

    ***

    As the hours passed by, my team went into The Pit a few more times. Each time, we rotated who the leader was going to be so everyone could get a taste of command. The two noble mages were not happy taking orders from Sam or Dave and barely tolerated taking commands from me, that was until I browbeat them into submission, and made use of their want or need to be perceived as grown-up or mature by telling them how childish they were acting by being angry of who was in command in a combat situation.

    In the following team battles, we won most of them, but losses were unavoidable. With every match that we went into, the opponents¡¯ team was also growing in experience and competence, developing their own tactics and tricks along the way.

    In those cases that we lost, I would just surrender when I was the last man standing and outnumbered.

    At the end of our time in the Arena for the day, Instructor Greyham gathered us up, said a few closing words, and told us to eat light before we gathered tomorrow morning, saying it was the ¡°Main Event¡± of this field trip.

 Chapter 91

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The next day at the Arena, we were once again in the stands, but something felt different, more¡­ tense.

    That is when I noticed that the instructors were no longer wearing the leather armor that they usually wear, no, today, all the instructors were decked out. The fighting instructors were in half-plate armor and even the mage instructors were wearing some sort of gambeson with metal plates sewn on critical parts.

    When I looked around the Arena, I spotted no less than ten men in the stands with crossbows at the ready.

    Soon, one of the portcullises in The Pit opens, and out walks Instructor Greyham wearing the kingdom¡¯s standard full-plate armor, and from the look of it, this was not some highly polished ceremonial armor, no, this armor has what I like to call ¡®character¡¯.

    There was very obvious battle damage that has repair overlaid over other repairs multiple times and signs of blunt damage that had been buffed out. But despite all its scars, it was well maintained and looked like it was ready for ten more battles.

    This was the kind of armor I would like to have, no, EARN eventually as it goes through battles with me. Like the scars on a fighter, the battle scars on the armor are like marks of honor.

    The only thing stopping me from getting armor now is me growing, as I keep getting taller, it is just not worth getting a suit until I stop getting taller¡­ soon¡­ with my accelerated growth, that means puberty is around the corner¡­

    Crap, now that I think about it, it is not all good, I have to go through that all over again. Voice cracking, acne, unexplained boners, the whole deal, but I will fret over that later, it seems Instructor Greyham is about to talk.

    ¡°Good morning students.¡± his naturally booming voice rolls over the stands.

    ¡°Good morning Sir!¡± all of us reply in unison as those of us in Advanced Combat & Tactics had the reply drilled into us over the lessons, and the mage students just followed along.

    ¡°Today is a day many of you are going to remember for the rest of your lives. After all that team practice you did yesterday, it is time to put it to a real test. Today, you will be doing what the assistant instructors demonstrated on the first day in the Arena.¡±

    The moment that last sentence left Instructor Greyham¡¯s mouth, there were murmurs that slowly escalated into shouting, and they ran the gamut from excited to frightened, and even some angry, but before it got out of hand, Instructor Greyham shouted ¡°Shut it!¡± and the stands quickly quietened down.

    ¡°Now, I understand that most of you have never killed anything bigger than an ant, let alone something humanoid-looking like a goblin, so it is not compulsory to take part in this last exercise. If you decide to not participate in this exercise, your grades will not be affected, but you will not get bonus grades. So I will ask now, is there anyone who does not want to take part in this exercise?¡±

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    After the question was asked, there was complete silence in the stands, and as I looked around, I could clearly see some of the kids shaking, while some others were about to raise their hands, looked around and saw that no one was raising their hands and kept their hands down. Peer pressure is a hell of a thing.

    After a minute of silence, Instructor Greyham nodded. ¡°Right then, we will begin shortly, but before we do, I suppose it is best to brief you on the opponent you are facing today.¡±

    He then went into a lecture on goblins, their weak points which are basically almost about the same as humans, and their social structure, basically everything Dad taught me when I joined him on a goblin hunt for the first time.

    Once the lecture was done, Instructor Greyham started the briefing before the event started, ¡°Since none of you dropped out, there is no need to reshuffle the teams, so you all will keep to yesterday¡¯s teams. When you are in The Pit, you will face off against five goblins. You will be timed in this exercise, the faster you dispatch the goblins, the better, but that does not mean you should just charge them, despite their smaller size and your armor, they can still harm you. As for rules, they are simple, no usage of aura and no casting of spell above the second circle, other than that, anything goes.¡±

    Instructor Greyham then pointed to the cardinal directions in the stands where Arena staff were, ¡°You will be monitored by the Arena staff during this exercise, if you are hit by the goblins, there will be a minor penalty to your overall time. If one of your teammates goes down or the instructors deem it necessary to step in it will be a major time penalty, break the rules and the whole team gets disqualified. Any questions?¡±

    It was pretty straightforward, come in, kill some gobos safely, and get out, but there were those who were nervous and had a bunch of questions.

    After the Q&A section was done, Instructor Greyham ended off by throwing in an incentive to motivate the students, ¡°By the way, the team with the best time will win a nice prize.¡±

    That quickly caught the attention of the kids, ¡°The winning team will get a Royal Academy Mana Steel weapon of their choice.¡±

    This got the students rather excited and left me somewhat confused, it was just Mana Steel, the lowest of the weapons-grade mana conductive metals, it was not even a naturally created magic metal, it was just steel that had been artificially imbued with mana, it is the cheapest mana-conductive metal that is commonly used for weapons or for specialized industrial purposes, and while most mundane metals can be artificially imbued with mana, it is just not worth the cost artificially imbuing them with mana unless it is for a very specific purpose.

    When I nudged Sam who was next to me to ask what the hubbub was about, he gave me a look like I was some ignorant bumpkin. I mean technically speaking I am a noble bumpkin, but after rolling his eyes, Sam explained to me that the Royal Academy rewards excellence with equipment bearing the Royal Academy¡¯s heraldry in increasing metal rarity, depending on the task accomplished.

    To the nobles, this was a prestigious thing that they and their parents could brag about. For commoners like Dave and Sam, it was something more practical. For people like them, an average Mana Steel sword could cost almost a year of their family¡¯s income. If they could get their hands on a Royal Academy Mana Steel weapon, not only would it be a reliable weapon in case their future profession needed it, but if they ever needed money, they could sell it for a much higher price than the average Mana Steel weapon just because it was officially from the Royal Academy, it was truly the power of branding.

    After Instructor Greyham got everyone to quiet down again, he continued, ¡°But that is not all, for the team with the best time, there is an optional trial with more rewards, but I will leave the trial and rewards as a surprise. So, who wants to be first?!¡±

 Chapter 92

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    ¡°So, who wants to be first?!¡± Instructor Greyham asked in a booming voice.

    And just like that, half the class was on their feet and raising their hands, my teammates included.

    Instructor Greyham looked around for a moment, then pointed at the dog boy I fought yesterday and asked his team to get down there. He and melee focused part of his team fist-pumped as they ran to The Pit, their mage counterparts lagged behind, obviously not as excited as the muscle heads.

    What was dog boy¡¯s name again?... oh right, Bonos.

    Soon, Bonos¡¯s team entered the Pit, this time wearing metal armor with real weapons in hand, and the portcullis behind them closed. As they got into formation, Instructor Greyham was giving them last-minute instructions loud enough for everyone to hear, it boiled down to do whatever he says the moment he says it and not to start the fight until he says so.

    On the opposite end of the Pit, the portcullis opened, and a bunch of Arena staff came out dragging five unconscious goblins along with some wooden clubs. And like last time, they dumped the goblins on the ground along with their weapons and all but one staff stayed behind to blow some powder at the goblins before retreating behind the closing portcullis.

    Soon after, the goblins stirred agitatedly like someone shot a nasty fart up their noses and got up to look around, and like last time the goblins mainly noticed three things, they had no chance of escape, there were weapons near them, and there were others in the Pit with them that were not goblins, and that was good enough reason to kill.

    When I shifted my focus to the team facing the goblins, I noticed that besides Bonos, the rest of the team was having small ticks, whether they were nervous or excited ticks, I could not tell from where I was seated.

    The moment the goblins got up and grabbed their clubs, Instructor Greyham¡¯s voice boomed out, ¡°Fight!¡±

    As the goblins got closer and closer, Bonos¡¯s team stood their ground, but I could sense there was something off. It was only when the goblins were halfway across that I noticed it. While the team was holding their ground, I saw the grin on Bonos¡¯s face get wider and wider while his chest heaved.

    The moment the goblins took a few steps past the halfway line, Bonos literally growled and then released a battle cry before breaking formation and charging the goblins. It took Bonos getting a few steps ahead before his team comprehended what just happened and shouted at Bonos to get back in formation, but he was clearly not listening.

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    This forced the rest of his team to make a snap decision and chase after Bonos to back him up.

    When Bonos made contact with the goblins, I got to say, I was rather impressed. The goblin at the head of the group seemed to be a better runner than the rest of its kin and thus would make contact with Bonos first, but the only contact the goblin made was a savage overhead strike.

    It was lacking in all grace, but I could not question its power, with the pure strength of his arms Bonos cut down the goblin despite it bringing its wooden club up to defend itself, but the wooden club killed enough momentum to have the normal steel sword provided by the Arena embed itself in the skull of the goblin, and when Bonos tried to pull his sword out, he realized that it was stuck, and before he could kick the corpse off his blade, he was accosted by two goblins that caught up, forcing him to abandon his sword in the skull of his kill.

    But just as Bonos was confident in his getaway, although without his weapon, one of the goblins hurled its club at him, clocking him I think the chin before he could raise his hands up to defend himself.

    Bonos took a few more steps back, but I could see the club to the chin taking effect as his legs lost coordination and hit the floor like a boxer does when they had their brain rattled.

    As the goblins closed in on him, Bonos could see them coming, but his body was not responding as it should, and as a goblin was almost on top of Bonos, it got zapped by a Spark spell that made it seize up, followed by an air bullet that knocked it back.

    That was when the other two fighters stepped in front of Bonos to engage the goblins while one of the mages provided fire support, and the last mage dragged Bonos further back.

    By the time Bonos got his feet to listen to him again, the fight was over and Bonos was looking at the floor in shame at his performance.

    It was then that Instructor Greyham jumped into the pit and shouted, ¡°What is the verdict?¡± to which the four Arena staff raised huge placards. It was a unanimous decision, Bonos¡¯ team had one major and four minor penalties.

    Then Instructor Greyham turned to Bonos and said, ¡°As for you¡­ I am sure I taught you better.¡± while drawing a meter-long wooden rod from his belt that the whole academy dubbed as ¡®The Stick of Love¡¯.

    Seeing Instructor Greyham draw the rod, Bonos¡¯ teammates quickly stepped away from him, and soon Bonos was running toward the exit, only to be smacked down not five steps into his run and proceeded to receive a minute lecture of his stupidity while receiving the tender administrations of ¡®The Stick of Love¡¯.

    After that sideshow was over, Instructor Greyham called down the next team as the Arena staff cleaned the goblin corpses.

    As the matches went on, I noticed that most of the teams were pretty standard and playing it safe, while some of the other teams were taking risks to get a chance of getting the best time, one team was daring enough to follow the example of the goblin that knocked Bonos down and tried throwing their weapons at the goblins to maybe score a hit on the surprised goblins and shave off a few seconds, when they finished the match with three out of five team members needing the instructors to step in to rescue them, the whole team got a taste of ¡®The Stick of Love¡¯ for their stupidity.

    But other than those who were playing it safe or those who were taking big risks to make best time, there were a few groups that were truly competent, and Oswald¡¯s group was one of those groups.

 Chapter 93

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    As Oswald¡¯s group entered the pit, I could feel his concentration, which seemed to be an increasing norm ever since I whooped his ass for trying to sneak his aura into our one on one spar last time.

    Ever since then, he would just give me dirty looks but would not engage me, and I am glad he is keeping it that way. Other than that, I mostly ignore him and his cronies and they mostly do the same.

    As his group took up position, I could tell that his group was well drilled as they flowed into formation without any words said.

    Soon enough, the goblins were dragged into the Pit, awoken, and when they grabbed their clubs, the call to start rang out.

    Immediately, the two mages started chanting and the three fighters started jogging forward at a controlled pace, and after a few steps, a girl I recognized as one of the skirmishers increased her pace ahead of Oswald and the other fighter.

    As the skirmisher was about to clash with the goblins, she pulled the same trick Instructor Greyham did to me and flashed them with a blinding light, and because goblins are one of several species who have excellent night vision and are thus sensitive to sudden exposure to light, they were blinded quite badly.

    This led to some of the goblins stopping in their tracks as they clutched at their eyes in pain while those behind those who stopped crashed blindly into those in front, causing a goblin pile-up.

    When I was expecting the skirmisher to swoop in and score some kills on the blinded goblins, she instead rolled to the side as a Spark and Stone Bullet flew by where she was previously standing to hit a still-standing goblin and another that was still getting up while holding its hands over its eyes.

    By the time the skirmisher got to her feet, Oswald and the other fighter were at the same distance as her and the three front liners charged together and slaughtered the blinded and proned goblins. And from the controlled and precise strokes Oswald was performing as he cut down the goblins, I could tell he has been putting in some work ever since we last fought.

    The whole combat engagement was short, sweet, and effective, all handled in less than a minute if I am not wrong, it was the best time yet.

    The assistant instructor who kept track of the time with some kind of Artificer¡¯s magic tool that acted as a stopwatch, announced Oswald¡¯s team¡¯s time to be 52 seconds and no penalties.

    When I turned to my teammates to see what they thought of it, I saw them looking somewhat sad, ¡°What''s wrong guys, why so down?¡±

    Henry sighed, ¡°They had the best time by far, that''s going to be hard to beat. I hate to say it, but their mages are better than us, and then there is Oswald. He does not come from a renowned house for no reason, he most likely came up with that battle plan.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, now we are never getting that reward.¡± Dave lamented.

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    Wow, they must really want that reward, especially Dave and Sam. Well, I guess I can do something about that.

    I puffed up my chest and told my team, ¡°Then I guess you all forgot who whooped Oswald¡¯s ass.¡± my team looked at me and I asked them to gather round, we have some planning to do.

    ***

    Eventually, it was my team¡¯s turn to fight in the Pit, and soon everything was set up and the call to fight was shouted.

    The moment we were given the signal to start, Dave, Sam, and I ran at a dead sprint toward the goblins while Henry and Arabella started chanting their spells.

    Naturally having trained more, I was quite a bit faster than Dave and Sam, and when I got to the halfway mark, I felt the mana of the Lightweight Augmentation spells being cast on Dave and Sam.

    When I was well over the halfway point to the goblins, the goblins had just got their shit together and just started sprinting in my direction.

    When I was about 10 meters away from the first goblin, I made my move. I raised my off-hand and cast a second circle darkness spell in a wide area and made the dark haze move towards the goblins before they could move out of the way.

    In that haze of darkness, I could see just fine because it was my own mana, but as for the goblins, even with their excellent night vision, they could not see a thing in the magical darkness and were wildly flailing around their clubs, I even got to see one of the goblins smack another in the back of the head, making the smacked goblin fall to the ground clutching the back of its head and rolling around while cussing in its guttural language.

    That made me chuckle a little, but first, there is work to be done. As I moved freely through the magical darkness, I easily lopped off the head of the nearest goblin, cut the goblin behind the first from shoulder to hip, cut the leg off one of another goblin to leave it for the others, and lunged forward to the last goblin in line, stabbing it in the neck and severing its spine.

    As I heard the footsteps of Dave and Sam getting closer, I dispelled the haze of darkness while a goblin was still impaled at the tip of my sword. This revealed to everyone three dead goblins, while two other goblins were rolling on the ground in pain, one from getting smacked on the back of the head by another goblin, and the other from missing a leg.

    In less than two seconds of the darkness being dispelled, Dave and Sam locked onto the only two moving goblins and set upon them blades first, and it was done. And if I was keeping count correctly, it has been less than 30 seconds since we started.

    I turned to my teammates and raised my hands while shouting, ¡°BEST TIME!¡± and the four of them raised their weapons while also shouting ¡°BEST TIME!¡±

    It was then that Instructor Greyham jumped into the Pit and shouted for the verdict, and the four Arena staff who were keeping score just signaled that my team had no penalties.

    Then he looked to the assistant instructor who was keeping time, and the assistant instructor announced, ¡°27 seconds with no penalties.¡±

    Hell yeah! Shaved 25 seconds off the best time! And my teammates were going apeshit over the results as they ran towards me and Instructor Greyham.

    Before they reached me, Instructor Greyham side whispered, ¡°You little shit¡­ I thought I heard from one of my instructors that you were holding back to avoid carrying your teammates, what happened? You are demoralizing the rest of the class.¡±

    To which I whispered back, ¡°Well¡­ my teammates really wanted the reward and-¡± but before I could continue with my excuses, the rest of my team caught up and we moved to the stands.

    When I got to the stands, I was met with many eyes of admiration, quite a number of envy, and others of anger, especially those that were coming from Oswald. Let''s just hope my win does not spawn any major drama, I just wanted to do something nice for my team.

 Chapter 94

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    After a few more teams did their goblin killing, all the teams were finally done.

    As the Arena staff was cleaning up the gore and dead goblins from the Pit, Instructor Greyham once again stood before the stands full of students, some of them were clearly shaken from their first kill, and most of the fighters were a little bloody, fortunately, it was not their blood¡­ mostly.

    When all the students settled down, Instructor Greyham addressed us, ¡°Well done students. For most of you, you have slain your first foe, and from what I can see, there are a number of you who have conflicting feelings about what you just did, it would be a good time to reflect and think if you want this experience to be a regular part of your future before you graduate. If you find yourself troubled and need someone to talk with, do not hesitate to approach the academy''s counselor.¡±

    After saying that, Instructor Greyham straightened up and lost his solemn attitude, ¡°And with that out of the way, may the team with the best time please stand up.¡±

    With that, all eyes were on my team as we stood to our feet, and the students around started clapping.

    Instructor Greyham raised his hand and the students quietened down again, ¡°Now that you are promised a Mana Steel weapon of your choice, you now have the chance to bring out the potential of the weapon. The reward for the next trial, should you accept it, is for your Mana Steel weapons to be enchanted by Professor Bixby Goldensprocket.¡±

    This time, it was me and a few other mage students who got excited while my team had somewhat confused smiles on their faces.

    This, I kind of expected. Dave and Sam are not mages, and I don¡¯t remember seeing Henry and Arabella in Enchanting class. So I bestow some of my enchanting and blacksmithing knowledge on them.

    I leaned over and whispered to my team, ¡°This is a good thing, with the right enchantments, a master enchanter like Professor Bixby Goldensprocket may be able to bring something like Mana Steel up to the performance of Mithril, low-quality Mithril without any enchantments but Mithril none the less. In fact, the cost of Professor Bixby performing the enchanting is most likely many times more expensive than the sword itself, we should go for it.¡±

    This news raised the eyebrows of my team¡¯s mages and made Dave and Sam salivate at the prospect of owning something so expensive. In no time at all, we agreed to at least hear out what the final trial was about.

    I then shouted, ¡°What is the trial?¡±

    Instructor Greyham chuckled at my question, ¡°Good, at least you asked, there were some previous batches that accepted the trail without checking with me on his contents. You will be fighting a Hobgoblin and ten goblins. Do you accept?¡±

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    I have seen how goblins fight while a hobgoblin is in charge, and while I am confident in taking care of myself, when I turned to my teammates, they did not feel so confident about them. I then shouted back, ¡°May we have some time to discuss this as a team?¡±

    Instructor Greyham nodded and said we had two minutes, so I brought the team into a huddle, ¡°Alright, the only question is if you really, really want to win the reward.¡±

    They all hesitated for a moment before Arabella spoke up, ¡°Is this not too dangerous? I have heard stories about how hobgoblins can turn an unruly mob of goblins into a cunning group of killers.¡±

    To that, I answered, ¡°Well I would not go that far, I would say that with a hobgoblin around, it turns the goblins acting like it is a free-for-all into a slightly more organized group with a direction and purpose.¡±

    Then my team stared at me like I grew a third eye, ¡°You fought a hobgoblin before?!¡±

    To which, I shook my head, ¡°No, my father brings me out on some subjugation missions to observe but never lets me participate, and I have seen a number of goblin groups, with and without hobgoblins leading them. But that is besides the point, we are running out of time, do you want to do this or not?¡±

    After they looked at each other for a few seconds without disagreeing, they turned back to me and nodded, I nodded back to them and broke from the huddle. ¡°We accept!¡±

    ***

    I was once again down in the Pit with my team as I watched the Arena staff drag the unconscious goblins out. Once all ten goblins were out, two Arena staff walked into the Pit holding a hobgoblin the size of a full-grown man by its hands and legs.

    But as the hobgoblin was put down to the ground, I noticed something off. Usually, all the hobgoblins I have ever seen were wearing some form of armor, be it scavenged gear from some unfortunate bastard, or even a roughly cut hide of other beasts, but I have never seen a hobgoblin wear colorful feathers and elaborate face painting. The only time I have ever seen that was on a¡­ goblin¡­ shaman¡­ fuck¡­ is that a hobgoblin shaman?

    The Arena staff then came out with the weapons, they chucked a bunch of clubs in front of the goblins. But for the hobgoblin, the Arena staff brought out a special weapon for it. What they put in front of the unconscious hobgoblin was what I assume is a wand, but as I squinted my eyes, I realized the wand was a femur with some kind of small woodland creature¡¯s skull affixed at the tip of said femur.

    So¡­ I can pretty safely say that this is a hobgoblin shaman. I quickly turned around and called for an emergency meeting before the arena staff woke the goblins and hobgoblin up.

    ¡°Alright, change of plans, you all see the hobgoblin there?¡± they turned to take a look and then nodded to me, ¡°Well that is not just a hobgoblin, it''s a hobgoblin shaman. A goblin shaman can already cast at our equivalent of third circle magic, and I am pretty sure the hobgoblin shaman can do that and more. So our plan of running for the wall so we only have to deal with a 180¡ã arc of combat and waiting for them to come to us, is useless now. We are still restricted to not using aura and second circle spells, if we stay in one spot, will get bombarded¡±

    With this news, they all turned pale, and Henry asked, ¡°So what now?¡±

    I turned to Henry, ¡°Now, we treat this like any other battle, rush the mage.¡±

 Chapter 95

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    When the call to start the fight boomed out, I started sprinting towards the monsters. As for my teammates, we had to do some¡­ improvisation.

    Instead of charging or holding their ground with weapons ready, Dave and Sam sheathed their swords before Henry and Arabella jumped on them for a piggyback ride.

    No doubt this would make people give us some questioning looks, but there is a good reason. Due to Henry and Arabella not yet being able to concentrate while moving around and casting spells at the same time, so I put forth the question of them being able to cast spells while being moved around.

    To which we found out the answer was, yes, yes they could. As I was a quarter way to engaging the enemy, I felt enchantment spells wash over me as I felt my armor become lighter and my sword has a slight shimmer to its edges.

    When I looked back to my teammates they had just started casting their first spells as they advanced toward the goblins, however at a much slower speed, but I was glad that my stupid idea somewhat worked as the hobgoblin shaman saw us coming and started barking out orders in a guttural language as it let fly a small volley of flaming bolts towards Dave, who was carrying Henry, and before the volley could even reach Dave and Henry, the hobgoblin condensed a soccer ball sized ball of flame between its hands and chucked it at Sam, who was carrying Arabella.

    To which Dave and Sam acted accordingly and dodged out of the way with the mages on their backs, giving the mages a slight cast of whiplash. I could imagine it, had Henry and Arabella stood stationary to cast spells like most mages their level would do, they would have forced the instructors to step in to avoid their serious injuries, but now with Dave and Sam zipping around with the mages on their backs, my teammates were like mobile turrets that stunned and incapacitated the goblins as he closed in.

    Speaking of closing in, when I was near the first goblin, I tried to pull off my darkness shroud spell again to finish the enemies while they were lost in the magical darkness. But the moment the first wisps of dark energy seeped out of my body, the hobgoblin snapped its attention to me and brought its wand up to its face while chanting, and before my shroud could properly form, the hobgoblin shouted something that caused six of the goblins that were preventing my approach to jump to the sides as I saw the hobgoblin shaman pointed his wand at my forming darkness shroud.

    From that wand, a gaut of flames came towards me, totally wiping out my shroud as I followed the goblins¡¯ lead and jumped out of the way before I was cooked by the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s flammenwerfer.

    As I was getting to my feet, I was somewhat open to attacks, and the nearest goblin to get out of the flamethrower¡¯s way got to me and took advantage of the situation.

    I saw a goblin coming with a club raised, ready to bash my head in. As it was a few paces away from me, I raised my sword to defend myself when a stone bullet took the goblin in the eye. This made the goblin scream in pain while clenching its now destroyed eye. I took the opportunity to rush forward and performed a swift decapitation of my would-be assailant.

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    I turned to see where the stone bullet came from and saw Arabella casting more of the rock spells to suppress the goblins nearest to me, while Henry was shooting a few lightning spells at the hobgoblin shaman, forcing it to stop its flamethrower spell and erect some magical defenses.

    Seeing that the previously six, now five goblins defending the hobgoblin shaman had their attention concentrated on dodging the stone bullets Arabella was shooting at them, I took advantage and charged.

    When I reached the five goblins, some of them were battered and bruised, which made my job easier. In my first two swings, I cut down two goblins and as I kicked one goblin into another, my support fire from Arabella was cut short as two of the four other goblins chasing after the mages, chased after Arabella and she and Sam had to retreat, but now that I am so close within the goblin ranks, I could wreak some havoc.

    As I cut down another goblin that was standing, I turned to find the goblins that I made collide and fall over, but I only saw an empty spot, I looked around to see where they were and found them standing by the hobgoblin shaman like good little minions.

    I glanced around to see if I could get some ranged support spells from my teams¡¯ mages but found them busy as they dismounted Dave and Sam in order to kill the 4 goblins that had been harassing them the whole fight.

    This left me to deal with the hobgoblin shaman and his two goblin buddies.

    Seeing that the hobgoblin shaman could throw around a level of firepower I was not allowed to use, I decided to test its level of magic competency. I started spamming second circle spells at the goblins and hobgoblin shaman while cycling through the elements.

    To this magical onslaught, the goblins hid behind the hobgoblin shaman, the hobgoblin shaman first tried to counter it was what it had been using to defend itself against Henry¡¯s spells. It was barely a spell at all, the hobgoblin shaman was simply throwing mana at the problem, literally, the hobgoblin shaman was using raw mana to divert or outright stop my second circle spells. But I was curious, this method of magical defense was consuming huge amounts of mana, so how long could this hobgoblin shaman last?

    Before half a minute was done I could see the mana the hobgoblin shaman starting to wane as my spells got closer and closer to the hobgoblin shaman.

    That was when the hobgoblin shaman did something I did not expect, hear, or read about before.

    As my spells were continually pelting the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s defenses, it grabbed one of the goblins that were with it and lifted it off the ground by its neck, then the hobgoblin shaman started chanting in more of its guttural language as the grabbed goblin thrashed around.

    Then with its other hand, the hobgoblin shaman reached its other arm around the goblin¡¯s head and in one swift motion, shaped the goblin¡¯s neck.

    It then used its clawed fingers to reach just under the dead goblin¡¯s ribcage and shoved its hand inside the chest cavity, and a few seconds later, the hobgoblin shaman had a heart in its hand.

    It quickly devoured the heart and used the blood on its fingers to paint some rough designs on its own face while continuing its chanting. As the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s chanting reached a crescendo, the first change I saw was veins bulging on its face, which soon spread to the rest of its body.

    The next thing I saw was the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s muscles start bulging and despite its slightly smaller stature compared to an average man, its body started to bulk up and look like my dad¡¯s men during training.

    The last thing I noticed was the turbulent mana that suddenly burst out of the hobgoblin shaman, making its mana much more abundant than when I started pelting spells at it.

    I am starting to think that the bonus reward was not worth it.

 Chapter 96

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    Seeing that the hobgoblin shaman was still in the middle of its ¡°power up¡±, I dashed forward to kill it before it finished whatever it was doing, I have seen enough anime and cartoons to know never let the bad guy finish their transformation.

    The moment I moved forward, was the same time a goblin corpse was flying straight at me, but I was ready, I swung my sword, splitting the airborne goblin corpse¡­ only to find a clawed hand coming towards my face, and with my sword in the downward position after cutting the flying goblin, the only thing I could do was tilt my head to the side and rolled forward as the clawed hand passed me.

    After recovering from my roll, I quickly got up and turned around in a ready stance to see the now buff hobgoblin shaman looking at me over its shoulder with a feral grin. It then brought it''s still outstretched to its own face and looked as a drop of blood was dangling off its pinky claw, and as I took in the rest of its body, I realized that the hand it was looking at was not the blood-drenched one it used to rip the heart out of the goblin.

    That was when I felt and heard something dripping on my leather gloves. While keeping my eyes on the buff hobgoblin shaman, I reached up to my chin and found blood, then my body started to realize that my cheek was cut, and when I reached up to touch it, with a stinging sensation I realized that the cut was rather wide, but now was not the time to worry about that, I was just thankful the cut was not above my eyes or else I would be blinded by blood.

    As the hobgoblin shaman and I stared down each other, the hobgoblin shaman leisurely turned its body to face me while baring that fang-filled grin, and then I noticed its eyeballs move to the side for a second before focusing back on me.

    That put me on edge more than I already was, right before I heard a squeak of effort from behind me as I turned to see the remaining goblin throw its sacrificed kin¡¯s club at me.

    The club was easily batted away, but it gave the hobgoblin shaman an opening to charge me, and it was only now that my sight was not impeded by a flying goblin corpse that I became aware of actually how fast the hobgoblin shaman was as I dodged a swipe aimed at my head again.

    After a few more dodges and perries with my sword, I estimate its strength and speed to be roughly ? that of an untrained aura user, in other words¡­ still manageable¡­ barely.

    After avoiding another three strikes, I think I got the hang of its pace and pattern, so it was my turn to go on the offensive.

    As it once again tried to claw my face off, I ducked under its strike to end up behind it and then opened out a few paces between us so I could get out of being sandwiched between the goblin and hobgoblin shaman.

    I then brought my sword back in a back stance and waited for the hobgoblin shaman to attack, and I did not need to wait long.

    Not two seconds after getting into my stance, the hobgoblin shaman charged at me claws first, and at the last moment, I slid to the side and brought my sword in an upward swing toward its arms.

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    Immediately after the clash, I was once again facing the goblin, and I could tell something was not right. First of which was the feeling I got when I took a swing at the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s arms. Now don''t get me wrong, I am by no means an expert in the feeling of cutting into flesh and bone, but after slaying some goblins, I could tell that there was something unnatural when my sword bit into the arms of the hobgoblin shaman, it felt like I was cutting into dense rubber before hobgoblin shaman went out of my range, yanking my blade out of its flesh.

    As I looked at the hobgoblin shaman, its back turned to me, it slowly put down its arms and I saw the damage I had done and I was surprised¡­ at how little damage I had actually done. Sure the underside of its forearms had long gashes across, but they did not look deep.

    I am pretty sure my sword is sharp, I performed maintenance on it after my first goblin killing exercise and even had a sharpness augmentation cast on my blade, so what the fuck is going on?

    The goblin then brought its arms up and looked at the damage I had done to it and started angry heaving until it let out a roar, released a burst of mana, and its hands lit on fire. Then it turned to me and charged.

    ***

    The moment the hobgoblin shaman sacrificed the goblin, the assistant instructors manifested their auras and mages started chanting, but Instructor Greyham pulsed his own arua in their direction to get their attention and gave them the signal to stand down but keep ready.

    ¡°But Sir, if we let this continue, they could all get killed, especially the Ironcrest boy!¡± the assistant instructor said to Greyham in a hushed tone to avoid spooking the children in the stands.

    But Greyham shook his head and said, ¡°Keep watching, notice the confidence in his movement, he is not outmatched yet.¡±

    When the assistant instructor looked back, he barely caught it. In the blink of an eye, a dead goblin was sent flying, got cut in half, the hobgoblin shaman charged, and the two combatants were now past each other.

    From there the fight continued, and the assistant instructor became more and more impressed with Luke Ironcrest. Despite being limited by mere rules that nobody would fault him for breaking in this situation, he kept up and even managed to perform a counterattack on the hobgoblin shaman.

    Until now, all was well. Then the hobgoblin shaman released another burst of mana, and its hands caught on fire.

    ¡°This¡­ may be bad. I will go down and make sure nothing goes wrong.¡± Grayham said as he stepped forward, and as he did, the assistant instructor felt a sense of nothingness from where Greyham was as he witnessed Greyham perform a high-level aura technique he had only heard of but never seen before.

    Aura Suppression. It was a stealth aura technique that blended the user into the surroundings, making them hard to detect.

    Intellectually, the assistant instructor knew Greyham was in front of him, and his eyes could technically see him, but now, when looking at Greyham, it was like looking at one of many identical trees in a forest, he felt that if he took his eyes off Greyham for even a moment, he would not be able to find him again.

    ¡°I hope you are right, Sir.¡±

    ***

    I might just be fucked. I have just spent the past few seconds concentrating on purely dodging.

    Why, You might ask? Why could I not counter or perry it like last time? Well, it is because this green motherfucker is all of a sudden manifesting firey claws a foot away from its hands, and they are big claws too.

    But I quickly learned that I should not be concentrating on the manifested fiery claws, I should be concentrating on the hands those fiery claws are following. And as I concentrate on the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s hands, I notice something.

    Why are its hands burning?

 Chapter 97

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    Yes, the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s hands are on fire, but goblin magic is similar to our runic magic, meaning that his hands should be coated with the concept/aspect of fire, it should not be able to harm the user¡­ unless¡­

    Motherfucker! It is using actual fire! Which means Instinctive magic! I kept my guard up as I continued kiting the hobgoblin shaman around, but this time instead of generally sensing the mana around the hobgoblin shaman to watch for any spells forming, I concentrated on inspecting the mana directly going on on the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s body.

    And what I saw somewhat intrigued me, the hobgoblin shaman was using mana somewhat similarly to the way aura users use aura, but that was just a surface observation, if only I could touch it, then I could understand more of how this hobgoblin shaman was doing what it was doing.

    As I dodged out of the way of the latest attack, a Spark and Earth Bullet hit the shroud of mana surrounding the hobgoblin shaman, and while the Spark spell dissipated before hitting its target, the Earth Bullet hit the hobgoblin shaman, but at a much reduced speed. The hobgoblin shaman snarled in annoyance but kept its attention on me.

    I turn to see Henry and Arabella with four dead goblins at their feet and chucking spells at the hobgoblin shaman, and when I look around to find my fellow front liners, I saw that they had just finished gutting the goblin the hobgoblin shaman left behind and were charging at the hobgoblin shaman.

    ¡°Dave! Sam! Stay away, it is too dangerous! Range attacks only!¡± I shouted, making them stop in their tracks and seem to take my word for it as Sam said something and they ran somewhere.

    As for me, I am just waiting for an opening, it has got to exhaust its mana soon at the rate it is throwing at around.

    And speaking of mana, why is it not casting any ranged spells? It can''t be that stupid.

    That was when I looked at its eyes¡­ they were bloodshot, and it was foaming at the mouth like it was going rabid. I can only assume it has gone berserk and not making the best of decisions at the moment.

    But I can say the same of myself, I now realize that I have been so caught up in the fight that I have been grossly underutilizing my magic, even if I am restricted to second circle spells by the rules.

    So let''s resolve that.

    As the hobgoblin shaman rushes me once again, I cast a gust of wind at the ground in front of me, kicking up a cloud of sand in the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s direction and I step to the side as the hobgoblin shaman bursts out the sand cloud with an arm held in front of its face.

    That is when I strike. I charged in and thrust my sword at its torso, and the tip of my sword stuck into its side maybe an inch or so before it was stopped by something hard, most likely hitting a rib.

    The hobgoblin shaman, blinded by the sand blown in its eyes, swiped in my direction, and I had to roll to the side under a bunch of fiery claws, as I scrambled on the ground to flank the hobgoblin shaman, it was following the sounds of my scramble and swiping at me.

    After I scrambled in almost a circle around it, I took a chance and jumped at the hobgoblin shaman, but not with a sword, but hand first.

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    I grabbed the upper arm and with skin contact, I used my mana senses for all it was worth. And what I saw stunned me for a moment, as I could not help but stop and metaphorically stare at what the mana in the hobgoblin shaman was doing, this answered quite a few questions I had.

    But this distraction cost me, as I was fascinated with the internal mana of the hobgoblin shaman, the hobgoblin shaman used the provided opening to throw a blind punch at the idiot (me) who was holding on to its arm.

    With that blind punch, first came a fist-shaped flame that slammed into the standard-issue breastplate and I felt a hot flash, but the breastplate tanked the damage well enough. Immediately after that, came a a much more physical fiery fist slamming into my breastplate, and I felt and heard a crunch that was very¡­ internal.

    That punch threw me away from the hobgoblin shaman as it continued throwing blind haymakers. When I landed, I tried to regain the breath I lost when I got hit in the chest, but I was unable to, and when I looked down at my chest, I saw the reason why. My breastplate was caved in and literally pushing into my chest.

    With my lack of breath, and knowledge of a dangerous enemy close by, I panicked and fumbled as I reached for straps holding my armor to my body.

    When I finally loosened the armor enough for the caved-in portion to not push into me, I managed to take a pained breath, just in time to see an extremely pissed-off hobgoblin shaman with only one eye open stalking toward me.

    As the hobgoblin shaman got closer, the barrage of spells increased, and I could see Dave and Sam ignore my warning to stay away as they charged toward the hobgoblin shaman.

    I stuck the tip of my sword on the ground and pulled myself up as my armor slid off me and took a stance to defend myself. And as the hobgoblin shaman was just a few steps from me, I saw the flash of steel at the hobgoblin shaman¡¯s neck, and after taking three more steps, the hobgoblin shaman collapsed to the ground and its head rolled away from its neck.

    I looked around to see where that attack came from, and when I looked at my teammates, they were also trying to do the same. When I looked at the assistant instructors, they all seemed at ease, relieved even. It was not until I looked back at the corpse of the hobgoblin shaman that I noticed a metal-toed boot next to it, and attached to said boot was Instructor Greyham¡­ how the hell did he appear in front of me? Was he the one who killed the hobgoblin shaman?

    Instructor Greyham then looked down at me then turned to look to the stands, ¡°Due to the participant losing his armor and the hobgoblin still being combat-effective, I have deemed the trial too dangerous to continue. Thus, the team fails the trial.¡± he then turned to me and gave me an apologetic smile and said to me, ¡°Better luck next time.¡±

    My teammates clearly heard this and had looks of disappointment on their faces as they joined me and we made our way back to the stands. But hey, at least we still walk away with the prize of a Mana Steel weapon of our choice.

    My teammates perked up at the reminder of that and I sweetened the deal by offering to do the enchantment myself, I warned them that it would most likely be basic enchantments and now here near as mana efficient as Professor Bixby¡¯s enchantment, but Dave and Sam readily accepted while Henry and Arabella graciously declined my offer.

    After some closing words, we were herded back to the carriages, and by the time we were riding back, the adrenalin from the earlier fight had left my body and I fell asleep on the carriage ride back.

    ***

    After the last of the carriages left the Arena for the Royal Academy, only Instructor Greyham stayed behind, and from one of the tunnels, the Capital¡¯s Arena Master, Theo Ferrimen walked up beside Greyham.

    ¡°I heard that was an unexpected surprise in the Pit today.¡± Theo said as he looked at the rear of the last carriage leaving.

    There was a grunt from Greyham as he replied, ¡°Yes¡­ that hobgoblin shaman¡­ it was a young one, it should not have been as powerful as it was, what I saw it do today could only be pulled off by hobgoblin shaman of much more advanced age. This needs to be investigated. Because if this is what I think it is, it is bad news¡­ very bad news.¡±

    Theo returned the grunt with a nod, ¡°I know the adventuring team that delivered the hobgoblin shaman. I will bring them in for questioning and send you a report of what I find.¡±

    With that, they nodded and Greyham mounted his horse and left.

 Chapter 98

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    After getting back to the academy, I grabbed some dinner, got a bath, and finally crashed into bed. And as I lay in bed, I thought back to what I saw when I was sensing mana in direct contact with the hobgoblin shaman.

    What I saw was mana was circulating in its own body. Now most people would think, ¡°Bid deal¡­ mana circulates in all living things.¡±, but not as much as what I saw. This mana was not the slow-flowing mana that passively circulated in everyone, this mana was flowing like raging rapids.

    But that was not the only crazy thing, the other thing I sensed was that the mana flowing in its body was very clearly earth element mana. I have only ever seen elements of mana manifested externally, never internally, and I am starting to wonder if the earth element mana flowing through its body was the reason I failed to dismember its arms.

    Thinking about it further, that may also explain how its hands still had the ability to form a fist to punch after burning in its own fire for so long. Could infusing its own body with earth mana slow down the burning of its hands into useless nubs? Who knows, I might need to give it a try, but not today¡­ sleep now, experiment later.

    ***

    The next day, during a break after the mandatory classes, I was fetched by one of the assistant instructors from my Advanced Combat & Tactics class to go pick a weapon for my prize.

    From there, we went to the other classes to get Dave, Sam, Henry, and Arabella. After following the assistant instructor to collect our prizes, I found myself arriving at a place I was familiar with, it was the crafting section of the academy where I have my blacksmithing lessons.

    We then entered the same warehouse-like building where I had my blacksmithing lessons to be once again bombarded by the sounds of metal beating against metal.

    To negate the din of hammers, the assistant instructor chanted a Silence spell that created a bubble of air blocking out all sound, the only thing we heard as we traveled through the workshop was the sounds of our footsteps and breathing.

    As we went deeper into the workshop, we went past a bunch of men and some women, who looked too old to be schooling, working at their own workstations. I recently found out that these people were on some kind of vocational training.

    When we finally reached the back of the warehouse, there was my dwarf of a blacksmithing teacher, Haldor Steelbeard.

    When the assistant instructor was close enough to Haldor to include him in the Silence spell, he seemed to notice the sudden lack of hammering and looked up at us.

    The assistant instructor greeted Professor Steelbeard, handed over a writ for Professor Steelbeard to read, and said, ¡°These five are here to choose a Mana Steel Weapon of their choice.¡±

    After scanning through the writ, he passed it back and looked at us. ¡°I see there are two mages among you, but unless you use battle staffs to do your casting, or a heavy metal wand, I think you will have more realistic choices for spell-casting tools next door to where they are made.¡±

    Then he turned to me, ¡°And I see one of my blacksmithing students managed to earn one too, good on ye lad.¡±

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    As I thanked Haldor for his praise, Henry said, ¡°Wait, you are learning blacksmithing? Isn''t that a commoner¡¯s profession?¡±, this was followed by Arabella pitching in with a ¡°Yeah, that''s like, menial work.¡±

    The moment they said that, there was dead silence, and I could see the assistant instructor pinch the bridge of his nose, and I felt like doing the same because what they just said was like spitting on the heritage of all dwarf kind.

    ¡°What d''ye just say?¡± Haldor¡¯s voice rumbled out, and with each word, his already accented common speech became even more accented as he glared at Henry and Arabella, his bushy beard bristling with every word he spoke.

    ¡°Whit d''ye think ye''re sayin'' here, ye wee dafties?¡± he barked, eyes blazing with anger. ¡°Ye think blacksmithin'' is jist a job fer commoners, dae ye? Well, let me tell ye somethin'', ye pampered wee gits. Blacksmithin'' isnae jist a job, it''s a bleedin'' art! And you lot widnae ken good smithin'' if it stuck ye in the bum!"

    Henry and Arabella shrank back, but the Haldor wasn¡¯t done. He jabbed a thick finger at them, punctuating his words with sharp gestures. "Every sword, every shield, every piece o'' armor ye see yer fancy knights wearin'', it¡¯s crafted wi'' skill, sweat, an'' blood. It takes years o'' trainin'', hard work, an'' a lot mair intelligence than ye''ve got in yer thick skulls!"

    He took a step closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl. "Do ye think ye can pick up a hammer an'' make somethin'' worthwhile? Ha! Ye''d be lucky if ye didnae bash yer own heids in. Ye nobles think ye''re better than us, but without us, ye''d be defenseless babes. Why, I ought tae challenge the baith of ye to a duel for besmirchin'' the honor of all Dwarfs by insultin'' our sacred craft! Feuds huv been started for less!" Haldor bellowed as he threw down his hammer, its head embedding into the stone floor.

    This was when the assistant instructor stepped in, ¡°Professor Steelbeard, I think it would be best to leave it at that.¡± he then turned to Henry and Arabella, who now looked smaller, and got them to apologize, Haldor said nothing but a grunt.

    After placating Haldor for a while longer, he then left Dave, Sam, and me with Haldor and went with Henry and Arabella to the wand and staff crafters next door.

    After they left, Haldor took a few deep breaths, then turned to us, ¡°So, you lads be wantin¡¯ some Mana Steel weapons.¡± his voice going back to his accented but still understandable common. It honestly took me a while to catch up to what he said when he was chewing out Henry and Arabella.

    ¡°Follow me.¡± he said, and so we did.

    He led us to a corner of the workshop, opened a cellar door, and went down. When we got to the bottom, there was barely any light. That was until I heard a large switch being flipped, and some mana-operated lights fixed to the ceiling gradually lit up like the old fluorescent stage lights back on Earth.

    When I turned to the sound of the switch, there was an industrial lever switch with a mana crystal embedded at its base, and when I looked around at the increasingly illuminated room, I shed a manly tear at what was on display.

    It was rows upon rows of weapons and armor of different designs, it was like looking at the physical manifestation of the websites I use to purchase weapons and armor back on Earth, and it puts the weapon shops I have been to and my father¡¯s armory to shame.

    ¡°Luke, are you crying?¡± Sam asked.

    ¡°No¡­ just got some dust in my eye.¡± I replied, maybe just a bit too defensively.

    ¡°All right, lads. Stick to the first three rows, those are Mana Steel, pick out what you want, and come find me if you have any questions.¡± Haldor said as he went to the side and started polishing a pile of equipment.

    After going up and down the aisles and test swinging a few weapons, I ended up choosing a Bastard/Hand-and-a-Half Sword. I was tempted to go with a two-handed longsword due to its longer hilt I could use for more leverage, but this was the sword I used the most in my previous life.

    By the time we all left the blacksmith, Dave had himself the two-handed longsword I passed over, saying that he was going to follow in his old man¡¯s style from his mercenary days, and Sam got himself an Arming Sword to pair with a shield in the future.

    With a smile on my face for my new toy, I went to store it in my room and got back to my classes for the day.

 Chapter 99

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    A couple of days later, it was finally the weekend. That means no classes, day or night.

    After greeting the lunch ladies on weekend duty and getting some breakfast, I made my way to the part of the academy where the reinforced enchanting classrooms were, but instead of entering one of the classrooms, I took the stairs down to a basement, below the reinforced classrooms, and I got to say, it is quite a walk down, I can safely say I walked three stories down, which means if nothing is occupying those two stories above me, I can safely assume it is two stories of solid rock between me and whatever accidental explosions happen above.

    At the bottom of the stairs is an academy staff doing some paperwork, and nearby is the academy¡¯s dragon in disguise, Professor Sageira Drackot.

    Over the past few months since finding out she was a dragon, we have been exchanging information on our usage of Instinctive magic. To do that safely and privately, we used a facility provided by the school for testing volatile spells or potions.

    This facility is arguably the most fortified place in the kingdom, the only difference is that instead of being fortified against anything getting in, it is heavily fortified and warded against anything getting out, be it mundane or magical explosion, liquids, gasses, mana, and most other kinds of energy.

    This facility is officially known as the Testing Chambers, but everyone calls it The Cells due to each Testing Chamber looking like an upsized prison cell, and for all intents and purposes, it was just that, a prison. It is even sometimes used to keep Magic Beasts and monsters for study.

    After meeting and greeting Professor Sageira, we booked a testing chamber with the academy staff and went to our assigned chamber.

    Once we were behind closed doors, Professor Sageira turned to me, ¡°Good to see you again, Luke, I hear you had quite an eventful few days in the Arena. You seem to be quite the subject among the faculty.¡±

    I turned to Professor Sageira from closing and sealing the door, ¡°Why do you make it sound like we have not seen each other for a long time, I was in your class two nights ago.¡±

    ¡°Ahh, but that is in a professional setting where we could not discuss more personal matters. Behind closed doors, we are free to be ourselves. I am free to be a dragon and you are free to be a grown man in a child¡¯s body.¡±

    I groaned at the last part of her sentence. I may be in a child¡¯s body, but due to a period of my life where I experienced accelerated growth, I recently started showing signs of puberty. It started with unexplained boners, and not long after, I had my first wet dream. I was not proud of it because it was of my wetnurse Anna. The morning after, I had to use some magic to get rid of the mess I had made before sending that pair of pants for laundry.

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    ¡°Please don¡¯t remind me, I am starting to hit puberty and it is not a phase of life that I like to go through again, next thing I know, my voice is going to break and my face is going to break out in acne.¡±

    Professor Sageira chuffed in amusement, ¡°Ah yes, puberty there were points in my life when I adopted human children, you humans are so cute until you get to that stage, then they get all angsty and rebellious, I wonder if you will be the same even with the mind of an adult. Besides I do not think you will need to worry about acne, all the children I raised had their pimples clear shortly after they learned and practiced Aura, the constant flow of stamina energy seems to clear things up. As for you who already uses Aura, your skin may never be blighted with pimples ever again.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ is somewhat of a relief¡­ and did you say you raised human children?¡± I asked with a raised eyebrow, ¡°Why would you do that?¡±

    Professor Sageira had a faraway look when I asked her, ¡°It was a period in my life after I learned to polymorph, after trying out different animals, I eventually decided to try living as one of the enlightened races, and seeing as you humans are so prolific, I decided to go with one of you.

    I adopted my first child a few decades after integrating into human society. This was far away in a long-dead kingdom, and said kingdom had just finished fighting a war with its neighbor, naturally as all things that come during and after a war, were bandits. And I found my first human baby son crying in the arms of his mother who was recently killed.

    It was such a small defenseless creature, and I took pity on it. But instead of dropping it off at some orphanage, I had the, at the time, interesting idea of raising it myself, by then I was already an adult dragon who had raised a few clutches of wyrmlings, so I thought to myself, ¡®How hard could one human be?¡¯, turns out that human babies need a lot more attention to not accidentally kill themselves.

    Eventually, my son grew up to be a court mage of the kingdom I found him in, and had a bunch of children and grandchildren. And unlike my dragon offspring, my human son¡¯s family was a lot more sociable, which I enjoyed. But all good things must come to an end, after my son and his children passed, subsequent generations became more distant, that was when I decided it was time to move on with my life.¡±

    ¡°I am sorry for your loss.¡± I said solemnly, but she gently waved it off, ¡°but why did subsequent generations become more distant? I thought it would be kind of cool to have a powerful dragon as a great-grandmother¡­ Unless they did not know you were a dragon?¡±

    She shook her head, ¡°Only my son knew I was a dragon, but by that time, I was wise enough to know ¡®He who guards his mouth preserves his life.¡¯ I ingrained that into my son so only he knew. It would not do for some would-be dragon slayer to use my son as a hostage to draw me out. But enough of that, you said you had some questions about the hobgoblin shaman you faced?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it was when I touched it to get a better look at its mana-¡± I then told her what I observed and what the hobgoblin shaman was capable of during my fight.

    Once I was done, I waited to hear her input on the subject, but all I got was a ¡°Huh, that''s interesting, I did not know goblins could do that.¡±

 Chapter 100

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®I did not know hobgoblins could do that.¡¯, aren''t you a super old and wise dragon?¡±

    Professor Sageira huffed in annoyance while mumbling, ¡°I go through the trouble of listening to him and he calls me old¡± Then she growled at me with venom, ¡°I may be a dragon, but I am also a lady, and I do not appreciate being called old!¡±, she then transformed into a smoking hot 30 year old version of herself.

    I put my hands up in surrender, ¡°Fine, I apologize to the fine-looking young woman, but my question still stands.¡±

    She folded her arms and huffed, ¡°How should I know, the last time I picked up a book on goblinoids or the last time I purposely killed a goblin was close to a millennia ago, and none of the reading material back then said anything of hobgoblins being capable of what you described. And besides, they do not taste very good, so I do not have any interest in them.

    As for what you described, the hobgoblin should have died a few times over from what you said it did¡­ but I have a few ideas of how it may have pulled it off.¡±

    ¡°Yeah? What are they? And why would the hobgoblin have died? It looked pretty fine to me¡­ well, except the part where it was frothing mad.¡±

    After pondering for a moment, she said, ¡°Well¡­ the way you described the hobgoblin killing one of the goblins and eating its heart¡­ it sounds like a crude sacrificial blood magic ritual that reinforced its body enough to withstand the rapid mana flow you described, there are few creatures that can naturally withstand forceful rapid mana flow. Chances are, if that hobgoblin did not perform the sacrificial blood ritual, the hobgoblin would have torn up its own mana pathways and died a horrible death shortly after.¡±

    Hearing that, cold sweat ran down my back as I remembered I was extremely tempted to experiment and try to emulate what the hobgoblin did. Fortunately, school and night classes kept me busy until now.

    ¡°As for the elemental mana within the hobgoblin¡¯s body, it is not that special. There are quite a few magic creatures that are capable of this. I only find it surprising that a hobgoblin was capable of it¡­ It seems like a goblinoid kind has learned a few tricks since I last checked in on them.¡±

    She then stroked her chin as she mumbled, ¡°Maybe I should abduct a tribe to study their current sociality evolution.¡±

    ¡°Ahem!¡± I cleared my throat to snap Professor Sageira out of her ponderings. ¡°So¡­ is there any way we can safely replicate what the hobgoblin shaman did?¡±

    Professor Sageira shook her head, ¡°There is no ¡®we¡¯ here, me being a dragon, and being as experienced as I am, I have no issue replicating what the hobgoblin shaman did. Dragons are one of the species that can naturally withstand forceful rapid mana flow, and I already know how to temporarily change my internal mana to a different element.¡±

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    She reached out her hand and I took it while sensing the mana in her body. I observed her mana switch between flowing rapidly and going back to normal after a few seconds, then she started cycling her internal mana through the different elements.

    ¡°What do the different elements do? I kind of guess earth element makes my body sturdier, but what of the other elements?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You are right about the earth element, but there is another effect, it makes you heavier. As for the other elements, Fire is a pure boost in strength but increases your body heat, good for keeping warm in cold weather, bad for prolonged fights for warm-blooded creatures like you.

    Water makes your body more malleable, and your joints more flexible,¡± she then changed her internal mana to water and waved her arm, her forearm which was supposed to have a ridged bone in it wiggled around like it was almost boneless. ¡°It also does the opposite of fire and brings down your body temperature.¡±

    ¡°Air makes your body more agile and does the opposite of earth, it makes you lighter.¡±

    ¡°Light mainly passively heals the body, and Dark erases your presence.¡±

    While I was observing her internal mana activity, she continued, ¡°The problem is with you, or more specifically, you being a human, your body and mana pathways just never evolved to handle such stress.¡±

    At her saying so, I could not help but sulk.

    ¡°B-But the hobgoblin was able to do it, and the way we use magic is similar, I don¡¯t see why I can¡¯t do it.¡± I said, and after a second, I realized I sounded like a petulant child who was denied candy. So I sulked some more.

    Professor Sageira just chuckled at my outburst, ¡°Now now, Luke, you are acting your body¡¯s age. I just said it was a problem, I did not say it was impossible¡­ theoretically.¡±

    My eyes beamed at the now pretty lady with hope. If it is still a theory, it has a chance to be proven right.

    ¡°What do I need to do? Do I need to sacrifice a goblin like the hobgoblin did?¡± I asked in excitement.

    Faster than my eyes could react, she chopped me on the head with her hand, ¡°Ouch! What was that for?!¡±

    ¡°That was for even thinking of that idea. Stay away from blood magic! While blood magic is a fast way to get stronger, there is a price to pay for that strength, namely, your sanity. Do you know why that hobgoblin shaman stopped casting spells at you and acted like a mad berserker like you described? That is most likely because when the hobgoblin shaman sacrificed the goblin for strength, it most likely inherited a part of the goblin¡¯s soul, and if there is one rule I observed in all my years and study, it is that one body can only have one soul. That hobgoblin was most likely fighting a battle for dominance in its own body while fighting you at the same time.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± I said, downcast.

    ¡°But¡­¡± Hearing her say the ¡®B¡¯ word made me look up at her, ¡°If the fact that the hobgoblin shaman managed to do it, means it is possible, despite using such an improper and dangerous method, that just means we need to find a safe way to replicate its success. And I am nothing if not excited about this new experiment. Aren''t we, my lab rat?¡± the last part of her sentence focused on me, and I suddenly had the urge to run.

 Chapter 101

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    It has been over two months since I started experimenting with Professor Sageira on safe ways to replicate rapid internal mana flow.

    We came up with a few theories, but in the end, that was all they were, theories. It wasn''t until we began to apply the theory to live tests that I found out that the academy ran a lab rat breeding farm, and I was relieved that Professor Sageira was not actually referring to me as a lab rat¡­ I hope.

    Within those few weeks, we tested a few mana flow theories with the rats. We first started by first replicating what the hobgoblin shaman did. We proceeded with Professor Sageira sacrificing a rat to empower another rat with blood magic.

    This resulted in the rat receiving the sacrifice of the other rat to balloon to the size of a fat house cat. But in the process of doing so, the rat who had never wielded magic before, and now had more than one soul in its body (or at least part of one), started screeching, bashing itself against its cage, and clawing at itself and anything in the environment, and after doing so for almost half a minute, of thrashing around its cage, it suddenly went still, bleed out of all its orifices, then popped like a balloon.

    The worst part of that experiment was that I was near the cage to observe to take notes¡­ let''s just say I had to borrow some spare clothes from the lost and found bin on my way back to the dorm.

    After that first failure of an experiment, many more followed, and many rats lost their lives. All in the pursuit of science¡­ or magic¡­ whatever.

    Eventually, we decided that taking just one approach at a time was not really that efficient and decided to run multiple test subjects at a time, but seeing that it was a bother to transport multiple cages with rats to the Cells, and the administration making a fuss about not wanting the Cells to be used for long-term experiments, Professor Sageira decided that this experiment was not the kind that would cause catastrophic explosions and decided to have the experiments held in her private lab.

    In her private lab, we had many different cages with individual rats in them, and after remembering the exploding rat and the strength it displayed before it popped, we decided it would be prudent to get reinforced cages instead.

    But in order to start the experiments, I needed to know how to stimulate the flow of mana in the rats¡¯ bodies. That is why Professor Sageira had to teach me healing magic, unofficially of course.

    Healing magic is highly regulated due to how dangerous it is, so she only taught me the part of healing magic that allows me to manipulate the mana flow in other bodies and said that she would only teach me the rest only if I officially take a class for Healing Magical, and if I do, she said the kingdom would record my name on some kind of watchlist.

    As for why I would be on a watchlist if I took up the Healing Magic class? She later explained to me that sometime in the past, a healer was using his Healing Magic to assassinate the political and business rivals of nobles, merchants, and civil servants under the pretext of a house call, the assassin would heal the target¡¯s main ailment, but at the same time make abnormal growths in the body that will cause strokes or heart attacks a few weeks later. After this came to light and the assassin was caught, it was a public and political shit show, and all licensed Healing Magic practitioners were heavily regulated.

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    Eventually, thanks to the sacrifice of multiple rats, I got the hang of stimulating and controlling mana in a foreign body, and our experiments began.

    Professor Sageira went with the approach of replicating a ¡°safe¡± version of what the hobgoblin shaman did by using Soul magic instead of Blood magic. When I asked why, she explained to me that Blood magic was the quick and dirty bastardized version of Soul magic, a low barrier to entry skill that has driven many a power-hungry mage to madness in their search for quick power. Soul magic, on the other hand, was a hard and dangerous subject to practice due to the risk of backlash upon failure and hurting one¡¯s own soul, and from what she explained, soul damage was not fun, not in the least.

    Those who suffer soul damage would feel greatly weakened physically and mentally and have a hard time healing in the case of physical injury due to the soul¡¯s difficulty remembering the body¡¯s natural form, this sometimes causes the wound to heal wrong, causing excruciating pain, and if the soul damage is really bad, the person would become a vegetable even if the body is 100% fine.

    So when she practices Soul magic, she isolates herself in a corner of her lab behind multiple wards and isolation arrays in case I get hit with the backlash.

    As for why she is Soul magic instead of Blood magic? She explains that with the use of Soul magic, she can purge the ¡°ego¡± from the sacrificed soul that would cause madness when introduced to another body, and only use the power of the egoless soul.

    So far, she has been able to integrate the egoless souls into the rats, and besides the same growth of the first mad rat that blew up, we noticed a marked improvement in the rats'' resistance to slightly higher increased mana flow. The only problem we are experiencing now is the rats that were integrated with egoless soul started dying a week or so after integration.

    As for me, I took the more¡­ how do I say it?... natural path.

    I had 20 rats, and I would set each one of them at a different percentage increase of their normal mana flow and see what their natural limits are.

    After much observation and some casualties, I have estimated the rats are able to withstand an additional 20%-25% of their normal mana flow before showing signs of mana pathway degradation.

    So after some discussion with Professor Sageira, she helped me craft small arrays that will constantly keep the rats at a set percentage of mana flow while we are away from the lab. We set the arrays to start at a 15% increase and week after week, we increased it by 2%. By the 3rd week, almost half of the rats died, we thought it prudent to leave the setting where it was for another week to give the rats more time to acclimatize to the increased mana flow. The week after that we made only 1% increments. But things were not going fast enough.

    Eventually, we decided to use other means to accelerate the acclimatization process, Professor Sageira managed to get some Mana Relaxing potions that are supposed to relax overused and stressed mana pathways and mix them in with the rats'' water supply. This greatly accelerated the process, and we were able to increase the mana flow rate of the arrays.

    By the time we were able to get the rats to 50% increased mana flow, we only had four survivors, they were stable but barely alive.

    ¡°I think this is a solid lead, rats do not naturally have the ability to use mana, so they can only do so much, but you as a human who is capable of magic from a young age should be able to go beyond a measly 50% increase. So prepare yourself the next time we meet up, we will slowly try to increase your mana flow. I will stop you the moment I see something go wrong.¡± Professor Sageira concluded.

 Chapter 102

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The next day, I was sitting on the floor in Professor Sageira¡¯s lab with an enchanted artifact strapped to my arm, and she was sitting opposite me.

    Said enchanted artifact was something Professor Sageira whipped up that looked like an analog ammeter and was supposed to measure my internal mana flow

    ¡°Let us begin, start raising your mana flow, just like I showed you.¡± Professor Sageira said as she kept an eye on me.

    I nodded, closed my eyes, and turned my will inward, from there, I felt out my mana pathways.

    As my visualization of my mana pathways comes into focus, I finally see the languid and constant flow of my mana.

    ¡°Got it, I am starting.¡± I whispered out as I started to take control of my internal mana.

    As I started pushing, at first, I did not notice any difference in speed, but after observing the tests on the rats, I knew it was normal and gave it a few seconds.

    After a few more seconds of pushing, I finally noticed an increase in mana flow and started pushing harder.

    Soon, I got my mana flow increased by 50% and I felt my body tingle. I informed Professor Sageira of it and started increasing the flow as I heard the sound of her taking notes.

    As I pushed some more, I easily got to 100%, at this point, I was feeling rather warm, so I decided to slow my pace of increment. But a 100% increment is nowhere near the flow rate I saw in the hobgoblin shaman, I will push forward¡­ cautiously.

    As I got to around 125% increment, I was starting to feel my body ache and decided to slow my increment to a crawl, hopefully, I can adapt.

    ¡°Stop.¡± I hear Professor Sageira say, and I release my control on my internal mana.

    As I opened my eyes, I noticed a drop of sweat drip from my brow, and when I looked down, I saw that I was drenched in sweat.

    When I raised my hand to wipe my face, I saw that my arm was trembling from exhaustion, ¡°This is pushing my mana, what is it physically exhausting me?¡±

    Professor Sageira threw me a towel as she shrugged. ¡°As of our first test, it is unconfirmed, best guess is because your body¡¯s mana pathways are not yet up to the task and your physical body is trying to adapt or compensate.¡±

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    I nodded and tried to get up, but my legs gave out on me and I stumbled down on all fours. ¡°Err¡­ I hate to say this¡­ but I may need to have some help getting back to my dorm¡­ and a jug of water. I am parched.¡±

    ***

    The day after I tested the rapid mana flow exercise on myself, I woke up feeling worse than after the exercise. My body is pain, and all my muscles ache. Even muscles that I did not know existed.

    This brings me back to when I almost killed myself from activating my aura as a baby, the good old times when I did not need to go to school. But it is not all bad, I got to have a cute childhood friend out of it¡­ don''t know if I would continuously make the trade of almost dying to get a childhood friend, but hey, it worked out fine.

    After lying in bed to get accustomed to the aches for a while, I pulled off my blanket with as little muscle movement as possible, painfully got up, and hobbled my ass to the bathroom for a morning shower while thanking whatever God or fluke of the multiverse brought my soul here that we decided to carry out the experiment on the night before the weekend.

    After I got out of the shower, I downed one of the Mana Relaxing potions Professor Sageira passed to me and hobbled my way to breakfast.

    ¡°Better ask the lunch ladies to pack some of my meals to go, I don¡¯t think I want to move around much today, and I might also drop by the alchemist and get something for my muscle aches.¡± I mumble to myself on the way out.

    ***

    A week goes by, and I am back in Professor Sageira¡¯s office, sitting on the floor.

    ¡°Alright, the last time, you got up to 125% increase of your baseline mana flow before mana pathway stress did any damage, so let''s try to keep it at 120% for a prolonged period of time. We will try for 10 minutes, and if prolonged exposure to this flow rate is sustainable, we will go from there, begin.¡± Professor Sageira said and I closed my eyes to concentrate.

    Once again, I ramp up my internal mana flow rate and get the tingles, followed by internal warmth. When I got to where I roughly thought was 120%, I opened an eye and peeked at the measuring artifact, and tweaked my flow until I was at 120%. And as I was doing so, time came to a crawl.

    After a few minutes of just sitting and doing nothing while I felt sweat drip down my head, I noticed that maintaining the mana flow rate did not take much continuous effort¡­ and I was bored.

    I opened my eyes to Professor Sageira staring at me, ¡°What, are you too tired already? It has barely been five minutes.¡± she chided me.

    I shook my head, ¡°No, nothing like that, unlike last time when I was concentrating while continuously increasing my flow rate, I was rather tense, but it turns out that just maintaining the flow rate does not take much effort, mentally that is, and I was kind of bored¡­ can I read a book while I continue the exercise?¡±

    Professor Sageira squinted at me for a moment, then said, ¡°Fine, but hold the book with a towel, I don''t want your sweaty fingers in my books.¡±

    So that''s how I spent the next hour, sitting on the floor reading while I was sweating my ass off. Professor Sageira only stayed and watched for around half that time before she decided that if I did not keel over and die in that half an hour, I should be fine.

    At the end of our session, I felt like I just left the gym after a good workout. She then gave my mana pathways a good once over, shoved a Mana Relaxing potion in my mouth, passed me the measuring artifact, told me to repeat the same exercise every night before I sleep, and sent me on my way.

    It was decided that at the end of the week, we would once again test my limits and see of there were any improvements.

 Chapter 103

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    Time passed as my school life continued, it was more or less fine for me, and I was able to keep up with my chosen subjects, and excel at most of them even, especially blacksmithing. It was one of my favorite things to watch online back in my old life, the act of turning a block of metal into a work of art¡­ too bad my blacksmithing classes were rather strict in their curriculum as we were on a rather tight schedule, leaving little to no time for personal projects. I would need to get my own smithy when I get home¡­ hopefully, Dad is amenable to the idea.

    As for my social life tho¡­ it was¡­ meh. Besides Dave, Sam, Henry, and Arabella who I fought alongside in the Arena, my interactions with my peers were¡­ uneventful to say the least. And to find out why, I did some snooping.

    The moment I noticed a hint of my name coming up anywhere, I would stealthily use Air Molecular Magic, or Instinctive magic as it is more commonly known, to carry their hushed whispers to my ears.

    From what I heard from the nobles, they were of three different opinions, the first were those who honestly did not care about some baron¡¯s son from the borders of the kingdom. The second were those who were keeping an eye on me, especially after publicly kicking Oswald¡¯s ass and my performance at the Arena, turns out news of me had gotten back to their parents and their parents instructed them to keep an eye on me but not approach, they did not elaborate why. As for the last group, they were Oswald¡¯s circle and were talking mad shit about me, but that''s all it was, shit talk, and everyone knew it was because they were salty of their defeat by ¡®some border bumkin¡¯, so most just humored them.

    As for the commoners, they did not know what to think of me, I did not act like I had a stick up my ass like most nobles and were confused about how to act around me in general, so they fell back on the safe option, avoid the noble and keep out of my way. Besides Dave, Sam, and a few other acquaintances from my other classes I was not approached my most. The only ones who approached me were the merchant kids who introduced their family company¡¯s name, but then again, they did that to every noble they ran into, networking and shit.

    But in the end, it was not like I was being very social myself, I was just too busy. If I was not in class or night class, I was continuing my experiments with Professor Sageira or staying cooped up in my room to condition my body to higher levels of rapid mana flow.

    But thankfully, my room was not the only place I could do my conditioning, I did it whenever I was doing an activity that I had an excuse to sweat, which was Advanced Combat & Tactics and Blacksmithing, otherwise it would look like there was something wrong with me if I was sweating profusely in my Advanced Spell Theory class.

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    The conditioning process was grueling, tedious, and painful whenever I upped the internal mana flow speed, but I stuck to it, and now I can increase my mana flow by 220% before I start to strain my mana pathways, and with this increase in internal mana flow, I noticed an improvement in my casting speed and power.

    This eventually made me ask myself ¡®Why has this not been done before?¡¯, and after scouring the academy¡¯s main library, I found similar experiments carried out across the ages ever since mages first noticed how certain magic beasts were capable of increasing their mana flow.

    Many mages tried to replicate the process, but this always left them or their subjects crippled or dead. Eventually, all mages came to the consensus that this was a dead-end in this branch of research and moved on.

    It is too bad they did not have an ancient dragon to guide them and were not capable of using instinctive magic, which Professor Sageira says helps a lot.

    But with all that being said, the important thing that is coming up soon is the mid-year exams that are taking place in a week, and most of my classmates seem to be freaking out.

    As for me, it does not seem so bad, I am confident of passing my mandatory classes as well as Advanced Spell Theory, Advanced Combat & Tactics, Blacksmithing, and Array Architecture.

    As for my Elven language and Languages of Power, turns out I am somewhat of a polyglot. Probably thanks to me learning multiple languages growing up in my previous life.

    The only class I am somewhat worried about is Enchanting. Sure, I would most likely get a pass, due to my grasp of the basic foundation of the subject, but I am far from the best in my class. Turns out, the more I learn about Enchanting, the more I find it is more of an art form, an expression of one¡¯s own intent upon the enchantment that makes the difference between an average enchantment or a great enchantment, and I am not that good at art, best I can do is stick figures. It was also explained to me that even if someone did a direct copy of an enchantment, yes, it may work, but it would most likely be weaker or perform differently from the original.

    I guess this explains why Professor Bixby is so eccentric, most artistic people are quirky in some way or another, while true geniuses like Professor Bixby more often than not have a screw loose. But I guess that is what is needed to look at the world in a way that others do not and find innovative solutions.

    To remedy this and get some inspiration, Professor Bixby, showed me a bunch of equipment he and other students had enchanted, but also recommended that I take a look at other enchanting styles, so today, on the day I do not have any night class, I make my way into the capital after school in search of some more inspiration.

 Chapter 104

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    In my search for transportation into the deeper parts of the capital, I found myself making arrangements with a caravan master for transportation. Could I have hired my own private transport? Sure. Was I going to waste money on something I could get for free? Not a chance. So I hitched a ride with the delivery caravan that had just finished offloading their goods at the academy.

    Not being one for fashion, I was in my school uniform with my Mana Steel sword hanging off my side, but this time, instead of just my plain uniform, I was wearing a set that I had my house¡¯s coat of arms sewed on like the rest of the nobles.

    As for why? That was because I planned to go around window shopping and most likely do some hands-on examination of enchanted items, and I highly doubt the merchants are going to allow some random kid to go around touching their stuff willy-nilly, even if I was in normal uniform, this left me with two options. Either I buy and dress up in some expensive and outrageous 1600s style poffy getup that shouts ¡®Look at me, I have money!¡¯, which I would rather die than be caught wearing, or stick to the more form-fitting academy uniform and use my house emblem to get preferential treatment. In order to preserve my self-dignity in my own eyes, I chose the latter.

    Personally, I did not like the practice of showing off I am a noble, to me, it feels like the common folk are walking on eggshells the moment they see the house emblem and I would not get any genuine interactions with any of them, but to more easily achieve my objective today, I will just have to bear with it.

    It was mid-afternoon by the time the caravan reached their destination, which was just where I wanted to be, the center of the merchant district in the capital. This is supposedly where all the good stuff is.

    I thank the caravan master and I am on my way after asking for directions for where arms and armor are being sold and a recommendation for which shop I should visit.

    After an hour of leisurely walking while window shopping and munching on some snacks along the way, I came upon the place the caravan master recommended to me, it was a three-story tall building with a brand crest that looked like two swords crossed with a helmet on top of it, and beside the brand crest was a shop¡¯s name, ¡°Bronson Armory¡±.

    I quickly finished my snack and made my way inside. When I entered, I noticed the clientele on the current floor were either the well-armed and dangerously looking adventure type or what I assume were well-dressed merchants.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man with the Bronson Armory crest emblazoned on his chest making his way to me, and I turned to him as he reached me.

    ¡°Welcome¡± the man said, and the moment I faced him, his eyes locked on my family emblem ¡°Young Master. Welcome to the Bronson Armory, I am Arno, how may I assist you this fine day?¡±

    I give Arno my best business smile and a nod, ¡°I am Luke, son of Baron Ironcrest, Pleased to make your acquaintance. As for what you can help me with today, I am looking for some enchanted equipment as a present for a relative of mine who has taken up adventuring.¡±

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    Arno gave an understanding nod, ¡°Of course, of course, adventuring is dangerous business after all, you can buy protection, but not life, I always say, and at Bronson Armory I am sure you will find what you are looking for. May I know what Young Master Luke is looking for? Arms? Armor? Protective charms or trinkets? We have them all.¡±

    I put on a face like I am contemplating what I wanted, ¡°I¡­ am not so sure what I want, enchanted equipment for sure, but I am still uncertain of what type of equipment to get¡­ are you able to guide me around? I am not so familiar with all this weapons, armor, or enchanting business.¡± I lied and saw the greed in Arno¡¯s eyes at the prospect of an easy mark.

    ¡°Of course, Young Master Luke, if you would follow me.¡± Arno said as we began walking toward the stairs, and soon we were on the second floor of the showroom, and what I saw was a thing of beauty.

    Along the walls, hung the weapons on a backdrop of polished old wood, and in front of that wooden backdrop, were glass cases displaying the smaller weapons like knives, daggers, and specialized arrowheads, along with those were different jewelry, all enchanted.

    Behind and above the wooden backdrop and glass cases of weapons, were different emblems, and I noticed a partition between the different wooden backdrop and glass cases. ¡°What is with the different emblems?¡± I ask Arno.

    ¡°Ah, those are the different workshops we are affiliated with, each section along the wall has goods from their particular workshop, same goes for the armors in the center of the floor.¡± Arno said as he gestured to the center of the floor where rows of armored mannequins were on display with the same emblems hanging from the ceiling displaying the respective workshop the armor came from.

    This¡­ this place seems to be the Walmart of arms and armor.

    I then turned to Arno, ¡°Let''s start with something basic, which of these brands do you recommend for weapons that are enchanted with elemental effects?¡±

    Arno nodded and led me to a section that had the emblem of a flaming bird with a golden eye on its chest. He then picked a beautifully engraved scimitar off the wall and laid it before me atop the glass case, ¡°This was imported from the great Nar¡¯Esh workshop from the desert empire in the east, when it comes to weapons with fire enchantment, accept no equal.¡±

    ¡°May I?¡± I asked before picking up the scimitar and Arno nodded.

    I picked up the scimitar and pushed mana into my eyes as I traced my fingers along the enchantments engraved along the flat of the blade, and what I saw and felt as my mana poured along the engraved enchantments¡­ it was beautiful.

    Where Professor Bixby¡¯s style of enchantment was beautiful in the depth of logic that I could barely comprehend, the enchantments on this scimitar held a beauty that spoke to the deeper meaning of fire, not in the technical sense, no, it was something deeper, something esoteric about the meaning of fire that I did not understand.

    Failing to understand anything deeper than that the scimitar could produce fire, the only thing left to do was to try it. I pushed mana into the scimitar and it ignited. As I felt my mana flow through the weapon and I studied it, I failed to detect any mana leakage from the weapon, truly a work of art.

    After returning the scimitar to Arno, we moved on as I tested the enchantments of many different arms, armor, and trinkets, and when I felt saw all I needed to see, I left the place empty-handed and saw a grumpy Arno out the corner of my eye.

    Maybe I would make it up to him by buying something next time, but for now, I have a lot to think about regarding the direction I want to take my enchanting that would elevate it from just any other enchantment to a work of art.

 Chapter 105

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Before anyone knew it, the mid-year exams were here, I blasted through the written papers, only having some trouble with some spelling in the Elven language exam, as for the practical exams, it was alright. I had no issues slinging the spells required for Advanced Spell Theory, for Advanced Combat & Tactics, I sparred with an instructor and demonstrated the sword forms, for Blacksmithing, we did a whole Forged in Fire episode where we needed to forge a weapon displayed before us, which in this case was a Quillon Dagger, for Array Architecture, we were tasked with making a detection array, and then, there is my final practical exam that was just around the corner, Enchanting.

    The practice of enchanting in itself was not the hard part, if I just followed the basic method we were taught, I doubt I would have any trouble passing the enchanting practical exam tomorrow, but I did not just want to pass with some bog standard enchanting style, I wanted to pass with distinction by expressing my own unique style in this world.

    So before the exam, after doing a lot of window shopping and seeing many examples in the market, I went to my Blacksmithing instructor, Professor Steelbeard, and asked him if he had anything I could practice my enchanting on, he pointed me to an assortment of rejected weapons that were destined to be melted down.

    Having an idea of what I wanted my style to be, I started practicing and refining what I envisioned in my mind. And on the day before my exam, I lifted my latest practice work and smiled.

    ***

    The next day, I was standing in the enchanting workshop with the rest of my classmates as the invigilator read out the rules of the exam. It all boiled down to us picking out something to engrave, be it a weapon, armor, or jewelry, and we will not be graded so much on the effect of the enchantment, but the technique applied.

    So when the timer started, I went to collect the equipment I wanted to enchant and materials I was going to use like I was some MasterChef contestant, after grabbing a shortsword to use as my base, I went to collect the other materials and tools, but unlike the other contestant- I mean my classmates, I went to the section that stocked metals and grabbed myself some Mana Copper.

    Like the Mana Steel my sword is made of, Mana Copper is a metal that has been artificially imbued with mana, and it is most likely the cheapest mana conductive metal around.

    As for what I did, with the shortsword and Mana Copper? Well, I applied some blacksmithing¡­ not exactly, but close enough, luckily the practical exam was taking place in a well-stocked and equipped workshop, so I had all the clamps and tools to do what I wanted.

    I started by securing the shortsword to the bench and started sketching out my desired design on the shortsword with a pencil, this was followed by me grabbing some hand-engraving tools. Mana Copper wire and a few other tools.

    When I had everything I wanted gathered on my workbench, a few of the invigilators around gave me questioning looks but kept silent. It was only Professor Bixby who gave my gathered material a look of interest, especially because the material I gathered did not include any mana-conductive ink everyone else was using.

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    When I was ready, I started the engraving process. The engraving tool bit into the steel of the shortsword as I used a small hammer to tap on the back of the engraving tool. But a few minutes in, I realized that I was going far too slow for the allotted time given, so I decided I was going to need to use an advantage the other kids around me most likely did not have, Aura, and nowhere in the rules for this exam say I could not use aura.

    I activated my aura, catching the attention of almost everyone in the room, and with my enhanced strength and me pushing my aura into the engraving tool, I forwent the small engraving hammer and carved a groove along the lines I sketched, only slowing down to either rotate the shortsword or reposition myself.

    It took slightly longer than the time it took to sketch my engraving on the shortsword, but I was done. I checked my engravings to see if there were any mistakes and found a few places that needed a touch-up before I proceeded with the next part.

    After the touch-up, I looked around to see how much time I had left and noticed that more than half the time had passed, and as I looked around, I saw that more than a quarter of the class was already done with their inscriptions and were waiting for the ink to dry so they could activate the enchantments and test for any flaws.

    Knowing that I was cutting it close with what I had left to do, I got back to work.

    Now that the engraving was done, it was time to inlay the engraving with the Mana Copper wire, but first, I had to purposely scuff up the inner grooves of the engraving on the count of me not using a hammer and just pushing through with the engraving tool in a smooth motion with my aura empowered body, because if I did not do so, the softer mana copper may have trouble gripping onto the engraved grooves when I inlay the mana copper wire.

    After I was done scuffing up the inner grooves of the engraving, I started inlaying the mana copper wire into the grooves with the help of the peen side of a ball peen hammer to smash and deform the softer mana copper into the grooves.

    When I was done with the inlaying, the only thing left was to sand away the deformed mana copper that did not fit into the grooves and I would be done.

    ¡°You all have ten minutes left.¡± the invigilator announced.

    I looked down at my work and internally cussed, I will really be cutting it close. My hand became a blur as I burned through sandpaper

    ¡°10, 9, 8.¡± before I knew it, the invigilator was counting down as I finished sanding my shortsword. ¡°5, 4, 3.¡± having no time, to check the effects themselves, I only had time to run my mana thru the blade to make sure that all the mana copper traces were intact and feeding mana properly.

    ¡°2,1. All work and tools down, the practical exam has come to an end, if you are found to be still working, you will be disqualified from this exam and brought up on charges of academic dishonesty.¡±

    As I looked down at my final product, it was a shortsword that had its flat side end up looking like a metal version of a modern circuit board.

    The only difference was where a person in my previous world would expect to see resistors, capacitors, diodes, and other components, there were now runes and glyphs, and where other students were happy just to use a mana conductive ink to inscribe the runes, glyphs, and the traces that connected them, I took the risker route and used the cheapest mana conductive metal there was to do all my inscription onto the cheap steel shortsword.

    Soon, Professor Bixby, his minder/warden Brunhilde, and an invigilator with a clipboard walked to the first table, Professor Bixby started inspecting the presented works and graded them as the invigilator with the clipboard wrote stuff down.

 Chapter 106

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    As Professor Bixby reached the first table and picked up a shield that my classmate chose as a base, I noticed an incredible flaw.

    ¡°Hmm¡­Decent rune placement and spacing, neat and tidy tracing, but there is one major flaw. Can you tell me what it is?¡± Professor Bixby asked as he rotated the shield around.

    The poor boy looked at the gnome holding his shield with a confused look as he tried to figure out what he did wrong.

    ¡°No? Then allow me to demonstrate.¡± Professor Bixby passed the enchanted shield to the boy and asked him to activate the enchanted shield.

    Once the enchanted shield was activated, it glowed as the runes, glyphs, and traces lit up on the face of the shield, and if I am not wrong that is the Impact Barrier enchantment that adsorbs a large chunk of kinetic energy from anything striking at the shield before it actually touches the shield.

    Professor Bixby then drew a knife and slashed at the shield. As the blade came within a few inches of the shield, the blade slowed down as if it were fighting through thick mud, losing a lot of its momentum, but nevertheless, the blade did reach the face of the shield and he dragged his blade across the traces of dried mana conductive ink, in the process of doing so, scraped metal off of the face of the shield where one of the traces were painted on, thus breaking the panted on mana traces.

    Once that happened, the enchantment sputtered and died, ¡°Now do you understand? You were enchanting a shield, shields get hit and damaged, you should have done the enchantment on the interior of the shield.¡±

    The moment he said that I heard one or two people somewhere in the class cuss to themselves, one of those people that I noticed enchanted a breastplate¡­ on the outside. It was at that moment, he knew he fucked up.

    Soon after that, Bixby went around examining, testing, complimenting some, and roasting other people¡¯s work, and soon it was my turn.

    ¡°Luke Ironcrest¡­ I noticed you decided to take quite a bit of risk. Let us see if it paid off.¡± he said before picking up the shortsword to inspect it.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ never seen this style of tracing before, looks clean and neat, and I can see the potential for improving on this design. Now let us see what you enchanted this sword with.¡± Professor Bixby said as he traced his fingers along the inlaid mana copper.

    ¡°Let''s see here¡­ you have two enchantments going on here, a sharpness and light illusion enchantment.¡± the gnome then poured mana into the shortsword and did a few test swings at the open air, after doing so, half a second from the first swing, what looked to be a copy of the shortsword swung at the same area but from a different angles.

    Then Professor Bixby did something and the illusion shortsword struck out without the real sword being swung, he then followed up with a swing of the real sword which was followed by the illusion sword.

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    He then took the pencil from my table and lightly tapped the shortsword on it, but despite the limited strength used, the top part of the pencil fell to the floor, when I looked at what remained in Professor Bixby¡¯s hand, I knew my sharpness enchantment worked, the place where he tapped the pencil was a clean cut surface.

    ¡°Well done, besides a bit of mana leakage from your runes, This is a well-enchanted Mirage sword, and the choice of using mana copper wire was a good one, even if the sword gets a bit scratched up, the mana copper would be able to take more of a beating than mana conductive ink. The only downside is that you used mana metal enchantment on a non-mana metal base.

    If you had used mana-conductive ink, it would not have been as mana-conductive as mana copper, but it would not have been as stressful on a non-mana metal base, leaving you with a somewhat serviceable weapon even as the enchantment fails. But since you used a mana metal enchantment on a non-mana metal base, the non-mana metal base would most likely be the first to degrade and crumble, leaving you with no weapon at all. But other than that, you did good work on your enchanting and I can see you are forming your own style. I will give you an A- grade. If you had taken into account the base you were enchanting on and provided a stable enchantment within the limits of the base material, I would have given you full marks. At the moment, this weapon is only good to be used as a disposable weapon.¡± Professor remarked and moved to the next workbench as the invigilator wrote on his clipboard.

    Once Professor Bixby was done with the grading of our enchantments, we were dismissed. That was when I was approached by some of my classmates to ask what exactly I did for my enchantment, so I stuck around for a while to tell them of my work process.

    Of those who approached me, there were two of them that I recognized from my blacksmithing class, and they asked if I could show them how I did the wire inlaying, and I thought ¡®Why not, after the exams there is a one-month school break, so I got time.¡¯

    ***

    After showing those in my Enchanting class how I did my mana copper inlaying, the lunch bell rang and I politely excused myself, there was food to eat and I was a growing boy.

    After going to the canteen and loading up my plate, I ran into Dave and Sam who were also about to have lunch, so we ended up sitting together.

    ¡°So, you going anywhere during this school break?¡± Sam asked me.

    ¡°Nah, my home is at the kingdom¡¯s border, too far, I will most likely only go home during the end of year break. How about you guys? Going home to see your family?¡± I asked in return.

    They shook their heads, ¡°No, we are in kind of the same boat as you, while our home is not as far as yours, it is kind of not worth the trip. Once you minus the travel time, we will most likely just be home for a few days before we need to start heading back here.¡±

    I nodded my head in agreement and asked, ¡°So what are your plans?¡±

    ¡°We plan to earn some extra pocket money by doing some jobs from the local Adventurer''s Guild during this break.¡± Dave said.

    ¡°Wait, when you say Adventurer''s Guild, are you referring to the place that is full of people who kill things for money? Don¡¯t they have an age restriction for that or something? We are still in school.¡± I asked.

    Dave shook his head, ¡°The Adventurer''s Guild does a lot more than just killing stuff, they do requests posted in their hall, but for us, we can only do nearby resource gathering missions, we will only be able to get a proper Adventurer''s Guild license when we are 16 years old. Until then, we are stuck with probationary licenses, or Junior licenses as it is more commonly known.¡±

    The both of them reached into their pockets and pulled out a wooden token with the Adventurer''s Guild crest on it.

    Seeing the Adventurer''s Guild tags, a smile crept onto my face, and I took a deep breath, it smelled like adventure.

    Giving Dave and Sam my best smile, I asked ¡°So, where is this Adventurer''s Guild and how do I get myself some tags?¡±

 Chapter 107

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    After lunch, Dave and Sam brought me to the Adventurers Guild, and it was just like how I imagined it, there were loud and rowdy people chatting, shouting, and laughing while day drinking.

    Further in the back, there were people gathered around multiple notice boards that had what I assumed to be posted jobs, and lastly, to the side of the boards was a row of receptionists behind their counter attending to lines of Adventurers turning in their jobs to get paid.

    I had only heard descriptions of this place from my family and some of my Dad¡¯s men, but it was everything and more than I had imagined from the stories I read in my previous life.

    It was a pity there was no guild branch in my hometown of Glenfell, we were just too small and unimportant to have a dedicated guild branch, the closest thing we had was a job posting board outside the mayor¡¯s office that passing adventurers would take a look at.

    I was broken out of my gawking by Sam who nudged me and led me to join the queue of adventurers.

    Eventually, it was our turn and we were greeted by a pretty and rather buxom woman who looked to be in her mid-30s, ¡°Well hello there boys, what can I do for you?¡± the woman said as she folded her arms under her bust to emphasize them while giving us what I think is a predatory smile.

    Alarms went off in my head as I could almost hear the woman¡¯s thoughts going ¡®Ara Ara¡¯, and if she starts to get handsy with us, I am going to need to call this world¡¯s version of the FBI, if they even have one.

    As I turned, I noticed Dave and Sam blush as they tried to look away from the woman¡¯s chest, a voice from behind us in the queue shouted, ¡°What the hell Verona? Why don¡¯t we get greeted like that?!¡±

    This was echoed by a chorus of other men shouting, ¡°Yeah!¡±, ¡°No fair!¡±, ¡°Where is our service?!¡±

    ¡°Shut it! Why would I provide my premium service to you ugly lot, you are not even cute!¡± the woman known as Verona shouted back at the jeering men.

    The man who first called out Verona clapped his hands on our shoulders like a protective parent ready to guide their children away from suspicious people, and said in an exaggerated mocking voice, ¡°If that''s the case, us men, as these boys seniors, it is our duty to keep their virtue intact and protect them from the predations of cradle snatchers like you!¡± this was met with a raucous laughing agreement from the men around.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare!¡± Verona shouted as she threw a paperweight at the man holding us, the man ducked and ran while laughing.

    Verona fixed her hair and straightened her shirt, and then her attention was on us again, ¡°Don¡¯t listen to those idiots. So, what can I help you boys with today?¡±

    Dave was the first to snap out of what just happened and said while gesturing to me, ¡°Emm¡­ We are here to register our friend here with a probationary license.¡±

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    Verona nodded and pulled up a piece of paper and an inkwell, ¡°Seeing as you boys are in Royal Academy uniform, I take it you can write?¡± she asked me and I nodded.

    ¡°Good, please fill out this form, and don¡¯t hesitate to ask if you need help.¡±

    It was a basic form, name, age, date of birth, country/region of origin, next of kin, that kind of stuff. When I was done, I handed the form over for Verona to give it a once-over.

    The moment she started reading, I could see her eyes widen, and I could only assume it was because I had a family name that marked me as a noble, not that anyone would know because I was not wearing my uniform with my house¡¯s crest on it, but she immediately schooled her expression and kept reading.

    ¡°Luke Ironcrest.¡± Verona said softly as she leaned in, ¡°I think you made a mistake when filling in your age, you wrote down 8 years old.¡±

    I just nodded, ¡°No mistake, I am 8 years old, see my date of birth.¡±

    After a few seconds of my words sinking into their brains, Dave and Sam said ¡°¡°What!¡±¡±

    ¡°But how? You are wearing the uniform for higher education students like us, and also as tall as us.¡± Sam asked.

    I just shrugged and said, ¡°I took a test from the Royal invigilator and passed, so I could skip lower education.¡±

    Verona then cleared her throat to get our attention, ¡°So, do you confirm that all details are given are accurate to the best of your knowledge?¡± she asked in a more professionally than before, to which I nodded and she stood up, asked us to wait and walked into the back with my form.

    After a few minutes of waiting and answering Dave and Sam¡¯s questions about how I skipped grades, Verona came back with a wooden tag identical to the ones Dave and Sam showed me.

    ¡°Congratulations on joining the Adventurers Guild as a probationary member, while you are still a probationary member, you are restricted to non-combat jobs within a half day¡¯s journey of any Adventurers Guild branch, if you are going on a non-combat job beyond the half day¡¯s journey, you will need to be accompanied by a full member, repeated failure to adhere to the rules will result in the revocation of your probationary license and you will not be allowed join as a full member when you turn 16.¡± Verona briefed as she went on about other rules.

    When she was done, Verona looked us up and down, this time not in a predatory way, ¡°You boys got weapons and armor? Even if you are doing non-combat jobs, that does not mean there would not be a danger.¡±

    I turned to Dave and Sam, ¡°You guys got any armor?¡± I asked, but they shook their heads, ¡°We returned ours before school started.¡± I gave them a questioning look about what they meant by saying they returned their armor but left it for later, I then replied to Verona, ¡°We got weapons but no armor.¡±

    She nodded and asked us to follow her, we moved to a side hallway left the side door of the guild, and entered an unassuming armorer''s shop.

    At the counter of the shop, was a gruff middle-aged man who nodded at Verona in greeting, ¡°Verona, what do we have here? New blood?¡±

    Verona nodded, ¡°Need you to outfit these boys.¡±

    The man called us up to his counter, eyeballed us, went into his back room, and came back with three sets of very used leather armor, ¡°Alright boys.¡± the man said, ¡°Here is how this works, the Adventurers Guild will loan you this armor for a month with the downpayment if one silver, if you return the armor in good condition at the end of the month, we will return your downpayment. So, do you boys have a silver? If not you can have the guild put down your downpayment first and pay them back with a percentage of your job earnings.¡±

    Fortunately, Dave and Sam knew what was coming and had the funds prepared ahead of time, as for me, I always carry a few gold worth of currency just in case.

    After everything was settled, we bid Verona and the middle-aged man, who we did not get the name of, and I agreed to meet Dave and Sam for breakfast before we went on our first job.

 Chapter 108

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    The next day, I got suited up on my rented armor, strapped on my Mana Steel sword, and headed off to meet the guys. After breakfast with Dave and Sam, we headed down to the Adventurers Guild to look up the job board.

    Under the non-combat section of the job board, there were two main subsections, they were resource collection which included foraging for certain plants and herbs for the guild¡¯s alchemist, and mining for ores but there are no active mines near the capital so that section is empty, and lastly was hunting to procure rare animal parts or materials from magical creatures.

    While hunting was technically a combat job, the guild and the kingdom¡¯s regular patrols ensured nothing too dangerous was expected within half a day¡¯s journey of the capital, so it was deemed ¡°safe¡± for newbies like us if we wanted to take up a bow and hunt some stuff.

    The other subsection of the non-combat job board was the Miscellaneous subsection which contained everything else. It was everything from the classic ¡®Help old lady A to search for her pet cat.¡¯ to ¡®Help person A deliver a parcel to person B.¡¯, and everything in between, basically all the grindy quests I would find in an RPG.

    Personally, I dislike RPG grind, but hey, in this world it gets people paid and keeps young kids busy and paid, and those kids spend that pocket money and makes money circulate, which makes a healthy economy, good stuff.

    After looking through the resource collection board, Dave found a quest he had done before, it was a quest to collect something called a Bindo Flower. Dave took the posted job and we went up to the reception.

    When it was our turn, we were greeted by one of the lady receptionists, ¡°Good morning, how can I hel- Hey!¡±

    Before the lady receptionist could finish her sentence, Verona pushed her aside to greet us, ¡°Welcome back boys, what are you here for today?¡± she said in a husky voice while winking at me. I might just need to wear a chastity belt if I am ever alone with this woman.

    Dave fidgeted a bit before he put the job posting on the table, ¡°W-We would like to know if there are any other jobs we can do in the same area as this.¡±

    Verona took the Bindo Flower job post, then went under the table and pulled up a huge book with what looked to be attached papers sticking out between many of the pages. After flipping through the pages and looking up the available jobs, she pulled a few more gathering jobs and helped register the jobs to us as a group, all of them were either some kind of plant or mushroom.

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    After she teased Dave and Sam some more for looking embarrassed at her teasing and the other adventurers jeering at Verona for her favoritism of young boys, we left to complete our jobs. But first, we needed to get some supplies and bags to carry our haul, so after a stop at a general store, we were on our way out of the capital.

    ***

    After a few hours of walking out the main gates, past the fields of wheat and farmhouses, we made it to the woods where we were to find our quarry.

    During the long walk, I asked Dave and Sam about their farming village life, and their response showed me how hard the life of the average villager was. Wake up at the crack of dawn, tend to the crops, then the animals, go to the school one village over to learn their letters and numbers, then come home and help with unending chores to keep the family afloat.

    As for how they got into the Royal Academy, it was the same way the commoner kids he traveled with to get here, their local school would recommend the best and brightest to have a shot at a scholarship, and the two of them made it, this was a golden opportunity for them to improve their¡¯s and their families¡¯ lot in life.

    ¡°So what are you two going to do when you graduate? The fact that we are from the Royal Academy opens a lot of doors for your futures.¡± I asked.

    They thought about it for a while and both said they would most likely join the army for some time. Apparently, if they graduate from the Royal Academy, they could be fast-tracked to become an officer.

    ¡°What about you Luke? What''s after graduation?¡± Sam asked.

    I shrugged as I answered, ¡°I am the oldest son of the Ironcrest family, there are certain obligations that I need to fulfill, I come from a noble house that borders the Valorhelm Dominion, so if our neighbors try anything funny, my house would be one of the first to be called upon to defend and stall the enemy while the garrisons muster their forces.¡± I sighed as I continued, ¡°If I could, I would dump this responsibility on my younger brother, but I can¡¯t do that to them.¡±

    ¡°Wow, being a noble is tougher than I thought.¡± Dave remarked.

    ¡°Nah, from what I know, it is mainly a border noble thing. Most of the stories of noble decadence are from those closer to the capital.¡± I replied.

    As we kept walking and chatting, I remembered something I heard Dad¡¯s men talking about when debating where they should go for a drink just after they received their pay from the treasurer. ¡°Hey guys, after your stint in the army is over, what say you come to work for my house, it pays better than the army and from what I heard, on top of what my family pays you, the kingdom throws in hazard pay for all fighting men along the border, you would be double dipping.¡±

    Dave and Sam looked at each other and then looked back at me with intense looks, ¡°How much pay are we talking?¡±

    Taken aback by this, I raised my hands as I backed up, ¡°I-err, I will need to check with my father when I meet him at the end of the year.¡±

    Damn, I was just asking on a whim, I did not expect them to jump at the chance so willingly, I may have offered something Dad may say no to, it''s his money after all.

    Feeling the need to get away from this subject, I pointed in front of us, ¡°I think I see one of the plants we need to collect, lets go!¡± I said as I fast walked forward.

 Chapter 109

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    A few hours of foraging later, we had our bags half-full of bundles of different plants, herbs, and mushrooms. Honestly, I learned a lot from Dave and Sam, and now know that gathering was not as easy as swiping some leaves and shoving them in a bag, because even if I collected a shit ton of the requested items, and they were in bad shape, I would either receive partial payment or none at all depending on what it was.

    While we were going about our business, the boys passed down the knowledge to me, that was passed down to them from the older kids who introduced them to adventuring as a way to get some spending money.

    I was taught that there were certain ways to pluck leaves and stocks, and pack them neatly to avoid damaging them, and I even found out that some of the plants we were collecting had to be collected intact, root and all.

    Overall, I had a good time, just me and two guys who knew me well enough to know I did not care much for deference most commoners publicly show nobles, in this moment, we were just a bunch of boys hiking and getting dirty while talking about stupid things, it was a nice change of pace in my busy academic life.

    As we were looking for a nice spot to break for lunch, I spotted one of the main objectives of coming out here, collecting Bindo Flowers.

    Bindo Flowers, as Dave and Sam understand it, were prized as a stabilizing reagent in alchemy and only grow in the wild around rocky areas, and the one I am currently looking at is currently sitting in the middle of the cliff face of a small hill.

    ¡°Hey, guys, break out some lunch while I quickly grab that Bindo Flower over there.¡± I told Dave and Sam as I pointed at the Bindo Flower.

    They acknowledged my heads up as they dropped their bags on the chosen resting spot as I ran off.

    When I got to the face of the cliff and looked up, I estimated that the flower was up around four times my height, but I saw no issues with that, despite never doing rock climbing before, with the strength of my current body, I was confident of easily scaling this cliff face, and it also helped that there seemed to be a lot of pockets and edges I could hold onto.

    I started climbing, and before I knew it, I had reached slightly higher than my own height on the cliff face, and as I reached for the next hold, I lodged my feet into a gap and put my weight on it as I pushed myself up, and as I grabbed with both hands into the only available grip in front of me, the rock hold broke off and I was falling backward.

    As the sense of weightlessness took me, I panicked and did the first thing that came to mind. I flared my aura and jabbed my knife hand into the rock face in front of me to grab on. With my right hand embedded in the rock face, I curled my fingers as much as I could so that my hand stayed lodged in before I pulled my body and literally hugged the wall.

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    As I hugged the wall and calmed my racing heart, I looked down and felt a little silly. From such a height, I could have landed on my feet with no problem, but I panicked. When I finally calmed down, I relaxed my embedded hand and slid it out from the hole I made.

    That was when I saw it, and felt it, ¡°Ah, fuck.¡± I cussed to myself as I witnessed the state of my hand. Fortunately, nothing was broken, but I scratched the shit out of my hand, there were scratches, cuts, and abrasions all over it, and I was bleeding. ¡°This flower better be worth it.¡±

    I continued my climb, and when I was a few meters away from reaching my target, I reached my hand up to grab a ledge, but my hand went inside the ledge, but that was not the only weird part, as my hand phased through what I thought was solid rock, I felt it on my skin. The tingle of mana.

    I pushed mana to my eyes to study what was in front of me and confirmed what I suspected. ¡°An Illusion spell.¡±

    I checked around for any physical or array alarms before I pulled myself up and through the illusion and peeked my head through the illusion to see what was inside, but I was met with slight disappointment as the only thing I saw was a tunnel that led further into the dark unknown.

    Thinking of what I should do, I shook my head, crawled above the entrance of the cave I just found, and carefully plucked the Bindo Flower, no way am I going scuff my arm climbing up here and not get what I came for.

    As for the discovered cave, I better inform Dave and Sam before I do anything.

    By the time I got back, Dave and Sam were already munching on their sandwiches, ¡°Luke, you¡¯re bac- What happened to your hand?!¡± Sam exclaimed as he saw me.

    ¡°Ah, this¡­ nothing much, just grabbed a sharp rock on my climb, nothing a wash, and some bandages would not fix.¡± I said as I waved off their worries, not like I was going to tell them I panicked and injured myself by punching a hole in the wall.

    After washing my scuffed-up hand and Dave helping me bandage it, I sat and joined them for a bite, and casually as I was chewing, I casually told them, ¡°Oh right, while I was climbing up there, I found a cave entrance covered by an illusion.¡±

    It took them a second of chewing before my words sank in and they shouted ¡°What?!¡± in my direction as food chunks flew at me.

    After describing and pointing at where I found it, Dave and Sam started whisper shouting at each other for some reason until I cleared my throat to let them know I was there, ¡°Is there something you want to share with the class, boys?¡± I asked them while tapping my foot.

    The two boys had the decency to look a little embarrassed as Dave replied, ¡°Emm¡­ We think that may be a stash¡­ we have only ever heard about it, but from what we heard, sometimes adventures, bandits, or other people would have stashes near a town or city, or in this case, the capital. For bandits, they use it to store money, contraband, and/or their stolen spoils or just lay low when the guard is out looking for them. For adventurers, it is much of the same reason, maybe minus the contraband¡­ I think.¡±

    ¡°And who knows, we may strike it rich if it is a bandit¡¯s stash, it would go a long way to helping us and our families if this stash has some gold.¡± Sam said, and almost as one, they turned to me and turned their puppy dog eyes up to eleven.

    Ha! Like puppy dog eyes are going to work on me, especially when they are coming from 12 year old boys¡­ but who was I to get in the way of them striking it rich, after all, finders keepers!

 Chapter 110

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    As I once again crawled up into the hidden cave entrance, I turned back and reached out my hands to help Dave and Sam up.

    This time, we were traveling light. Before we climbed up here, we emptied all our bags and buried all our morning¡¯s work at the foot of a tree, if what the boys say turns out to be true, we are going to need the space to haul all our loot.

    As Dave and Sam looked around the dark cave beyond the illusion, Sam said, ¡°Did either of you being a tor-¡± only to have Dave clamp his hand over his mouth and shush him.

    ¡°Stay quiet, remember what I said, sometimes this place is used to lay low, there may be someone in here. If there is someone, we are out of here.¡± Dave whispered.

    Damn, kid¡¯s got some street smarts, that did not come to mind for me. Speaking of which, if there was anyone in there, would they have heard my hand punching a hole in the wall when I first climbed up? I sure hope not.

    In place of the torch Sam asked about before being shushed, I conjured a dim light which I pointed at the floor as we walked forward as silently as we could, and I helped by using air instinctive magic to form a dome of still air just above our waists.

    With the air in the dome being forcefully stilled, means no transfer of vibrations, in turn, means no sound. I could tapdance on this hard stone and not make so much of an ant¡¯s fart of noise.

    After a few steps, the boys noticed the unnatural silence of our steps and gave me questioning looks, to which I waved them forward and signed to them ¡®later¡¯, or at least I think I did.

    After walking for what felt like 50 meters or so, the path started to get windy as it began to decline. It was around this time that I started noticing something.

    I stopped, and the boys stopped behind me while giving me the ¡®What¡¯s going on?¡¯ look. I then went to the wall and ran my hand against it, and it was smooth¡­ too smooth. I turned my conjured light palm side up and increased the brightness just enough that we could see the section of the tunnel we were standing in.

    It was too smooth to be natural, I gestured for the guys to follow me as I backtracked a bit to the point where the path began to decline and noticed the change from the natural rough cave walls to the smooth, most likely magic-made, tunnel.

    Chances are, that the cave ended where the natural wall did, and the occupants did more than a little renovation. With my curiosity sated, we traveled further down the tunnel.

    Around a hundred meters or so in, I noticed something and stopped, signaled the boys to get low as I did so myself, and released my hold on the conjured light.

    Doing so, I think I startled one or both of the boys as one of them reached out to grab my arm. It was when then that they noticed what I noticed, it was dim, but there was light ahead of us.

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    I know that they said that we are out of here the moment we know someone is home, but come on, secret hideout under a small hill, I got to at least take a peek.

    As I slowly walked forward, now I could feel two sets of hands urgently tapping and tugging at me. After turning around and having a mime argument with the boys, I somehow convinced them to at least have a peek.

    We crept forward to where the light was coming from and saw that the light was coming from around a bend. Going forward, I peeked around and saw that there was no one around in the room that was lit by a hand-held lantern hanging in the middle of the room.

    As I looked some more, this room was barely furnished, there were a bunch of small crates in a corner, and there were doorways that led to the front, left, and right, but when I saw doorways, there were not really any doors, it was just some patched leather that was used as a curtain covering them.

    Soon, the boys were looking over my shoulder at the room and I had to wave them back for what I was about to do. I closed my eyes and sent forth air instinctive magic like feelers to see if I could pick up any sounds, be it talking, footsteps, or even breathing.

    As my mana feelers swept through the rooms I sensed that the left and right rooms were small and full of stuff, I am not sure what it was, but it was stuff. As for the doorway ahead, the only thing I could tell as far as my mana feelers could perceive, was that it was a corridor, beyond that, I would have to see for myself.

    When I was confident that there was nobody around as far as the corridor was concerned, me and the boys checked inside the left and right rooms to see what was there.

    While Dave and Sam went to check out the right room, I went to the left to see what they were storing. When I entered, there was barely any walking space, I once again conjured light and looked around.

    The first thing that caught my attention was an already opened box, and when I looked inside, they were full of swords. Upon picking one up and examining it, I noticed that these swords were totally unmarked. Just to be sure, I dismantled the hilt and checked the tang of the blade in case there was any marking to tell who made the blade, there was none. I then used the sword I dismantled and pried open a few other boxes.

    What I found were more swords, shields, spearheads, crossbows, and bolts for said crossbows. All of them are unmarked and unremarkable in design.

    As I looked at the crates stacked in the room up to the ceiling, I could only assume all these crates were also unmarked weapons. And if I can draw any patterns from my old world and the history of my current world, unmarked weapons in such quantities, it is almost always bad news.

    This could be explained by it being just a smuggling operation, or it could be as serious as someone preparing for a rebellion or insurrection, but for it to be so close to the capital¡­ that is unlikely¡­ unless it is some high nobles pulling something big.

    As I thought of more reasons someone would stockpile so many unmarked weapons, the mana feeler I left in the corridor picked up the sound of someone approaching.

    I immediately exited my room and looked at the center doorway that led to the corridor and thanked god that the interior decorator liked to put leather curtains at the doorways. Before whoever was approaching us reached the leather curtain, I rushed into the right room where Dave and Sam were, clamped their surprised mouths, and raised a sound barrier against the entrance of the room.

    I raised a finger to my lips, then pointed at the entrance of the room and their eyes opened wide at what I was trying to get across to them.

    When I knew the boys would be quiet, I dropped the sound barrier to listen in case whoever was approaching decided to divulge any information, what I heard instead was just footsteps. But something was weird, they sounded¡­ they sounded similar to the sounds I make when I walk around barefooted at home.

    As I heard the leather flap pushed aside and the footsteps came from just outside the entrance we were facing, I slowly got to the ground and peeked from under the leather curtain, only to see green feet, and not just any green feet¡­ green hobgoblin feet.

 Chapter 111

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As I was lying on the floor watching the feet of the hobgoblin enter the room, I followed its movements as it turned and walked to the stack of small crates in the corner, and just as I heard it remove the lid of a crate that I could not see, I saw the feet of the hobgoblin go still, and there was silence.

    A couple of seconds after going still, I heard the hobgoblin taking short sniffs, followed by a long sniff as I watched its feet turn¡­ in the direction of the weapons room I was previously in.

    The hobgoblin started walking over to the weapons room, its steps a lot more careful and quieter than before, as it closed in on the weapons room, I heard the faint yet distinct chime of what sounded like a dagger leaving its sheath.

    When it reached the doorway to the weapons room, it pushed away the curtain blocking the door and went in dagger first, and it was out of my sight.

    I quickly got up, brought Dave and Sam into a huddle, and whispered as softly as I could, I could have thrown up a sound barrier, but I was getting super paranoid¡­ what if that hobgoblin was capable of picking up the disturbance of mana, I was not going to take that chance.

    ¡°There is a hobgoblin in the room I was in, I think it is following our scent. Quietly draw your weapons and be ready to stab through the curtain when I do.¡± I whispered to them.

    As I backed away from their ears, I could see the fear in their eyes, and I could not blame them, this was most likely their first opponent outside of a controlled setting. But despite their fear, they nodded and did as I said.

    I too slowly drew my weapon and got back down on the ground, but this time, I was not lying down, I was crouching and bent my head to the ground so I could still see under the curtain. It was a damned awkward position, but I would just have to bear with it.

    Soon enough, I saw the feet of the hobgoblin again as it left the weapons room, it sniffed the air again and then began creeping in our direction. As it closed in, I readied my sword to aim roughly where the center mass of its torso would be, and the boys moved forward and got into position on my left and right, ready to thrust their blades.

    When the goblin stopped, its feet were right in front of me, at that point, I did not hesitate any longer and trusted my sword up from my crouched position. I felt my sword effortlessly pierce through the leather curtain and sink into something a lot more meaty.

    A split second later, Dave and Sam lunged forward, piercing the curtain as they followed through with all their body weight. This brought all of us forward as we fell upon the hobgoblin and tore through the curtain in the process.

    As we hit the ground, the hobgoblin somehow still had the strength to flail around as it cut away at the torn curtain covering its face and released a blood-curdled cry, we most likely missed the critical areas.

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    With my blade embedded in its body, I had no time to pull it out, so I quickly turned on my aura and punched the hobgoblin in the throat, promptly silencing it, but I think it was too little too late. Even as the hobgoblin is grasping at its collapsed windpipe, I can still hear the sound of its cry echoing down the corridor.

    I quickly got up, pulled my sword out of the hobgoblin¡¯s body, and stabbed it in the head to finish it off.

    After the boys got back to their feet, I told them, ¡°We need to get out of here, now!¡±

    But as we faced the entrance from where we came in, I saw a line of mana light up along the ceiling above us, but it was where the line of mana led to that filled me with dread, what did was a row of interconnected arrays on the ceiling of the tunnel we came from lit up.

    What followed was a series of loud cracking sounds in the tunnel ahead, followed by the roof of the tunnel collapsing, ¡°Ahhh fuck. We are trapped.¡± I said while thinking of what to do next.

    While I was thinking, Dave and Sam were freaking out and saying things like ¡°I knew it! We are dead!¡± and ¡°Never should have come!¡±. I did not need this right now.

    I reached over and grabbed the two boys by the shirt and shook them, ¡°Get it together! We are trapped, and there are most likely going to be more hobgoblins on the way here!¡± I don''t really know that, but I am willing to put good money on it because I highly doubt a hobgoblin is running this type of operation, that means there is someone smarter than a hobgoblin, and if they are smart and powerful enough to get fucking monsters to work under them, which I have never heard of hobgoblins working for anyone before, there is a high chance this dead hobgoblin is not the only one here.

    After shaking the shit out of Dave and Sam, I pointed them to the weapons room, ¡°That room has weapons, go grab a shield for each of us, and load as many crossbows as you can, I will head into the corridor and try to slow them down.¡± I turned and was about to do what I just said, but I was curious and asked as I pointed to the room we were hiding in, ¡°What was in that room anyway?¡±

    ¡°Mana crystals, a bunch of magic foci, and a lot of different alchemy ingredients.¡± Sam said.

    Hearing that, I smirked, ¡°Really now?¡±

    ***

    ¡°Come on, come on!¡± I agitatedly mumble to myself as I drew the most sketchy array I have ever created. All the while, there is the booming sound and vibration coming from the door at the end of the corridor where I drew a quick and dirty barrier array on.

    Said barrier is connected to a power supply array that I dumped a small crate¡¯s worth of low-grade mana crystal in a pile, the power transfer and power loss is shit compared to connecting each mana crystal individually, but I just do not have the time, and time is running out.

    With the last stroke of the mana chalk I liberated from the storeroom with the alchemic ingredients, the array is done. I ran mana through it to test it and found that while it was working, my rushed workmanship caused it to be highly inefficient. But that was not an issue at the moment, I had the mana crystals to spare.

    With that taken care of, I started drawing a line from the array I had just completed, along the corner where the wall met the floor and back into the room Dave and Sam were done stacking boxes to use as cover when we aimed down the kill corridor with crossbows.

    The only thing we could do now was load more crossbows as we waited for them to break down the barrier.

 Chapter 112

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    *BOOM*

    *BOOM*

    *BOOM*

    I take aim down to the corridor from behind some stacked crates, and so are Dave and Sam beside me.

    As we wait, we watch the last of the light in the pile of mana crystals powering the barrier start to wink out one by one. It would be any second now, and the barrier will fall.

    *BOOM*

    *BOOM CRACK*

    With the last hit of what I could only assume was a makeshift battering ram, the barrier collapsed and the door the array was drawn on suffered a nasty crack.

    There was some muffled shouting in what I could barely make out as the common language used by the kingdom, followed by the guttural language I recognized the goblinoids use.

    When they were done with their discussion, there was a pause of silence for a few seconds before the door was bashed in to reveal hobgoblins using a bench as a makeshift battering ram. And for their trouble, they ate crossbow bolts from us.

    The two goblins in front holding the bench were dropped immediately, one of the boys scored a headshot on one of the hobgoblins, while the one I shot got hit in the center of the chest.

    The moment the hobgoblins holding the front of the bench fell, the two holding the back immediately dropped the bench and jumped to the sides, out of sight.

    We dropped our spent crossbows and picked up loaded ones, ready to fire. After a moment of silence, I saw a part of a head peek out from the side of the doorway and I shot my crossbow to get that head back behind cover.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± I heard someone shout as the peeking head quickly ducked back behind cover and my bolt shattered on the stone wall just next to where the head was.

    There were some hushed whispers from where our attackers were taking cover before one of them shouted, ¡°Hey! Who are you? Do you know who you messing with?!¡±

    Me and the boys looked at each other and they shrugged at me, so I decided to go with the flow, ¡°Me-¡± Realizing I sounded like a kid because my voice had yet to break, I caught myself, cleared my throat, and continued with while trying to make my voice sound deeper, ¡°Me? Who the fuck are you! And do you know who you are messing with?!¡± I asked them back to see if it would confuse them.

    ¡°Fuck you, I asked first!¡± the voice shouted back.

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    ¡°Fuck me? Fuck you! You trapped us in here, you go first!¡± I shouted back.

    ¡°Hey, fuck you buddy! I-¡± *smack* ¡°Ow, what was that for?¡± the man shouted before it sounded like he got smacked and more muffled whisper shouting happened.

    After the whispering was done, I saw one of the hobgoblin hands reach out and quickly pull in the bench they abandoned out of our sight, Dave took a try at hitting the arm but missed. Me and Sam held our fire for a more substantial target.

    Besides them taking the bench, they seemed to be doing something because we could hear them knocking and shuffling wood around. If I had to guess, they are trying to cobble together some makeshift shields to soak up our bolt fire when they charge our position, so I made preparations of my own and weaved a few Earth Bullets spells, that at my level of power, should have no issue punching through some wood.

    I would have very much liked to blow them up with some fire spells, but I erred on the side of caution to not have any explosions underground, a cave-in already trapped us, and I don¡¯t want that happening on top of us.

    After a minute, I am proven correct as a hobgoblin runs out, a bench held up in front of itself as it charged us, followed by three other hobgoblins behind it in a straight line.

    The boys immediately opened fire, one of the bolts was blocked by the bench, while the other nailed the lead hobgoblin in the shoulder, but it kept charging.

    It was time to bring out the big guns. I reached my hand forward and cast my first Earth Bullet, but with a twist, literally.

    So far, whenever I observed anyone casting Earth Bullets, I always noticed that the Earth Bullets they use are mostly uneven and jagged shards of earth. The only person I saw using Earth Bullet differently was my Advanced Spell Theory professor, Professor Thaddeus Northwind. His earth bullet was still shard-shaped but it was smooth and rounded like polished marble and pointed at both ends.

    As for me, knowing what an actual bullet looked like, I copied the shape of a scaled-up rifle-caliber bullet from my old world, but my twist was using earth Instinctive magic in conjunction with the spell to give the earth bullet rotation before launching it. My only regret is not yet finding a way to get combustion in a safe and timely fashion, otherwise, I could have got the acceleration of the Earth Bullet to where I could say I had a magic gun spell. So for now, Earth Bullet with better penetration would have to do.

    My Eathe Bullet shoots down the corridor and punches a neat hole in the bench, hitting the hobgoblin dead center. The hobgoblin flew back into the second in line, flooring both of them, while the third and fourth hobgoblins who were holding crate covers as makeshift shields sidestepped to the left and right of the downed hobgoblins and continued the charge.

    Seeing that the crate covers were not that big, they were only able to cover their heads and chests, leaving the lower half of their bodies exposed. I did not have to say anything as I saw bolts from Dave and Sam hit the Hobgoblins in the gut.

    This staggered the hobgoblins and gave me enough time to get a proper aim and drop the last two hobgoblins with an Earth Bullet each, and nobody was left standing in the corridor, the only thing left moving turned out to be the second hobgoblin in the line.

    It was breathing weakly while kicking out from under the corpse of the first hobgoblin and trying back crawl to its allies, in the center of its bare chest, was a fist-sized patch of skin that was a deeper shade of green than the rest of its body. If I am not wrong thats a nasty ass bruse and its ribcage is broken. Sweet, that means my Earth bullet managed to punch through the bench, the hobgoblin behind it, and the crate cover the second hobgoblin was using and managed to break its ribs.

    Before it could crawl more than three steps away, one of the boys embedded a bolt in its skull and all was quiet.

    That same head that peeked out at me before, peeked once again and ducked back before we could do anything.

    There were some whispers before someone said, ¡°Fuck! Go get the shaman.¡±

    Well, shit. They are upping their game and bringing in a spellslinger. I tell the boys to start reloading crossbows as I take watch and prepare.

 Chapter 113

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    In the meantime, while waiting for them to bring their Shaman, our foes hiding behind cover somehow managed to close the door that was barely hanging off its hinges by using some string and a hook to pull the broken door close.

    Every few seconds, I would see an eye peek from the broken hole in the door, and it was starting to piss me off, so the next time I saw the eye, I sent an Earth Bullet at the door, roughly where I think the peeping tom''s body was.

    The moment I shot my spell, the eye ducks back from the door, but not fast enough. My Earth Bullet punches through the door and I hear a scream from the other side. ¡°Got you.¡± I mumbled happily to myself.

    Behind the door, there was muffled screaming as the peeping tom''s buddies were applying first aid. From all the screaming and his friends shouting at him to stay still, I overheard that I had completely taken off the guy¡¯s forearm.

    Another minute of tense waiting went by before I heard sounds from the now more porous door, it was the sound of footsteps, and by the sound of the clinking they were making, I am thinking the backup is wearing armor.

    There was some muffled talking, then some goblinoid speak and the door flung open once again to reveal the biggest armored hobgoblin I have ever seen, it was bigger and bulkier than those muscle heads my Dad calls knights. I do not know if it could be called a hobgoblin anymore.

    It was truly an intimidating sight to behold, the goblin was wearing an open-face helmet, donned in shoddy but thick-looking plate armor that was roughly strapped to its body. In its hands, it was wielding an axe in one hand and a metal buckler in the other.

    Seeing this brute of a greenskin, we did not need any signal to start unloading bolts and magic on the brute, but just as our first volley of bolts and spells hit the hobgoblin brute, its armor glowed and our projectiles did not seem to hit with the same oomph as it should have.

    Bolts that should have hit the exposed part of the hobgoblin brute¡¯s arm were slowed down to the point of impact of just pricking it and drawing a tiny bit of blood, the other bolt that should have had enough strength to at least left a nasty gash on the armor plate, merely hit the plate with a melodious *tink* before falling to the ground, everything else was blocked by the metal buckler.

    ¡°Shit, it has an Augment spell cast on it!¡± I warned Dave and Sam.

    This would make most of our ranged burst damage attacks obsolete. When dealing with the Augment spell like this, it is a safe bet to use a channeling spell like Flamethrower or a constant stream of lightning to overcome it, unfortunately, spells like those can¡¯t be cast over long distances, and that would mean the hobgoblin brute will need to get closer than I am comfortable with. Fortunately, I have a solution for this.

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    As Dave and Sam kept firing bolt after bolt, the hobgoblin brute advanced on us at a slow lumbering jog. I on the other hand, had a hand on an activation circle of an array as I kept an eye on where the hobgoblin brute was stepping, and when it had both feet within the last array I made before they took down the barrier, I sent a sliver of mana into the activation circle, and the pile of mana crystals for said array lit up, and so did the array the hobgoblin brute had walked into.

    A second after the array under the hobgoblin brute¡¯s feet lit up, sparks formed in the air within the array. For a moment, the Augment spell lit up to protect the hobgoblin brute, but the next moment, the light winked out and the hobgoblin brute was ravaged by electric currents rushing through its body, its muscles involuntarily contracting as its rigid body fell to the floor.

    A second later, the Augment spell flared to life again, only giving the hobgoblin brute less than a second of relief before it once again winked out, and the constant output of the lightning array shocked it once again.

    This cycle continued three more times before the Augment spell went out for good. Turns out that the Augment spell cast was meant to soak up burst damage before it went on cooldown, but there was a limit to how many times that could happen. And now that there was nothing magical protecting its body, the lightning array continued its work until the hobgoblin brute¡¯s body started to smoke and even caught fire.

    It was kind of a rookie move on my part, but in my rush, I forgot to put in an off switch, so the array carried on for a few more seconds until it ran out of power. But hey, it worked.

    ¡°Enough!¡± someone from our opponent¡¯s side bellowed in common, but in an accent I had not heard before, followed by chanting. It seemed like the enemy mage was going to get in on the action, so I started spinning up a few 3rd circle spells in my head.

    Then I heard the voice of the person who bellow speak in the goblinoid language and another hobgoblin brute in similar armor to the first, but this time holding a large two-handed blade, came charging out at full speed, and behind it, was a human man wearing patchy leathers and a headdress made of bone and feathers, in his hand, he was holding a rope tied to a human skull as he held it aloft while chanting.

    I only had my own pop culture references of my old world to fall back on, but I think it was safe to assume that the human man with the skull as a magic foci was the shaman they mentioned.

    Same as last time, me and the boys unleashed bolts and spells in a bid to quickly take the brute down. Learning from my failure to quickly kill the first hobgoblin brute, this time I space out my spells so that once the first spell hits and triggers the Augment spell, the second spell will come hit when the spell enters its cooldown.

    It was a good plan, but life rarely lets things go my way. As my spell flies, the blade-wielding hobgoblin brute literally cut down my opening Earth Bullet and blocks a second with the flat of his blade. All the while, he was pretty much ignoring Dave and Sam¡¯s bolts, trusting that the Aument spell and his armor would keep him safe.

    When the hobgoblin brute was past its dead fellow brute and almost halfway down the corridor, I knew I had to do something before it got to the boys. So I told the boys, ¡°I will take the hobgoblin, target the guy behind it!¡± and vaulted over the barricade, flared my aura, drew my sword, and charged the hobgoblin brute.

    Better to fight the hobgoblin brute in the enclosed corridor before he reaches the room and has more space to maneuver. This may be one of the few situations where my small size works to my advantage.

 Chapter 114

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    I drew my Mana Steel sword, which was still a bit too big for my current body, and charged. To a full-grown man, my bastard sword would be just that, a manageable and size-appropriate bastard sword. Whereas in my hands, it looks and feels like I am wielding a great sword, but with my aura strengthening me, it is of little issue.

    I raced down the corridor as bolts flew over my shoulders, past the hobgoblin brute, and toward the human shaman who was forced to dodge, interrupting his chant.

    As me and the hobgoblin brute closed in on each other, we both raised our swords, ready to clash with each other. That is when I made my first move, Secret Technique: Pocket Sand!

    Knowing that people who believed in fair and honorable fights in life-and-death situations usually ended up dead, I was prepared ahead of time with a handful of sand that I skimmed off the walls and floor using instinctive magic. That sand flew at the hobgoblin brute¡¯s face as I dodged to the side, avoiding a downward slash.

    I bounced off the wall and went in for a lunge to finish off my opponent, only to be parried. Surprised at its reaction, I jumped back to make some distance between us. I had expected the brute to be covering its face and trying to clean out its eyes, but what I saw was a pair of bloodshot eyes, bespeckled with grains of sand directly on the eyeballs, staring back at me.

    The sand clearly caused the brute pain, but this motherfucker is ignoring the pain just so it can keep me in its sight. Seeing this great display of will, I study my opponent more carefully.

    It was obviously a he, and from our opening exchange I could tell that he had a great amount of fighting experience, and the many scars on the exposed parts of his body reinforced my assumption. Even now as we stared each other down, I could feel its intense and unflinching concentration on me.

    The next signal for our fight to start again was when one of the boys behind me decided to take a cheeky shot at the brute¡¯s head, causing it to tilt his head to the side to avoid the bolt.

    I charged, sword point first, while the brute brought his guard onto a lower stance. When I was in range, I feinted right and thrust forward, only for my sword to be slapped aside by his blade while using the momentum of the blade slap to swing his blade diagonally up at me, while his blade was coming from the bottom, I used the momentum of my sword being slapped away to swing my sword around and come in from the top.

    As my heart was pumping in the excitement of battle and we were going for a mutual exchange of hits, the brute¡¯s experience and trust in his armor showed as he moved his shoulder pauldron in the path of where my sword was aiming, that was when I knew I lost this exchange. My sword, even if swung with my aura-enhanced strength, would at most just destroy the pauldron while the brute¡¯s blade coming from below would most definitely disembowel me.

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    So I did the only thing I could to save my life, I disengaged from the bad situation by forcing myself into an awkward side roll as I heard and felt the wind pressure of the blade come through where I was once standing.

    But as I was about to recover from the roll, the brute was already above me with a raised foot ready to stomp me flat. I wanted to do another roll to get out of the way, but I could not make it in time and the only thing I could do to avoid my chest being caved in, was flip on my back and bring up my sword between me and the brute.

    The brute¡¯s foot slammed down on the flat side of my blade that I was bracing with both arms and even with aura on, this mofo was still a heavy bastard.

    As I was pinned to the ground, the brute reversed the grip of his blade and was about to stab my pinned form. I knew this was no time to be holding back just because I wanted to keep my secrets, what''s the point of keeping secrets if I am dead?

    I took a page out of Instructor Greyham¡¯s playbook and cast the light spell Flash, but instead of forming a concentrated point, I wanted to minimise people seeing that i could perform instinctive magic, so I closed my eyes tight and released Flash from every part of my body.

    My Flash elicited a reaction from everyone, Dave and Sam, the shaman, and even the brute stepping on me.

    Ha! Suck it! You sure are regretting not closing your eyes this time, huh?

    While I felt the pressure of the foot ease off my sword for a moment, I used instinctive magic to quickly shift the ground beneath the brute¡¯s other foot away from me, forcing him to do a split.

    Shortly after I did so, the pressure was taken off my chest and I heard a hefty *CLUNK*, and turned to see the brute¡¯s blade embedded into the floor just next to my head.

    When I looked over at the hobgoblin brute, a smile crept onto my face. The brute was fumbling around while trying to get to its feet, and I knew it could still not see me because he was facing in my general direction, but his pupils were dancing around the area like they were trying to lock on to something.

    Not letting this chance slip by, I did not bother getting up, I pulled back my sword, trusted it into the kneeling hobgoblin brute¡¯s throat, and felt the sensations of flesh parting and my blade severing something hard.

    It was then that I knew, I severed his spine.

    The moment that happened, the hobgoblin brute went limp and I pulled my sword out as it collapsed to the ground with a metallic thud.

    ¡°You little bastard! Do you know how long it takes to raise those warriors?!¡± I heard the shaman shout. As I turned to the shaman, he was looking at me with a hateful gaze, or at least as hateful as his squinting eyes could convey. Seems like he was also caught in my flash and is still recovering.

    Talking about this shaman, why is he not being shot at with bolts?

    ¡°Dave, Sam, why aren''t you shooting!?¡± I shouted to the boys.

    ¡°Because you blinded us too you idiot!¡± Dave replied.

    Oops¡­

 Chapter 115

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    Without Dave and Sam suppressing the now half-blind shaman, it gave the shaman time to cast a spell I had never seen or heard of before.

    The skull he was holding, glowed a sickly yellow and a pulse of that same sickly yellow mana flooded down the corridor as I was picking up speed on my way to beat the shit out of that shaman.

    As there was no running from the incoming yellow mana, I flared out my aura and mana to try and blunt the effect of whatever was coming towards me. But as my aura and mana came in contact with the yellow mana, while my mana buffeted most of the yellow mana, the portion that got past my mana latched onto my aura and quickly followed it back into my body.

    The moment the yellow mana entered my body, I felt it acting in a way similar yet different to aura, it behaved the same but moved a lot faster. When it came into contact with my stamina energy it started eating my stamina and outcompete my aura in its consumption, but instead of empowering me, it just converted my stamina to mana and uselessly dispersed it out of my body.

    Starved of stamina energy to burn, my aura petered out, but even then, the yellow mana was still doing its thing in my body. Knowing that if all my stamina was consumed like this, I would fall unconscious if this is left unchecked. So I prepared myself and did what I usually do to off my aura and will my body to stop the production and flow of stamina energy.

    If this yellow mana is acting like aura, that means it powers itself by feeding off the target¡¯s stamina energy. So I braced my mind and body for the inevitable feeling of weakness to hit me, and when it did, I almost blacked out, but kept myself awake by sheer force of will and biting my own lip to induce pain and stay conscious.

    My body slumped forward and I was brought to my knees at the feeling of weakness and lethargy overtaking my body, the only thing keeping me from face-planting onto the ground was me leaning on my sword that I stuck onto the ground.

    As I felt my own weakness, I was so very tempted to release the floodgates of my stamina but I could not, at least not with this yellow mana still in my system. Fortunately, with no more stamina energy to feed on, it was dissipating fast. Unfortunately, through my blurry vision, I could see the shaman walking toward me.

    As the shaman closes in, I find it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. Each time I blink, it is a struggle to open them once again¡­ I just need to¡­ stay¡­ awake.

    As my consciousness was starting to fade, and all my attempts to keep myself awake were becoming less effective, I took drastic measures. I drew my house¡¯s ceremonial dagger from behind me and stabbed myself in the thigh.

    ¡°Hrrgh!!¡± I stifled a scream as the pain ran through me, but the pain did its job, while I was still weak, I was wide awake, for now. I just need to hold on for a while longer, the yellow mana is almost gone from my system.

    When I looked up from my self-inflicted wound the shaman was in front of me, but I was too weak to even lift my hands to do anything.

    I then felt my hair being grasped and my head was yanked to face the shaman, as he studied me, he turned my head from left to right, ¡°Seriously? A child? I thought I was fighting particularly tall gnomes.¡± he then looked down at the hobgoblin brute I just killed and grimaced.

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    ¡°The Head is not going to be happy about losing these warriors after investing so much.¡± the shaman muttered to himself before turning to me, ¡°On the other hand, the fact that you are so strong despite your young age and staying awake after hitting you with that curse means you have a strong soul¡­ I am sure the Head would be happy to use such a strong soul in his rituals. For now¡­ sleep.¡± he said with a cruel grin as he raised his skull foci in his other hand and started charging it with that yellow mana again.

    As he was looking for some kind of reaction on my face, the only one I gave him was a smile before I flared my aura, unsheathed the dagger embedded in my thigh, and cut off the hand that was holding the glowing skull.

    Before the shaman could even react to his hand being cut off, I shot up on my good leg and threw a right hook at his jaw, as I followed through with the punch, the shaman spun twice in the air before hitting the ground and stopped moving.

    ¡°Hawk-Tuah!¡± I spat on the downed shaman.

    ¡°That''s what you get for monologuing.¡± thanks to him manhandling me and giving me more time as he spoke, I managed to stay awake until the yellow mana dissipated from my system and I released the floodgates of my stamina to regain my strength. But even as I felt strength flood back into my limbs, I stayed passive and limp to wait for the opening where I disarmed him.

    Now that I was done with the shaman, I turned my attention to the two heads that just ducked back behind the doorway the shaman came from. As I limped my way down the corridor to the remaining survivors, I heard agitated whispering before three people started running, but they were well within my sight.

    ¡°Stop or die!¡± I shouted as I sent an Earth Bullet into the floor in front of them, which yielded the desired result as the three men ground to a halt.

    When I reached them, with Eeath Bullets at the ready, I commanded them to turn around and noticed one of them holding the fresh stump of a forearm. This must be the peeping tom that I shot through the door.

    ¡°Well¡­ we have much to talk about.¡± I told the three men.

    ***

    *SMACK* ¡°AHH!¡±

    *SMACK* ¡°GAHH!¡±

    I welcomed Dave and Sam back to the land of the living with a smack each when shaking and gentle prodding did not work, apparently that stamina-eating spell did quite a number on them, especially because they did not know how to manipulate their stamina energy.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Sam asked before yawning the sleep out of his system.

    ¡°Well, to make a long story short, after I killed the second hobgoblin brute, that shaman cast some kind of stamina-eating spell that knocked out my aura and ate away at both your stamina, knocking the both of you out. After that, I knocked out the shaman and captured three others.¡± I said as I pointed over my shoulder.

    The shaman was chained up and lying in an array circle that was designed to siphon the mana from whatever was in the circle, and the shaman was the one powering his own siphoning, keeping him nice and weak from constantly being drained of mana. While it was no stamina-eating spell, having his mana constantly drained should give him a hell of a headache.

    As for the other three that I captured, after chaining them up and stripping them of anything they could use as tools, I used earth magic to create a small cell for them to stay in.

    They asked a few more questions and I caught them up to the current situation. After doing so, I passed them a note that wrote before waking them up, told them of the entrance I interrogated out of my prisoners, and sent them back to the academy to get help while I looked after the prisoners. It''s not like I am going anywhere fast with a stabbed thigh¡­ thinking back, that may not have been the best place to stab myself.

 Chapter 116

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    Hours later, I hear the sounds of armored men making their way to me.

    On the off chance that it was not my backup, I got to my feet, drew my sword, and spun up a few spells, ready to defend myself.

    Fortunately, the ones who came around the corner were Dave and Sam, followed by Instructor Greyham, Professor Sageira, and a host of not just city guards, but Royal Guards. Apparently the kingdom takes shit seriously when their students are involved.

    I pointed out the four prisoners and they were promptly taken into custody, the shaman even had a mana suppression collar slapped on before his ass got dragged off.

    The moment the prisoners were taken away, city guards, Royal Guards, and some administrative types started turning the whole place upside down. While that was going on, a healer came up to me and got my stab wound patched up right quick.

    When one of the rooms was cleared, Instructor Greyham brought me into it and sat me down. ¡°Luke Ironcrest¡­ the break has just started and already you have found yourself in the middle of quite the mess.¡± he sighs and continues, ¡°We have already questioned Dave and Sam, now I want to hear your side of how events went.¡±

    I nodded and told him of how events went down, not like there were witnesses of anyone seeing me use instinctive magic, this fight was above board in every sense that matters. I then told him the part I did not tell Dave and Sam.

    ¡°After I threa- I mean interrogated the three men, they spilled the beans and said this was a smuggling operation and they used the shaman and his hobgoblin pets as an intermediary to transport their stuff elsewhere, as for who they were transporting it to or for, they say they do not know.¡±

    After some follow-up questions, Greyham released me to join up with Dave and Sam, but instead, I walked over to Professor Sageira who was still prodding the hobgoblin brute I stabbed in the neck.

    ¡°Find anything interesting?¡± I asked the engrossed Professor Sageira.

    ¡°Indeed I have¡­ this mutated hobgoblin¡¯s physique is most interesting and definitely not natural. Come and take a look.¡± she said as she waved me over.

    As I squat down beside her, she pressed a finger on the hobgoblin brute¡¯s arm, and hair-thin veins of light illuminated up its arm.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I asked, to which she answered, ¡°Mana pathways¡­ but they are extremely atrophied.¡±

    I just stared at the glowing veins on the dead hobgoblin brute¡¯s arm and say, ¡°Errr¡­ok? I will take your word for it, but I have no point of reference for what mana pathways on a normal person looks like. And what is that spell you used?¡±

    She looked at me and replied, ¡°This is one of the few diagnostic spells you will learn if you pick up the Healing Magic course next year. And as for a point of reference,¡± she then grabbed my hand and cast the same diagnostic spell.

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    The moment she did that, my arm lit up with mana pathways roughly 1cm wide. Her eyes widened and she quickly dismissed the spell as she looked around. ¡°Ok, you are a poor point of reference. You will see a normal mana pathway eventually, but let''s just say a normal person¡¯s mana pathway is many times smaller.¡±

    She then pointed back to the hobgoblin brute¡¯s corpse and said, ¡°But these mana pathways are so small to the point of them being obviously unnatural, it is to the point that if it was any smaller, the mana pathways would collapse and cause the body to die. I also suspect that the way they did this was to somehow sacrifice their mana pathways to gain their vastly improved physique.¡±

    ¡°But why would they do that? Magic is so useful, it seems like a waste to me.¡± I asked, to which she just shook her head.

    ¡°That just means that you have not read up on enough history, tho I can''t blame you, it is rather obscure history from a land quite far away from here, and a very long time ago. It was one of the cases of a mage thinking too highly of his own abilities and ended up punching a hole in reality.

    To make a long story short, something not of this world came through, killed the mage, ran into a tribe of goblins who thought the entity a god, and the entity took the goblin tribe and slowly started building an army.

    The only reason a few kingdoms were not wiped out by a goblin horde, was because some hunters saw the build-up of goblinoids, and informed the local lord, who mustered an army to crush the goblinoids who were in the low thousands by then.

    The moral of the story is that someone may be trying to do the same thing again, but is much better equipped and prepared, we will only know when that shaman you captured gets interrogated.

    As for the answer to your question, I will answer you with a few questions, how many babies can a goblin female give birth to in a year?¡±

    ¡°Errr¡­ if I remember correctly, an average of three babies?¡± I answer as I dug through my memories of the bestiary I read years ago.

    ¡°Correct, and how long does it take for a goblin to reach sexual maturity?¡± she continues.

    ¡°Around three to¡­ four¡­ years¡­¡± I answer as her leading questions start painting a rather frightening picture.

    Sageira continued, ¡°That¡¯s a lot of goblins if given the time to grow and reproduce, and sooner or later, depending on luck, one or more of those goblins will evolve into hobgoblins, and if there is a breeding pair of hobgoblins, the chances of babies being hobgoblins from birth drastically increases, and the time it takes for a hobgoblin baby to become an adult only takes five years at most.¡±

    She then points at the hobgoblin brute, ¡°So, hypothetically speaking, if there is a large tribe of goblinoids that has no shortage of hobgoblins, is it really a waste to turn these hobgoblins into these creatures that can butcher the average foot soldier with ease? Goblinoid life is cheap after all, they grow fast, have the concept of tool use, and are able to form complex enough societies. To any wannabe warlord, they are the perfect expendable soldiers. Throw some human wisdom and magic into the mix and you got this.¡±

    ¡°Oh shit¡­¡± I muttered as I started to see the full scope of the potential shit show of a situation.

    She chuckled, ¡°Oh shit indeed, and from what we confiscated here, this shaman and his hobs may not be the middle man, but the actual recipient of all this stuff.¡±

    I gasped, ¡°B-But this is madness, why would they even sell arms to a potential army of goblins? It is like selling a knife to a known serial killer, they would most probably end up getting killed themselves.¡±

    She leaned over and sniffed me then replied, ¡°With all the gold and gems we found, that I am sure you left alone,¡± wink ¡°I am sure they would have had no problems finding someone who lacks all scruples.¡±

    I started sweating a bit, ¡°Haha¡­ I think my friends are calling me, I will see you later professor.¡± I said as I fast walked towards Dave and Sam.

 Chapter 117

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    After some time, me and the boys were to be escorted back to the campus grounds under the watch of royal guards.

    The royal guards were rather adamant about returning directly, but I managed to plead with them to make a detour to recover the plants and herbs we buried and turn in our quests at the Adventurers Guild.

    The two royal guards relented under the innocent puppy dod stares we were giving them and we went about our business.

    When we went to turn in our quest, we drew a lot of eyes toward ourselves, which was kind of impossible not to do. From what I understand, it is not every day gold-plated armored men come striding into the Adventurers Guild escorting three boys.

    The lady attending to us seemed rather nervous while we got paid, but it went by rather fast and we were out of Adventurers Guild and back to our dorms by late afternoon.

    Before we split off to go back to our rooms, the royal guard informed us to not leave the academy grounds until they said otherwise.

    I was ok with it because I could continue my research at my crazy dragon professor¡¯s office, but Dave and Sam were rather bummed out because each day they were not allowed to go out was a day they could not earn some pocket money, but I had a solution to their problems.

    The next day after breakfast, I met up with Dave and Sam and went to their room. Unlike my room, they had to share theirs.

    Once we were alone, we broke out the snacks and continued chatting, eventually, I brought up the topic we had been avoiding, ¡°So, how are you guys holding up? This your first real fight?¡±

    Both of them nodded with glum faces and Dave asked, ¡°How are you so calm after this? We could have died.¡±

    ¡°Well, this is not the first time my life was at risk. You guys remember the border battle with the Valorhelm Dominion a few years back?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No way! You fought in that battle? I mean it makes sense with your level of skill.¡± Sam exclaimed and I threw a piece of pastry at him to shut him up.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, I was too young for any of that, no. My father was one of the forts¡¯ commanders and the Valorhelm Dominion decided to use direct and indirect attacks. While they would try to assassinate the fort commanders, failing that, they would go after the commander¡¯s family to try and apply psychological pressure, needless to say, my home came under the assault of assassins.¡± I briefly recounted, seeing no need to go into details.

    ¡°And I don¡¯t know if you heard of it, but another encounter with the risk of death was just a few months ago just before my batch arrived at the academy, we were attacked by bandits.¡± I continued.

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    ¡°Yeah, we heard of that, escort knights and royal invigilators managed to fight off the bandits, and rumor has it that there was a student that killed some of the¡­ bandits¡­¡± Sam said as the dots connected in his mind.

    ¡°You were that student¡­¡± Sam said while pointing at me.

    I nodded, ¡°And I would appreciate it if the both of you kept it to yourself, those that came in with me did not take it so well that I was capable of killing so easily, and most of them have never seen death before.¡±

    Both of them nodded at my request but Dave still had a dower look, ¡°I wish I was as confident as you, Luke, you go around looking like yesterday never happened.¡±

    I just waved his remark off, ¡°Nothing of the such, I may look it, but even I am shaken when faced with my own mortality, I have learned how to acknowledge that I am no longer in danger and try to get back to normal.¡± which was kind of the truth, but I would be lying to myself if I was not seriously repressing some emotions that would most likely one day burst open, but that was for future Luke to deal with, fuck that guy!

    ¡°Besides,¡± I continued, ¡°Don¡¯t feel bad about not being confident, it was your first life and death situation outside of a controlled environment, and the only way to gain confidence is to either experience more life and death situations, or train a lot more, or as I read once, ¡®With competence comes confidence¡¯.¡±

    As the guys pondered upon my words, I remembered the main objective of meeting the, ¡°Oh right! I almost forgot, I got something for you guys.¡±

    I then removed my suspiciously loose boots and overturned them, after a shake or two, a small pouch fell out of each and clattered to the floor. ¡°Before you guys arrived with backup, I may or may not have stumbled into a room with valuables that the shaman was paying those smugglers, and may have taken something to compensate us for our troubles.¡± I said as I jiggled the pouches in front of the boys.

    Their eyes widened as they said in unison, ¡°¡°What is it?¡±¡±

    I loosened the pouch strings and upended them on the floor to reveal a variety of uncut gems of different colors and sizes.

    When I looked up to see their reaction, their looks of anticipation turned to confusion, ¡°Err¡­ nice rocks?¡±

    I waited a few more seconds for them to recognize them for what they were, but eventually gave up and reminded myself that they did not have the same upbringing I did, ¡°Yes, they are pretty rocks, but not just any pretty rocks, these are uncut gems¡­ you know, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, that sort of gems.¡±

    When I explained it, the realization came to them, and gasped, ¡°So that''s what they look like before they appear on fancy rings and the such.¡± Sam said.

    ¡°Yes, these are for you guys, I am sure this would solve your worries about spending money during your stay in the capital, just don¡¯t spend it all in one place.¡± I said jokingly, but for some reason, they were very silent as they just stared at the uncut gems.

    ¡°Err, guys? Why are the both of you so quiet? This is kind of a big thing for you is it not? Some of it can even go to helping your families¡¯ lives easier.¡± I said while trying to figure out what got their panties in a twist.

    ¡°Are you sure about this, Luke? This is not a small amount of wealth you are giving us, it is too much, and if there is anything you want to ask of us in-¡± Dave started but I cut him off.

    ¡°No! This is not me forcing you into a future favor, the both of you fought by my side, and for that, you are entitled to a part of the loot.¡± I said.

    ¡°But-¡± Sam tried to interject, but I shut it down.

    ¡°Shut it! You guys are accepting your part of the loot and that is final!¡±

 chapter 118

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    It was almost a week before the royal guards gave us the ¡®OK¡¯ to leave the academy grounds. During that time, I spent most of it in Professor Sageira¡¯s office with the corpses of the hobgoblin brutes that she placed in a preservation array, all the while bitching at me for frying one of the brutes and not leaving the other one alive for her to study.

    She was going on about things like ¡°Bruning the internals beyond use.¡± and ¡°Live specimens are optimal for tests.¡±, after a while I just tuned out her complaining as I stood by her side to help take notes while omitting her rants.

    When we were given the go-ahead to leave campus grounds, I brought the boys to a bunch of jewelers I found when previously exploring the capital, we went from jeweler to jeweler to get different evaluations and see who could give us the best price.

    It also helped that I was walking around with my house crest stitched onto my uniform, they may not recognize the crest of some border house like mine, but I am pretty sure they would be less likely to scam us in case my house takes issue with their business.

    Sad to say, but it is quite easy for unscrupulous merchants to get away with scamming commoners if they think they can withstand the repercussions, but scamming a noble is a whole different story, businesses empires have shuttered for less, their name besmirched in the eyes of rich and well-paying customers.

    After making the rounds and selling to the jeweler who offered us the highest price, we walked away with 23 gold and change, and after splitting two ways between Dave and Sam, it was 11 gold and change, which was a lot for them considering the average farming family only makes one to two gold a year.

    When they exited the jeweler¡¯s store, the two boys were acting twitchy as hell, their eyes darting to every dark corner or anyone walking too close to them, and seeing the way they were clutching their newfound wealth, it looked like they believed they were going to be mugged at any second and I could not blame them, this was more gold than they had ever held in their lives.

    Seeing them in fear of losing what they got did not sit right with me, so I suggested a solution to give them peace of mind. I suggested they store their money at a bank.

    ¡°What? Luke, that''s for rich people.¡± Sam scoffed.

    To which I quirked an eyebrow at him and told him, ¡°You may not know it, but with the money you got now, you are technically richer than the majority of the people in the kingdom. Besides, the only reason most people do not use the bank is because they are mainly located in major cities, and the minimum amount to open an account is two gold coins, which you definitely have. So let''s go start an account for you, and you can withdraw it at the end of the year when you go home for a visit.¡±

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    It took a bit of prodding to convince them to trust their money to the bank, but I eventually convinced them.

    When we got to the bank, my house crest was once again doing an excellent job of getting me priority service. The moment I entered, there were a few bank staff waiting, and from the way they reacted, it seemed like they were all in competition to attend to me.

    They tried not to make it too obvious, but the moment I stepped through the door, I saw all of them jerk forward, but only the first to react walked forward to attend to me.

    ¡°Greeting, young master, what can I do for you today?¡± a young man said as he zoomed up to me.

    ¡°I am here to make a deposit, and to open accounts for my two friends here.¡± I said as I gestured to Dave and Sam.

    ¡°Of course, young master, if you would follow me.¡± he said as he eyed Dave and Sam up and down like he was unsure if they could even afford to open an account.

    We were brought to a booth where we were served tea and biscuits. I have to say, despite this guy giving my friends the side eye, they sure got good service.

    After getting comfy and taking a sip of tea, I got down to business, ¡°I would like to make a deposit under my house¡¯s name,¡± I said as I took out a small pouch and emptied it on a cushioned tray in front of us to reveal some uncut gems I set aside for myself, ¡°and as I said earlier, my two friends would like to open an account.¡± I gestured for the boys to put their gold on the tray.

    Seeing the stacks of coins the boys put down, I could visibly see the change in the expression on the man''s face to become more accommodating towards Dave and Sam, ¡°Very good, young master, now all that is left is the matter of identification.¡±

    I nodded and reached into my pocket and took out a signet ring Dad passed to me before I left for the capital and put it on the tray, ¡°I am Luke Ironcrest, and if I am not wrong, my father should have written ahead in regards to my stipend while I am at the Royal Academy. As for my friends¡­ would a probationary license from the Adventurere¡¯s Guild do?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Lord Ironcrest, that would suffice.¡± he replied.

    After the boys added their probationary license to the tray, the man got up, ¡°Thank you, Lord Ironcrest, I will be back shortly after processing this transaction, please enjoy the refreshments in the meantime.¡±

    After some time, the man came back with my ring and a receipt for my deposit, and for the boys, he had their probationary license and a small booklet for them to keep records of their transactions with the bank.

    After we left the bank, relieved of most of our on-hand funds, we went to celebrate the boys¡¯ sudden windfall and discuss what other quests we should take up during the break, not that they needed the money, but it was something to keep busy.

 Chapter 119

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    The days went by me and the bois would go to the Adventurere¡¯s Guild to take up more noob quests.

    Besides the gathering quests, we sometimes wanted to do more local quests like running some deliveries or the odd temp job that is posted when a company¡¯s employee is otherwise unavailable.

    Through this, not only did we get some coin and meet new people, but we also got to explore a lot of the more obscure and little-known parts of the capital. That meant a lot of hidden gems and local favorites tucked away from the main thoroughfare of the bustling capital, and now that the boys are not hurting for cash, we use our earnings to go on food adventures, and for growing boys like us, we ain''t scared of putting on a few pounds.

    But don''t get me wrong, it was not all sunshine and rainbows, there were a few shady locations that the locals warned us to avoid, and we did well to heed their advice, I even convinced the boys to purchase a simple dagger to be faster on the draw than our swords due to witnessing at least ten muggings during our delivery runs to the more shady areas.

    Other than that, things have been going great, the only thing I could complain about was our minders that I noticed a few days into us taking up jobs again.

    Besides the noticeable increase in patrols outside the walls when we go on gathering quests, I have noticed no less than three different people whose gaze lingered on me and the boys a little longer than I was comfortable with.

    I mean, they looked and acted like everyone else going about their day in public, but over the days that they have been observing us, I have also been observing them back, and there were small details that I picked up that did not add up.

    Currently, our most recent minders are a beggar who despite being dressed in rags, his hands and face look too clean, a laborer that I have seen walk past me for the third time in an hour and has a gait more akin to one of my dad¡¯s knights, and lastly, a peddler that has actually somewhat decent toy carvings on display, the only problem is that I have seen him set up shop at a few different busy streets along the path of my deliveries.

    At times like this, I would have confronted our ¡®minders¡¯ and asked them if this was amateur hour, but besides watching us, it did not feel like they were targeting us with bad intentions, and the fact that Dave and Sam are blissfully ignorant of our minders makes me think they think I would not notice, so I left it at that for now and see how it would play out, no reason to spook Dave and Sam until our minders did anything more fishy than looking, I just prepared my ceremonial dagger just in case these men start some shit.

    ***

    A few meters underground beneath the capital, somewhere in the labyrinthine sewers of the capital, a cloaked figure walked.

    But where one would expect the footsteps to clearly echo in such a cavernous place, the figure did not make a sound. The only sound in such an environment was the slow sloshing of the capital¡¯s flowing sewage and the occasional squeak of rats fighting over some food.

    The figure eventually came to a stop and turned to a wall that looked no different than any other in the sewer and pushed in a sequence of bricks. When the last brick was pushed in, there was a soft click, before the soft muffled grinding of gears pulled a section of wall in and to the side, allowing the cloaked figure to walk in, and a few seconds later, the section of wall closed the way it opened, leaving no sign of anyone ever being there

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    After the figure entered the wall, it traveled even more twisting and turning tunnels until it reached a much more¡­ sanitary environment. But contrasting from the smells of raw sewage, now the air was filled with the heavy smells of incense and perfumes.

    The cloaked figure then took the stairs up, and knocked on a door with a certain rhythm, in response, the door opened to reveal two burly men covered in tattoos with daggers halfway drawn.

    When the two men saw who it was, they sheathed their daggers and jerked their heads to gesture the cloaked figure inside, ¡°The boss is expecting you.¡± one of the men said as they both once again took position on either side of the door.

    The cloaked figure nodded and went ahead to open another door, and the moment the door opened, the sound of music, laughing, and cheering could be heard. It was a room filled with scantily clad women of many races, dancing and cozying up to their male customers to ply them with more drinks while whispering sweet nothings in their ears.

    This place was clearly a brothel under the thin veneer of a gentlemen''s club.

    The cloaked figure stuck close to the walls and went up the stairs some of the women were leading men up to, but instead of stopping off at the second floor like the others, the cloaked figure continued to the third floor and down the hall to the last room, knocked and entered.

    Inside, there was a man behind a desk who glanced up and then looked back down to the documents he was reading, ¡°Good, you finally arrived. I hope you got news on that outpost we lost recently?¡± the man asked.

    ¡°Yes, the city and royal guards are keeping a tight hold on the information. It took a while, but I managed to find a city guard who was willing to earn some extra coin.¡± the cloaked figure said with a feminine voice.

    She then closed in on the table, and from under her cloak took out a few sheets of paper and put it on the table, ¡°Here is a report of what we know so far about what happened at the outpost and information on the parties involved.¡±

    The man put down what he was currently reading and picked up the report, as he read through it, the creases on his forehead increased as he gave the report an incredulous look.

    When he was done with the report, he looked up at the cloaked woman, ¡°This has got to be a joke right? Three fucking children, one of them is just eight years old¡­ and the information on the eight year old, this Ironcrest whelp¡­ was your informant high off of something or are you? The abilities of what this boy is capable of are like something straight out of some badly written novel, I pay you too much to expect this!¡±

    The woman just shook her head, ¡°Oh, believe me, I agree, but this is what I gathered after getting information from multiple sources. If you ask me, it feels like the Ironcrest boy is some kind of trap to lure us out. The moment I got the information, I went to find him, and as we speak, he is currently running around with the two other boys doing odd jobs from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡±

    The man rubbed his temples for a moment before he spoke, ¡°The men who were captured are in the palace¡¯s dungeon and I cannot risk any of our people sneaking in to question them about what happened, luckily we already had to kill the middleman who hired them to keep investigators off our tails, but I still need to know what happened, there is too much money riding on this and our investors are expecting a return.¡±

    The man thought for a while longer while looking at the information in regards to three boys from the Royal Academy then came to a decision, ¡°Get the Viper brothers, I want those boys alive and able to talk.¡±

    The woman just stood there for a few before asking, ¡°Are you sure about this? They are academy students and one of them is a noble.¡±

    The man nodded, ¡°That''s why I want the Viper brothers, they are skilled enough to be competent at what they do, but not skilled or important enough not to be disposable.¡±

    The woman nodded and left to do as instructed.

 Chapter 120

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Today was another fulfilling day of explora- I mean questing in the capital, and me and the boys were on our way back to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild to turn in our quest and then go try out a small mom-and-pop eatery we found the other day.

    Most would say it was just like any other day, but I noticed a difference. It was halfway through our temp job in a warehouse today, that I noticed that two of our three minders were currently missing, and the only one left was the ¡®laborer¡¯ minder, but he was acting weird.

    Besides his usual stony face, his body language was telling a different story. Where once his hands were either by his side or in his pockets, he now had his arms folded and his finger constantly tapping on his bicep, and he also had a fidgeting leg.

    And ever since his pals went missing, he seems a lot more twitchy when checking corners and blind spots, losing out on many of his actions'' subtleness.

    As we walked along, I had my hand on my dagger and kept my eyes peeled while listening to Dave and Sam argue about which girl in our class was cuter, and I was replying with monosyllabic sounding agreements.

    All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, our last minder became still as he looked down a side alley, and I could see his stance ready for combat. This meant that the situation was not good, not good in the slightest, and it did not help that we were currently traveling through the part of the capital that did not see heavy guard presence.

    ¡°Hey guys, I am kind of hungry, can we pick up the pace so we can go for an early lunch?¡± I asked while trying not to show the urgency in my face. All while keeping our minder in my peripheral vision, at the moment, he was currently speaking, but I was too far away to pick up anything, and he had a hand in his vest.

    ¡°Seriously? Are you hungry already? We had a rather large breakfast.¡± Sam asked.

    ¡°What can I say, I¡¯m a growing boy, now, hurry it up!¡± I said as I pushed the boys forward, and from the corner of my vision, saw our last minder dash down the alley, wrapped in a tightly controlled aura, which did not bode well at all.

    After a few seconds of light jogging, I caught some movement from the roofs far behind on my right, it was just flashes of a head peaking over the roof ledge, but there was definitely someone running along the roof and was catching up fast.

    We are not going to make it if we keep at this speed, and the boys will get caught up with whoever this is that our minders are engaged with if I do not do something.

    I held my stomach and put on a pained face, ¡°Guys!¡± I called out and they turned around, ¡°Go turn in the quests first, my stomach is not feeling so good.¡±

    They quirked an eyebrow at me and Dave asked, ¡°I thought you said you were hungry less than a minute ago, what gives?¡±

    ¡°Just shut up and go!¡± I shouted, ¡°Go, so you do not have to see me do unspeakable things to that alley.¡± I said while gesturing to the alley beside me.

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    They looked at each other, then turned to me and saluted me, ¡°May you survive your battle with your anus in that alley, you have our thoughts and prayers.¡± Dave said. ¡°And if you get caught by the guards shitting in public, we do not know each other.¡± Sam said as they dropped their salute and ran down the path.

    ¡°Sam, you bastard! I will remember this!¡± I shouted back in mock anger, as I held my stomach and walked into the alley.

    The moment I broke the line of sight with the boys and the rooftop guy who was almost on top of me, I dashed to the end of the alley and cast some darkness magic to cloak myself in the darkness of the poorly lit alley.

    A few seconds after concealing myself, a figure lands at the entrance of the alley, and when it stands back to full height, the only detail I could tell from the silhouette was that it was a lizardfolk, it was very distinct from its tail and the snout I saw when I looked from side to side.

    The lizardfolk then started walking toward me as he¡­ she? I don¡¯t know¡­ lizardfolk lay eggs and, therefore they do not have any breasts, so it is still a bit hard for me to tell, but I will go with he for now.

    He walks down the alley while looking around, so that is a good thing, he does not see me. Then he starts flicking his forked tongue out a few times and then smiles.

    ¡°I know you are here little boy, make this easy and come out, I just want to have a little chat.¡± he said, and now that I hear his voice, I am more confident it is a he. ¡°Giving me the silent treatment are you? That''s not very nice, if I need to come and get you, things are not going to be very pleasant, and here is nowhere to run¡­ I can smell you.¡±

    Well, fuck, I guess I know what that tongue-flicking was about now. He can taste me in the air.

    When the lizardman was halfway down the alley, his head which was constantly moving around while flicking his tongue out, slowly narrowed in on my position. ¡°There you are, little boy. I was told you can do magic, but you can¡¯t hide from me, and now we are going to do this the hard way.¡± he said as he drew a sickle from behind him.

    Well, fuck this guy, I shot an earth bullet I had been prepping and found out he had excellent reaction speed as he turned his body to the side, avoiding my earth bullet, flaring his aura, and pouncing at the dark corner I was in, all in short order.

    As he was mid-pounce, I sent a second earth bullet that he blocked with his aura-coated sickle, but the force of the impact was too strong, making him backflip in midair.

    Before he had the chance to touch down, I flared my own aura and charged out from my concealment with my sword drawn, zoomed to where the lizardman was going to land, and lunged to pierce his long neck.

    But once again, the lizardman displayed his impressive reaction speed and perries my blade just before he landed, and when he did land, he performed a front kick at my chest, forcing me to twist my body to avoid or risk flying back due to him being a lot bigger than me.

    We both quickly got back into our stances and I made the first move by slashing from where my sword was parried to, and from there, we exchanged around five moves before he hit me with something I never had experience with.

    On the next exchange, I managed to get his sickle into a good position for me to disarm him and threw all my strength to swipe to the left, if he held on to his sickle, he would be put off balance and be opened to me, or he could release the weapon and be disarmed, either was a bad choice for him.

    What I did not expect, was for him to follow my flow and spin his body, revealing his back to me, the other thing I did not expect was getting whipped in the face by a tail.

    I spun twice on my feet, but quickly oriented myself to once again face the lizardman and raise my guard.

    As we looked at each other, I could feel the sting of pain on my face and the taste of iron in my mouth, I must have been tail slapped hard enough to cut the inside of my mouth, if I did not have my aura on, that tail slap might have very well knocked me out. And if there is one thing I have learned from our exchange, it is that this guy is good.

 Chapter 121

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    We stood in the alley, staring at each other, weapons raised. I licked the wound on the inside of my cheek and then spit a globule of blood out as I began leaking darkness mana from my body in the form of a dark haze spell, and directed it to creep toward the lizardman.

    In response, the lizardman reached behind his back with his free hand, and unsheaths a second sickle, then took a dual wielder''s stance.

    The moment I was sure the dark haze had obscured me from his vision, the both of us burst into motion. I pointed forward and a third circle lightning spell I had been spinning up in the background shot forth, but by then, the lizardman had already jumped to the alley wall and sprung off it to gain more altitude, and at the peak of his jump, he flung something at me.

    Taking no chances, I jumped backward and out of my own dark haze spell that was not able to keep up with my movement speed, a moment later, there was the sound of shattering glass from where I was just standing, followed by the sounds of a fizzing chemical reaction, and the sight of vapors rising from my low lingering dark haze spell. And in front of all that landed the lizardman ready for action.

    Not wanting to take any chances of breathing in whatever the lizard man threw down, I waved my hand to cast a zero-circle spell to summon a breeze, blowing away whatever fumes there were out of the alley, I just hoped the neighborhood was not too badly affected.

    The lizardman sighed, ¡°Why did you have to be so competent? I thought grabbing a few kids would be easy money, but you just had to make it difficult. But oh well, we were told to bring you and your friends in alive and able to talk, not unharmed, and I don''t think you need your limbs to do any talking.¡±

    Just as he finished his speech, the lizardman dashed forward, and at the last moment, he dashed so low to the ground I thought he could kiss it. When I angled the tip of my sword down, he raised a sickle over his head, caught my blade, and moved it out of the way before invading my space and swinging his other sickle at my front foot.

    I hopped over the speeding lizard to avoid my foot being cut off, only to see his tail coming up to strike at me like a scorpion, and with my sword to the side at an awkward angle, I was in no position to strike back and cut off that damned tail, instead, I kicked off his tail toward the alley wall to bleed off my speed and cast a bolt of lightning at the speedy lizard.

    This forced him to jump high to avoid getting struck, but I was counting on that. The moment he was midair and had nowhere to run, I shot another bolt of lightning as he brought his sickles up in front of himself, which I highly doubt was going to help him.

    Or so I thought, when the lightning hit the sickles, runes that I was pretty sure were not there before lit up, and my lightning spell fizzled out, leaving the runes still glowing on his sickles.

    I squinted my eyes at his sickels, and from what I could tell, this was either a dispel or adsorption enchantment, and I was really hoping it was just a dispel, because if it was an adsorption type, that meant the sickles were either powering something or waiting to unleash something, and nether sounded good for my health, but from the look of those still gowling runes, I would put my money on adsorption type.

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    The moment the lizardman touched the ground again, he was once again low to the ground and speeding at me.

    As he closed in, I twisted my back foot on the ground while discreetly using instinctive magic to turn the surface of the paved ground to dust and kicked said dust at the lizardman with the assistance of some wind magic to really puff up the dust in his face.

    The moment the lizardman caught a face full of dust, I stepped to the left and gave my best golf swing with my sword at my low opponent, only for him to raise one of his sickles at the last moment to catch my blade.

    The moment our blades made contact, I felt the impact and saw a dust-obscured figure veer away from me, but at the same time, I also felt a jolt of electricity run from my sword and into my body, seizing up my muscles and dropping me to the floor like a falling statue.

    By the time I hit the floor, my muscles were once again under my control and I scrambled to get to my feet, and just in time too, because a sickle swiped and made a gash in the ground where my right foot was just a split second ago.

    On instinct, I was about to swing my sword back in the direction of the swing, but remembered what just happened when our weapons made contact and pulled back at the last moment. Instead, I jumped forward to make more distance between us and prepare for another clash.

    As I got back into a ready stance and readied more spells for quick use, the dust cloud settled to reveal a dust-covered lizardman just standing there, and as I looked at his sickles, one of them had lost the glowing runes, which confirmed my suspicions of those sickles being absorption enchanted weapons that released my own spell back on me when our weapons made contact.

    But on the bright side, I can see that his eyes are caked in brown dust, and him losing his vision in a fight is a great advanta-...

    ¡°You got to be shitting me!¡± I cussed out loud as some kind of membrane opened sideways to reveal clear eyes. Does that mean that lizardfolk also have traits of other reptiles like this third eyelid? What were they called again? Nictitating membranes or something like that.

    Well, this is bullshit! First the hobgoblin brute, and now this. This is the second time I have ever used the pocket sand technique and both were not blinded. I swear, one of these days, I am going to get sand in someone¡¯s eyes and beat them senseless!

    The lizardman picks out the accumulated dust at the corner of his eyes and looks down at his body, ¡°You are going to pay for this, now I am going to need to have my clothes laundered and the underside of my scales cleaned. Do you know how hard it is to find someone to do it properly?¡±

    The lizardman opened his mouth to continue his rant but stopped as an identical lizardman landed beside the one I was fighting, but the newcomer was holding a bleeding stab wound on his side.

    ¡°We need to wrap this up, we will have incoming soon.¡± the new lizard man said.

    The lizardman I was fighting nodded and replied, ¡°This one is skilled, you go after the other two, they are on the way to the Adventurers Guild.¡±

    The new lizardman nodded and jumped to the wall to spring up to the roof, but I denied his exit. As the new lizardman was in midair, I used instinctive magic to manifest a strong down draft that pushed him off balance and forced him to land.

    Next, I stomped the ground and a wall of earth rose from the ground to cut off the exit to the alley, ¡°I can¡¯t let you do that.¡± I said.

    I was hoping to just hold this guy off until help arrived, but now that there are two of them and that our minders are most likely dead because of these two, I cannot hold back anymore. The only thing I will need to make sure of by the end of this encounter is that there are no witnesses.

 Chapter 122

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The second lizardman turned back from the wall I raised and drew two sickles that looked identical to the first lizardman¡¯s.

    ¡°Confident one isn''t he, brother,¡± the second lizardman said, ¡°What can I say, I hate to admit it, but despite his lack of experience, he can back up that confidence. Let''s finish this fast.¡± the first lizardman replied and they burst into motion.

    In response to their move, I closed my eyes and emitted a full-body flash as I jumped backward. A heartbeat later, I hear the sounds of the lizardmen¡¯s sickles woosh through the empty air in front of me.

    I opened my eyes to see floating spots in my vision and the blurry figures of the two lizardmen in front of me, I may be immune to my own spells, but I am hardly immune to the secondary effect of the light bouncing off the walls and flashing myself.

    Note to self, never use full body flash in enclosed areas. At the moment, all three of us were stationary and stock still, it took a couple of seconds for my vision to get back into focus, and I looked at the two lizardmen.

    Their heads were pointed in my general direction, but their eyes were closed, and their tongues were constantly flicking out of their mouth, so I could safely assume that I successfully blinded them.

    In order to end this quickly, I spun up two earth bullets to shoot them, but somehow the two lizardmen reacted as their heads snapped to my exact position, this means they have some way of detecting magic, but I can think about all that at a later time.

    I shot my earth bullets, but the lizardmen scattered and my earth bullets hit the dirt behind them, scattering dirt high in the air.

    They blindly charged at me and slashed with synchronized perfection as the first lizardman went low, as the second went high.

    As much as I wanted to jump back once more to avoid their slashes, I was quickly running out of space before I hit the alley¡¯s dead end, and I wanted some space to maneuver, so I chose to block instead of dodge.

    But as I saw a glowing sickle coming toward me, I remembered that the first lizardman still had a sickle with my lightning spell stored inside, ready to be released upon contact with me or my sword.

    So I hopped over the bottom slash and caught the top attack with my sword, this made me spin in the air, and in the spur of the moment after spinning a whole rotation, as i was midair, an amusing idea struck me as i decided to perform some ¡®wrestling¡¯ moves and performed a drop kick with wind instinctive magic mixed in.

    This sent both me and the second lizardman flying in opposite directions. While the lizardman ate dirt upon landing, I smashed into the wall of the alley¡¯s dead end, making a loud enough sound for the first lizardman to hone in on my position and charge me again.

    I quickly recovered and saw an opportunity, the two lizardmen were currently blind and separated from each other, and even better, the lizardman I sent flying with a drop kick landed smacking the alley wall, so with the remaining time I had left before the first lizard man reached me, I stomped the ground again, sending two walls of earth up against the alley wall to form a tetrahedron with the second lizardman trapped inside.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    As the first lizardman closed in, I could see he had his eyes partially opened and was once again focused on me, which meant his sight was recovering from the flash.

    His aura-powered body zigged and zagged as he approached me, most likely in an attempt to throw me off from where he was approaching from.

    But to me, this mattered little, as I was not in the mood for such petty tricks, the time for that was over, now was the time to cut loose.

    I punched the air in front of me and used instinctive magic to release a gout of fire, that covered a good portion of the alleyway, hoping that the sickles were unable to absorb from a wider area.

    As the fire left my fist, I saw the lizardman raise both his sickles, prepared to absorb my flames, what happened instead, was my flames washing over him and he released a shriek of pain as he jumped out of my blast of flame.

    When my flames dispersed shortly after, the lizardman did not look so hot, metaphorically speaking, in reality, he was on fire. The left side of his face and torso was covered in red and black splotches where his scales were peeled back due to the heat flash cooking his skin and his shirt was on fire. It was also safe to assume that his left eye was also damaged by how tightly he closed it.

    But besides the crispy lizardman, the other thing I noticed was the sickles he used to absorb my spell were the same, one of them was still glowing while the other was not, and he used both to block.

    Could this mean instinctive magic is immune to absorption enchantments? I mean, come to think of it, the lightning spell he absorbed earlier was a constructed lightning spell, a concept of lightning, mana imitating lightning.

    Whereas the fire I shot him with was instinctive magic, and from what Professor Sageira described it during our discussions, it is my mana and will imposed upon the world to manifest phenomena like the fire I just shot out, no concept, no runes, just mana turned into real fire. Which means nothing for his sickles to absorb.

    The lizardman ripped away his still burning shirt and threw it aside as he snarled at me with hate in his remaining eye, it was around this time that a boom came from behind the first lizardman, revealing the second lizardman had just managed to punch his way out of the foot thick hardened earth I trapped him in and was widening the hole by the second.

    But despite my soon to be two on one fight, I find this to be a great opportunity to confirm the theory of instinctive magic being immune to absorption enchantment, and also, now was no better time to let loose with no holds barred on live targets that mean to do me harm.

    Let''s start off small. I stabbed my sword into the ground and performed a light one-two combo punch with wind instinctive magic and sent two compressed packets of air that were visible from the warped air as they traveled toward the first lizardman.

    They hit the lizardman¡¯s sickles with dull thuds, but it was nothing his aura-powered body could not shrug off. Looks like I will have to take it up a notch, I threw a three-punch combo with a lot more strength and intent, followed by a roundhouse kick and a spinning hook kick.

    This sent three of what I could only describe as air bullets, followed by two horizontal air blades. This time, the air bullets hit the lizardman, the first air bullet was caught on the flat of his sickles and pushed him back, the second bullet caught him on the shoulder, sending him spinning, and by then he knew he could be hurt by the air bullet and dodged the last one, and when he saw the two air blades, it looked like he did not want to have anything to do with those and dropped to the ground as the air blades went over him. And he was lucky he got down because the two air blades dug long gashes into the alley wall.

    ¡°Ok, that was cool.¡± I mumbled to myself as this brought up memories of watching cartoons of a bald kid who had the elements at his command, and I was starting to wonder if I could do the same.

 Chapter 123

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    With the first lizardman lying on the ground and the second lizardman crawling out of the dirt trap, I decided to take inspiration from my previous life, with all the cartoons and anime I watched, and also put all those martial arts lessons I learned to some use.

    I started slow, going through the different forms I could remember, infusing every strike with instinctive magic being slung out. I continued with wind instinctive magic for a while but soon decided to switch things up.

    I whirled my arms in circular motions as I pulled moisture out of the air in the alley, which to my disappointment, did not amount to much, maybe ? of a cup, but I was not going to complain, I could still do stuff with this.

    I spread my fingers out and the small ball of water I gathered separated into multiple floating marble-sized blobs of water and they froze over, with my ice marbles at the ready, I shot my arms out in rapid succession sending the ice marbles shooting at both the lizardmen, and to their credit, they blocked and parried every single one of the ice marbles as they shattered on their sickles.

    But I was not done yet, all that shattered ice was lying dormant at their feet, and I was not going to waste this opportunity.

    The moment the last ice marble was smashed, I raised both my arms in an X, and the ice fragments around them melted, reformed into ice needles, and flew up at them from below.

    The both of them let out hisses of pain as they both jumped back and got into a more defensive stance. But after taking a closer look, the ice needles did not seem to do much damage because normal clothes seemed to mitigate most of the damage, so it kind of sucked for the first lizardman because he was half naked, so came out of this taking more damage than the other guy.

    ¡°What is going on, brother? Why are our weapons not absorbing these spells?¡± the second lizardman half shouted.

    ¡°I don''t know, the more important question is how is he casting so fast? This feels more like we are fighting a Magic Beast instead of a mage, our weapons did not work on their magic¡­ either¡­¡± As the words left the first lizardman¡¯s mouth, the color drained out of his unburned scales, and the second lizardman¡¯s reaction soon followed.

    ¡°Ascended Beasts.¡± the second lizardman said as they both stared at stared at me with wide eyes.

    ¡°But how? I fought him before you arrived. While strong for his size, he is well within the realms of humans!¡± The first lizardman exclaimed.

    ¡°He was clearly just toying with you until I went for the other two boys.¡± the second lizardman said with a grim expression.

    As for me, I was having a hard time schooling my face into a look of indifference and I almost blew out a laugh when he called me an Ascended Beast.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Ascended Beasts are Magic Beasts that are old/wise/powerful/intelligent enough to take on the form of the civilized races at will. Currently, there are no known cases of weak Ascended Beasts, it is more or less common knowledge that when faced with an Ascended Beast, it is better to run or beg for your life.

    There were even some records I had read about, kingdoms who needed to put down a single Ascended Beast for whatever reason, had to be prepared to lose a few knight orders, or up to a battalion of normal troops, or the third option if the kingdom/empire had the connections, hire or bribe a neutral Ascended Beasts to take care of the problem.

    And I could see where the lizardmen¡¯s fears were coming from, Professor Sageira could also be classified as an Ascended Beast and I would not want to fight her even if I was ten times stronger than I was now. But these two idiots think I am an Ascended beast because I am throwing around instinctive magic.

    So I made an impulse decision and played into the role they accused me of. I brought myself to my full height and released an exaggerated sigh, ¡°So you found out¡­ you know what this means, don''t you? Now I cannot let you leave here alive.¡±

    The two lizardmen visibly shivered at my words. ¡°But I would consider it if you tell me who sent you, it is the least you could do after inconveniencing my stay in this kingdom.¡± I said as a way to give them an out and get some info out of them at the same time.

    The second lizardman bowed to the ground, followed by the first lizardman, ¡°We are sorry Ascended One, even we do now know who sent us. Please spare our lives.¡±

    ¡°Oh? You know not who sends you to your death?¡± I said with as much pomp I could draw out in my voice after being called ¡®Ascended One¡¯, ¡°Not even a hint of where I can find someone who would know such answers?¡±

    The two of them pressed their heads harder onto the ground, ¡°Apologies, Ascended One, we cannot say, while our lives may be forfeit, us leaking this information will condemn the lives of others.¡±

    I sighed, in other words, they were most likely given the job via multiple intermediaries to protect the identity of who is targeting us, and if word gets out that they snitched and someone up their line of hire got hit, their loved ones will be targeted.

    That meant they no longer had any use to me, and I was not about to turn them over to the authorities for them to learn I can use instinctive magic, which means I will have to kill them, but with them bowing with their heads on the ground, I could not bring myself to just execute them. If it were up to me, no man should die on their knees begging, the best deaths are those that go down swinging.

    Although these two may be kidnapping bastards, they are still skilled warriors, and a warrior¡¯s death is the least I could give them. ¡°Be that as it may, you have borne witness to me, and I cannot let you live. So rise and ready yourself, the best I can give you is a warrior¡¯s death.¡±

    From their kneeling position, they looked at each other, nodded, and faced me with resolve in their eyes as they stood and readied themselves, while doing so, they reached in their pockets and took some kind of paper sachet and a small vial each.

    After tearing off the top of the paper sachet, they downed the powder inside and chased it with the liquid in the small vial. A few seconds later, I saw the sclera of their eyes go blood red, steam started pouring out of their nose and mouths, and the inner part of their scales started turning a shade of red contrasting against their original greyish-brown scales.

    The two lizardmen then straightened, crossed their sickles across their chest, and bowed to me. In response, I picked up my sword, brought the flat of the sword up to my face in a salute, and once again planted my sword on the ground beside me.

    The two lizardmen rose from their bow and took their stance, and I did the same, it was time to end this.

 Chapter 124

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I started the fight once again with a one-two push that sent paving stones on either side of me flying at the lizardmen, but in response, I hit nothing as the two of them disappeared almost instantly, leaving behind two webs of cracks on the ground where they once stood.

    My eyes went wide as I remembered enough anime to know what was going to happen next, and I threw myself forward into a roll and swiftly turned around to see the two lizardmen with four sickles dug into the ground where I was standing.

    But I only saw them for a split second before they disappeared again, leaving those web of cracks on the ground.

    Thinking fast, I gathered mana in my palms and clapped them together above my head, releasing a clap that sounded like thunder that unleashed a strong pulse of wind, and just in time too, as the pulse of wind threw off my two assailants midair, sending them flying over me as they waved their arms around in an attempt to regain balance midair.

    As they went over my head, I turned around and punched the air in front of me, shooting out a gout of fire wide enough to engulf the two of them, but the first lizardman saw the flames coming and managed to do something about it.

    Before my fire reached them, the first lizardman kicked the second in his side, sending them flying in opposite directions and smashing into the alley walls, but avoiding my fire blast altogether.

    But as much as I would have liked to follow up with another few blasts of instinctive magic, I was starting to feel the drain on my mana, it was not long since I picked up Professor Sageira¡¯s way of performing instinctive magic, and it was taking up a lot more mana than the way I do it, but I cannot argue with the power and instant casting speed, when compared to my efficient yet slower version of instinctive magic.

    I could not risk running out of mana here, not if it would cause me to lapse in concentration, so that meant no more big flashy instinctive magic like the fire I just shot out, at best, I would have to save my mana for small and precise shots.

    As they fell to the ground and were recovering, I dashed forward, past the spot where I planted my sword on the ground, and yanked my sword out as I charged the first lizard man a few meters away.

    Before he could properly get his feet under him, I struck with a downward swing that he caught with both his sickles, but that forced him off his feet again and on his butt.

    In order to finish him off fast, I kept him on the defense with repeated strikes from above to keep him distracted and brought a foot forward to step on his left foot. The moment I made contact with his foot, I sent lightning instinctive magic out my foot, not enough to kill, but just enough to seize up his muscles while his sickles were protecting his head, giving me just enough time to reverse my grip and plunge my sword into his unguarded chest where the heart should be.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°NO!¡± I heard from behind me, and I turned just in time to see a sickle spinning through the air, and hitting me on the right shoulder. I hissed in pain as the sickle dug into my rented leather armor and cut me.

    This hit threw me back against the wall, but before I could recover, the second lizardman kicked me right through the wall, and as I was sent rolling, I felt my aura almost buckle and wink out even as I crashed into other things as I rolled to a stop.

    As I scrambled to my feet, I saw that I was in a dark and dust-covered room that looked like an abandoned bar or restaurant, and as I got to my feet, the figure of the second lizardman came rushing out of the cloud of kicked up dust, his remaining sickle clutched with both hands as he brought it down on me.

    I dodged to the side as the sickle came down and cut up the wooden floor, and I used my dodging momentum to grab a nearby chair, spin around, and smash it down on him, but besides stumbling him a step, it showed little effect.

    He then swung his sickle at my neck and that''s when we started exchanging blows in earnest.

    At first, his movements were almost a blur to me as I tried to defend myself, taking cuts on my arms and legs, but as I took advantage of the furniture strewn all over the place to keep my distance, I slowly got used to his speed.

    Now I am not saying that I could match his speed and power after he consumed whatever it was to buff them, but I could now see he had a pattern of attack and I was using it to avoid hits or throw things in his way.

    Once I got somewhat used to his attack pattern, I decided to make a move to end this.

    Throughout this fight, I have been on the retreat, so I had to turn the tables on him, and in this case, quite literally. As I kited him around the room, I waited until the end of the current attack combo he was trying to hit me with.

    On his last strike, I dodged, hopped backward on a table, rolled backward off of it, and when my feet landed on the other side, I kicked-flipped the table at his face.

    Naturally, I was not expecting a table to stop someone like him as he split the table down the middle, but what he sure as shit did not see coming was me being right behind that table as my sword punched through one of the split halves and nailed him right in the shoulder of the arm that was wielding the remaining sickle.

    We both fell to the floor with half a table separating the both of us, and the moment we hit the floor, I drew my dagger with my other hand and went straight for his head, his only defense was to bring up his forearm which my dagger impaled but stopped at the hilt, keeping the tip of my dagger mere centimeters away from his neck, and even with my full bodyweight pressing down on the dagger, it still just amounted to the bodyweight of a child and he was slowly pushing me off.

    I had him on the ropes and I was so close to ending it, so I disregarded my low mana and released lightning through my dagger, into his body, just as I did with the first lizardman, making his muscles seize up.

    But even if he seized up, that just meant his body was stuck in position and so was my knife. So before I was totally out of mana, I released the grip on my sword and used my free hand to hammer down on my dagger¡¯s pommel repeatedly, making the dagger point close in and eventually pierce his neck, and I only stopped until I felt the sensation of the lizardman¡¯s spine being severed.

    Only then did I stop the flow of my mana and slump down on the dead body, feeling a bit woozy from the rapid depletion of mana.

    Unfortunately, the world refused to give me a break as I heard the shouting of men and clanking of armor. I got to my feet and started rummaging through the lizardman¡¯s body.

 Chapter 125

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After I took everything I could find on the two lizardmen¡¯s bodies, I could hear the sounds of armored boots so close now, that if I were to take down the wall I created, I think they would be just outside of it.

    So before they decided on what to do with the unknown wall in their way, I hopped to the top of the dead-end wall and peeked to my left and right to see if the coast was clear, and when I confirmed it was, I jumped down and bolted for the nearest main road to get lost in the crowd.

    The only problem that I noticed as I ran along and felt the pain of my fight start to hit me after the adrenalin started to leave my body, was that I looked like I just came from a fight. The side of my face was starting to swell from getting tail slapped, my whole body was dusty from getting kicked through a wall, and my shoulder was bleeding from having a sickle dig into it.

    So if the authorities were looking for someone who was fighting nearby recently, I was a solid pick from my look alone. So I had to either conceal my appearance or make sure nobody saw me.

    Luckily, the answer was just on top of me as I turned to walk an empty path. There, just hanging above me, was someone¡¯s hanging laundry, and hanging on the laundry line between two houses, was a dark woodland green-colored hooded cloak

    In one swift aura-powered jump, I reached the hooded cloak on the second story and swapped out the hooded cloak with a silver coin held to the line with a clothespeg.

    When I joined the main road, I was already thinking of ways to explain to Dave and Sam how I got into the state I was currently in. I wish I had taken the healing class as one of my electives, if I did, I could have healed myself up, dust myself off and I would look like nothing had happened.

    But that would still not explain the small cuts on my arms, legs, and shoulder. Especially the shoulder where the sickle cut into, the gash on the leather shoulder pad of the rented armor is too obvious to explain away.

    I sighed as the best course of action I could think up was to get some adults to help me. So instead of joining my friends at the Adventurers Guild to turn in our quest for the day, I sped off toward the Royal Academy.

    When I reached the academy¡¯s gates, I had to show my identification and show my face, but besides a raised eyebrow from the Royal Guard stationed there, I was let through.

    As for who to approach, I considered Professor Sageira, but decided to go to Instructor Greyham instead. He seemed to be the one running things when Dave and Sam returned with backup during the whole smuggler incident. Professor Sageira on the other hand just seemed to tag along to collect samples and poke at corpses.

    After asking around, it was fortunate that Instructor Greyham was currently in, so I went to his office and knocked on his door. ¡°Instructor, it is Luke Ironcrest.¡± I announced myself.

    ¡°Come in.¡± I heard from the other side.

    I entered with my cloak and hood still on and he looked up from his paperwork to give me a questioning look, ¡°Luke, what can I do for you? And why are you in that oversized cloak? For God''s sake, we are indoors, stop being dramatic and put down that.¡±

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    I complied and lowered my hood to reveal my swollen cheek, to which Instructor Greyham sighed, reached into his drawer, and pulled out what looked like a form he was going to fill out. ¡°Ok, with your level of strength, I am surprised to see you here like this, but at the end of the day, this is part of my job. So tell me, who bullied you?¡±

    ¡°What? No! I am not here to lodge a bullying incident, I am here because I was stalked and ambushed by armed men, lizardfolk to be precise.¡± I said as I threw off the cloak to reveal the state of my body.

    Seeing me, instructor Greyham''s first reaction was to stand up so fast, that his chair flew back and hit the wall.

    ¡°What?!¡± he bellowed, but I raised my hand to stop him.

    ¡°Before I continue, please send someone to escort Dave and Sam back here, they should be at the Adventurers Guild¡±

    Without question, he shouted for his assistant and told him to get some Royal Guards and fetch the boys.

    ¡°Sit.¡± Greyham pretty much commanded, and after retrieving his chair he sat in front of me and said ¡°Start talking.¡±

    From there, I started spewing a slightly altered accounting of what happened. In this accounting, I never mentioned anything about our minders, I only spotted the lizardfolk stalking us by accident, and I definitely never used instinctive magic.

    I also described the height, scale color, and dress of my assailant, not like it would help, they are already dead in an alley, but I mentioned it anyway, I also put two pairs of sickles on the table.

    ¡°By the way, I want those back, they are mine by right of conquest.¡± I said with a cheeky smile that was quickly wiped off my face by Greyham¡¯s scowl.

    ¡°You can have it back after it has done its job as evidence.¡± Greyham growled out.

    He then proceeded to spend the next two hours squeezing every bit of info I had regarding the attack out of me before calling someone to escort me to the Healer on duty.

    After I was healed, I exited the nurse¡¯s office to find one of the assistant instructors waiting for me with a message, and the message was that me and the boys were once again confined to campus grounds once again.

    I was then escorted to get some early dinner and then straight to my dorm, where I noticed more Royal Guards than usual patrolling around.

    ***

    Within the day word of the attack on Luke Ironcrest and the identity of his assailants reached the ear of King Argus IV and he was livid. Being the muscle for brains that he was, he could faintly remember the name Ironcrest, but forgot what the context he remembered it was for, only that it was positive.

    But he was not angry because the son of the man who saved his life during war was targeted, no, he was livid because a student of the Royal Academy was attacked by entities/organizations within his own damned capital.

    Especially a student from an academy under the auspices of the royal family. Now, King Argus IV may not be the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to rulers, but if there was one thing he learned from his father, the previous king, it was that the future of the kingdom came from the academies, especially the Royal Academy, and so far, the criminal element had either been successful in perpetrating crimes against students without leaving any evidence that could be traced back to them, or they avoid targeting them at all.

    So now that he had the identities of the dead assailants, all he had to do was trace it back and stomp out whoever ordered this job. But to the king¡¯s frustration, his Spy Master came back with news of a string of middlemen found dead in their homes or ditches, and no leads to spare.

    Seeing as he was not going to get what he wanted, he was going to do things as he usually did, by force, and using a ¡°proportional¡± response to this situation at hand.

    In other words, he was going to shake the whole fucking metaphorical tree and see what falls out.

 Chapter 126

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    The next day, at 4am in the morning, before people usually woke up to start the day, at each garrison station throughout the whole capital city, a Royal Guard pretty much kicked in the door of each garrison¡¯s commanding officer¡¯s sleeping quarters and shoved royal orders in their face.

    Within half an hour, troops were flooding out of their garrisons into the dark morning. They positioned themselves on the different layers of the city walls that separated different districts, the main and minor gates, and even the sewer exits that poured waste out of the city.

    And when all the troops were in place, platoons of soldiers led by the kingdom¡¯s spy master¡¯s men started kicking down doors of all known and suspected criminal organizations, especially those they know have a legit front.

    Throughout the capital, there were sounds of scuffles, beatdowns, magic flying through the air, and people being dragged out of buildings.

    By the time the sun rose, there were lines of people in chains being marched into carriages that traveled towards the king¡¯s castle, and there was a surprisingly large number of people who were caught outside the walls. Not only from the sewer exits, but also previously undiscovered tunnels that the soldiers went into to trace where it led to.

    And while all this was happening, a certain brothel owner who put this whole kerfuffle into motion by hiring two lizardfolk was hiding in the in the sewers along with many other criminals who escaped in time.

    ***

    It was late morning on the day of the crackdown on crime in the capital as King Argus IV looked over his capital from a balcony in his castle.

    He had read through the preliminary reports of what was discovered when he decided to ¡°shake the whole fucking metaphorical tree and see what falls out.¡±, and was rather disappointed with his finding.

    But it was not the lack of what was found that disappointed him, it was how much was found that disappointed him.

    In his education, while he was being groomed to become the next king, he learned that as much as he could try, crime could never be 100% stamped out, and if he ever tried¡­ he could just read the historical accounts of his and other kingdoms that have tried or are still trying this utopian world of having totally no crime.

    Needless to say, it never went well. What was needed was to balance the scales between public safety and the freedoms he bestowed upon his citizens, and from what he had read so far¡­ it seemed like the scales needed rebalancing.

    The initial reports told him that the walls of his city were not as hard to penetrate as he thought it was, in fact, there were enough tunnels or camouflage holes in the walls to make a sapper envious, but that was not all. He was expecting a black market or two, not seven of them with some of them selling slaves that had been outlawed in his country centuries ago.

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    As he was thinking of all the shit that was happening under his nose, he recalled the record of the last time a shakedown like this happened. It was done by his great-grandfather late into his reign as king, and while it cleaned up a lot of the problems within his country, it was also akin to political suicide. Because along with the cleanup of the criminal element, came a long list of names that came out of the criminals¡¯ mouths in hopes of clemency. Names and words of their nefarious or traitorous deeds that his late great-grandfather could not ignore.

    Not just any names, noble names. King Argus IV closed his eyes as he knew that he was going to go through the same thing as his late great-grandfather did. That was when he heard a sequence of knocks on his door that he recognized.

    ¡°Come in.¡± he said, and a masked individual who was his Spy Master walked in and came up behind him.

    ¡°Your Majesty, the latest reports¡­ it does not look good.¡± his Spy Master said as he turned around and grabbed the out-stretched report, and as he read it the king''s brows creased as he confirmed for himself that he was indeed going to follow in the footsteps of his late great-grandfather.

    Within was a long list of names of nobles, merchants, and civil servants in rather high positions being accused, and with proof of them doing some heinous and potentially traitorous things.

    When the king was done reading, he pinched the bridge of his nose and said the words that were going to cause him a lot of grief, but had to be done for the sake of the kingdom¡¯s health, wealth, and security.

    ¡°Proceed with the arrests.¡± King Argus IV said with a weary voice.

    ¡°All of them? Are you sure your Majesty?¡± the Spy Master asked, knowing the consequences of executing this order.

    ¡°Yes.¡± the king answered and the Spy Master bowed and walked away.

    Before the Spy Master, left the room, the king called out, ¡°Spy Master¡­ I started this to make an example of those targeting the country¡¯s interest, only for it to escalate to this. Am I doing the right thing? Taking so many powerful people to task?¡±

    The Spy Master turned around, and after a moment of silence, responded, ¡°In the long term¡­ Yes. But for the near future, I fear your right to the throne will be called into question, and if noble blood is to be spilled, you may be called a mad king. But I will do everything in my power to lessen the blow, your Majesty.¡±, and with a bow, exited the room.

    ***

    Me and the boys have been confined to campus grounds for a week and counting, and in that time, I have been hearing some crazy news of the capital being in a state of upheaval or some shit like that.

    No names were mentioned, but turns out that my attempted kidnapping pissed the king off big time, and he turned the capital¡¯s criminal underworld on its head.

    After the second day of the crackdown, I heard of riots and lynching of criminals and thugs in the streets by the average citizens. It got to the point that all the students living on campus were also confined for their own safety.

    Due to this, me and the boys are a little bummed out for not being able to take on any more jobs until we are given the OK to leave, but thankfully there were still some things to keep busy with in school.

    While the boys practiced their swordsmanship and got some extra classes from the instructors on duty, I took this time to continue tempering my mana pathways while assisting Professor Sageira and practicing my enchanting.

    There are two more weeks left before a new school term starts, and I can¡¯t wait for my school year to be over so I can visit my family.

 Chapter 127

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    Before I knew it, the school break was over and I was back at classes, as for all the ruckus caused by my attempted kidnapping, it turns out the king¡¯s shakedown of the criminal world revealed more than he was asking for.

    Turns out that quite a number of high-profile people were implicated in some really bad shit, and from what I hear, the Crown Prosecutor is having a field day with all the sentences he is slinging out, the result of said sentences have resulted in imprisonment for the majority of the prosecuted, execution of a fair number of others, and stripping of many titles and lands by the crown, and word on the street is that since this massed scandal kicked off, there had been no less than ten attempts on the Crown Prosecutor and his family¡¯s life. Poor chap, I hope they survive this.

    Speaking of survival, I am starting to worry about my own. Ever since school got started again, I have been getting more dirty looks than usual. At first, I thought it was just kids being moody that they have to come back to school, but it persisted for a few days, and some of the more daring ones tried to pull some petty shit trip or attempt ¡®pranks¡¯ on me.

    When they found that I was stronger and more observant than they could handle, they resorted to talking shit and starting rumors behind my back, basic schoolyard bullshit, so I was not so worried about it, but I still wanted to know what caused this sudden escalation in hostility, and from what I could see, it was coming from a few nobles and the more well-dressed commoners who I think are most likely merchant kids.

    When I asked around the schoolmates who did not seem hostile to me, it turns out that it is an ¡°unconfirmed¡± rumor that I was involved or was the cause of the king¡¯s shakedown, and those who were giving me the stink eye were those who had friends and family who were implicated and charged.

    So after hearing the news of my involvement being leaked, even though Instructor Greyham told me a gag order on my involvement had been put in place, I was understandably pissed. Luckily the rumors are limited to me, so Dave and Sam were not mentioned at all.

    When I brought up my concerns about this situation, Instructor Greyham was also pissed and said he will launch an investigation into where the info leak came from.

    ***

    Another week passed, and things started to escalate, I had three groups of boys who stalked and cornered me when I was moving about, all of them were year-six noble and merchant boys, and it was rather amusing to see them act tough.

    Apparently, me not looking scared and even chuckling at them trying to be intimidating struck a nerve as they started throwing hands.

    Wanting to be the bigger man, as it were, I resist the urge to beat them senseless to teach them a lesson and settle things with quick blows to their chins to lay out the tough guy wannabes.

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    This shook their brain cases and dropped them fast. Those who retained their consciousness were struck again. Hopefully, they would wake up not knowing what happened, I can remember the first time I got knocked out back in my old world, it was when I was sparing with my gym buddies, after regaining consciousness, it took me a while to remember where I was and why I was lying down on the mat. Good times.

    I was tempted to arrange their unconscious bodies in compromising positions out in the open, but I thought better of it and just shifted them to an obscure corner.

    After dealing with those groups of wannabe thugs, things were relatively peaceful for two weeks. Seeing as I knocked some sense into them, they seemed to be more subdued and actively avoided me when I walked through the halls.

    But all good things must come to an end. One day after class was dismissed and all the teachers rushed off for their monthly teachers¡¯ meeting, who else but Oswald fucking Berkeley, his possie, the three groups of boys that I knocked out, and more, boxed me in from both ends of the hallway, publicly confronting me in a hallway where many students were loitering and chatting.

    ¡°Luke Ironcrest! Where do you think you are going? We have matters to settle with you after what you caused!¡± Oswald shouted, catching the attention of the surrounding students.

    And to think he was so quiet around me all these months¡­ did he just so happen to grow a pair because he now has so much backup? If so, that is quite pathetic.

    I sighed and turned around, ¡°Oh? And what is it that I have caused?¡± I said, acting oblivious to what he was talking about.

    ¡°You know what you did! Because of you, many people lost their lives! My uncle died because of you!¡± one of the noble boys in the group confronting me shouted. Which makes me wonder, what do they actually know of the situation that they are coming at me with this bullshit? But at this point, I do not really care for their half-baked knowledge and petty bullshit.

    ¡°Oh my!¡± I exclaimed with as much sarcasm I could manifest, ¡°I don¡¯t remember killing a nobleman. But I do remember a whole slew of executions for high crimes and treason recently, was he by chance one of them?¡±

    At my question, he and many others grit their teeth. At their momentary silence that pretty much answered my question for the audience listening in, I looked back at Oswald and asked, ¡°Well, now that I know these idiots are confronting me because their friends and family were found guilty by the crown, and for some reason blaming me for their undoing, what¡¯s your excuse, Oswald? Any family members got executed recently?¡±

    ¡°How dare you! A lowly Baron¡¯s son, insinuating such things about a Marquess¡¯ house in good standing!¡± Oswald shouted in outrage.

    I just shrug, as I was thinking of a way to end this farce now and for the foreseeable future, but seeing as most of these boys are from nobility, the only way I can think to do so is to hurt their pride, and since they gathered the audience and looked ready to commit violence, I might as well make use the situation and break their pride with the same violence they seem to want to inflict on me.

    ¡°Hey, if the people you are confronting me with is the sort of company you keep, you can hardly blame anybody for insinuating a thing or two. But let''s be real here, the real question is, what are you going to do about it? Are you feeling like a big brave boy now that you got more people with you? So, unless you boys are here to invite me to a picnic, make a move, or fuck off.¡±

    You gathered all these people to berate, cower, and possibly attack me, so how will you react now that I did not cower and called you out? Either gang up on me and look like a bitch for bringing so many people to fight one person, or back off and look like a bigger bitch, your choice, Oswald and friends.

 Chapter 128

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    Being called out on his own call out in front of commoners and nobles alike, regardless of being involved in this confrontation, did not leave Oswald much choice but to square up and follow through with the implied threat that was bringing together so many people just to confront Luke Ironcrest to knock him down a few pegs.

    He knew what he was doing was borderline disgraceful even if things did not come to blows, but now he was left to choose between a bad or worse choice, so he was going to make the best of it and at the very least, wipe the smile of off Luke Ironcrest¡¯s face.

    ¡®In classes, he has shown swordsmanship that even I cannot match at the moment, but now let''s see how he is going to do without his sword.¡¯ Oswald thought to himself, forgetting the first time Luke beat him and his posse bare-handed, in his mind, that was a surprise attack and did not count.

    ¡°So? What¡¯s it going to be? You guys gonna just gawk at each other and wait for someone to make the first move? How about you, uncle¡¯s boy?¡± Luke mockingly called out to one of the upperclassmen, Branston, the third son of the Viscount Dorwell household, ¡°You going to take a swing? Or is your bum too sore to move after taking a long sit on your precious uncle¡¯s lap?¡±

    Oswald looked at Branston to see if he had any witty comeback to win some points for their side, but all Oswald saw was Branston going stock still and white in the face with horror.

    After a moment of silence, Luke Ironcrest spoke out with mild surprise in his voice, ¡°Oh¡­ Oh my¡­ you really loved your uncle like that¡­¡±

    At Luke¡¯s statement, muttering and excited gasps started amongst the observers, especially the girls for reasons Oswald did not know.

    Not knowing what Luke was talking about, Oswald looked around to see if anyone had an idea of the meaning of Luke¡¯s words and noticed that while most had looks of confusion on their faces, some others had grim looks of disapproval or pity aimed at Branston, and there were even some mutterings of Branston¡¯s uncle deserving what he got.

    As for Branston, his look of stilled horror gave way to rage as he shouted, elbowed others out of the way, and charged Luke.

    ¡°Wait!¡± Oswald said as he reached out to try and grab Branston before he could attack Luke, but he was too slow. ¡®We should have attacked him together! Now it is going to start with an unorganized fight!¡¯ Oswald thought to himself.

    ***

    Turns out the noble bussy boy here did not take well to me accidentally calling him out on his scandalous relationship with his uncle, but I can¡¯t have all the blame on this, he could have not frozen up and at least tried to lie, or be a better actor. Even now, as bussy boy is charging me and flaring his aura, I can hear the girls in the hallway talking about boy love fantasies, what is it with girls and the boy love genre anyway? I guess some things don''t change even in a different world.

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    Oswald tried to stop bussy boy, but was too late, and now that bussy boy was almost upon me, Oswald decided to give the signal to start things off and the hallway broke out in chaos.

    Bussy boy reached me and threw a haymaker at my head, and I replied by moving into the punch with a counter punch as his fist flew past my head.

    But with no aura activated, the counter punch, which hit him right on his nose, did little more than stun him while throwing his head back, which was something I remedied quickly.

    As I flared my aura, I noticed the effect that tempering my mana pathways also affected my aura, I found that my aura, which was essentially just my stamina energy ignited with a spark of mana, could now speed around not only my muscles but also my mana pathways at an accelerated speed.

    After doing some tests, I estimated a 20% increase in the potency of my aura, but it came at the cost of an additional third more stamina energy. But I only had to worry about that in long fights, I was not planning to have a long fight today.

    With my aura on and bussy boy¡¯s head still in the process of snapping back from my punch, I bent him over with a punch to the gut and whispered into his ear, ¡°Keep your aura up and teeth clenched if you don''t want to die.¡±

    I then spun around him, bent down to grab him by the ankles, and swung bussy boy at another charging idiot. This sent the idiot flying as I once again swung my reluctant weapon at another boy.

    Soon, I realized this was the perfect weapon for this situation because firstly, these boys were unwilling to shoot any magic in case of friendly fire against my weapon. Secondly, because my weapon is blunt and fleshy, so I am not expecting anything more than bruising on my weapon or targets. And lastly, because the majority of my current opponents are nobles, there were a lot of them who were able to use aura, ensuring that even if my weapon and target¡¯s head smack each other, I highly doubt their skulls will crack.

    By the time I smacked my sixth opponent, I noticed the aura of my bussy boy weapon was no longer active and found that he was out cold, I then noticed one of the aura-clad boys get hit with an Augment spell that made his uniform glow, meaning it is probably a defensive Augment spell. Perfect, I could always use a tougher weapon.

    I threw bussy boy at my new weapon, forcing him to catch bussy boy, and I used that momentary lack of defense to stun him with a punch to the face, and just like bussy boy, I crouched down and grabbed my new aura and augment clad weapon, and took it for a spin.

    As I continued to beat motherfuckers with a motherfucker, the mages in the group slung out more augments that were allowing the frontline boys to at least tank a blow without flying, and that was not going to do, there were still around fifty people that needed an ass whopping and I did not have the stamina to burn in an attrition match with them.

    I fought my way to a wall and did a wall run to get to the outside of the encirclement where all the mages were, and I made short work of them by giving them bodyslams with my weapon.

    That just left me with the mages on the other side of the mob of boys gunning for me. On the bright side, I am no longer surrounded and had the option of running, but that would be just downright unsportsmanlike to run in the middle of a fight, and how would they learn their lesson of messing with me if I ran away? That just would not do.

 Chapter 129

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    Me and the group of boys who attacked me stared at each other, waiting for each other to make the first move. While we were waiting, my ¡°weapon¡± was groaning and trying to sit up, so I whipped his whole body against the ground, eliciting a groan from him, but surprisingly still managed to maintain his aura.

    Not wanting to let my opponents have the initiative, I charged first, covered my eyes with an arm, and cast a flash spell that made those caught by the blinding light scream in surprise.

    I used this opportunity to jump and use the first row of blinded boys as stepping stones to get to the remaining mages in the back. By the second step, there were already hands reaching up to try and grab me, there were most likely those who were shorter or just lucky enough to have their line of sight blocked when I flashed the group, but they were easy enough to avoid, I just had to aim for those who were covering their eyes as my stepping stones.

    Within four steps, I was amongst the mages and laying the smackdown on them while the rest of the group tried to get me.

    By the time I smacked the last mage student into the wall, I had found myself once again surrounded, but they now did not seem so eager to attack me, and from the way Oswald was looking around at the other boys, he was not so sure himself, but he must have thought of something and shouted for everyone to charge.

    I swung my human weapon, but by now, most of them had Augmentation spells cast on them, and even if the mages were knocked out, the spell would persist for a while. So when my human weapon hit the first boy, he braced with his arms up and tanked the blow as his uniform glowed from the impact it absorbed, while others swarmed past to get to me.

    I had no choice but to relinquish my human weapon and rely on unarmed combat. Knowing that things were not going to be good if I did not manage the amount of people engaging me at the same time, I turned to the closest wall and fought my way toward it. But this time, I did not have the luxury of weapon reach, and I had to be accurate with my strikes to avoid hitting Augmented uniform and breaking my fighting rhythm.

    So that meant headshots attacks and throws. After knocking in some noses and throwing them over my shoulder to my pursuers, I managed to put my back against the wall. That means at most two people could comfortably attack me at the same time.

    After blocking and counterattacking for a few seconds, an idea came to me, and I tried it out. I mentally cast a dark haze spell and soon a bubble of darkness started forming around me.

    It first covered my imminent attackers who panicked and started throwing wild attacks, which were easy to pick out and counter with a hook to the jaw, crumpling them. I then started expanding the dark haze spell to encompass the surrounding boys.

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    Naturally, they backed off as there were no mages left to counter my spell, but seeing as it was my spell, I was not affected by the dark haze and looked around to find the main instigator of all this bullshit, Oswald.

    Now as a personal principle, I don¡¯t want to hit kids, much, but if there is anything I have learned from my travels back in my old world, especially in Asia, is that sometimes, some kids need an ass whopping to get some things through their thick skulls.

    So if I need to beat the idea of not messing with me into Oswald¡¯s head, so be it, I can¡¯t leave this to fester for the rest of my time in this academy. And since he is from a martial house, they must have some training to toughen them up, so I might have to go hard on him. Should be fine, nothing some healing magic can¡¯t fix.

    As I looked at the backing away students, I found Oswald backing away with his lackeys in front of him.

    So, in order to get the jump on him, I would need to modify my spell on the fly to make it so I am not the center of the spell, like everyone is expecting. Once I was done with the modification, I went to the edge of the haze, right in front of Oswald, and saw the boys standing ready for me to come out.

    I then release the spell modification and the center of the spell once again becomes me, this shifts the wave of dark haze to wash over Oswald and those standing behind him. The moment the dark haze washed over them, the front row tried to back up, but the back rows did not react in time, leading to a jam in their retreat.

    This left Oswald blind and free for the picking. So like all the many monster horror movies I have watched, I acted like the monster, I crouched and reached between two of his lackeys, grabbed Oswald¡¯s ankle, and yanked hard while jumping backward.

    This made Oswald shriek in terror as both of us were airborne for a moment, just before I whipped him to the ground, and knocked the air out of him, even with his aura on. And now that he is not doing that stealth aura thing, I can tell that he has a respectable aura quality for his age. But with my mana pathway tempering improving my aura, he is nowhere close to matching me.

    As he was trying to recover, I jumped on top of Oswald in a full mount and slapped Oswald across the face, ¡°You better grit your teeth, Oswald, nobody is coming to save you this time, but I guess you knew that, seeing as this was the moment you used to try and ambush me.¡± I gave him a slap to the other side of the face to even things out.

    From there, I repeatedly slapped Oswald as he brought his arms up to defend his face, soon he started to try to push me away to get some distance and bucked his hips. I used that opening to transition into an armbar. As I flexed, that was when the screaming really started, and the only thing his lackeys and gathered help could do was stare into the dark haze as they heard the screams which were soon interrupted by a visceral pop sound and a scream that petered out into sobbing.

    I released Oswald, crawled next to him, and whispered into his ear, ¡°You ever pull this shit with me again or you and your lackeys so much as look at me funny, I am coming for you, and next time, I am taking your legs too. For now, I will just be satisfied with your other arm.¡±

    ¡°No! No, please! NO NO¡± Oswald shouted as I crawled over to his other side and pulled his good arm into an armbar, as I flexed and pulled his arm, more screaming came out of his mouth, but before I could pop his elbow, the heavy thud of boots came down beside me, and a pulse of tyrannical aura ripped my dark haze spell to shreds to reveal Instructor Greyham.

    ¡°STOP!¡± Instructor Greyham boomed as he looked down at me, just as I popped Oswald¡¯s remaining elbow.

 Chapter 130

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    It was that time of the month again, and Greyham was dreading what was most likely to be more than two hours of briefing, updates, and addendums to school policy, 90% or more of which would most likely have nothing to do with him or his department.

    And all of that was not even mentioning the politics that go on during that meeting, but being in the institute he was in, it was unavoidable when nobles got involved, especially when some of the teachers themselves were nobles, and extra especially because of the recent shakedown the king performed. So as much as King Argus the First, founder of the Royal Academy, wished it to be a place where talent could grow without the taint of politics, that dream was pretty much dead from the start.

    In fact, if his investigations into where Luke Ironcrest¡¯s name got leaked were not pointing to somewhere in the city guards, he would have suspected one of the teachers somehow hearing about it and leaking it to the student body.

    Greyham checked the time to see how long he could push being late to skip all the preamble of the meeting and sighed, it was not long since the meeting started and they would most likely be going through the agenda and last meeting¡¯s minutes.

    He had already made his thoughts clear on what he thought of this monthly meeting to the headmaster, but the headmaster was having none of it, saying rubbish about it being his duty as a Head of Department to attend the meeting or some such nonsense.

    To which Greyham thought was utter rubbish, his presence there could easily be replaced by one of his assistant instructors for all the good it would do.

    As Greyham grumbled to himself, he reached down to his secret drawer to access his stash of hard liquor for a cheeky sip, and as he did so, he heard students running down his hallway shouting something, but his thick hardwood door muffled the words to the point he could not understand. So he just ignored it

    But as he got a hold of the metal flask, unscrewed the cap, and was about to take a sip to take the edge off of what was going to be a very boring meeting, he noticed the escalation of students running and shouting outside his private office. Which in his experience, was never a good thing.

    After squirreling away his booze once again, somewhat pissed that he did not get to whet his palate in peace with the fine 20-year-old whisky he was about to partake of before whatever ruckus was going on outside, Greyham marched over to his door and swung it open to see the students running towards somewhere further down the hall.

    Not wanting to be discovered, in order to see what was really going on, Greyham activated his Aura Suppression technique to make himself blend into the surrounding energies, making it very easy for those around to look past him like he was an uninteresting pillar that they just needed to go around.

    As he got closer, Greyham could now hear that there was a scuffle going on, and what he saw almost made him blurt out a laugh at the absurdity of what was going on.

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    At the center of a mob of boys, that looked to be made of first to third year of higher education boys, was a boy he had come to recognize over the past few months, Luke Ironcrest.

    And what was the absurd thing he was witnessing? He was witnessing Luke swinging around an aura-clad boy by the legs to beat on others.

    The only times he had ever seen this move being performed was when he was fighting ogres, giants, monitors, and other big races on the field of battle, and the closest he had ever come to doing such a thing was when he was young, lost his sword on the battlefield, and was forced to grab the nearest thing to defend himself in the moment, which happened to be an armored dismembered arm.

    Greyham looked at the belligerents who were engaged in this conflict and noticed that most of them were from noble houses, and from the house crests sewn on their uniforms, he knew that their noble houses were either directly or indirectly implicated in the shakedown, or were close friends of affected houses, which made it pretty clear of why they were attacking Luke Ironcrest.

    But before Greyham jumped into action to stop the fight, he recognized many faces of those attacking Luke Ironcrest. These were the usual faces when it came to disciplinary cases, and seeing as Luke was doing well knocking the troublemakers down one after another, he was content to just stand and watch, so long as the injuries were nothing a healer could not patch up.

    As for Luke, Greyham could not help but feel a sense of pride for teaching him how to fight like a skirmisher and using said knowledge to maintain the upper hand against a numerically superior opponent.

    Especially when Luke started using a dark haze spell in a relatively narrow area like a hallway, but things took a worrying turn when the dome of darkness magic suddenly washed over one side of the boys surrounding Luke, and soon there were the sounds of smacks, followed by the screams of pain and a pop of a joint being dislocated.

    A popped joint to finish off an opponent was nothing Greyham had not experienced or seen before during training, but even he thought it was a wee bit extreme in this situation.

    After the scream and pop of a joint, the hallway became silent in anticipation of what had just happened. Soon there were sounds of whispering from the dark haze spell, followed by shouts of fear and desperation.

    ¡°No! No, please! NO NO¡± shouted a familiar voice from inside the dark haze spell, followed by more screams.

    The opponent was clearly defeated, so in Greyham¡¯s eyes, this was a step too far from what he could tolerate as he started pushing his way to the dome of dark haze, and when he thought he would not be fast enough, he simply jumped over the encircling boys, landed in the dome, blasted out his aura to forcefully dispel Luke¡¯s spell, looked down at a screaming Oswald Berkeley and shouted, ¡°STOP!¡±, just as another joint popped out of its socket and Luke let go.

    Just as Greyham was about to start chewing people out, especially Luke Ironcrest for his excessive use of such brutal methods in what he would count as a glorified schoolyard scuffle.

    he saw some boys in the corner of his vision slowly trying to back away and sink into the crowd.

    ¡°Nobody move¡­¡± Graham growled as his voice carried down the hallway more akin to a beast than a man, and along with the growled words, came the same tyrannical aura that shredded Luke¡¯s spell. But this time, that same aura was pushing all the students gathered in the hallway to their knees, aura or magical protection be damned.

    As all the students were being suppressed, Greyham touched the brooch in the shape of the Royal Academy¡¯s emblem and pushed mana into it.

    Once the brooch started glowing, he spoke, ¡°Guard Captain, I require assistance at my position to apprehend around sixty students that I currently have detained.¡±, and shortly after, a stern ¡°Understood.¡± chirped out from the brooch.

 Chapter 131

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    I kept kneeling as Instructor Greyham¡¯s aura weighed down on my being like there was a pile of sandbags on my shoulders.

    A few minutes later, a bunch of Royal Guards that I usually see around the academy came marching up to us, and Greyham pointed out my assailant to be detained.

    As one of the Royal Guards came up behind me to apprehend me, Instructor Greyham raised his hand to stop the royal guard, ¡°I will take this one.¡± he said as I felt the weight of his aura lift from my body.

    ¡°Follow me.¡± Instructor Greyham said to me, more as an order than anything else, turned and walked off, so I did, and seeing the look on his face, I knew this was not the time to piss him off in any way, shape, or form.

    We soon arrived at an office bearing Instructor Greyham¡¯s nameplate and I followed him inside. ¡°Sit¡± he commanded while pointing to a chair opposite of where I assumed he would sit.

    Once we were both sat down, Instructor Greyham rested his elbows on the table and interlocked his fingers, all while staring at me like a hawk, ¡°Luke Ironcrest¡­ tell me in detail how this fight started.¡±

    What? Just like that? No chewing me out first and telling me that fighting is not the answer? Cool, ¡°It all started sometime after all the teachers were supposed to go to their monthly meeting.¡±

    I laid out how they confronted me, and what their most likely reason for doing so, and told him that it was some noble bussy boy that attacked first. Of course, I did not use the word ¡°bussy¡±, I just described bussy boy¡¯s house crest as best I could. All the while, Instructor Greyham seemed to be transcribing what I said along with his clarifying questions.

    After I finished the part where I popped Oswald¡¯s first elbow, Instructor Greyham raised his hand to stop me and stared at me in silence. After an uncomfortable minute, he started talking again, ¡°At that point, you have achieved victory over your aggressors. Why did you go for the other arm?¡±

    Is this some kind of test? Psychological profiling? I don¡¯t know and I am not in the mood to make shit up. ¡°I went for the other hand because Oswald did not seem to learn his lesson of leaving me be after trying to gang up on me at least two other times, that may have wounded his pride when he failed to do so, or something. And since he could not learn from his previous attempts of antagonizing me with such light consequences, that leaves me with the only option of making sure this encounter is painful enough that he remembers it the next time he crosses me.¡±

    Instructor Greyham nodded his head like what I said made perfect sense and said, ¡°With the number of witnesses, I doubt they would be able to get away with saying you started the fight, but even if you get out of this incident without any official repercussions, you have solidified many enemies today.¡±

    To that, I just shrug, ¡°I doubt this incident would have changed anything on my enemies¡¯ front, the moment my name got out, they would have been my enemy regardless of whether I beat them or not.¡±

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    Greyham shook his head, ¡°This will not only impact you, but also your family.¡± now that caught my attention, ¡°They would not outright take any actions against your family, your family is too far out to do anything worth the travel and doing anything overt would make them look bad, but they could politic you and your family into some¡­ uncomfortable positions.¡±

    ¡°Then what am I supposed to do? Wait there and let them push me around? I have been around them long enough to know what they are like, once they sense weakness, they would never leave me alone. Am I also going to be forced to hunt down and kill the head of every house before they leave me and mine alone?¡± I said with more heat in my tone than I was expecting out of myself.

    Instructor Greyham frowned as he replied, ¡°I will pretend I did not hear that, but be careful of the words that come out of your mouth, feudal wars have been started for less. As for what you were supposed to do, I will not speak to that, what''s done is done, and if they know what¡¯s good for them, they would keep quiet and sweep it under their collective rugs, nothing to brag about ganging up on someone and losing. What you can do to keep these pests off your and your family¡¯s backs, is to become an agent of the crown.¡±

    ¡°And how am I supposed to do that? I am just an eight-year-old boy! Am I supposed to just strut up to the king and go, ¡°Oi! Heard you were hiring, I want in!¡±?¡± I said mockingly.

    Instructor Greyham folded his arms and looked down as he mumbled ¡°That might actually work for that muscle brain.¡± under his breath, but I heard it. Then he looked up at me, ¡°No, don¡¯t be preposterous. I could write you up for a recommendation to someone I know, the crown is always on the lookout for talent, and you, without doubt, have talent. But don''t let that get to your head, if you start doing badly at school, you would have sullied my name for recommending you and wasted the protection the crown would have offered you and your family. But at the end of the day, the choice is yours if you want to take me up on this offer. Write to your family before you make this decision. Dismissed.¡±

    ***

    A few seconds later the door closed, Greyham spoke to the empty room, ¡°Be glad I do not fill that wall space of yours with venomous snakes, precisely because of times like this. So what do you think?  I take it you watched the whole fight when it started, was his recounting accurate?¡±

    ¡°Indeed, I have.¡± came a muffled voice from the wall beside him, ¡°Besides alluding to, then accidentally exposing the¡­ unconventional relationship¡­ between Branston Dorwell and his recently executed uncle, which started the fight, everything else was more or less accurate.¡±

    Greyham grunted his acknowledgment and asked, ¡°I take it the crown is interested in him? No way they are not with such academic, magical, and martial performance, right?¡±

    ¡°We know, he has already been marked as a potential Royal Herald Aspirant, should he ever turn his attention to the military, and if Luke agrees to your ¡°written recommendation¡± to lock him in, it would be all but confirmed.¡± the wall said.

    ¡°Then how about the political side of things?¡± Greyham asked, ¡°Any moves against him or his family?¡±

    ¡°A few.¡± the wall replied, ¡°Most have been given a friendly warning through their friends or acquaintances, those who are more dense had an agent of the crown show up at their door to metaphorically beat them over the head and get them in line.¡±

    ¡°Good. Anything else I need to know?¡± Greyham asked.

    ¡°About this case? No.¡± the wall answered.

    ¡°Then go. The next time I sense you in my wall, I am putting my sword through it.¡± Greyham said as he felt the presence fade from the wall.

 Chapter 132

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    After my slight altercation with Osawald and the other boys in the hallway, turns out, from what I heard, my brief scrap almost filled up the clinic, and the healers and nurses on duty were none too pleased with me, or the whiny brats they were treating.

    Other than that, reports were filled, parents were called for those who had them in the capital, and as expected, those parents kicked up a fuss about their house¡¯s honor being sullied, or demanding satisfaction.

    Naturally, all of them were told to go fuck themselves, but in more diplomatic terms while informing them on how embarrassing it would be if they really wanted to escalate his small fight into something more official, which of course they did not, on the count of the king breathing down everybody¡¯s necks at a moment when the dirty laundry of many powerful people was currently being aired.

    For the next few weeks after the fight, quite a good number of noble and merchant kids seemed to be walking on eggshells whenever I showed my face, it did not take a genius to realize that outside of official and professional interactions, I was effectively persona non grata among a good chunk of the social upper crust.

    On the bright side, this has also somewhat endeared me among more of the commoners, and even some nobles who did not run in the bigger social circles. And the best news of all, was that Oswald fucked up too many times to be overlooked by the school administration to be just because of his family.

    Although I assume the school had the political clout to kick his ass out of the Royal Academy, I think they may have reached a compromise with his family and transferred his ass to Class B with two of his closer lackeys that always get into trouble with him, and with the biggest instigators gone from the class, the few lackeys that were still in Class A lost their social capital from kissing Oswald¡¯s ass.

    With the troublemakers out of the way, I can honestly say that the class atmosphere has improved since then. Slowly, the noble kids started interacting with the commoner kids without Oswald and his gang sneering at them for associating themselves with the lower class.

    And as I enjoy my somewhat peaceful school life, a thought enters my mind every now and then, ¡®Would the first half of the year have been easier if I had been attacked by assassins earlier and this whole mess kicked off back then?¡¯

    ***

    Time flew by, and I blew through the preliminary exams with ease, the only part that was somewhat harder was my combat assessment, I think one of the assistant instructors got a bit too excited while fighting me and did not hold back, Instructor Greyham had to call off the battle junkie and ended up giving me extra credit for my ¡°Exceptional display of martial prowess¡±, so I was not too pissed off that I got a harder test than everyone else.

    Other than that, I have become fluent in the Elven language and can carry out basic conversations. As for the languages I learned in my Languages of Power class, I have picked up enough Elemental Script, Sylvan Language, and Draconic Script to manifest minor phenomena when injecting mana and intent into those words.

    But the Language of Power I excelled at best so far was Draconic Script. I mean, no surprise there, considering who was teaching the class, I even got some afterschool lessons on Draconic Script from Professor Sageira when our experiments needed waiting time.

    Now that the prelim exams were over, the next big event was the yearly tournament where each class would put forward their best students for a few different categories of the tournament. This tournament would mainly be held in The Arena, and it would be watched by commoners and nobles alike.

    This annual tournament was only for Higher Education students and up, it was mainly to show off up-and-coming talent among the Year 1 Higher Education like myself, the growth of the Year 2&3, but most importantly, the graduating batch of Year 4 Higher Education.

    From what I am told, for quite a number of the Year 4 Higher Education, participation in this annual tournament was a make-or-break kind of situation for their future, and they had to put on a good show in whatever category they took part in, especially for the commoner graduates.

    There would be many eyes on them, nobles, merchants, knight orders, mage towers, mercenary companies, and even the royals. They are all hungry for new talent, and those graduating students who performed well would be swarmed with offers to join these organizations, I was told there were even impromptu bidding wars between organizations to try and win over exceptional students.

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    So all this brings us to the now, where my form teacher, Professor Theodore Fairfax, is tapping his pointing stick against the board with different tournament categories and the subcategories written down, and there was a lot to choose from. But I suppose with a school such as the Royal Academy providing such a wide range of subjects to study, there is a lot to show off.

    ¡°So ladies and gentlemen, who wants to represent our class in these categories?¡± Professor Fairfax asked the class, and I started reading through the events that were going to take place.

    <ol>

    <li> Combat Events</li>

    </ol>

    - Swordsmanship Duels: Traditional one-on-one sword fights to test agility, technique, and combat prowess.

    - Melee Battles: Group combat scenarios, either in teams or free-for-all, where fighters demonstrate their ability to handle multiple opponents, showcasing strategy and endurance.

    - Jousting: Mounted knights charging at each other with lances, testing bravery, skill, and horsemanship.

    - Archery Competitions: Precision-based challenges that could include stationary targets, moving targets, or even long-distance shooting.

    <ol start="2">

    <li> Magic Events:</li>

    </ol>

    - Spellcasting Duels: Mages face off in controlled environments, showcasing offensive and defensive magic, quick thinking, and control over different elements or arcane forces.

    - Enchantment Competitions: Mages demonstrate their ability to enchant weapons, armor, or other objects, impressing potential employers looking for magical items.

    - Illusion Contests: Competitors create illusions to deceive or entertain, showing off creativity and mastery of subtle magic.

    - Elemental Control: Mages compete to show mastery over the elements (fire, water, earth, air), perhaps in trials of strength or creativity.

    - Array Magic: Mages show off their mastery of magic Arrays, they will show off their speed array construction, accuracy, and effectiveness of their array.

    <ol start="3">

    <li> Mixed or Specialized Events:</li>

    </ol>

    - Battle Mage Trials: A combination of combat and magic, where participants must use both sword and spell to overcome challenges, highlighting versatility.

    - Monster Hunts: Teams or individuals hunt dangerous creatures, demonstrating bravery, skill, and the ability to work under pressure.

    <ol start="4">

    <li> Skill-based or Artisan Events:</li>

    </ol>

    - Weapon and Armor Crafting Competitions: Blacksmiths and artisans demonstrate their craftsmanship by forging weapons or armor on-site, appealing to merchants, knight orders, and nobles.

    - Trap-making and Disarming: Participants showcase their ability to create or disarm intricate traps, useful for mercenaries or knight orders.

    - Alchemy Competition: Alchemists or potion masters create potions under time constraints or specific themes, showing off their knowledge and resourcefulness.

    - Invention Competition: Inventors and tinkerers are given a theme and certain criteria to fulfill some time before the tournament begins, and they will show off the results of their works during the tournament itself.

    <ol start="5">

    <li> Leadership and Strategy Events:</li>

    </ol>

    - War Games: Medium-scale strategic simulations where commanders direct troops in mock battles, showcasing their leadership and tactical acumen. (Mercenaries hired by the kingdom would be acting as soldiers during this contest.)

    - Diplomacy and Negotiation Trials: Participants engage in simulated negotiations or diplomatic missions, showing their ability to handle political situations, appealing to nobles and royals.

    - Tactical Puzzles or Challenges: Individuals or teams solve complex strategic problems, demonstrating quick thinking and planning.

    <ol start="6">

    <li> Cultural or Entertainment Events:</li>

    </ol>

    - Bardic Competitions: Bards or entertainers perform, either through music, storytelling, or magical performances, showcasing talent that might attract the attention of nobles or royals seeking entertainers.

    - Feats of Strength or Agility: Participants demonstrate their physical prowess through various challenges, like lifting heavy objects or navigating obstacle courses, which could appeal to anyone looking for strong warriors.

    After reading through the list, I found myself interested in some of them, but then it hit me. With my strength and skills, I could dominate the combat and magic events, maybe not the jousting, but even if I do, what do I get out of it?

    Wanting to find out, I raised my hand, ¡°Professor, if we win, what do we get out of it?¡±

    Professor Fairfax smiled and answered, ¡°Besides a medal, you will get honor, glory, and prestige. And to some of you who think that does not sound like anything tangible, I can confirm that it is not, what it does though, is attract others to invest in your future, and that, my dear students, is very tangible when you leave this academy.¡±

 Chapter 133

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    Honor, glory, and prestige. Such ephemeral and intangible concepts, yet, it has great effects in this society. Those with great potential get showered in money and power, in the hopes that their investment grows and brings them higher.

    But it is not just a tool for growth, in some way, it is also protection from those who would aim to do me and my loved ones harm, and god knows I have made enough enemies already.

    So, in order to get honor, glory, and prestige, I need to put myself out there and show that I am worthy of it, and all that comes with it, good or bad. That means I will need to show off at this tournament, the question is, which one?

    Entering the Combat Event is a no-brainer, which means I will be entering the Swordsmanship Duels and the Melee Battles, but I do not know if I should go solo or group up with others in my class for the Melee Battles, I have not really teamed up with anyone in my class before, so I think I will try to go at it solo.

    As for the Jousting and Archery parts of the Combat events, I think I would sit them out, besides riding around with Dad while following him around the territory, I have yet to try out mounted combat. As for Archery, I can confidently say I have shot a bow less than twenty times in both my lives combined, so I could hardly count myself as competition-worthy in that field.

    As for the other events I want to take part in, that would be all of the Magic, and Mixed/Specialized Events, those fall well within my wheelhouse. I was tempted to also try my hand at the Artisan Events, but unfortunately, the time overlaps with the Combat Events and is at a different location.

    ¡°Those who want to take part in the events can come up and get a form to fill out, please hand in the form to me by the end of the week. No late hand-ins accepted.¡± Professor Fairfax said and soon continued with class.

    After class, I went up to grab a form and filled it in while Professor Fairfax was still at his desk doing some marking. I put myself down for Swordsmanship Duels, Melee Battles, Spellcasting Duels, Enchantment Competition, Illusion Contest, Elemental Control, Array Competition, Battle Mage Trials, and Monster Hunts. When I handed it to him, Professor Fairfax raised an eyebrow while reading my form.

    He then put down the form and looked at me, ¡°Luke, while I do not doubt your abilities as being the best among this cohort, are you sure you want to take part in so many events? You applied for nine competitions, and even though they may be spread over the course of a few days, it would be a tiring process, are you sure about this?¡±

    I just nodded and answered, ¡°Yes professor, I understand the difficulty of what I will be undertaking.¡±

    The professor, stared at me for a while, before sighing, ¡°I hope you know what you are doing. Take care of yourself and make sure you get proper rest between events.¡± he then signed the bottom of my form and stamped it before filing it away.

    After that, he waved me off to my next class.

    ***

    After school, I went to meet up with Dave and Sam to head out into town to try out a new bakery that opened recently, when I arrived at our usual meeting spot, I saw the both of them talking animatedly with big smiles on their faces while each of them had letters in their hands.

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    ¡°Hey guys, what is all the excitement about?¡± I asked as I joined them.

    Dave turned to me, ¡°You remember all that gold we got from selling those uncut gems?¡± after I nodded, he continued, ¡°Well, we each sent home all but one gold, and our families used that money to get a few things.¡± Dave said while passing his letter to me, and so did Sam.

    In the letters, which were from their parents, was an account of what they did with the gold the boys sent their way, the first thing they did was buy more land. With the new land, Dave¡¯s family, who had more arable flat land in their direction, started planting cash crops and other types of grain crops, his father eventually realized that he bought and seeded more land than his own family could farm, so he had to hire some neighbors as farm hands, but fortunately, they still had some leftover money to pay the farm hands until harvest time.

    As for Sam¡¯s family, they had more hills and a small lake in their direction, so instead of the usual farming, they went in the direction of livestock farming. While the land they bought was not as big as Dave¡¯s family, they spent the rest of their money to get some livestock. Cows, sheep, chickens, and even ducks for the small lake they bought in their property expansion.

    The amount of land purchased did not leave Sam¡¯s family with much gold to purchase a large quantity of livestock, so they had to wait a year or two for the livestock to reproduce before they could get any serious money out of selling their meat, and even then, it would only be the ducks and chicken that will be eaten until the cows and sheep population gets big enough, for now, they were depending on their by-products like wool, milk, and eggs to generate some cash flow, but if all else fails, they still had crops on their old plot of land to feed them.

    ¡°Wow, that''s some big changes going on back home.¡± I exclaimed when I was done with the letters.

    ¡°Yeah, give it a few more years, and our families will most likely have enough to renovate our homes. And it''s all thanks to you for pinching those gems. Thanks again, Luke. You will always be welcome in my home, and I am sure Sam would say the same.¡± said Dave, and Sam nodded in agreement.

    ¡°In fact, why don¡¯t you drop by our village on your way home during the end-of-year break, it''s on the way to your home, isn¡¯t it?¡± Sam proposed.

    ¡°I should be ok with it, was planning to go home by stagecoach, but since I deposited those uncut gems under my family¡¯s name, I don¡¯t feel so guilty about splurging a little, how about I book a private fast carriage to your village at the end of the year? It will shave a few days off the journey.¡± I offered, to which the boys happily agreed.

    All this talk of letters and home makes me feel a little homesick as I think of all the letters I have been corresponding with my people back home.

    From what they write to me, Mum and Dad seem to be doing fine despite the shitstorm my attempted kidnapping caused, Grandma wrote that the moment they got the news of my attempted kidnapping, Grandpa had to stop Dad from rounding up his men and riding hard to the capital to terrorize the local underworld for answers and some heads. As for Mum, Grandma said she had to stop her from doing something drastic and refused to elaborate further.

    As for my siblings, they are behaving more like children their age than I have ever been, instead of reading and practicing magic all day, Charlotte and Cedric are happy to play all day and get grumpy when they have to learn their numbers and letters, as most kids do, but despite their grumpiness at needing to learn their letters, they make an effort to put their letters to use, as along with the usual correspondence with my parents and grandparents, I would also get letters from Charlotte and Cedric with their still messy handwriting, but I appreciate it none the less.

    And last but not least, I also get letters from my childhood friend and personal maid in training, Emma. From what Emma writes me, and what Mum says in her letters, Emma has been busy studying so she can join me at the Royal Academy on scholarship, and besides her studies, she has also been taken under the wing of the head maid to teach her etiquette. Besides that, she also writes about playing with my siblings and going into town with them.

    I can''t wait to go home and see everyone again.

 Chapter 134

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    ¡°Danm, these are good, they are also generous with the filling¡± I commented after swallowing a mouth full of a meat-filled bun.

    When no reply came, I looked up to see Dave and Sam too busy stuffing their face holes to dignify my comment with a reply.

    When they were done stuffing their faces, they did not even have the decency to look embarrassed at the ferocity they displayed as they demolished the meat buns. ¡°You said something Luke?¡± Sam asked as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

    Not only did they not pay attention while eating, they did not even register my words, and I am pretty sure they were taught basic etiquette in lower education and know enough to not use their sleeves as a handkerchief, but then again, we are all in civilian clothes, so we do not need to worry about bringing disgrace to the Royal Academy with their actions.

    The three of us were currently leaning on a wall just outside of the new bakery we bought our meat buns from, when I asked, ¡°The both of you taking part in the tournament?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we will be competing in Archery, and teaming up in the Melee Battle and Monster Hunt¡± Dave answered.

    ¡°That''s all? Not the Swordsmanship Duels? You do know that aura is banned from that competition so only pure swordsmanship would be on display, right?¡± I asked.

    ¡°We know¡­ but we also know that we are not skilled enough to make it into the top sixteen, much less top eight, especially because we know for a fact that you will be participating. So, besides Archery, we decided to go for events we can team up in.¡± Dave said.

    I was a bit disappointed that they did not want to at least take a crack at the Swordsmanship Duels, but I was not going to force them, it was all good as long as they had fun, as kids should. We spent the rest of the day goofing off before we had to return before the Academy''s curfew.

    ***

    In the weeks leading up to the tournament, I used my free time to practice my other armed and unarmed martial arts that I feel that I have been neglecting while I was concentrating on my studies and conditioning my mana pathways.

    In the few months I have been at the academy, the only weapon I had any real practice with was the sword, and I felt I needed to shake off the rust, but that was not the main reason. The main reason was that despite the Swordsmanship Duels having been named as such, a few decades ago the previous king thought having only swords in a dual was a stupid tradition that had carried on for too long and decided to change the rules.

    As for why the name of the event did not change along with the rules? As far as I could tell without going to the library to check, it was mainly down to brand recognition with the wider public for all the years the tournament had been around before the rule change.

    All of that brings me to where I am now, in a wooded area attached to the campus grounds, away from prying eyes with my new custom spear in my hands.

    As for why I had to customize my spear? That was because I heard that quite a few people were going to be using other weapons besides swords I wanted to see how the spear techniques of my wushu lessons from my previous life would stack up against the spear and polearm techniques of this world, and no rule said I was only allowed one weapon, so I could also bring in my sword as backup.

    So when I went shopping for a spear that felt like a Chinese Wushu spear called a Qiang, I was disappointed to find that there were none, and when I asked the weapons shops where I could find something like it, they just looked at me funny and asked some version of ¡®Why would you want something that would break so easily?¡¯

    Now, I can readily admit that the Qiang I used in my previous life was mainly for performative purposes and would have a high chance of being snapped like a twig if it went up against a real weapon, but where material science lags behind, magic fills in the gap, and if this world did not have a Qiang, I would just have to make one.

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    So in my quest to create my custom spear, my sourcing for the spear shaft led me to a bowyer because I found that the flexible wood used to make bows was the closest analog to the ones I used in my previous life.

    When I asked the bowyer for a custom job of a spear shaft, at first he was intrigued and amused at what he thought was going to be a bow that was taller than the average man, but the moment he caught on to the fact he was crafting a spear shaft, the now grumpy man cussed me out for wasting his time and insulting his profession. That was until I showed him money did he calmed down and begrudgingly accepted the job.

    As for the rest of the spear, I decided to put my blacksmithing and enchanting lessons to use, and it also helped that the crafting facility was free of charge for students to use as long as we made a booking.

    Besides the wood for the shaft, I decided to buy ingots of Mana Steel for my spearhead, pommel, and some wire to go along the wooden shaft which was not mana conductive. The only problem was that I did not know how to forge with Mana Steel and may end up ruining the end product, the know-how of it was a year 2 blacksmithing course.

    So my only option was to ask my dwarf of a blacksmithing instructor, Professor Haldor Steelbeard. It took a while to convince him to help out and he only agreed because I was binging my own Mana Steel.

    After all the parts of the spear were made and put together, the end product was a spear with the blade of a 35cm shortsword at the spearhead, with a red tassel tied to where the metal meets the wood, from the same place where the tassel starts are four Mana Steel wires that spiral down carved out grooves of the wood shaft, all the way down to the pommel. It may have been a lot heavier than the Qiang from my previous world, but then again, I am much stronger than the young me in my previous life, so it kind of balanced each other out.

    To others, it may look like a bastardized version of a fantasy spear with eastern and western design influence, but to me, it was a thing of beauty and performance.

    And speaking of performance, now that I had no time constraints compared to my exam, I could take my time enchanting my spear, and after many drafts were drawn up and scrapped, I managed to draw up a blueprint for the enchantment and managed to fit in three enchantments.

    The first of the enchantments was a simple sharpness enchantment that I inlaid with Mana Copper wire along the flat of the blade, I could have gone with a more specialized piercing enchantment, but seeing that my spearhead had quite a lot of blade along its length, I decided to use an enchantment that both the tip and blade would benefit from.

    The second enchantment was a reinforcement enchantment inlaid in the same Mana Copper wire on the top part of the spearhead¡¯s socket, which would make the mana steel portions of my spear harder to damage in general. That included the Mana Steel wires.

    The last enchantment was an impact absorption enchantment to slow any impact that strikes the wooden shaft, but since the reinforcement enchantment took up the majority of the space on the top part of the spearhead¡¯s socket, I had to split up the enchantment into two parts, that''s where the Mana Steel wires that spiral down the shaft comes in, like wires that connect two circuit boards, they are connected to the first part of the impact absorption enchantment at the spearhead¡¯s socket and run all the way down to the second part of the enchantment on the pommel.

    This way, the Mana Steel wires are bendable enough to flex along with the flexible wooden shaft while also providing the benefits of the enchantment along the non-mana conductive wooden shaft.

    I took my stance, took in a deep breath, and when I felt myself calm, I started going through the spear forms. Rapid stabs flew out into the empty air, along with swipes, spins, twirls, and kicks, as I got faster and my strikes got sharper, I enjoyed the feeling of my spear flexing and whipping around.

    After I got comfortable with the spear, I decided to kick it up a notch by adding aura to the mix. With every stab and swing, I was kicking up the wind and dry leaves as I got caught up in the moment and only snapped out of it when I felt my spear hit something hard.

    When I focused on what I just hit, I saw my spear had impaled a tree, which was not good, not good at all. The trees here were academy property, and I just put a hole in the trunk of one.

    I swiftly yanked out my spear while looking around for any witnesses, and when I saw no one, I bolted for my dorm.

    ***

    Just a few trees away from the tree that just got stabbed, a man in a janitor''s uniform stepped out from behind a tree and walked up to the stabbed tree. After looking at the damage, putting his finger inside the newly made hole and feeling the smoothness of it.

    He rubbed the fine sawdust that was inside the hole between his fingers, ¡°Excellent if unknown spear technique, what else are you going to show me during this tournament, Luke Ironcrest?¡±

 Chapter 135

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    The day of the tournament came around and I, along with every student from the academy was sitting with my class in the stands while the general populace was filing into The Arena, but when compared to the number of seats available in The Arena, it was but a small fraction.

    The only other time I have seen this many people packed into one location was in my old world when one of my work colleagues had extra tickets and invited me to a football game, but The Arena was smaller than full-on football stadiums, so I was not as impressed when compared to a few students who were busy gawking at their surroundings.

    As I looked around, studying the architecture, I noticed at the top of the terraced seating all around the arena, were viewing rooms that had huge panes of glass separating the viewing room from the outside.

    I could only assume they were VIP viewing rooms from the fancily dressed people mingling with each other behind the glass.

    The other thing that caught my eye was the balcony that was opposite me, sitting just above the wall where The Pit was, it looked like a chunk of the stands was cut out to accommodate the balcony, and on that balcony were Royal Guards in armor that was more decorated than what I usually see at the academy, some administrative types, and two ornate chairs¡­ or were they fancy enough to be counted as thrones? I don''t know.

    As the people were still filing in to find a seat, a voice sounded over the whole arena like the modern equivalent of an announcement system, ¡°May the participants of the Swordsmanship Duels, please make your way to the contestant hall, I repeat, may the participants of the Swordsmanship Duels, please make your way to the contestant hall. Thank you.¡±

    And that was my queue, I reached down and picked up my cloth-wrapped custom spear after excusing some of my classmates beside me to shift their legs, made sure the sword at my side was properly secured, and made my way to an usher who was holding up signage of where I was supposed to go.

    When I reached the contestant hall and the tournament official confirmed that all the Year 5 contestants for the Swordsmanship Duels were present, he got up on stage, ¡°Good, all the contestants are here, we will now draw lots for your position. Form a line and prepare to present your student identification.¡±

    After the line was formed, the first student was called up on stage. The student presented his student identification and the official touched a palm-sized orb to it, almost immodestly, the orb shined blue and the official presented the student with a box with a hole in the top.

    ¡°Reach in and pick one piece of paper.¡± the official said and the student complied, after showing the paper to the official, the official announced, ¡°Roth Dukan, number 16.¡±.

    Upon hearing this, two officials came out from the side of the stage, one of them was on a mobile ladder while the other pushed, and what they used that ladder for was to reach a huge empty tournament board hung above the stage. When they reached the 16th black slot, the official on the ladder filled in Roth Dukan¡¯s name on the blank.

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    From there, things went quickly and it was my turn, I got my student ID scanned, pulled a piece of paper out of the box, and handed it to the official, ¡°Luke Ironcrest, number 4.¡±

    At the mention of my name, there was a torrent of whispers as they looked between me and the tournament board, I looked up to the tournament board and saw that in blank slot number 3 was¡­ nobody. Apparently, number 3 was not picked out yet.

    After I got down from the stage, I was ushered to the side of the hall while the slot assignment continued.

    Halfway down the line where I left off, it finally came, the guy who finally got slot number 3, ¡°Donson Hazat, number 3.¡± the official announced.

    Once again there was a slight commotion that ran through the contestants gathered, they were making sounds like, ¡°Oof¡±, or the sound made when sucking in thru one¡¯s teeth, mainly all the sounds associated with someone having bad news broken to them. Even Donson was looking crestfallen as he walked down the stage and people gave him reassuring pats on his shoulder as he passed. But seriously, what the hell, is it that bad to fight me?

    Eventually, everyone got their number, and the official commenced the briefing of the rules. Essentially, all it boiled down to was that besides no aura and no magic, there were no rules.

    Now, one might ask, how is this possible without someone ending up dead or maimed for life? The answer is enchanted bracelets, these enchanted bracelets are supposedly supposed to overlay a mana shield over the wearer¡¯s body, and if the damage to the mana shield reaches a certain threshold, the real mana shield would be deployed to safeguard the wearer.

    Naturally, that means the first one who pops their mana shield loses.

    After the briefing, we were all chilling while double-checking our equipment, when the hall that was under the arena shook, and even thru the meters of rock, we could hear the roars of the crowds above.

    That was when the official that did the drawing of lots was once again on stage, ¡°Contestants number 1 to 8, please follow the ushers to the holding pen.¡±

    On the way to the holding pen, the usher briefed us on what to do once we entered The Pit.

    When we reached the holding pen, we could hear the announcer hyping the crowd up, and when the hype part of the announcer¡¯s script was done, the usher got us up and standing single-file in front of the portcullis.

    ¡°And without further ado, Your Majesty, Nobles, Ladies, and Gentlemen, may I present the first round of Year 5 contestants!¡± The announcer drawled out as the crowd went wild.

    The portcullis opened and when I stepped out of the protection of the tunnel, I was hit by the wall of sound generated by the cheering audience.

    We followed the usher to the balcony where the king, King Argus IV, and beside him, Queen Evelina.

    When the usher stopped, we followed suit, then turned to the royals and knelt.

    ¡°Your Majesty, may I present the first eight fighters, permission to proceed?¡± the usher said with a bow.

    ¡°Proceed.¡± the king said with a casual hand wave.

    Soon, I was standing in one of four raised stone stages, facing Donson Hazat who was reading his arming sword and kite shield combo. As for me, I pulled the long sock covering my whole spear and unclasped the leather sheath protecting the blade of the spearhead.

    I then took my stance and nodded to the referee to let him know I was ready and waited.

 Chapter 136

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    Donson Hazat looked at his opponent with some hope, unlike all the times he had seen Luke Ironcrest training, he had been using a sword like he had wielded it while still in the cradle, but what could possess him to switch weapons at such a public and high profile event? Donson did not know, but he hoped it was pure hubris, only then did he think he may stand a chance of winning and not be illuminated in the first round.

    But all that aside, he was not going to underestimate this opponent and raised his shield before nodding to the referee to show he was ready.

    ¡°Fight!¡± the referee shouted as the flagged pole from between them was lifted, and before Donson could take his second step forward, Luke zoomed across the stage and stabbed directly at his shield.

    The initial impact of the strike to his shield had little effect, which was to be expected of the enchanted shield his family purchased for him, but weirdly enough, Donson was forced to take a few steps back to steady himself when he felt like his shield was being pushed back by a spring.

    After studying himself and looking at Luke, he noticed that Luke¡¯s spear was wobbling a lot more than the spears he usually saw, but that was besides the point for Donson, what Donson felt now was confusion.

    ¡®How did he muster so much strength to move me even with my enchanted shield?¡¯ Donson asked himself as he gave a side glance to the borders of the stage where he knew an array would be, if the borders of the stage glowed red, it would have indicated that Luke had used either magic or aura, but there was no light.

    ¡°Well blocked, I have not tried this spear in live combat before, do help me put it through its paces.¡± Luke said softly enough that only Donson and the referee could hear before his hands and spear became a blur.

    Strike after strike rained down on Donson as he blocked, parried, and dodged as best he could, but defend as he might, many glancing blows made their way through, causing red colored streaks to be displayed on the mana shield overlaying Donson¡¯s body.

    At the moment, the enchantment on the bracelet did not deem the ¡°damages¡± he had suffered lethal yet, so he was still in the fight, but he also knew that he could not take much more of this before the real mana shield deployed.

    It may not happen very often, but Donson had heard of cases where the enchanted bracelet¡¯s mana shield deployed due to the so-called ¡°death by a thousand cuts¡±, so he redoubled his efforts to avoid getting hit while keeping an eye out for an opening.

    After a few more avoided strikes, just as Donson was getting used to the attack pattern and just as he slapped Luke¡¯s spear away with his sword, Luke quickly drew back his spear, planted the butt of the spear on the ground, and did a small pole vault the transitioned into a dropkick to Donson¡¯s shield.

    And just like most hits to his shield, the initial blow was mitigated down to manageable levels, but Luke was not done yet. With the spear on the ground and feet on the shield, Luke had the leverage to squat on the shield and kick-off, knocking Donson on his butt.

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    As Donson rolled backward and scrambled to his feet, expecting to defend against a follow-up attack, he looked up and saw Luke at his starting position and gritted his teeth, ¡°What are you doing?! Are you looking down on me? Why did you not follow up?¡±

    Donson was expecting an angry or mocking reply, instead, all he got from Luke was a shrug, ¡°Don¡¯t take this too seriously, that was just a warmup, and if I finished you off too fast, it would not look good for both of us¡­ well, maybe only you.¡±

    Luke then readied his spear and said, ¡°Now that we are done with the warmup, let''s get on with the real stuff.¡±

    Donson gritted his teeth and knew he had to take the initiative and go on the offensive, or else he would be stuck at Luke¡¯s pace, and Luke having a longer reach did not help either.

    Just as Donson charged, he saw Luke spinning his spear in a circle in front of him, the red tassel drawing a small circle in the air and making it harder to focus on Luke¡¯s body movements, and just before Donson got into spear range, Luke did something too fast for him to see, and the next thing he knew the spear shot at him, curved just over his shield and scored a ¡°cut¡± on his shoulder that he knew for a fact, from drilling with private instructors, was covered by his shield.

    But seeing as he was not ¡°dead¡± yet, Donson decided to ignore the wound and go for a disarm by putting his sword on the spear shaft and sliding it along to hit Luke¡¯s hands.

    Donson may not have trained with many spear users in his life, but he knew one thing as fact, getting in close to a spear user when the pointy end had passed him put Donson at a massive advantage, one he was not going to squander, especially with this opponent.

    That is why Donson was in utter shock when Luke dodged to the side before his sword could reach his hand, and Donson felt the enchanted bracelet pulse, covering his body in a mana shield bubble.

    ¡°Winner! Luke Ironcrest!¡± The referee announced as the crowd roared once again.

    ***

    While I was basking in the cheers of the crowd, I checked the condition of my spear. There was no damage on the blade or the socket, as for the wooden shaft, I can see the enchantment was doing its job, there are no deep gouges, just some narrow dents from where Donson chopped at my spear, nothing that could not be buffed out by steaming the wood.

    All in all, I was very proud of the performance of my spear and may even take it out on quests if I have the time for it.

    As I turned around to shake hands with my opponent for a match well-fought, I found him looking around his whole body for something. ¡°Err¡­ What are you looking for?¡± I asked.

    He then looks at me with anger and confusion, but mainly confusion, ¡°Where did you hit me to end the match when all these cuts did nothing?¡±

    What? Did he really not feel that? Well, I guess that is the point of the mana shield, otherwise, he would have been a dead man, and I guess I would not know because I have to get hit in the first place to know what it feels like.

    ¡°Well, I don''t think you would be able to find the damage mark because you cannot see the back of your neck. When you were about to hit me, I dodged to the side, and since my spear was so close to your neck, I just slid my spearhead across the back of your neck, effectively ¡°killing¡± you.¡±

    It was then that the referee cleared his throat to remind us to get off his stage, as one, me and Donson did as we were instructed before entering the Pit, we bowed to the royals, and then the other three cardinal directions before leaving the stage.

 Chapter 137

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    As Luke walked off the stage, King Argus IV leaned back into his chair, his eyes locked on Luke¡¯s back. ¡°Is that the Ironcrest lad that your men mentioned?¡± the king asked his Lord Chamberlain, Lord Aldric Valemont.

    ¡°Yes, Your Majesty. Luke, of the recently appointed baron house, Ironcrest, from close to a decade ago.¡± said the Lord Chamberlain.

    ¡°Ah, yes that guy that saved me from assassins, what was his name again? Aiden?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Baron Alden, Your Majesty.¡± the Lord Chamberlain corrected.

    ¡°Right right¡­ anyway, I want that boy.¡± the king said with the kind of look that would be mistaken for a lecherous look if those around him did not know his character was that of a battle junky.

    It was then that the king¡¯s wife, Queen Evelina reached over and squeezed Argus¡¯s hand, ¡°Dear, you are making that face again. And besides, you cannot bring him into service until he turns sixteen, and that''s in five years.¡±

    ¡°Nine years actually, Your Majesty. He took the test and skipped lower education.¡± the Lord Chamberlain once again corrected.

    ¡°Oh my, he is smart too.¡± the Queen said in surprise as she brought up a hand to cover her mouth.

    As for the king, the look his queen warned him about only got worse, making the people who could see him whisper among themselves, this was quickly resolved by the queen stepping on his foot with her stiletto heel, making the king snap out of it and regain his composure.

    ¡°Ahem¡± the king cleared his throat, ¡°Be that as it may, I still want him, he would be a great asset to the royal family. Do we have any family that can get close to him?¡± the king asked.

    ¡°At the moment, no, they are either too young or graduated already, but you do have a niece who is going to be in higher education next year. If I am not wrong, the higher education students have more crossover time with each other where they mingle, compared to lower education cross over time with higher education time.¡± advised the Lord Chamberlain.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ well, the school year is coming to an end soon, so we will not need to wait that long. Which niece was it again?¡± the king asked.

    ¡°That would be Astara Dukat, Your Majesty.¡± the Lord Chamberlain reminded.

    ¡°Ah, right, her¡­ she is pretty enough, if a little bratty¡­ send word to my sister, let''s see if we can hook this boy in.¡± The king said as he lost interest in the two out of four duals still going on.

    ¡°As you will, Your Majesty.¡± the Lord Chamberlain said with a slight bow and continued watching the games by his king¡¯s side.

    ***

    Me and Donson made our way back to the tunnel we came out from and two ushers were waiting for us, one of them waved Donson back to the stands where his class was, while I was led back to a different waiting room, and it was a swanky looking room.

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    There were luxurious cushioned couches with plush pillows, finely carved dining tables and chairs, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a bar with a bartender, and a buffet spread.

    ¡°There are food and refreshments here for you, but please do not eat too much, your next match should be in one and a half to two hour¡¯s time, depending on how long the next few matches go.¡± the usher told me before closing the door behind me.

    One and a half hours? That¡¯s plenty of time, and I am feeling peckish, so I went to see what the spread was like. And it turns out to be pretty decent by my modern standards from my previous world.

    There was a shit load of bread piled high, three different kinds of stews and soups kept hot on an enchanted heating plate, at least five different kinds of sausages, what I think is blood pudding, piles of bacon, and a charcuterie board with many different kinds of cheese and cured meats, all with their brands proudly displayed, and just next to that, was a carving station for different choice cuts of meat, followed lastly by cakes and pastries. There was also salads, but who gives a shit about salads.

    Now I may be born into a noble family, but we do not have anything this lavish, even on our birthdays, so I took this opportunity to load up my plate, with relative moderation of course¡­ Well, relative to me at least. I am still a growing boy after all.

    After I set my plate down, I went to the bar to see what was available, ¡°Good morning, Young Master, what can I get for you?¡± the bartender asked.

    I looked over what he had available, and as my eyes ran over the bottles that lined the shelves behind him, the bartender shook his head, ¡°Apologies, Young Master, no alcohol allowed.¡±

    I just waved off the assumption, ¡°No, nothing like that, actually, what do you have available?¡± I asked.

    The bartender then pulled a menu up and passed it to me, ¡°We have twenty-five different tea blends, I would recommend the Imperial Garden White Tea, we also have iced teas using the same blends, and an assortment of fruit juices, but if you just want to quench your thirst, you can get a nice tall glass of ice water.¡±

    Swanky indeed¡­ with all these ingredients available, this gives me an idea, ¡°Hey, Mister, do you happen to have some milk?¡±

    Soon, I had all the ingredients arranged before me, a fruit that had a similar taste and texture to avocado but was white, milk, honey for some sweetness, a cocktail shaker, and a tall glass.

    I scooped the fruit out of its skin and into the cocktail shaker, put in a tablespoon of honey, and filled up the rest of the shaker with milk. I then used a zero-circle spell to freeze the contents of the shaker, and when it was almost solid, I covered the cocktail shaker and used a first-circle wind blade spell inside the cocktail shaker to start blending, but it was so underpowered it might as well be a zero-circle spell.

    There was some thrashing in the cocktail shaker at first, as one would expect when blending ice, but after a while, it smoothed out and I canceled the spell. I then popped the top and poured the thick slushy into the tall glass, and the leftovers I poured in another glass.

    ¡°And this, Dear sir, is what I call a milkshake, it can be done with almost any fruit flavor, have a taste.¡± I said as I pushed the other glass to the bartender and took a sip of mine¡­ could use more honey.

    The bartender, being the professional that he was, tried to swirl it around to see the consistency, gave it a sniff, and then took a sip, ¡°This is delightful, it is cool, refreshing, and light. Could use more honey tho. I saw how it was done, but please explain the process, this could be a menu item!¡±

    I gladly explained the steps and was thankful that he could at least perform first-circle spells. When I was done explaining, I turned around to get back to my food, only to see a boy I vaguely remember from my Advanced Combat & Tactics class, staring at my milkshake¡­ at least I think he is staring at my milkshake.

    As I moved the milkshake around, I could see his pupils follow, I then turned back to the bartender, ¡°I think you may already have your first customer for this new drink.¡± I said while pointing my thumb at the boy staring at my milkshake, ¡°Now is as good a time as any to practice making it.¡±

    The bartender nodded and went about his business slinging drinks like he was born for it.

    Soon, the boy was at the bar sipping a milkshake, and that was when the other two winners for my batch came in, saw the boy enjoying his drink, and ordered the same.

    Hehe¡­ My milkshake brings all the boys to the bar.

 Chapter 138

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After cleaning off my plate and going for seconds and polishing that off too, I decided to get something soothing and went with that Imperial Garden White Tea the bartender recommended.

    As I was sipping my tea, the last of the first-round elimination winners were making their way into the waiting room, I looked up to the tournament board that was constantly being updated.

    Out of the more than a hundred and twenty contestants, was now cut down to more than sixty. Now I just needed to get through six more fights today, and as the number of people got illuminated, the time between my bouts would get shorter.

    Soon enough, the usher came to collect the first eight winners to make their way to the Pit for the next round.

    My next few fights were rather anti-climatic and boring if I might say so, all my opponents so far did not use anything other than some variation of a sword, be it long or short, single or double-edged, so I had a clear advantage in reach and used it to their detriment.

    It was only when I was called up for the quarter-finals, did I find a peer in the reach department for weapons.

    Starting from the quarter-finals, we did not fight in batches to save time, and the mages combined the four stages into one big stage.

    When I was ready behind the portcullis waiting to enter the Pit, the announcer did his job to hype up the crowd, ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, from the western corner, the young man who has been keeping us all on the edge of our seats with his unknown spear techniques and slithering spear, Luke Ironcrest!¡±

    Did he really describe my spear as slithering? That does not sound appealing, but then again, from their point of view, my spear bending out of the way of obstacles and striking their target may look like a snake bending.

    The portcullis opened and I made my way to the stage and once again bowed to the royals and the audience.

    ¡°And from the eastern corner, another fine young man who has been displaying exemplary skill and strength in polearm technique, Toman of Drifen!¡± the crowd once again goes wild, ¡°As the only two remaining practitioners of hafted weapons left in the Year 5 batch, let us now see who comes out on top!¡±

    The portcullis opposite me opens to reveal another acquaintance of my Advanced Combat & Tactics, and I have seen his sword practice before but never the polearm he was holding now.

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    It was the standard polearm with the head having an axeblade on one side, a spiked hammerhead on the other side, and a sharp spike sticking out the top, It truly was an effective weapon to have on the battlefield that could deliver the three main damage types, slashing, crushing, and piercing.

    After Toman came on stage and was done with his bowing, he faced me and took his stance, and so did I.

    The referee looked at both of us and asked if we were ready, and after he got both our conformations, he raised his flagged pole from between us and shouted ¡°Fight!¡±

    This time, I was hesitant to charge straight in at an opponent who had equal or greater range on me, and if I am seeing this right, the polearm does have a few inches on my spear in terms of reach.

    The both of us started walking toward each other, and when we got close enough to touch tips, once again no homo, we started circling each other while changing our stances. When I went high, he went low, when I aimed at his feet, he aimed at my head.

    So after circling each other twice, I had my spear in a high guard when I struck first. When our blades touched while probing each other¡¯s defenses, I used the opportunity to quickly twirl Toman¡¯s polearm out of the way and brought my spear in a vertical strike toward his head.

    But before I could hit Toman, he backstepped and released one hand from the polearm to avoid his arm being hit, so the only thing my spear got was dirt.

    But I was not done yet, I levered up my spear and aimed at his chest with a second lunge, but Toman managed to regain a two-handed grip on his polearm and knocked my lunge to the side before countering with a swing of his polearm, and I was not prepared.

    I can readily admit that I was greedy with the second lunge, and that opened me up to the incoming strike while I was in a compromised position.

    As the swing came at me, I threw myself backward, but apparently not fast enough as I saw the tip of the polearm spike rake across my chest, making the mana shield coating me display a red line across my chest. For some reason, this made the crowd cheer louder than before.

    Now on my back, I did not have time to get back on my feet as I saw the polearm spike once again coming toward me. To avoid getting ¡°impaled¡± I was forced to cross my arms with my spear tucked close to my body and roll to the side as Toman chases me with more stabs.

    After rolling a few times, I had to take a risk to recover. On Toman¡¯s next stab at me, I brought my foot up and kicked at the polearm and luckily kicked at where I intended, the hammerhead of the polearm.

    This pushed Toman back enough to give me some time to scramble to my feet and get back into a ready stance, and the crowd went apeshit at my recovery.

    ¡°That was close, you¡¯re good.¡± I told Toman as he leveled his polearm at me once again.

    ¡°Thanks, I was expecting you to use a sword in this tournament, did not know you could use a spear, I am glad you did though, the last few opponents could not even touch me.¡± Toman replied.

    ¡°Good. honestly, I have not used a spear in quite a while, so it is nice to fight someone who knows how to use a long weapon. So ready yourself, I am taking this up a notch.¡± I said as I started twirling the head of my spear in a small circle in front of me.

    It is time for him to see how my spear ¡°slithers¡±.

 Chapter 139

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    Toman knew and was taught to keep an eye on the opponent¡¯s body movement, for that dictates the movement and trajectory of the weapon, but at this moment, he was finding his attention split between Luke Ironcrest¡¯s hand movements and his spearhead which seems to lag slightly behind his movement due to his weird bending and warping spear.

    After a few spins of the spearhead in front of his face, Toman caught a different movement from Luke¡¯s elbow but did not catch the rest of the movement from his other hand due to the red tassel waving in front of him

    The next thing Toman knew, a spearhead was launching for his chest, too fast to parry, forcing Toman to bring his polearm closer in to block away the incoming strike, only for the spearhead to suddenly change direction at the last moment, aimed at his face.

    This time, it was Toman¡¯s turn to throw himself to the ground to save himself, but unlike Luke who threw himself back in a bad position to recover, Toman was in a better position and performed a side roll and recovered just in time to slap away an incoming stab with his polearm.

    ¡°So that''s the slithering spear I have been hearing about.¡± Toman said as he readied himself for the next clash.

    Luke just shrugged his shoulders and replied, ¡°Not the word I like my spear being described as, but we can rarely name things ourselves when it catches on.¡±

    That, Toman could understand, there were many tales of warriors and mages throughout history, whose techniques or spells, or even they themselves, were given less than flattering names by the public at large, and it just caught on despite what the warrior or mage said it was.

    But before Toman could ponder further, he saw Luke move again, but this time, he was ready. Instead of concentrating on the spearhead, he aimed for the spear shaft.

    As Luke prodded forward to test Toman¡¯s defense, Toman used this opportunity to catch Luke¡¯s spear on his polearm¡¯s head, right between the splayed axe head and spike, he then twisted his polearm to lick the shaft in place and pulled in an attempt to disarm Luke.

    But instead of having a tug of war with their weapons like Toman expected, Luke went with the pull, left his spear behind, and grabbed Toman¡¯s polearm before proceeding to deliver a front kick to Toman¡¯s chest.

    Toman was totally caught off guard, causing him to lose a grip on his polearm as he staggered backward, and in that time, Luke had already flipped the polearm on him and charged forward to stab Toman with his own weapon.

    The only thing Toman could do to defend himself was to grab the polearm by the hammer side and the gap between the spike and axehead as he was carried off his feet by Luke¡¯s charge.

    The next moment, Toman found himself on the ground trying to push the polearm spike away from his chest, but seeing that Luke had superior leverage, he knew it was a losing game, so in a single great push, Toman directed the spike over his shoulder and rolled to the side, but when he was face down during the roll, he felt a weight slam onto him, and an arm wrapped around his neck by the time he was rolled facing skyward while lying on someone.

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    What was when he felt pressure on his chin through the mana shield and glanced down to see a dagger pointed at him as Luke spoke into his ear, ¡°Do you yield?¡±

    Knowing he had already lost, Toman raised his hands to the sky, ¡°I yield.¡±

    ¡°Winner! Luke Ironcrest!¡± The referee shouts as he raises his flagged pole and points it to Luke¡¯s corner.

    The Arena once again burst out in a defining roar.

    ***

    After my victory was announced, I released Toman and we both got up.

    ¡°Well fought, Toman. Got to say, you are a lot better at the polearm than a sword.¡± I said as I extended a hand for a handshake.

    Toman shrugged and accepted my handshake, ¡°Well, what can I do? Swordsmanship is seen widely as the more noble and civilized weapon.¡±

    ¡°Ha! Such silly notions held by stuffy old men, the best weapon is the one you can hit your enemy with without your enemy reaching you, see you in class, or any other events you signed up for.¡± I said as we both went to collect our dropped weapons.

    After bowing to the royals and the audience, I once again made my way to the waiting room.

    Soon enough, my semi-finals came up, and I was greatly disappointed, especially after the fight I had in the quarter-finals, Toman was the only one so far who had ¡°wounded¡± me. My semi-final fight however, was some noble git that I also recognized from Advanced Combat & Tactics class, but did not bother remembering the name of, but had a bigger build than everyone in my cohort.

    From what I observed during class, he had a decent grasp of the basic forms of swordsmanship and little else besides that. What he does not have in skill, he has so far made up for by being physically stronger than his peers, and having a longer reach by virtue of his longer limbs, and having a greatsword.

    As for how my match with him went, he started by talking smack, saying that the rumors of me beating up a whole hallway of people must be fake, and the reason I always spar with instructors during class was that I was scared of ever facing him. At some point through his smack talk, I was wondering if he really meant what he was saying or if he was just blind.

    Or he could be as stupid as a low-level NPC seeing the player slay the game¡¯s boss and think ¡°I could take him.¡±

    Either way, he was easy, I did not even need to pull off any fancy moves, it ended rather anticlimactic by sweeping his legs with my spear and finishing him off with a stab, even I was somewhat surprised by how easy it was.

    After the semi-finals, as I was once again at the bar sipping a smoothie, the door opened to reveal the opponent I would be facing in the finals, and it was a girl who I did not see in my Advanced Combat & Tactics class. I would know, that class is mainly male-dominated and there are less than twenty girls, and she was not one of them.

    I looked up at the updated tournament board to see what her name was, and it showed the last remaining name beside mine, Lavinia Castilene¡­ Castilene¡­ why does that sound familiar?

    I ran through my memories and came to the answer, the Duke''s house of Castilene¡­ Lavinia Castilene is most likely the daughter of a Duke.

    As she walks into the waiting room, the sounds from the half-time performance take place, I study my opponent. She was a classic beauty redhead tied in a braid with a slender build, she wearing cloth instead of protective leather, but I suppose it was not needed with the mana shield.

    She was wearing rather puffy sleeves, so I could not tell the muscle definition of her arms, but from her slender shoulders, I was not expecting much in the way of strength, which suggests she uses a light weapon, but I would not know until our match starts because the ushers collect our weapons before we enter the waiting room.

    When I locked eyes with Lavinia, I knew she was also studying me as she walked over to the bar and sat beside me, ¡°So, you this Luke Ironcrest I have been hearing so much about, nice to finally meet you while we are alone.¡±

 Chapter 140

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    ¡°So, you this Luke Ironcrest I have been hearing so much about, nice to finally meet you while we are alone.¡± Lavinia Castilene said to me as offered her hand.

    So as formalities dictate regarding our families¡¯ respective ranks in the hierarchy of nobles, hers being from a Duke house while mine being just a Baron house, I reciprocate the gesture and kiss the back of her hand.

    I do not know if she is trying to pull rank on me by initiating such a formal greeting in such an informal setting, or if she just has a stick up her ass, but I just took it in stride for now. ¡°I am honored to be recognized by you, Lady Castilene, too bad that our first meeting is just before we engage in combat.¡±

    ¡°Nonsense!¡± she waved her hand dismissively, ¡°Combat is the most honest form of meeting, especially if it is our first time.¡± she said with a twinkle in her eye while huffing like she was satisfied with her statement.

    Oh no¡­ is she a combat junky? How can such a slender, prim and proper young lady be a battle junky?!

    ¡°Ha ha, indeed, indeed.¡± I faked a laugh and agreed with the over-enthusiastic girl while I tried to look elsewhere to try and take the conversation elsewhere, that''s when my eyes landed on the tournament board and saw the names of those Lavinia defeated to face me, and who else do I see but fucking Oswald Berkeley¡¯s name being struck out in the second round against Lavinia.

    ¡°Not to disparage your skill, Lady Castilene, but I did not expect Oswald Berkeley to lose to you, he is one of the best swordsmen of our cohort for the Advanced Combat & Tactics class.¡± I commented while jerking my head to the tournament board.

    ¡°Ah, the Berkeley scion, he was not so bad, too bad he underestimated me and tried to overpower me with strength instead of skill, I swiftly corrected him of that notion, but I am still saddened that I could not apply for the Advanced Combat & Tactics class, father and mother said it was not becoming of a lady. Instead, I am stuck learning politics and the arts. I had to go behind my father¡¯s back to get myself signed up for this tournament.¡± Lavinia lamented.

    ¡°Oh? You seem to be doing very well for someone not in any of the martial or magic classes I attend. What do you mainly use? Some light weapon I assume?¡± I asked probingly.

    ¡°I use a-¡± Lavinia said before stopping herself and huffing at me, ¡°You are just going to have to find out when we fight, but as for you, everyone knows you are using a spear for this tournament. As for my martial skills, when I was younger, I had to pester my father for weeks before he agreed to hire a private tutor.¡±

    All I could do was chuckle, ¡°I am sure you will do your tutor proud,¡± it was around that time that the sounds of the half-time performance came to an end, and the applause of the audience sounded, ¡°I guess it is almost time for me to see what weapon I will be facing in your hands.¡±

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    And with my sentence, two ushers came to guide us to our respective entrances.

    ***

    When our entrance was announced by the hype man, he gave me an enthusiastic entrance, extolling my virtues of how I fought with skill and courage. But when Lavinia¡¯s entrance was announced, I would describe the extravagance and exaggeration of Lavinia¡¯s previous duels and her house¡¯s many great deeds, I swear it just shy of verbally tickling Duke Castilene¡¯s bum with flattery.

    As Lavinia got closer, my suspicions were correct, she was using a light weapon, to be more specific, a rapier that was clearly enchanted, accompanied by a dagger strapped to the other side of her hip.

    After we were done bowing to the royals, we both took our positions and let the referee know we were ready.

    ¡°Fight!¡± the referee shouted and Lavinia made the first move by charging forward with a rapier in her main hand and dagger in her off-hand.

    I reacted by backing off while leveling my spear at her center mass, but when she got closed enough to touch my spear, she revealed her true speed and sprinted forward while pushing my spearhead aside with her dagger at the same time, and when she got within range, she stabbed at me with her rapier.

    I sidestepped the stab and used my greater strength to leverage my spear shaft in order to bat her aside and hopefully slash her with the spearhead. What I did not expect, was for her to lean into the spear pushing into her side and rolling over my spear shaft like some kind of fence.

    But it did give me time to hop a few steps back for some spacing. When we were once again facing each other, she was giving me a predatory smile and a look in her eyes that I did not quite like.

    This time, I initiated the charge, but apparently Lavinia had the same idea and charged me at the same time. Now that I knew she could be fast on her feet and quickly invade my space, I changed my target from center mass to her less defended parts, like her legs.

    I did some probing strikes at her head and shoulders to get her used to the pattern, then with a flick of my spear, the spearhead that looked like it was going for her midriff, bent and went for her right thigh. But it seems like her reaction was better than average, as she was able to shift her right leg behind her left and bat away my spearhead to the side.

    To which, I used the momentum of my spearhead being batted away to circle above her and bring my spearhead down in a vertical chop, forcing her to back off, and the moment she took a step back, I advanced while stabbing at her feet.

    After a few meters of me stabbing at her feet and her back peddling, she must have seen through the rhythm of my strikes and tried to stop me by stepping on the flat of my spearhead and grounding it, but I did not stop advancing.

    As I moved forward, my spear bent into an arch, I quickly moved under the bent spearshaft and delivered a high kick to the spearshaft. This caused my spear to whip out and up from under Lavinia¡¯s foot, the suddenly released tension of the bent spear shooting up and ¡°slicing¡± Lavinia¡¯s left shoulder, also caused her to lift off from the ground and spin in the air.

    She did not fly so high, so she did manage to perform a roll recovery to face me.

    ¡°Excellent!¡± she practically shouted toward me with more enthusiasm in her eyes than I was comfortable with.

    What is with battle junkies? Are they all crazy?

 Chapter 141

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    At this point, as we were facing each other while Lavinia was giving me crazy eyes as we circled one another, changed our stances as we went along.

    As Lavinia changed her stance high, I made my move and lunged forward, aiming for her ¡°injured¡± shoulder, and threw in a few more probing strikes, but all of them were parried off easily enough with just her off-hand dagger.

    So I once again started flicking my spear, making it bend while striking at Lavinia. This forced her on the backfoot while also forcing her to use both her weapons to parry my strikes, her dagger defending her head and torso, while her rapier defended her legs.

    As my strikes continued, I could see the look in her eyes become more frantic, and just as one of my strikes went for her ¡°injured¡± shoulder once again, instead of dodging, she ate the hit and dashed into my space, dropped her dagger so she could grab my spear shaft and stabbed at me with her rapier while pulling herself forward.

    This forced me to let go of my spear and jump backward as the tip of her rapier was flying toward me.

    But just as I thought I got out of stabbing range, I saw the blade of her rapier glow and rapidly extend toward my neck, I twisted my body to dodge the blade but still got nailed in the shoulder while dodging, making me spin in the air like I did to her in a previous engagement.

    While I spun in the air, I used the momentum to draw my sword and ready myself. When I once again locked eyes on Lavinia, she had her back turned to me as she threw my spear off the wide stage as far as she could. She effectively took my spear out of the playing field.

    As she was attempting to recover her dagger, I rushed Lavinia and slashed at her, forcing her to abandon her dagger and swipe her blade at me, but I managed to block the swipe and put my boot to her side, kicking her away and picked up her blade to sheath in my belt.

    ¡°What kind of enchantment is that on your blade? I have never seen an enchantment that extends the weapon before.¡± I said as I readied my guard again.

    Lavinia just smiled at me and said, ¡°Yes, it was specially made and enchanted by a blacksmith of some renown, but worry not, I have more surprises for you.¡±

    As we closed into one another, I noticed she advanced with a lot more confidence than when she was facing me with my spear, that tells me that either she is confident in beating me because we will have to fight in closer range now, or because she thinks I use the spear as my main weapon and am not as proficient at the sword. I am going to have to show her that both reasons are wrong.

    The engagement started once again with Lavinia testing out my sword skills with a few pokes, all of which I efficiently perry or blocked. But due to Lavinia having a lighter weapon and moving her rapier faster than I could with my hand-and-a-half sword, I could not afford to block with any big or extended movements and keep my sword as centralized and close to my body as possible.

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    I was just waiting for the moment she would be forced to make a big move when she could not get past my guard, and it did not take long. After close to a dozen strikes which I blocked, she finally went for the big lunge.

    She started by striking high, followed by dropping down low, almost touching the ground, and lunging up toward me while her rapier tip went under my guard, headed for my chest, and I have no doubt that she extended her blade too.

    To avoid this, I practically had to bend backward and do a rather clumsy one-handed back-handspring. Honestly, this is the most amount of acrobatics I ever had to perform in a battle without aura, and I am disappointed that I was not able to capitalize on her big move. But I got to say, that was a good move on her part.

    We both got back on proper footing around the same time and clashed once again. As I crossed blades with Lavinia once again, I internally sighed, I never did like sparing with people who mained rapiers in my previous life, bunch of little shits being snooty because theirs is the only melee-armed sports in the Olympics.

    When we clashed again, a few strikes in, I saw her rapier glow once again and prepared to bat away an extending blade, but what happened instead was multiple copies of her rapier manifested, all sprouting from a blurred and distorted overlapping hand holding the rapier.

    She then lunged at me and the rapier copies sprouting from her wrist did the same, I counted five blades coming at different points of my body. I had an inkling of what this was, so I willingly gave ground by jumping back, but at the same time spinning my sword with little force behind it to catch as many of the five blades as I could.

    And sure enough, my guess was right, my sword passed through two of the blades with no feeling of resistance, only to feel and hear the sound of metal on metal upon my sword hitting her rapier, ¡°A mirage blade, is that another of your surprises? You are going to have to do better than that, I already know how it works.¡±

    I broke the sword lock by pushing her sword to the side and using the momentum to deliver an upward slash, but she was fast and agile enough to bend to the side, avoiding my sword. That was a big mistake on her part, she should have backed away because she was now in grappling range.

    I released my left hand from my sword¡¯s grip and shot out to grab Lavinia¡¯s sword hand. Using my greater strength and body weight, I jerked her forward and off balance before sweeping her legs with a kick, and when she was momentarily airborne, it was a simple matter of flipping her and slamming her to the ground. And before Lavinia could recover, I brought my sword to her neck, if this was a situation in real life without mana shields, it would have been easy to open up her throat with a simple movement of my sword.

    ¡°Do you yield?¡± I asked

    ¡°Marry me!¡± she said. And apparently, there was some kind of sound amplification enchantment in the Pit, because I was not the only one stunned into silence, all the audiences in the stands became silent too.

    That was until some woman in the audience shouted, ¡°That¡¯s right, girl! Get that boy!¡±, then the people in the audience broke out into jeering laughter and cheering, and one of the VIP booths opposite me had a chair thrown through it to reveal a raving mad man being held back by soldiers. I am going to take a wild guess and say that is Duke Castilene, Lavinia¡¯s father.

    All I could do in this out of left field experience, was say, ¡°What?¡±, as I looked around at the stands, the royals who were facepalming, back at Lavinia who had a stupid smile on her face, and then back at the referee who could only shrug his shoulders and say, ¡°Winner¡­ Luke Ironcrest?...¡±

 Chapter 142

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    After my victory was declared, Lavinia was led off the stage while I was instructed to stay by the referee. That was when the announcer said, ¡°Now, please welcome to the stage, our king, King Argus IV, to present the champion¡¯s sword to our winner!¡±

    At the Pit¡¯s wall below the balcony where the royals were sitting, the huge stone slab recessed into the wall to make an opening big enough for a large carriage to pass through.

    From that opening, marched out two rows of royal guards, forming a passage to the stage. That was when the king and his queen, made their appearance, followed by a royal guard holding an ornate shortsword with both hands.

    That was when the referee whispered to me from the side of his mouth, ¡°Kneel.¡± before walking to the side and joining the corridor of royal guards. So I knelt with my head down and waited for the king to arrive.

    Soon, there was a pair of boots in front of me, ¡°Rise Luke Ironcrest, you have won great renown today.¡± the king said.

    Hearing that, I got to my feet, only to see the same mad eyes that Lavinia had during our dual and froze on the spot. Thankfully, it seemed like the queen picked up on my distress and stepped beside the king to put her arm in his and squeezed it while giving me a warm smile.

    This snapped the king out of his maddened smile and he waved the sword-bearer forward, he then proceeded to give a short speech, extolling my my martial skill and having high expectations for my batch.

    The king then took the ornate sword from the sword-bearer, ¡°To recognize your accomplishments, I present to you, the Champion¡¯s sword.¡± he said as he presented the sword to me.

    The sword looked like it was plated in highly polished silver with inlaid gold words naming the tournament category and year.

    When I took the sword, the king leaned in and whispered, ¡°If you ever join the army, I will have a spot waiting for you.¡± the muscle idiot of a king, unconscious of his own strength, then patted my shoulder, almost making me topple over, turned around and marched off with his entourage in tow.

    I was then ushered back to a passage that led to the stands. But just as I thought I could just sit back and watch the rest of the other cohorts¡¯ tournament, I was stopped at the entrance to the stands by two men wearing discrete armor, but on their surcoats that they wore over the armor, they bore the heraldry of house Castilene, that meant that these men were most likely house knights.

    All I could do was sigh and ask, ¡°I take it this is in regards to what Lady Castilene publicly said at the end of our dual, and now Duke Castilene wants to see me?¡±

    ¡°That is so, Lord Ironcrest.¡± one of the men said with a stoic face while the other man let out a small chuckle. And so, I was kidnapped in all but name, and we made our way to the VIP booths, but instead of going to the viewing area, we made a turn in another direction to what I assume are private rooms where the VIPs use to conduct business in private.

    I was led to a room that had another two men wearing the Duke¡¯s heraldry guarding the door, and they let us in.

    There, sitting on a couch in that room, was Lavinia Castilene, bouncing in her seat while smiling at me, and next to her sat a well-dressed man with an immaculate goatee who had his arms folded and a glare that promised my death, Lavinia¡¯s father, Duke Benedict Castilene.

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    He looked me up and down, then huffed dismissively, ¡°He is not that impressive. Why could you not go with Countess Evina¡¯s son? He is a wonderful boy from an old house of good repute.¡± the Duke said as he almost pleaded with his daughter.

    Lavinia huffed back in return, I don''t know what it is, but it seems huffing is part of this family''s vocabulary, ¡°All that idiot could do is spout flowery poems at me, and when he tried to impress me with his ¡°marital skills¡±, it was plain to everyone that his opponent was holding back by a lot, it was so obvious that even my maids were holding back their laughter. I could have beaten him in two moves at worst, and I don''t need a weak husband like that, that''s why I want him!¡± she said while pointing at me.

    ¡°Excuse me, Lady Castilene, but-¡± I tried to object to the many leaps of logic to how she came to that decision, but I was silenced.

    ¡°Silence! I am speaking with my daughter!¡± Duke Castilene shouted and turned to his daughter, ¡°But of all the young men your age, why him?¡±

    ¡°Because he is not of my age, he is still eight, and yet he beat me when I was not holding back, and mother said that if I find a good man, I should strike first so no other woman can get to him. She said that is how she got you.¡± Lavinia said while puffing out her chest at the infallible logic passed down from her mother.

    At her declaration, the Duke could only pinch the bridge of his nose as he groaned, while the two knights standing behind the Duke¡¯s couch were clearly trying to hold back their mirth, which in my opinion, pretty much confirmed that Duchess Castilene had some strong views on finding a life partner, and the whole household knew about it.

    I took this brief pause to interrupt, ¡°Sorry to interrupt, but I will have to turn down this offer of marriage.¡±

    At my declaration, both father and daughter glared at me, ¡°What! Do you think my daughter is not good enough for you just because you won some tournament? You are going to need to earn a lot more merit to be worthy of my daughter¡¯s hand in marriage.¡±

    What the fuck is going on? I thought I was doing him a favor by turning down the marriage on my side, ¡°No! Of course not My Lord, it is just as Lady Castilene mentioned, I am four years younger and she will no doubt have lines of suitors when she comes of marriageable age, I am sure there are many more worthy of her hand than me.¡±

    ¡°I can wait four years.¡± Lavinia replied as she causally folded her arms.

    ¡°No, she will not!¡± the Duke retorted.

    ¡°See, even the Duke agrees, besides, we cannot marry anytime soon because I plan to join the military when I turn sixteen, so I will be a constantly unavailable partner.¡± I said as a further excuse.

    ¡°That does not mean we still cannot be married, there are many married men serving in the army away form their families.¡± She said, smacking down my weak ass excuse.

    ¡°I will not allow some fresh private as your husband! He will need to be an officer at the very least.¡± the Duke said to his daughter. At this point, I am not sure whose side the Duke is on.

    Behind the couch, I could see the two knights elbowing each other to keep each other from laughing at my expense.

    ¡°Be that as it may, I am already betrothed to another back home, so I am going to have to turn down your generous offer for marriage.¡± I said as I thought of Emma back home and pulled the excuse out of my ass. I am going to have a lot of explaining to do to mine and Emma¡¯s parents if the Duke ever checked my betrothal claims.

    ¡°That is fine, as long as I am the first wife.¡± Lavinia said nonchalantly.

    ¡°Absolutely not! I will never allow this!¡± the Duke roared.

    ¡°See! As long as I do not have the Duke¡¯s blessing, we cannot proceed with the engagement.¡± I said triumphantly.

    ¡°Fine, I will tell Mother! She will sort this out.¡± Lavinia said with finality. This left the Duke sputtering for words as he tried to retort what his daughter said, but could not. This makes me think that the Dutchess wears the pants in this relationship.

    At this point, the two knights are tearing up while silently going red in the face. At least someone if getting joy out of this, it sure is not me tho.

 Chapter 143

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    Eventually, the argument devolved into the Duke pleading with his daughter not to get the Dutchess involved in this matter. While that was happening, one of the knights who looked to be on the older side took the initiative and escorted me out to rejoin my class in the stands.

    As I walked back to rejoin my class, I was still confused about what the fuck was going on, if I followed the Duke¡¯s train of logic, I think he would have had no issue marrying off his daughter to me if I racked up massive amounts of achievements, or become a high ranked army officer, or have my house climb to a higher noble rank.

    Wait¡­ what am I thinking? I don¡¯t want to be associated with crazy, especially crazy that I have known for less than a day. What I need to concentrate on is strutting my stuff, winning my tournament matches, getting recognition of my skills from future employers (hopefully the royals) so I can get favorable terms in the future, and lay low. Counterproductive to laying low, I know, but I do what I must.

    I rejoin my class to much cheers and back pats as my classmates pester me to show my trophy sword for winning the Swordsmanship Duels for my year.

    After my trophy sword made its rounds around the class, I realized something, there was a high chance the Duke was going to do a background check on me and my family and I needed to give them a heads up, so I retrieved my stuff and ran down to the nearest merchant guild to draft a letter.

    In that letter, I wrote about the general updates of my life school life and winning the Swordsmanship Duels, but eventually got to the main meat of the issue. I started from when Lavinia publicly proposed to me to when the knight discreetly dismissed me, it was kind of embarrassing, but I also wrote down the excuses I gave the Duke and asked them to play along if they were ever asked. I asked if Emma would mind filling in for my alleged ¡°betrothed¡± and hoped she would not be too mad at me for roping her into my coverup.

    After having the letter sealed and paid for express postage, I made my way back to the Arena to watch the rest of the matches.

    That night, I had a hearty dinner and turned in early for the night, I had to get my beauty sleep because tomorrow was going to be a taxing day, tomorrow was the Melee Battles, and from what I know, I am one of the few from my level that is attempting this solo instead of a group.

    ***

    The next day, I ate a light breakfast before we were once again transported to the Arena. Shortly after all the classes were seated the announcement called for the Melee Battles¡¯ participants to gather at the same place we drew lots for the Swordsmanship Duals.

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    In that hall, there were multiple booths with tournament staff manning said booths. We were called forth to register and collect the necessary stuff for the event. Soon, we were all registered in our groups of no more than five people each, the solo participants like myself were counted as a group unto ourselves, and we were all also issued the mana shield bracelet used in the Swordsmanship Duals.

    When all the participants were processed, a tournament staff walked up on stage to address us, ¡°Good morning, participants. Before you go out there and start the Melee Battle, here are the rules.¡±

    We were then briefed on the cans and cannots of the Melee Battle, and it was mostly similar to the Swordsmanship Duals. In short, no aura and no magic allowed, if the mana shield bracelet activates, you are out, and one of the many roaming umpires would jump in and whisk you away, and for the groups that have more than one participant, even if the group ends up with one participant, it counts as a group victory.

    Once the briefing was over, we were led to a room with multiple archway entrances, group by group, we were led down the different hallways that branched off. When it was my turn, I was led onto a stone platform that was around four by four meters.

    ¡°Please keep on the platform while waiting, they will rise you up into the Pit soon, after that, just wait for the announcer to start the battle.¡± the tournament staff informed me as we waited.

    While waiting, I could hear the muffled sounds of the announcer hyping the audience, and when the muffled cheering reached a crescendo, the tournament staff said, ¡°Ready yourself, and good luck.¡± before the platform beneath my feet trembled and started rising.

    When I was closing into the roof, the roof, or should I say the Pit¡¯s floor parted to let me rise into the Pit proper, and what I saw around me was definitely not what I saw when I was sitting down with my class an hour or so ago.

    What was once just a sandy Pit, now looked the part of the leftovers of a dilapidated ancient ruin, minus the vegetation. It was all half-broken pillars and housing that was built up just enough to use for strategic choke points, but run down enough that it was hard to find any cover to hide.

    ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Melee Battle part of the tournament where our participants show off their teamwork and battle prowess, let''s give it up for the Year 5 contestants!¡± the announcer said and the crowd went wild.

    ¡°Now, before we hand the time over to our king to signal the start of the Melee Battle, we would like to thank the sponsor who created the Ruins map before us, Mystic Masonry, Need something built quick? Let Mystic Masonry craft a space where magic meets architecture. From spellbound walls to invisible defenses, they will bring your vision to life with arcane artistry and precision, for further inquiries for their services, please contact the nearest merchant¡¯s guild house. Now without further ado, Your Majesty.¡± the announcer said as he directed attention to the king after the ad read I did not expect.

    The king was presented with a war horn that he took and blew on to signal the start of the Melee Battle.

    The moment the signal sounded I looked around to find a secluded area to wait out most of the battle, only to find that all the surrounding groups were not going at each other, but were in fact starting at me.

    This stinks of collusion and I don''t like it.

 Chapter 144

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    As if some silent signal was given, around five groups and almost as many solo contestants converge on my location, and as much as I am tempted to find a narrow chokepoint with a wall to my back so nobody can backstab me, I know it is better to be on the move when being assaulted and have a good chance of being trapped and overwhelmed, especially in such terrain with easily climbable walls.

    A quick look around told me that all the pathways were being filled in with people and I would be running into the enemies¡¯ chokepoint, which was never a good idea, so I decided if I could not escape by going around, I would go over.

    I picked a dilapidated two-story building that had the wall of the second floor missing and the first floor occupied by contestants defending the passage through, but regardless, I charged them spear first.

    When I closed in, the group I was charging had three shield wielders blocking my approach into the building and were backed up by two spear wielders sticking their spears out between those shields.

    But before I got near the striking range of the spears, I stabbed my spear into the ground in front of me and used my extra springy spear to pole vault myself up to the second floor and run through the dilapidated structure. Once I exited out the other side, I started hopping from structure to structure.

    This got me out of immediate danger, but at the same time, it made me extremely visible to everyone on the ground level.

    It was then that I saw how widespread the collusion was. Around me, some groups and solo contestants actually called a time-out on their fight and started chasing me. Seriously! What the fuck did I do to deserve this? This is blatant and unfair targeting of a single participant, me!

    As I kept running, I took a peek around at my pursuers and saw that almost all of them were displaying coats of arms on their armor, which meant nobles, or at least the leaders of the teams chasing me, most of the nobles were not teamed up with each other and had commoners make up the rest of their group.

    I kept looking around for a spot where I could break the line of sight and launch an ambush, as I was doing so, I saw Dave and Sam off in the distance beating on a solo contestant and making short work of him.

    So I decided to see if I could join up with them, we may not be an official team, but if the other groups can gang up on me, I can team up with the boys so we can cover each other¡¯s backs. But just as I took a couple of hops in Dave and Sam¡¯s direction, they got bum-rushed and blindsided by a group of five who were hiding nearby, and before I could do anything, Dave and Sam¡¯s mana shield got deployed and an umpire swooped in to evacuate them from the field.

    So once again, I queue up C¨¦line Dion in my head, because I¡¯m All By Myself in this battle.

    After a few more hops, I spotted a good spot to break line of sight, but before that, I took a peek behind me to see what I was up against, and I kind of regretted doing so. Behind me were almost half the contestants jostling with each other like they wanted the first crack at me.

    When I got to the spot, I got down to the ground floor and quickly ducked around a few ruined buildings, only to almost run face-first into a solo contestant who was wearing a bright red hooded surcoat over his armor. Seeing the way he was dressed, sparked an idea in my head, and I think I scared the poor lad with the smile I displayed before moving into action.

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    Less than a minute later, it was I who was wearing a bright red hooded surcoat over my armor, and there was a sobbing noble kid who had his mana shield deployed, and an umpire was giving me a conflicted look as he picked up the sobbing noble kid.

    ¡°What? Nowhere in the rules say I could not disarm or disrobe my opponents before I dispatched them.¡± I said in a hushed voice to the umpire, he just shook his head as he jumped away with the noble kid.

    The moment I made sure my armor was properly covered, I repositioned to stash my spear somewhere safe, it was too reconizable, and that was what I was avoiding at the moment.

    As I slinked from cover to cover, I took out a cloth that was meant to clean my weapons and armor and used it as an impromptu face mask to obscure the bottom half of my face, hopefully, I am not recognizable at first sight.

    Soon enough, the first test of my disguise is upon me as a group of five comes to the street I am in and they find me standing there with my sword in hand and ready for action, ¡°You seen Luke Ironcrest come by around here?¡± one of them asks.

    ¡°I don''t know, I just saw a flash of movement and was chasing it down this street when I ran into you guys.¡± I replied.

    The leader, a noble from the looks of it, converses with his team and I pick up from one of the team members, ¡°Sounds like the bounty is close by, do we split up and search?¡±

    The noble brat shakes his head, and says, ¡°No, from what I have seen and heard, Ironcrest is strong, if we split up we will not be able to take him, we will have better luck waiting for the other teams to flush him out and hopefully we can swoop in for the killing blow when the fighting starts.¡± the noble brat then turns to me, gives me a nod and leads his team down the street.

    Well, sounds like someone put a bounty on me, and now that I got a disguise on, it is the perfect time to do some snooping and sow some chaos.

    Soon, I hear more boots coming in my direction and I make myself look busy searching for the illusive Luke Ironcrest.

    As I was ¡°searching¡± for myself, I looked at my pursuers. As they spread out, the teams kept a safe distance and a weary eye on each. After a few minutes passed and my likeness was nowhere in sight, some of the groups got back to business and started eliminating the competition, and I thought it was time to do the same.

    I wondered about, picking off some solo contestants or those who paired off, as for groups of three or more, I was rather hesitant to do so in case I was unable to finish them off fast enough and draw attention to myself.

    Other than that, I was stalking some of the bigger groups and eavesdropping on their conversations in case there was any news of who placed a bounty on me, and as luck might have it, while I was hiding from a group of five that was walking by, I heard the group talking.

    ¡°Man¡­ is this bounty even worth it? It''s just a minor favor.¡± one of the boys said.

    ¡°Do you even know what a minor favor is? We are all commoners, so you must think about it, a noble¡¯s definition of minor and our definition of minor are worlds apart, a noble¡¯s minor favor could turn ours and our families'' lives around for the better.¡± a second boy said.

    ¡°That Berkeley better be good for it, otherwise we are wasting time hunting down one target while we could be fighting and showing off.¡± a third boy said.

    ¡°He¡¯s good for it, nobles cherish their name and their word almost as much as they do gold, it would do them no good tarnishing their own reputation by going back on their word, especially when that Berkeley is the house¡¯s heir.¡± the second boy said as they gradually went out of my hearing range.

    So¡­ it is a fucking Berkeley that is causing me trouble, but this time it is not fucking Oswald, but his big brother that is in the last year of higher education. What was that prick¡¯s name again? Edd something¡­ right, Edmund.

    Is he trying to get me crushed before I can show off my fighting prowess? If that''s the case, fuck that guy! I am going to clear house just to spite him!

 Chapter 145

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Guillermo Jovega and four commoners his father managed to get into the Royal Academy were prowling the streets of the simulated ruins looking for other contestants to defeat. And unlike some of the other nobles and commoners who took up Edmund Berkeley on his bounty for Luke Ironcrest, he did not see the need to stoop so low.

    His house was rich and powerful enough to disregard such a thing as a paltry minor favor, even if it meant a Berkeley heir owing him one.

    Guillermo, was more interested in continuing the tradition of proving the honor and martial prowess of the Jovega family, just as his father and older siblings did before him.

    But that did not mean Guillermo was arrogant just because his father got him the best swordsmanship tutors money could buy, no, it was because of his private swordsmanship tutors that he knew enough to know where he stood in the pecking order of combat skill.

    While Guillermo could confidently say he was close to the top of the totem pole for his cohort, he recognized that there were monsters above him, and above those monsters, were Talented Monsters like Luke Ironcrest, and Guillermo very much wanted to make Luke¡¯s acquaintance, forming a friendship if possible.

    But despite recognizing Luke Ironcrest to be a future martial and perhaps political powerhouse, he was currently a poisoned fruit for those who ran in Guillermo¡¯s circles, especially with those rumors going around that he was the cause of the great shakedown a few months prior, causing the execution of many high profile people caught up in illegal and possibly traitorous activity. Thankfully, Guillermo did not hear any news of his immediate or extended family getting caught up in that whole mess.

    So if he ever wanted to form any sort of connection with Luke Ironcrest, Guillermo could only wait for the situation around Luke to cool down further, or wait until he graduates and make contact in a less formal setting.

    But all those plans were for another day as Guillermo picked up the sound of fighting nearby, that meant more chances to show off, and if he was lucky, he could blindside those who were fighting.

    When his group reached the scene of the fight, Guillermo and his team pressed their bodies close against the walls of the ruins to conceal themselves as best they could. When they peeked at the ongoing battle they saw that it was two groups of two going at.

    After a few seconds of observing the battle, it was obvious that one side was less skilled and was on the defensive. This made the choice of target for their surprise attack an easy one, they just needed to circle around behind the winning group and backstab them, then finish off the weaker group.

    Guillermo brought his team together and went over the brief yet simple plan, then moved to carry out said plan.

    At his signal, Guillermo¡¯s four teammates dashed from their cover to backstab the winning team, swiftly followed by Guillermo himself.

    Guillermo¡¯s team swiftly engaged the winning team from behind but only managed to catch one of the participants off guard, scoring an immediate ¡®killing blow¡¯ triggering the mana shield.

    Now faced with a superior force, the remaining three contestants came to an unspoken truce to fend off Guillermo¡¯s attack.

    Seconds into the fight, Guillermo could say that his opponents were putting up a good defense, but with how much on the back foot they were, victory was all but assured as long as his team kept up with the formation and did not get greedy with their attacks.

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    Soon, the last opponent from the previously winning team was struck down and his mana shield was deployed, leaving the already exhausted two-man team to face Guillermo¡¯s.

    Just after the mana shield was deployed, Guillermo heard one of his men shout out in surprise as he turned and saw his right-most teammate fall over stiff as his mana shield enveloped his body, and standing above his fallen teammate was a participant wearing a hooded red surcoat with the bottom half of his face concealed, Guillermo did not recognize him at first sight until he saw the coat of arms on the red surcoat.

    Guillermo, recognized the coat of arms belonging to the Viscount Cassor family, which can only mean the person who took down one of his teammates with a sneak attack was Janos Cassor, a blowhard and a braggart who somehow always managed to find some excuse to run away when challenged to back up what he boasts, and most recently, he had been boasting that he was strong enough to run this group battle tournament solo.

    ¡®Too bad for him, as that will be the last ¡®kill¡¯ he is going to get.¡¯ Guillermo thought to himself as he signaled two of his teammates to go take care of Janos. Guillermo knew that the only reason Janos even managed to score a kill was because of a sneak attack, and any member of his group could easily take Janos down.

    After trading blows with the remaining opponents, Guillermo managed to land a ¡®killing¡¯ blow on the opponent he was facing and was about to turn on the last opponent, who was doing a rather good job surviving with excellent shield work, he heard the voice of one of his team flying through the air behind him.

    When Guillermo turned around, he saw one of the two he sent to deal with Janos, stiff as a board and enveloped by the mana shield.

    Guillermo turned to find the other teammate he had sent, lying at the feet of Janos, mana shield deployed. ¡®This cannot be! It has not even been a week since I had seen Janos fumbling around with his sword in class, how did he defeat those two?¡¯ Guillermo thought to himself, but as he took a closer look at Janos, he started noticing discrepancies¡­ this person was not Janos Cassor.

    The Janos that Guillermo knew was slightly taller and had shoulders that slouched more than the person before him, but the most damming evidence that this was not Janos Cassor, was the eyes.

    Unlike the shifty and rather dull eyes he had seen on Janos¡¯, the eyes staring at him now were sharp with concentration and confidence, the same eyes he sees when facing his private tutor or any instructor in the Acedemy. Whoever this was, Guillermo knew he could not take him lightly.

    Quickly, Guillermo came up with a quick and simple battle plan, ¡°Finish those two off and back me, quickly!¡± Guillermo shouted at what was left of his team and charged the disguised man.

    ***

    After I took down two of the noble kid¡¯s lackeys, the noble kid, whose team I ambushed during ongoing combat, charged at me after calling for backup when the rest of his boys were done with another group.

    He came at me and only attacked me at the maximum reach of his sword like he was not really trying to hit me. I can only assume he is trying to buy time for the rest of his team to come and back him up.

    Whenever I tried to advance on him, he would always position his sword to try and let me impale myself on it if I charged in too aggressively, and if I tried to bat his sword away, he would retreat as he tried to lead me away from his team at the same time.

    Clever boy, but if he is going to play it that safe, I am going to play dirty. As I chased him around a ruined wall, I pulled a broken brick out of the wall and chased him around the corner. When I was once again face to face with him, I took a fencing stance with a hand behind my back as prodded his defence with my sword.

    My change of stance put him on edge, but I did not care and carried on. Once I felt it was time, I slapped his sword aside and charged, as usual, the noble boy retreated while positioning his sword tip in front of me, but I had a plan for that.

    From the arm behind me, I slung the brick at his face, and as expected, he reacted by bringing his sword up in defence, this gave me the chance to close in as I swung my sword at his foot leg that was still in motion from retreating.

    This sent the noble kid crashing to the floor. I immediately took advantage of the situation and stabbed my sword at his chest, activating the noble kid¡¯s mana shield. Shortly after the last two in the noble kid¡¯s group were done with their fight and turned to me, only to see the umpire carrying their team leader away. It did not take long for me to finish the two of them off.

    ¡°That is the first big group I kind of took out.¡± I muttered to myself as I looked around and listened to the distant sounds of combat, ¡°and many more to go¡­ hopefully they do most of the work for me.¡±

 Chapter 146

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I slumped down in a hidden corner of the simulated ruin as I breathed heavily, things were not going as well as I hoped. As far as I can tell, there are no more teams with less than four people, and it was obvious that all the chaff has been sifted away, only leaving the truly competent to hunt each other down.

    The evidence of that is the rather big ¡®gash¡¯ on my side as marked by the thin mana shield meant to indicate damage before the real mana shield deploys if I get ¡®killed¡¯. From what I observed from the last two teams I defeated, they may not be the most skilled fighters, but their teamwork outshined the other teams I fought recently.

    Just as I was halfway to recovering my breath, the announcer spoke to address us, ¡°Contestants, the number of teams left has reached a milestone, and the terrain will change to help the teams find each other.¡±

    The moment the announcer finished speaking, the arena trembled as all around The Pit, mages weaved their spells and the ruins sank into the ground. When that was over, it was revealed that there were around six, four to five men teams scattered around, with me smack dab in the middle, all alone.

    As I looked around, every team was standing stock still as they eyed me and every other team, seeing who would make the first move. As for me? I was thinking of a way to survive, and if I was fast enough I could run between the groups as they clashed with each other.

    While looking for other things that could give me an advantage, I saw weapons that other contestants dropped, scattered all over the place, and sure enough on the ground, a few meters away from me, was my spear that I hid away to avoid being recognized by my weapon.

    So while everyone was in a mexican standoff and waiting for the other shoe to drop, I made the first move. I sheathed my sword and sprinted to my spear, the time for stealth was over.

    The moment I made a move, one of the other teams took advantage of my distraction and initiated a charge on the group nearest to them, this caused a chain reaction of other teams making a move at each other, that included a nearby four-man team to charge me.

    Along the way to retrieve my spear, I picked up three daggers and roughly shoved them in my belt before I reached my spear and kicked it up into my hands, just as the four-man team reached me.

    They approached me in an organized diamond formation, shield wielder up front, flanked slightly behind on each side by two two-handed sword wielders, and at the rear of the formation was a halberd user.

    The moment I had my spear in hand, it shot forward at the shield wielder, causing him to brace his shield in anticipation of the attack and the two sword swordsmen to wound up for an attack, but at the last moment before impact, flicks of my hands while thrusting in rapid succession made my spear bend away from the shield and headshot the two swordsmen who were about to take advantage of my blow being blocked by the shield wielder.

    The shield wielder, not knowing the two swordsmen beside him had their mana shield triggered, tried to shield bash and perform a follow-up slash with his sword when I jumped back, as for the halberdier, he tried to perform an overhead chop at me over the shield wielder, but I slapped his weapon aside with my own.

    When I made some distance from the group that attacked me, or at least what was left of them, the halberdier pretty much announced loud enough for the rest of the teams to hear, ¡°That technique¡­ the Slithering Spear¡­ that must mean you are Luke Ironcrest!¡±

    ¡°That is not the technique¡¯s name, and that was a dick move to announce my identity.¡± I grumbled at the team in front of me as I started to notice all but two teams, who were going at each other, come to a temporary truce and look in my direction.

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    Before they could come up with any bright ideas, I made a break for the nearest wall, if I was going to have to fight multiple groups at the same time, I might as well fight with my back against the wall, no point having a 360¡ã fight when I can have a 180¡ã fight. Too bad for me the groups got their shit together faster than I liked.

    ¡°Shields! Block and box him in!¡± one of the team leads shouted. Without hesitation, the other team leaders sent their shield users to follow the command, and soon there was a loose wall of shields closing in on me.

    Before I got anywhere close to the wall, they formed a solid wall of shields in front of me, just like we learned in class. I tried to pole volt over them, but one of them recognized what I was doing and shouted ¡°Back up! He is jumping over us!¡± by the time he warned the others, I was already too committed to jump and had to follow through.

    When I landed from my failed pole volt over their shield wall and was met with swords, maces, and war hammers coming toward me. I managed to slap away the first two weapons but was forced to block with my spear and hoped my enchantments held up to the damage.

    The multiple weapons crashed down on my spear, bringing me to my knees, and a sword that was coming at my chest forced me to roll backward and almost get backstabbed by the rest of the other shield wielders, but I got them to back off by swiping at their feet and got myself into a proper stance.

    I looked around and found myself in the worst situation possible, I was surrounded.

    I looked around to find the weakest link in the encirclement and quickly selected a spot that did not have anyone fill the back line yet.

    I turned and charged that weak point as I ripped off the stolen surcoat I was wearing. When I got close to the point I wanted to break out from, I threw the ripped-off surcoat to block their vision and managed to sweep the leg of the guy in front of me, making a hole in the defense, allowing me to jump through, and so I did.

    I superman jumped over the guy whose leg I swept, but just when I thought I was home free, I got shield bashed, twice, from both sides, the blow on my right hit the upper half of my body while the left hit my legs. This sent me spinning like an out-of-control helicopter and ended with me faceplanting on the ground with a big ¡°Oof!¡±

    Fortunately for me, tumbles, falls, and recovery were all part of my training and I managed to scamper away and get to my feet as I heard the sounds of weapons falling on my previous position before I got to my feet and turned around, throwing out a blind spear thrust and somehow managing to score a ¡®kill¡¯ on one of my attackers who were clustered behind me.

    As I properly got my feet under me and retreated, I managed to score another two ¡®kills¡¯ before someone from the back shouted, ¡°Swarm him!¡±

    At first, those who were facing me were hesitant, but when I ¡®killed¡¯ one more of my attackers, it seemed one of the swordsmen facing me had enough and shouted while charging me with reckless abandon.

    I tried to retreat faster to open up more space between us, but naturally, running forward is a lot faster than running backward like I was doing. The swordsman pounced at me without regard for defense, and I saw no reason to not accept the offering, so I sent my spear flying forward and scored a ¡®kill¡¯.

    But it was a trap, when I stabbed the swordsman, he let go of his sword and grabbed the shaft of my spear as his mana shield deployed and his whole body became rigid, which included the hands wrapped tightly around my spear shaft. He sacrificed himself to disable my weapon.

    I quickly abandoned my spear and drew my sword to clash blades with an incoming sword swing, but apparently, the others took inspiration from the guy who disabled my spear and they rushed me from all sides while the swordsman I was engaging in combat tried to lock swords with me.

    At this point, it was clear to me that I had to run, but just as I parried a war hammer away and turned to disengage, I felt someone tackle my waist from behind and wrap their arms around me. I immediately drew one of the scavenged daggers on my belt and blindly stabbed whoever was holding me, only to realize I fucked up big time.

    The person I stabbed with the dagger ¡®died¡¯, causing his mana shield to deploy, making him rigid, thus turning him into dead weight that is permanently attached to my body until an umpire comes and gets him off of me.

    From there, it all went downhill. I managed to strike down two more people with my sword before those with spears and halberds surrounded me and stabbed me from all sides, easily finishing me off. And just like that, my mana shield deployed and I could only look around as the rest of the contestants slowly and cautiously separated back into their teams.

    But before the fight restarted, the umpire came to pick me, and the person attached to me, up and away from The Pit.

    A pity they removed the ruins, otherwise I am sure I could have lasted a lot longer, but I understand the need to hurry things along and keep things action packed.

 Chapter 147

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After the umpire disabled the mana shield holding me in place, I was brought to a holding area where there were refreshments set for those who got eliminated, there was even the same bartender who served me in the lounge between my bouts for the Swordsmanship Duels. And seeing that I have been constantly running and fighting for hours, I am hungry and thirsty.

    I immediately went to the buffet table, piled a plate high with food, and went straight to the bar to eat. ¡°Ah, Young Master Ironcrest, we meet again. What can I get for you?¡± the bartender said.

    ¡°Start with a jug of ice cold water and follow that with a milkshake, I see you have been experimenting with different flavors,¡± I said as I spotted a small chalkboard listing the flavors of milkshake he had available, ¡°Surprise me with the flavor.¡±

    While I was busy demolishing my plate of food, Dave and Sam plopped down on the seats beside me, ¡°Hey Luke, what took you so long to get your ass kicked? You are the last solo out there, by a long shot.¡± Sam said.

    I washed down the food with half a jug of water before replying, ¡°Of course it took a long time, its hard work kicking ass as hard as I do, I reckon I scored at least ten kills on solo fighters and wiped out just as many teams, a third of them being full five men teams.¡±

    When I said that, Dave, Sam, and the bartender looked at me boggle-eyed, ¡°Bullshit, I know you are good, but not that good, come on, how did you really last that long?¡± Dave asked.

    ¡°I am not bluffing, you can ask around when we get out of here. The only reason I was taken down as early as I was, was because they removed the cover of the ruins, otherwise, I could have sneaked around and ambushed more people¡± I replied.

    But apparently, someone nearby who was listening in on our conversation took umbrage with my answer and spoke loud enough for those around him to hear, ¡°That''s a stretch, the only reason you managed to last so long was because you disguised yourself, like a coward!¡±

    From the coat of arms on his shirt, it was obvious he was a noble, and when he made his assertion of my cowardice, only a handful of them readily agreed with him, while the rest of the people paying attention only looked on in confusion. It was most likely because my identity was only revealed after the ruins were gone and revealed my spearmanship.

    It was then that a familiar-looking kid stood up and shouted while pointing at me, ¡°It is true, I am Janos Cassor, and that¡­ that brigand, robbed me of my surcoat before finishing me off, he was already wearing my surcoat before the umpire even took me away!¡±

    This caused the room to break out in mutters, and I am pretty sure I picked out people calling me ¡°Miscreant¡± or a person ¡°Unbecoming of nobility¡±.

    I just shook my head and laughed, ¡°Ha! Nowhere in the rules said I could not do it, not like I had a choice due to a certain somebody putting a bounty on me for this tournament event, and who knows, maybe other events.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    The moment I finished my sentence, the place got really quiet, and as I looked around, I saw that half of the people in the room were looking anywhere but at me, while the other half was just looking confused.

    Due to the awkward silence, for which I did not know the reason for, I leaned over to Dave and asked, ¡°Did I say something wrong?¡±

    Dave just shrugged his shoulders and said, ¡°No idea¡­ what was that about a bounty on your head?¡±

    It was then that the bartender leaned over and softly said to me, ¡°Young Master Ironcrest, if what you said is true, that can be counted as match-fixing, and it is a rather big deal in tournaments. The crown takes this rather seriously, for all parties involved.¡±

    I just smiled maliciously at the rest of the room, ¡°Really now? That is a most fascinating bit of information I have just learned, and from the look on half of the faces in the room, I am sure to have a lot of fun with this.¡± I said as I focused my malicious glare on the noble brat who called me a coward.

    Under my glare, if it was physically possible for him to shrink, he would have down so to hide behind his chair.

    Soon enough, the sound of conversation started picking up once again as those who were not in the know about the bounty started asking around. Dave then leaned in close to me and whispered, ¡°If the allegation of match-fixing is so serious, why do you not take this up with the tournament staff? And who was it that put the bounty on you for the tournament?¡±

    I just shook my head and replied, ¡°I could report this, but without solid proof, it could escalate the conflict with the person who put up the bounty, these kinds of things are hard to prove because this is in exchange for a minor favor, no money or items changed hands, not yet at least. Besides, I think it already looks suspicious that I, as a solo contestant was targeted by so many teams the moment the battle started, and I am surely not the only one to notice. As for who placed the bounty on me, I will tell the both of you later in a more private setting.¡±

    As I looked around at the people talking, some of them getting agitated as they did so, I knew it was only a matter of time until Edmund Berkeley¡¯s name was implicated, I don''t expect a bunch of 12-year-olds to keep their lips very tight, and the best part was that nobody could tie me to saying his name, because I did not, the rumor mill would take care of the rest.

    The best-case scenario is the people in charge of the tournament pick up on the rumor and take action against Edmund, at worst, the rumor of his match-fixing would just float around like a stubborn fart and taint his family''s name. Either way, I come out on top by simply keeping my mouth shut, or at most, insinuating his involvement by roundabout methods.

    Soon, as the last of the defeated teams entered the rest area, it was announced that the Melee Battles event was over and we all made our way out to the stands to see the award presentation.

    The winning team ended up being one of the teams that ignored me when my identity was revealed, and out of the five team members, they won with only two remaining. Their team leader, who was some noble kid I did not know, and the two other teammates who were eliminated joined the two surviving teammates on stage.

    After the king was done praising them and extolling the virtues of teamwork and cooperation, the prizes were presented. They got a trophy sword and a cash prize to be divided up at their discretion.

    After the king went back to his seat, the halftime show came on as they prepared the stage for the next cohort¡¯s Melee Battles.

    As for me, since I was not taking part in the Jousting or Archery events, I had two days of rest before the Magic Events started. This meant I had more time to check out the food bazaar that was set up outside The Arena.

 Chapter 148

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I woke up the next day feeling like shit, I suspect it was something me and the boys ate at the food bazaar where we decided to be adventurous with the different foods available. It was only after I got home and hit the sack that my tummy started rumbling in a bad way, which caused me to be stuck squatting over the shitter for half the night.

    With these food safety standards, I may need to push forward my plans to create a proper toilet bowl for the sake of comfort if I spend another three years here.

    After getting dressed, I made my way to the main building to meet up with Dave and Sam. As I made my way to the main building¡¯s canteen, I noticed that there were a lot fewer people than usual, I guess that most of them were at the tournament for the Jousting event.

    When I arrived at the main building, I ran into Dave and Sam and noticed they looked as tired as I felt, ¡°You guys got the shits last night too?¡± I asked and received nods in return.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I say it was the meat skewers. The man said it was beef, but I am starting to doubt that.¡± Sam said.

    ¡°Yeah, maybe¡­ come on, we may not have an appetite, but let''s at least get some soup in our bellies.¡± I said as I led the way to the canteen.

    When we entered the canteen, a rather peculiar scene played out before me. At my appearance, the volume of the chatter petered down by more than half as others who noticed me nudged their friends who did not see me.

    Soon, the volume of chatter picked up again, but it was clear to me that they changed the conversation topic from before I made my appearance.

    ¡°What did you do this time?¡± Dave whispered beside me as we made our way to the food line.

    ¡°I have no idea.¡± I replied as the three of us decided to be done with breakfast as soon as possible to get away from the awkward situation.

    After we were done with our soup, we decided that this would be a rest day to recover from last night¡¯s diarrhea. But as we were making our way out of the main building to go back to our dorms, I gave the excuse that my stomach was acting up again and asked them to go ahead first while I went to the toilet.

    Once away from the boys and checked that the coast was clear, I snuck into a storage room near the canteen. When inside, I took a seat and got comfortable as I cast some wind Instinctive magic into a tendril and slithered it below the storage room door and into the canteen to pick up on what conversation was so juicy that they had to hide it from me when I arrived.

    When my wind mana tendril managed to sneak into the canteen, all I managed to pick up were voices that sounded like they were behind heavy static and muffling filters, I started tweaking the properties of the wind mana tendril in order to improve the sound, but after five minutes, there was minimal improvement.

    The problem was choosing between sensitivity to pick up sound, or clarity of the sound I picked up, if I did one, the other would worsen, and it did not help that the canteen dining hall was huge with high ceilings, making all the sounds have a slight echo.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the only way I could get some decent sound was to get closer instead of having my tendril just sit at the canteen entrance. I can only hope that the academy¡¯s higher ambient mana is able to mask my mana tendril as it sneaks around.

    As I concentrated on my wind mana tendril, I had a vague sense of where sounds were coming from and a pseudo sense of touch as it bumped around. Just to be safe, as I was essentially fumbling around blindly, I kept my mana tendril in contact with the wall so it did not accidentally bump into anyone and spook them.

    The downside of this action was that the longer I extended the mana tendril, the more mana I was expending to upkeep it. But luck was with me this day as just ahead of me, was the sound of a conversation going on, which meant that they were chatting while leaning against the wall.

    When I got close enough, I started tuning the sensitivity to pick up the conversation. ¡°...-ou heard the latest about Luke Ironcrest and Edmund Berkeley?¡± I heard a boy ask.

    ¡°Oh, everyone knows by now. The bounty scandal, right?¡± a girl said.

    Boy: ¡°Exactly! Can you believe it? Putting a minor favor as the price on Luke during the tournament? I mean, who does that? An honor dual, I¡¯d understand. But this?¡±

    Girl: ¡°I know, right? From what I heard, after that brawl when Luke broke Oswald Berkeley¡¯s arms, Edmund Berkeley took it as a stain on his family¡¯s name. But seeing that it was widely known that it was his brother who started the conflict, he had to use this roundabout method.¡±

    Boy: ¡°Yes, I heard a version of that rumor, my friends tell me that even though they are now in different classes, Oswald actively avoids Luke, even avoids the lunch hall altogether because Luke usually eats here.¡±

    Huh, that explains Oswald¡¯s disappearance, I just thought he decided he was too good for the rest of us and went to eat somewhere more fancy and private.

    Girl: ¡°But honestly, it¡¯s not like we need the courts to confirm it. Just look at the way everyone¡¯s talking and so many people saw the Melee Battles event, Luke was targeted until he disguised himself as Janos Cassor, an amusing scene that was. Even Father says it''s a black mark on the House of Berkeley if that is how they raise their sons.¡±

    Boy: ¡°Of course it is! People have eyes. It¡¯s one thing to lose to Luke in a fair contest, but to put a bounty on him? In a tournament watched by the king no less? It¡¯s beneath someone of Edmund¡¯s rank. So what do you think the Berkeley patriarch is going to do about this brewing situation? Just sweep it under the rug?¡±

    Girl: ¡°What can they do? The Berkeleys can''t openly acknowledge it without admitting Edmund¡¯s guilt, and if they keep pretending like nothing happened, their reputation will keep bleeding. His father must be furious.¡±

    Boy: ¡°Furious? Probably, but also desperate. Their family name is practically mud now. Mother told me the Berkeleys have had more than a few nobles subtly snubbing them lately.¡±

    It was at that moment that I heard footsteps and chatter walking toward the wall where my mana tendril was lying across, which meant it was time to retreat.

    After retracting my tendril a safe distance from anyone around, I safely dispersed the mana tendril and felt that maintaining that tendril over such a long and bending distance drained me of almost half my mana.

    As I made my way back to my dorm I replayed the conversation I was just eavesdropping on.

    Do I think Edmund made a big booboo and stained his family name for generations? I highly doubt it''s that bad. He is still young and this can be easily chalked up to the exuberance of youth and foolhardy sense of maintaining family honor.

    Do I think the Berkeley family is ¡®Furious¡¯ and ¡®Desperate¡¯? Well, they are most likely furious, as for desperate, I highly doubt so, if their family legacy is as long and decorated with achievements as heard it is, they would have nothing to worry about. If they had any sense, they would do what most sensible PR firms recommend and just shut the fuck up and wait for the next big thing to blow away the memory of this fuck up.

    But all that speculation is for another time as I am going to crash for some sleep, and when I wake up, it is time to start practicing my magic for the upcoming Spellcasting Duels event.

 Chapter 149

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The next day, I went with Dave and Sam to watch their Archery event. While I went to the stands to watch, they were ushered to a holding area.

    Before the contestants came out, the announcer explained the challenges the contestants had to take part in.

    First, was the stationary targets where there would be different targets at 10, 25, and 50 meters, the contestants would be given one minute to shoot as many arrows as they could, and depending on the target they hit, they would be awarded points. Naturally, the further the target, the more points awarded.

    The second challenge was moving targets at the same distance as the first challenge with the same time limit and point system.

    The last challenge was an obstacle course challenge, the same mages that created the ruins I fought in the Melee Battles event, would create a yet-to-be-revealed terrain and scenario that the contestant had to go through and shoot targets along the way, but unlike the other challenges, this time, the points awarded would be calculated by how fast the contestant completes the obstacle.

    Soon, the competitors were called out and lined up before the king to perform the usual greeting and formality of getting permission from the king to start the event. All of them had their bows slung on their shoulder, most of them looked like the standard longbow used by the kingdom, but downsized for 12-year-olds, while a few had different styles of short bows, they may even be compound bows, but I was too far away to really tell.

    That was when I noticed that the number of commoners participating in Archery greatly outnumbered the noble contestants. I guess was only natural to be so, nobles take archery as a hobby, while commoners take archery as a way to feed and defend their families and themselves.

    After the formalities were done with, the first batch of contestants were led to multiple range lanes where their targets were ready for them.

    As the different contestants came and shot at their targets, I noticed quite a few different archery styles, the most common style was drawing arrows directly from the quiver at their hips, some of them held a few arrows with a finger on the hand holding the bow to cut down time of reaching for an arrow, while others held a few extra arrows in their drawing hand for the same reason.

    Soon enough it was Dave and Sam¡¯s turn to have a go at the stationary targets. As they raised their bows, it was obvious to everyone that their approach to scoring points differed. While Dave held a longbow that could easily reach the furthest target, Sam was using a short bow, which meant he was most likely going for the 10 and 25meter targets, but the difference was that on average, short bow users had a faster rate of fire, so it was the classic case of quality vs quantity.

    The moment the signal was given, all the competitors on all the lanes started plucking away at their bows and filling targets with arrows. As Dave and Sam were shooting away with respectable speed and precision, they had the misfortune of being in the same batch as one of the few elves students in the academy.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    That elf had his own custom bow that looked like it was not carved into shape, but grown into shape, and he was firing arrows faster than any of the short bow users, all accurately hitting the furthest target.

    When the moving target segment came around, the few elves that joined the Archery event were just as domineering.

    After the moving target segment, a short break was called while the mages reshaped the terrain for the obstacle. When the mages were done, instead of the ruins I fought in, it looked like a city street with two-story shophouses, minus the glass windows of course, no point wasting good glass.

    As for the targets in the obstacle, they were placed on roofs, in the building windows, and on the streets behind partial cover.

    When the setup was done, the contestants were let back in as the announcer described the obstacles, objectives, and number of man-shaped targets there were in the obstacle, and for every target they hit, time would be deducted from their overall time, as for every target they missed out, an equal amount of time would be added on to their overall time.

    Soon enough, the obstacle segment started. As the contestants started negotiating the obstacle it displayed the contestants¡¯ true mastery of the bow, as they cleared the street like modern soldiers from my world did, most of them had to stop to draw, aim, and shoot, while the few who were truly versed with their bow could shoot while running, or at least slowing down to a jog.

    They also displayed different strategies to get the lowest timing they could. Some tried to hit all the targets to cut down their overall time, while others tried to speedrun the whole obstacle while only picking out the targets that could be easily hit.

    Dave and Sam performed better than most as they were at least able to maintain a jogging pace while shooting their targets, even some of the out-of-the-way ones that required spending a few seconds to get to an elevated position to see the target.

    As for the elves, they were practically showboating, they took off at a sprint, yet they could accurately hit all the targets while maintaining their sprinting speed. As for the out-of-the-way targets, one of them was even skilled enough to make his arrow curve over cover to hit the target.

    When the Archery event was over, it was no surprise that of the top five, four of them were elves, and a bunny beastfolk was in fifth. As for Dave and Sam, out of eighty-plus contestants, they managed to secure 15th and 12th place respectively.

    Not bad, not bad at all.

    After the event was over, me and the boys decided to eat out somewhere we could trust would give us the shits, it would not do for me to feel like shit (pun intended) at tomorrow¡¯s Spellcasting Duels, I wonder if there is a spell that makes my opponent incontinent¡­ Hehe, I could just imagine myself shouting ¡°I cast¡­ Brown Pants!¡±

    After that, I went back to the academy and booked a training room for me to practice my casting speed for tomorrow¡¯s event.

    ***

    The next day, I was back at The Arena¡¯s holding room for the Spellcasting Duels contestants, and I felt I was looking very out of place. While others were wearing their uniform, I was one of the few who were still wearing armor more suited for melee combat.

    We were all given the same bracelet that would deploy a mana shield when we got ¡®killed¡¯ before the tournament staff got on stage to explain the rules of the Spellcasting Duels.

 Chapter 150

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The tournament staff walked up on stage and with the help of a mage threw up a projection, then with the aid of a magic tool to amplify his voice, he spoke, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention please.¡±

    When all eyes were on him, he proceeded, ¡°As per Argus kingdom¡¯s ordonnance on magic, I am required by law to inform you on the rules to abide by when using magic in this dual. First and foremost, Mages, before we begin this contest of arcane skill, heed well the laws of this duel. To break them is to invite dishonor¡­ or worse. I¡¯ll not repeat myself twice.¡±

    ¡°Firstly, all offensive spells must be directed at or around your opponent, and only your opponent. The arena wards are in place to shield the spectators, but stray magic will still be judged as reckless conduct.¡±

    ¡°You may use shields, wards, and any form of arcane defense to protect yourself, the mana bracelet you were issued will not override the activation of your equipment. Counterspells are encouraged, display your mastery of mana.¡±

    ¡°Summons are permitted but you can only start summoning after the match begins, creatures, elementals, golems, or otherwise will only be allowed if you somehow manage to summon or deploy them after the match starts, but they must not target the audience or any structure beyond the stage boundary.¡±

    ¡°Victory will be declared when one of you is incapacitated, submits, or your issued mana shield deploys, or when the referee deems it necessary to intervene for your safety.¡±

    ¡°Under no circumstances are you to attempt space/time manipulation or death magic, which includes curses during this tournament. The laws of the kingdom are clear, such spells are banned.¡±

    ¡°No magic that influences the mind of your opponent beyond basic illusions. This is a duel of skill, not a battle of wills.¡±

    ¡°Movement spells that bring you outside the boundaries of the stage is forbidden. If you leave the stage by any means, intentional or not, you forfeit the duel.¡±

    ¡°No use of magic that alters the fabric of the Arena itself, keep all spell effects within your stage. The wards are strong, but there is no good reason to put them to the test just because you can.¡±

    The tournament staff went on with a few more rules, we proceeded with the same tournament sorting process I experienced with the Swordsmanship Duels. But this time, when I received my number, I did not get any exaggerated reaction, nor did the person who drew a number to be my first opponent.

    I guess I am not well-known for my magic, not that I openly display my spell casting. Throughout the year, I have stuck to the curriculum and did not cast any spells that deviated from the subject in class.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    No, all the fun stuff was only done when I was away from prying eyes with Professor Sageira, where we could say and show things that are meant to be kept secret.

    Shortly after everyone got their placement on the tournament board, the first batch of eight was ushered out to throw magic at each other, and soon enough, it was my turn. So we were led out before the king to complete the greeting formality and were split up into our dueling pairs.

    My first opponent was a meek-looking girl who had her fringe almost covering her eyes and no coat of arms anywhere on her uniform, so it is safe to say she was not from a noble house, if I remember correctly, her name is Elise¡­ I think I recognize her from my Advanced Spell Theory¡­ if I am not wrong, she is always the quiet one in the corner.

    Soon enough, once we were all ready on our stages and the mage referees used a magic tool to make sure we were not preemptively weaving any spells and that our mana was relaxed, the announcer gave the signal to begin.

    I immediately mentally weaved a spell and a quick wave of my arm to send an opening wind blade spell flying across the stage, but to my surprise, Elisa had the same plan. This ended with both of us simultaneously making the split-second decision to make our wind blades cancel each other out.

    The moment that happened, we both burst into action. While I started bolting to the side in order to avoid being a stationary target while mentally spinning up more spells in my head, Elisa was making hand signs while chanting at the same time, no doubt in a bid to increase the pace of the big spell she is prepa-... wait¡­ something is not right, the spell she is chanting is fire-attributed, but her hand signs will end in an Earth Wall spell.

    The moment that thought finished, she squatted down, touched the ground, and her spell activated. A thick chest-high wall sprouted around her in a circle, and shortly after that, she peeked over the wall and shot a firebolt she had been holding on to at me.

    Unfortunately for her, I do not suffer from the un-exercised bodies that most mages possess and was easily able to spin out of the way the moment the firebolt got too close, I always need to wait till the last moment to dodge spells due to the caster being able to have some influence in homing the spell in on the target.

    Only after I dodged the firebolt and kept myself on the balls of my feet, did I have some time to truly appreciate what took place. To the laymen, they just saw that she could cast two spells in quick succession, big whoop, any mage with a few years of training under their belt could do that, hell, even I could easily overwhelm people in a torrent of first and second circle spells.

    But what Elise did was true dual casting, it is like doing one of those left-brain and right-brain exercises where I need to pat my head and rub my belly at the same time, but with magic. Unlike her, me and most other mages around the world perform multicasting by weaving one spell at a time and caching it in our minds to unleash when needed.

    We are still at the stage of testing each other out, so I do not really know how good Elise is yet, for all I know, she is weaving spells twice as fast as normal mages her age while hiding behind that wall and is just waiting for me to get in close enough to blast me with a torrent of spells she has cached in her mind.

    On the other hand, I wonder how good she really is, now would be the best time to test her. I just hope nobody picked up on what I just discovered, it would be nice to have such a talent as a retainer, and it is never too early to start poaching young talent for my house.

 Chapter 151

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After we got a feel for each other¡¯s abilities, Elise and I decided to take the dual to the next level.

    It first started with me replying to her firebolt with my modified Earth Bullet, it took me a few seconds of dancing around the stage as Elise shot firebolts at me, but I used that time to get my Earth Bullet up to a satisfactory rotation speed before sending it at where Elise should be behind her cover.

    The moment Elise saw the earthen projectile shoot toward her, she ducked down.

    *BOOM!!*

    The sound of stone smashing against stone rang out over the Arena as my high-velocity Earth Bullet struck Elise¡¯s Earth Wall cover and kicked up a bunch of dust everywhere, and even though the dust obscured my vision, I could still vaguely see what happened to Elice and noticed that the cover in front of her was blown away, but she was practically unharmed.

    As to why she was unharmed even though my Earth Bullet easily decimated her cover, the answer was seen behind her. It seems like my Earth Bullet hit the curved surface of her Earth wall, and must have deviated the trajectory of my Earth Bullet to barely miss her because I could see the Earth Bullet embedded in the inner wall behind her at an odd angle.

    But before I could lob another spell at her, she looked down at herself, noticed that she was unharmed, and threw herself into what remaining cover was still standing, just a split second before my firebolt flew through where she was previously squatting.

    A moment later, while I was spamming quick spells to hopefully catch her with some splash damage, her Earth Wall repaired itself and a second layer of Earth Wall rose out of the ground less than a meter from the first.

    Smart, if I shot anything like my high-velocity Earth Bullet, most of its energy would be expended by the first Earth Wall, making damage to the main Earth Wall negligible.

    This meant I needed to start getting creative. I dodged a few quick spells she shot at me, and I used that time dodging while weaving some spells to cast. When I was done, I forced Elise back into cover with a few Spark spells, one of them actually hitting her, but was far from taking her out.

    The moment she was suppressed, I ran in closer and I cast my own Earth Wall, but with a few modifications. I sent the spell down my leg and into the ground, and the spell took form, the ground shot up from under me, carrying me to the top of a one-story turret tower that gave me a high vantage point over Elise¡¯s walls.

    The moment I saw her, I released my second spell, Flamethrower, into her enclosed hiding circle.

    This made her scream as my flames poured in and almost made me stop, but she reacted quickly as she closed off the top of her Earth Wall, totally sealing herself in.

    Seeing no point in continuing to fire blast the bunker, and even finding it a bit morbid to essentially pressure-cook someone, I cut off the Flamethrower and started spinning up two high-velocity Earth Bullets to crack her bunker open.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    But just as I was about to finish the second Earth Bullet, a slit in her bunker opened and a shining ember shot out and hit the lower part of my turret tower to seeming no damage, but I knew that spell and how it worked, she actually managed to cast the 4th circle spell, Burning Impact, with such speed, but I had no time to be impressed.

    I let my second Earth Bullet fizzle out and jumped out of the tower a second before the base of my tower exploded. It was then that I realized that it would have been safer to just go down with the tower because a flying chunk of rock from my blown-up tower clipped me on the shoulder while I was in mid-air, making me spin before I hit the ground, hard.

    The only saving grace was that me being flat on the ground kept me out of sight of Elise, the other small mercy was the issued mana shield bracelet prevented me from taking any actual damage, otherwise, I would most likely have a heavily bruised shoulder, and the air driven out of my lungs. The only signs of damage were the red indicator on my shoulder and the slight tint of red from landing on my chest.

    ¡°Of all the people to be my first opponent, why did it have to be the quiet genius?¡± I grumbled to myself as I crawled for a bit in case she tried to rain some spells down on where I landed, and sure enough, ice spikes formed above where I used to be and stabbed into the ground.

    As I stayed crouched, I was wrecking my brain on how to crack open her bunker. That was when I came to me, why don¡¯t I give her a taste of her own spell?

    I started duckwalking around the outer Earth Wall she made until I was on the other side of her bunker, all the while, I was mentally weaving a Burning Impact spell and using hand signs to speed up the process, when that was done, I queued up a few more spells in case I needed a to follow up my hits.

    When I was ready, I carefully peeked over the wall to take a look at my target and found that she had created slots all around to look out of, unfortunately for her, she was currently looking in the wrong direction, so I took advantage and sent the small ember that contained the 4th circle spell at the wall of her bunker.

    The moment my spell silently impacted her bunker wall, she clearly felt a mana disturbance in the structure of her Earth Wall and turned toward me, but before she could do anything the wall of her bunker exploded, and the moment I was sure there was no flying debris, I vaulted over the outer Earth Wall and stormed her bunker.

    When I entered the bunker, Elise was pushing herself off the ground, but I did not give her any time to recover and headshot her with an Earth Bullet, ending the match. As i looked at her still body, i took note of the ¡®damage¡¯ I did to her. Her whole back was lit up with damage indicator that was most likely from my Flamethrower, her hands and legs had spots of damage indicators that was most likely from the Bruning Impact throwing shrapnel at her, and lastly, the dark red damage indicator at the back of her head from the Earth Bullet i just excicuted her with.

    For some reason, i did not feel good beating a little girl. I much prefer beating up on boys with weapons.

    The moment I exited the bunker, the referee entered it to see Elise frozen by the mana shield in the pushup position and declared my victory before disabling her mana shield so she could move again.

    When she got up, we both bowed to the royals and got down from the stage, but before we parted ways, I reached out my hand to Elise for a handshake and said, ¡°Well fought¡±, what I got in response was a surprised squeak and a bowed head as she left my hand hanging, but I continued anyway ¡°You almost got me when you blew up my tower.¡±

    ¡°Th-Thank you.¡± she said in a soft voice before she noticed my outstretched hand and gave it a meek shake before turning to her exit and scampering off. I knew she was shy, but she was acting downright introverted, but I don¡¯t mind, she is still young, I am sure she will grow out of it.

    I turned and was ushered to a familiar waiting room with a familiar bartender.

 Chapter 152

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The next few matches were a walk in the park when compared to facing Elise. While I took them down with relative ease, with the different opponents I faced, I noticed the clear disparity in performance between nobles and commoners. Elise excluded, of course, I count her as a freak of nature.

    While the commoner students stuck to the spells and practices ingrained into them by the academy, which had nothing wrong with it of course, I noticed that most of the noble students were capable of casting their spells faster on average, and if my eyes and ears do not deceive me, quite a few of their chants and hand signs were shortcutted and even spliced with words and signs of power outside the widely used standard in order to decrease cast time, increase spell strength, or augment the form or function of the spell cast. No doubt this was knowledge passed down from their family.

    The other thing I noticed, was equipment, while I preferred to stay agile and not use any wands or staffs, most of the kids participating in the Spellcasting Duels were using wands and staves as a channeling medium to take the load off their minds when caching spells and focusing their mana control. Commoners would use the ones provided by the school or those they crafted themselves, while the noble kids were rocking higher-end stuff.

    The same thing applied to magical protection, they were all wearing rings, necklaces, bracelets, and charms of some kind that were enchanted to defend against magic attacks. The commoner kids had charms made out of whatever magically conductive material they could find, while the noble kids had fine enchanted jewelry.

    The only thing protecting the commoners from getting steamrolled by overgeared opponents was a restriction on the quality and quantity of equipment allowed to be used in the event, and the tournament staff took this very seriously. Before we even drew lots, we were all subjected to rigorous scans by tournament staff in order to enforce this rule.

    I came back to the luxurious waiting room after wiping the floor with one of my Advanced Spell Theory classmates, and I did not feel bad about it. Apparently, all the wins he got so far must have gotten to his head when he started shit-talking me, saying that I was lucky to get this far and he would be the one to put a stop to me and started showboating by showing off his mastery of elemental magic.

    I decided to put an end to his bullshit by pinballing him around the stage with Earth Spikes and ended it by using the Earth Spike to eject him from the stage.

    I took my seat at the bar as the bartender pulled up my pot of tea he kept warm, as I was sipping tea, I looked around and started to realize how different the temperament of the people participating in the Spellcasting Duel event was.

    During the Swordsmanship Duels, the contestants were usually busy being rowdy and borderline starting fights, only being stopped by the threat of disqualification if they were involved in a fight outside of the dual.

    On the other hand, the Spellcasting Duel contestants were a lot more subdued. They would be either meditating, reading, or quietly debating magical theories with each other.

    I took a look at the tournament board, I saw a name that stood out, and if I got past the quarter and semi-finals, I would meet him in the finals. Alistair of the Marquess House of Arundel, which is a noble house known for pumping out high-ranking mages over the centuries. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    So far, my impression of him is neutral, and much like Elise, he was silent in our magic class, but unlike her, he was taciturn instead of shy. To his credit, despite his house¡¯s high rank and ancient lineage, he does well keeping himself out of petty children¡¯s politics and fends off an almost never-ending stream of sycophants, noble or not, who try to suck up to him for his talent in magic and family name.

    Shortly after as I was enjoying my tea, the door to the room opened, and speak of the devil, Alistair Arundel walked in from just having won his match that was after mine. Our eyes locked and he gave a small nod before making his way to a cushioned floor sitting area and started meditating.

    Soon enough, due to the smaller number of people left, it was my turn again, and this time it was the quarter-finals.

    ***

    Two fights later, I was walking back to the resting area, disappointed at what I just faced. The kids I faced in the quarter and semi-finals fought like they had no sense of self-preservation, all because they were wearing multiple magic protections that were supposed to tank hits while they weaved a 3rd or 4th circle spell to finish me off in one shot.

    They did not fight like Elise, who tried to control the flow of battle by striking first, nor did they control the terrain like her when she made her Earth Wall bunker, making it hard to manipulate the earth around her.

    To beat the last two opponents, I did not even have to use 3rd circle spells, the moment I noticed they had multiple magical protections, I just used earth and air magic to manipulate the terrain around them to throw them off the stage.

    But now that I think about it, I think that maybe I am just spoilt by my high expectations because Elise was my first opponent. I guess I should expect less from a bunch of normal 12-year-olds, but I doubt I could consider Alistair Arundel to be a normal 12-year-old, every time he was called up for a match, he would always come back shortly after, almost as if he did not spend any time fighting.

    When I entered the rest area, I saw Alistair, who naturally was the only one left. But instead of sitting to the side and meditating like he usually does, he is sitting next to my usual barstool. I can only guess he wants a talk, so I just shrug and take my usual seat.

    ¡°Arundel.¡± I greet him with a nod.

    ¡°Ironcrest.¡± Alistair replies in kind and we kind of sit there in a somewhat awkward silence.

    After close to a minute of silence, Alistair started off. ¡°I honestly did not expect you to get this far. From all the rumors I heard, I thought you would be a sword-swinging brute who knew some magic, but I was clearly wrong.¡± he said with a barely detectable mirth in his voice.

    ¡°And who said I was not a sword-swinging brute who knew some magic?¡± I replied in a joking voice, ¡°But I am thinking you were expecting to face someone else in the finals?¡± I asked, hoping his answer would not be who I thought it was.

    ¡°Indeed, I thought I would be facing the Greycloak scion, their¡¯s is a line of competent mages, but apparently he was eliminated by your semi-finalist opponent.¡± he said while gesturing at the tournament board.

    Yes! He does not have his eyes on Elise, I should be able to poach her without competition.

    ¡°Well, if the last guy I was facing beat this Greycloak guy,  I don¡¯t think he was that competent. The last guy¡­¡± I look at the tournament board to remember the last guy I just fought, ¡°Osric Hollowmere, did not seem very apt at fighting either, he just stood there and expected his magical protection to hold while weaving a big spell.¡±

    Alistair just nodded, ¡°Unfortunately, just like my father constantly laments about, most mages nowadays are more of the scholarly type, and are not accustomed to the art of combat, magical or not.¡±

    I gave him the side-eye and asked, ¡°And I assume you are not most mages?¡±

    He just gave me a small smile and said, ¡°You will just have to find out later.¡±

 Chapter 153

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After our little talk, we lapsed into awkward silence while sipping our drinks, awkward for me at least, Alistair looked as cool as a cucumber.

    After some time, I could hear the sounds of the performance that was supposed to buy me some rest time, ending as the audience gave them their closing applause, and when the door opened, we knew it was time.

    I looked at Alistair and said, ¡°Shall we?¡±

    ***

    After the formalities were over and done with, we were on a stage facing each other.

    ¡°Mages, are you ready?¡± the referee asked, and we both nodded with our hands twitching by our side like an old western showdown.

    ¡°FIGHT!¡± the referee shouted as he brought his hand down and jumped backward.

    Immediately, both Alistair''s and my hands became a blur as we started casting spells at each other. It started with quick 1st and 2nd circle spells that we could cast with but a well-structured thought to maintain and feed mana into the magic circles we cached in our minds to handle the auto-casting while we weaved other spells.

    Within the first few seconds, I predicted that this was going to turn into a magical slugfest as both of us started raising Earth Walls to form bastions to block each other¡¯s constant barrage of small-spell-fire.

    Once our walls were up, Alistair displayed the advantages of hailing from an ancient mage house by lobbing what must be a 4th circle spell my way as I just started weaving my own 4th circle spell, because the explosion rocked my position, and when I turned back from shielding myself from the explosion, I saw that my outer wall was gone and so was part of my inner Earth Wall.

    This put me further on the back foot as I had to spend some of my attention on mending my defenses, only for another explosion to rock my bastion and demolish more of my walls. Even now, I do not know what spell it was, I know it was fire-based, but it was not the 4th circle spell, Burning Impact, because I heard it roar across the stage before it hit my position, Burning impact traveled silently until it hit an object, accumulate energy and explode.

    My other problem in this dual was getting a line of sight on Alistair¡¯s position without getting pelted by his auto-cast spells that were still going on, and I did not have a spell that could hit him without revealing myself¡­ unless¡­ I may have an idea.

    It may be a stupid idea that may blow myself up, but it was the only good idea I had as my walls were being blown apart.

    I pick up a piece of rubble the size of my fist and weave a Burning Impact spell but with a twist. In the part of the spell that delays the explosion after coming in contact with the object the spell intends to blow up, I tweaked the spell to delay the explosion to be around three seconds, once I was done casting the spell into the rock, I felt I was holding a hot potato by how unstable the spell felt.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    I immediately lobbed the spell-infused rock over to where I remember Alistair''s walls were, and just like clockwork, on my internal count of three, I heard an explosion, shortly followed by dirt sprinkling over my wall. But in good news, my improvised grenade was enough to break his concentration, stopping his barrage of auto-spells.

    This was it, this was the time to close in for the kill, but something did not feel right. I did not hear any shout of alarm after an explosion, or shuffling around in the rubble left behind. I peeked over my wall to scope out the situation and saw that my grenade crumbled the side of his wall, but no sign of Alistair himself, and the fact that the referee did not come to check on his status, was a strong indicator that he was still in the game.

    After a few seconds of silence, I wondered if he was even still behind his wall, and there was one easy way to test it. I sent my mana through the floor to make Earth Spikes explode up from where he was supposed to be, and to my surprise, my mana reached its destination unimpeded and blossomed with a bouquet of spikes, confirming that Alistair was no longer there.

    I looked around the stage to see that only the referee and I were standing, just in case he was hiding behind some of his other Earth Walls, I leveled them and still found no trace of him, I even lowered my walls in case he was hiding behind my Earth Walls like I did Elise¡¯s. I checked the air just in case he somehow had a way to fly, which I know is hard to do without magic tool assistance, but no luck there. Just in case he was hiding behind an illusion, I spun up a Wind Balde but modified it to expand in a circle around me and catch anyone hiding behind illusions, regardless of the referee¡¯s presence on the stage, we were told not to hold back and that the referees could take care of himself.

    Just as I released the nova of Wind Blade and the referee jumped to avoid it, I felt a disturbance in the mana at my 4 o''clock. I looked over my shoulder and saw it, just outside of my control of the earth around me to avoid the terrain being turned against me, a hole in the ground opened up, a hole that suspiciously opened at an angle that aimed at my head.

    From that hole, an Earth Bullet sped toward my head. Having seen the danger before the attack happened, I easily ducked out of the Earth Bullet¡¯s path, formed the Earth element hand sign, and stomped the ground, sending my mana into the ground to claim dominion over the dirt the stage was made of and push against the currently underground Alistair.

    It was times like this that I wished I could use Instinctive magic to swiftly manipulate the earth with but a shift of my foot and flex of my will, but I had to keep up appearances and use orthodox magic like everyone else, and in order to do that, I needed to do the same thing I need to do in a math exam, I had to show my work process, that meant saying the right chants, the right hand signs, the right movements, this all take time, and in this case, it took me too long to claim a swift victory via ¡®out of boundary¡¯ by using earth manipulation to eject the part of the stage Alistair was hiding in off of the stage.

    This gave him enough time to pop out of his hidey-hole and scramble forward as a chunk of the stage beneath him was sent a few meters away from the stage. At the last moment, Alistair managed to jump off the airborne part of the stage and landed on the corner of where part of the stage should be, except that it was now missing about three feet in height.

    But despite his narrow escape from getting ¡®out of bounded¡¯ by me, I knew better than to give this guy any chances. From the broken-off part of the stage facing Alistar, I quickly cast Earth Spikes and forced more mana into the spell to extend the length of the spikes to hit Alistar.

    Not having much time to do much of anything, Alistar raised a quick Earth Wall to block my spikes, but with my spikes braced against the side of the stage, it easily pushed through the wall and forced Alistar to retreat and eventually set foot on the ground outside of the stage.

    The referee immediately raised his hand and announced, ¡°Winner! Like Ironcrest!¡±

 Chapter 154

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the crowd went wild at my victory, Alistair Arundel clambered up the broken part of the stage to me and reached out his hand. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I accepted the handshake.

    ¡°Well played. To be honest, I thought I had this event in the bag from the start.¡± Alistar said to me as we shook hands.

    ¡°Oh? What of the Greycloak guy? He no threat to you?¡± I asked.

    He just shrugged and replied, ¡°Our families meet at gatherings from time to time, and I have seen what he is capable of. While his older family members are competent, his performance in comparison leaves much to be desired.¡±

    Ouch, burn.

    ¡°Anyway, it is good to know there is some competition.¡± he said with a smile as he was ushered off the stage. And soon, I was once again standing and waiting for the king to come and present me with my trophy.

    When the king came before me and asked me to rise, I once again saw the half-crazed look that sent a shiver down my spine, ¡°We meet again, young Luke.¡±

    All I could say in this formal situation was, ¡°Yes, Your Majesty.¡±

    ¡°Though it would be a waste, if you do not fancy joining the army, you can always be a court mage.¡± The king said while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

    ¡°I- I Will think about it, Your Majesty.¡± I replied as I bowed my head at his offer.

    ¡°Good enough!¡± the king boomed out as he grabbed the trophy short staff and presented it to me. ¡°Congratulations on your second event win, I am looking forward to your other events.¡± he said with a barely controlled feral grin that I have come to know battle junkies display, it makes me wonder how we are not constantly at war with our aggressive neighboring country with this nutter in charge.

    After the award ceremony, I was ushered back to my class¡¯ section of seating, showed off my trophy, and spent the rest of the day watching my seniors throw magic at each other, after that, I retired early to prepare for the other magic events in the coming days.

    ***

    Over the next few days, I took part in the other magic events, but did not manage to win any of them. Turns out, when it comes to non-combat oriented magic, all the borderline high-functioning autistic people reveal themselves and steamroll me in the other magic events.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    This means that I am left with two events, Battle Mage Trials and Monster Hunts. From what I heard, things will follow last year¡¯s formula, a simulated labyrinth would be created and obstacles would be set up inside to test the trial taker¡¯s strength, skill, knowledge, and magic, the only rule is that the trail taker is not allowed to break through the walls or fly above a certain height, but we will not need to worry about that due to barriers boxing the trail taker in.

    As for the Monster Hunts, it will be a test of skill, but more importantly, endurance. From what I was told of this event in previous years, I will be facing off against harder and harder monsters until I am defeated and the safety mana shield deploys, or slay the final monster in this tournament, an Ogre.

    And from what I have read, Ogres are no joke, they stand as tall as three to four grown men, are crazy strong, physically resilient, and often driven by primal urges, typically simple-minded with a brute force approach to combat.

    They are known to operate in small family units. There are reported cases of Ogres being recruited by intelligent social monsters like goblinoids with the promise of food. Woe be the village or town that does not have stone walls when these huge fuckers come around, because Ogres can make short work of wood walls like a construction worker does with drywall, and if there are enough of them, even stone walls are not safe for long.

    If I ever make it that far, my only saving grace is that it is stupid and slow, but that is for future me to worry about, now I had to concentrate on what they were going to throw at me in the Battle Mage Trials.

    I was in the same hall the tournament staff always used to brief us on the event we were about to partake in, this time, the rules were a lot simpler, as I mentioned before, no jumping or bashing through walls that separate the different rooms of the simulated labyrinth, other than that, everything was on the table, that meant I could use my aura for the first time in this tournament. As for how a winner would be decided, it was best timing wins, but there were still prizes for second and third place.

    This time, there was no drawing of lots, we just lined up to get a number, and the first one who registers first attempts the Battle Mage Trials first. So I just took my number and waited for my turn.

    When my turn eventually came, I was led to the entrance of Pit and heard the cheering crowd when my name was announced, I could hear this crowd was more enthusiastic than usual, but it was to be expected for the person who won two of the Duel events, it seemed to improve my public perception greatly, even some of the kids who snubbed me due to my involvement of causing the shakedown of the capital started trying to make small talk with me, but I politely declined.

    Now, I know that it was not politically savvy of me to do so, but I rather not associate with these young vipers who slither up to me because my name was on the ascend, the best I can do is be professionally polite to them, nothing more.

    I was then ushered to the portcullis that kept me from the Pit and noticed the scene before me was very different. What used to be just open dirt, now was a stone floor and walls that were lit with sconces along its walls, which was totally unnecessary due to it being morning and there was no roof so the audiences could watch me.

    When I stepped beyond the portcullis, the announcer asked, ¡°Challenger, are you ready?!¡±

    I gave a tug at my sheathed sword and tightened the grip on my spear before I gave the announcer a non.

    ¡°Then let the Battle Mage Trials, Begin!¡±

 Chapter 155

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After stepping into the Pit, the portcullis closes behind me and after a few steps, I stand before a gate with a sign on top of it that says, ¡°Trial 1: Gauntlet of the Swift¡±. And beside the gate was a wooden board with the challenge carved into it.

    ¡°Objective: By any means necessary, obtain the three keys to open the door to the next trial.¡±

    Sounds simple enough, let''s see what we are dealing with. I proceeded to push open the wooden gate to take a look inside the first trial room.

    It looked like a normal castle hall with pillars that did not meet the ceiling due to there being no ceiling, the audience needed some way to see me after all. At first glance of the huge room, I could see a wooden door with three big keyholes along one side of the door, and as I zoomed out of what was most likely my way to the next trial, I noticed what was most likely the three keys mentioned in the objective.

    The first and most obvious key was lying on a pedestal right in the middle of the room, and I swear they may have installed glow stones somewhere around to direct light onto the pedestal because it is somehow more illuminated than the surrounding that is bathed in the morning sun.

    The next key was in a small alcove on the right wall, but it was around four meters up, and the last key was tied to a ribbon around the neck of a clearly artificial bird that was the size of a parrot that was perched on a banner pole connected to one of the pillars¡­ is that bird looking at me, if that bird is what I think it is, that is going to be a pain in the ass.

    But that was for later, let''s start with the first and most obvious target, the pedestal key, I took a step forward and felt the stone tile I stepped on press into the ground, and heard a metal tick, a split second later, I hear more mechanical sounds from my both sides of me and caught movement in my peripheral vision, on instinct more than anything, I threw myself backward through the door I came in from as rows of bolts crisscrossed where I was standing.

    ¡°Well fuck me, right off the bat, huh.¡± I guess this is how my turn came so fast despite the number of people before me, I wonder what other nasty surprises they got for me.

    Now that I know they are not playing around, I suppose I should respond in kind, I activate my aura and leap into the room, eating up a few meters with every leap toward the pedestal. As I took my third leap I felt the sensation of walking face first into a thread of spider web, but instead of the irritating feeling on my face, I felt like my body interrupted a thread of mana.

    The moment that happened, what I thought were just intrinsic ribbed patterns running vertically along the pillar, dislodged and revealed themselves to be stone tentacles, and if the bird was following my movement was any indicator, I think it is pretty safe to say this whole room is full of golems.

    As the tentacles reached for me while I was in midair, I swung my spear to knock away the stone tentacle, but instead of knocking the tentacle away and continuing my advance, the clash killed my momentum, which come to think of it, was to be expected. I was hitting an object that was connected to another huge grounded object, while I was a midair 8-year-old with the body of a 12-year-old. Aura or not, I was destined to lose the clash and was thrown backward.Stolen novel; please report.

    I flipped and landed on my feet before running around the pillars as the tentacles closed in on my position, my only saving grace was that these tentacles were not as fast as I was, so I was able to close in on the pedestal for a few steps before I had to fend off the tentacles, but now that I was properly grounded, I had a lot more leverage to swat the tentacles away, it was quite fun, like the awareness training I did in my previous life where I strung up some sticks around me and hit them as they swing around to hit me. But this is my first time using a spear to do it.

    As I battled my way closer to the key, I occasionally tripped a trap and had to dodge it, but it was manageable. When I grabbed the key, some Indiana Jones shit happened as the pedestal sank into the ground and I noticed the tentacles started picking up small but noticeable speed.

    It was then that I put it together, this was the Gauntlet of the Swift, if I was playing this right, I should have been running around and grabbing the keys as fast as I could, but here I am, being a dumbass, and fighting tentacles that I imagine has less than honorable intentions upon my person.

    I quickly reorientated myself to my next target, the alcove, and performed a wide sweep of my spear, knocking away all the nearby tentacles before booking it for the alcove. After dodging a few tentacles and traps, I was soon close to the wall beneath the alcove, but instead of slowing down, I sped up and used my momentum to run up the wall.

    I got around three meters up before I lost momentum, so I covered my spear with aura and stabbed it into the wall, pulled myself up to stand on my spear, and snatched the key. And just like the podium, a pressure plate that fit so seamlessly that I did not see, sunk into the alcove.

    The moment that happened, hidden doors from both sides of the door to the next trial opened up to deposit two man-sized golems that were holding spears, and once the hidden doors closed behind the golems, the golems¡¯ ruby eyes lit up with magic, scanned the area until they locked on me, and advanced towards me at a slow jog speed, ¡°Shit. I got no time for this.¡±

    I looked at the last key that was around the neck of the bird golem that was still staring at me. I grabbed my spear, braced my legs against the wall while aiming myself at the bird, and pushed off the wall with all my strength, pulling my spear along for the ride.

    As I flew toward the bird, my aura-powered kickoff left behind a large spiderwebbed crack, but just as I predicted, the moment I left the wall, the bird flew toward another pillar, and I was met with reaching tentacles.

    I batted away some of the tentacles and used others as stepping stones until I got to the same perch the bird was previously resting on. I then raised my hand and pointed at the bird to send an Earth Bullet, but the moment mana gathered in my hand to cast the spell, the fucking bird flew behind the pillar.

    Living or not, I am going to take great pleasure in taking that bird apart, but first, I have to find some way to hit it, and I think I may have an idea of how to do just that.

    I spun up a 3rd circle Fireball spell and shot it just shy of the pillar, but at the height of where the bird was, as for why I was missing on purpose, that was because I was going to use the blast impact of the Fireball to knock that fucker out of cover.

    I was not expecting to destroy the bird golem, but the spell should have enough oomph to knock it around.

    When my Fireball just cleared the pillar, I purposely destabilized the spell and set it off. This sent the bird golem flying off into a wall and then to the ground, where I pounced on it from above and stabbed it center mass.

    I grabbed the last key and was ready to run for the door, but I noticed that the tentacle golems ceased their wriggling toward me, and man-sized golems started making their way back to their hidden door.

    I guess I cleared the first trial then.

 Chapter 156

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I stayed on guard for a while, at least until the man-sized golems walked back into the hidden doors they were deployed from, and the tentacles melded back seamlessly into the pillars, the only signs of them being anything but pillar designs being the nicks and gouges that they received upon me smacking them around.

    When the coast was clear, I brought the three keys to the door to the next trial, matched the corresponding symbols on the keys to the locks, and opened the door to find another gate with a sign above it.

    The sign read, ¡°Trial 2: The Enchanted Puzzle Room¡±, I then looked to the wooden board beside the gate ¡°Objective: Solve the puzzle unlocks the exit, but beware, mistakes summon hostels.¡±

    Alright then, let''s get this over and done with. I pushed open the gate and entered a room filled with magical glyphs, arrays, and inscriptions, they formed five clusters around the room, each magical cluster was linked to each other, and each cluster had a line connected to one of five bolts keeping the door closed, and in the middle of the room, there was a pedestal with a wooden case and an instruction signage beside it.

    ¡°Inside this case, are ten pairs of Mana Transmission beads. Each bead can be used to bridge mana anywhere in the trail room between their identical pair.¡± well, that''s a nifty tool, but first, let''s see what we are dealing with.

    I began by studying each magical cluster, all the glyphs, arrays, and inscriptions, and found that everything on display here was covered in class, but twisted in such a way that looked right, but upon closer inspection, some key components were missing or wrong. As I looked over all the clusters, I found some of those missing components and knew what the trial was about.

    This whole room is like a math problem that uses words to obfuscate the true answer, and I also see some logic problems in the mix. I cracked my fingers and went to tackle the problem before me.

    After a few minutes of scratching my diagrams and calculations on the ground and double-checking them, I was satisfied with my answers. I fetched the Mana Transmission beads and placed them on the glyphs, bridging mana between them, some within their own cluster, and most linking to other clusters.

    As I did so, I saw the lock bolts connected to the magic clusters lock and unlock themselves until I placed the last bead in its place, and all five bolts unlocked themselves. ¡°That was easy enough, a few tricky logic traps, but it was a nice short challenge.¡±, I said to myself as I dusted off my pants from all the kneeling I did to place the beads.

    Once I was through the door, I came to the next gate which was titled, ¡°Trial 3: The Arcane Obstacle Course¡±, and the sign beside the gate was short, ¡°Objective: Reach the door to the next trial.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    I opened the gate and saw what I would expect of an obstacle course, walls, stepping poles, and swinging ropes. What I did not expect to see were swinging pendulum mallets, some kind of chamber that had the first ceiling I have seen in this event, and beyond that, a misted area so thick that I could not see the other side.

    Not wanting to waste any more time, I activated my aura and blitzed through the first part of the obstacle, I cleared the wall with a single bound, went through the stepping poles by only ever stepping on two of them, and used my forward momentum to the swinging ropes with one swing and a jump.

    Next came the chamber with the ceiling, I could feel mana emanating from the chamber, but even when trying to figure out what was going on with it, I could not due to its magic structure being obfuscated, all I knew was that every surface was covered in arrays.

    When I entered the chamber, everything felt normal, until my fourth step that I was suddenly thrown against the left wall¡­ no¡­ I was not thrown, I fell to the left wall. The gravity changed direction.

    I picked myself up and advanced. A few more steps and I felt myself fall upward, but this time I was ready, I flipped myself midair and landed on my feet before advancing once again, but I was not prepared for the next gravity shift.

    Instead of falling up, left, or right, I fell backward, which threw me into previous gravity shifts and landed on my ass just outside the chamber. ¡°Tricky¡­¡±

    I went into the chamber once again, but this time, I was prepared. When I came to the gravity shift toward the chamber entrance, I powered up my weapons with my aura stabbed into the ¡®floor¡¯ and used them as climbing picks until I reached the next gravity shift and was hanging on to my weapons that were stuck in the ceiling. The last stretch of the chamber was gravity in the correct direction, but it felt like my body weight increased three times, but it was of little issue with my aura active.

    Eventually, I got out of the chamber and walked into the cloud of mist. From what I could sense, the mist was clearly magical, and even when I cast a wind spell to blow away the mist, my wind magic did not interact with the mist like it should, in fact, it did nothing at all, telling me that this mist was pure illusion, no mist involved.

    So I just decided to negotiate this illusion obstacle the easiest way I knew how, just go straight ahead.

    After a minute of walking, I started finding it weird that part of an obstacle course was long enough to accommodate a full minute of walking, so I decided to jog, and after half a minute, I was still surrounded by mist.

    Something is seriously wrong here, is the mist screwing my up sense of direction even though I am just going straight?

    After stopping and thinking of a solution for a moment, I looked down and saw that the floor tiles were still in a grid fashion, and I was confident enough that the floor was not an illusion¡­ I think¡­ but it will have to do. I followed the tile seams straight ahead and reached a wall. From there, I used the most fool-proof method to navigate a maze, I put my left hand on the wall and followed it. This eventually led me to the gravity chamber I came from, so I turned around and followed the wall in the other direction.

    Less than a minute of walking later, reached the other side of the mist illusion and found the door to the next location. I went through the door and saw the gate to the next trial, ¡°Trial 4: The Arena of Strength¡±, as for the instructions, ¡°Objective: Fight and win.¡±, No shit Sherlock, but is there anything more specific?

 Chapter 157

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    When I entered the next trial, The Arena of Strength, I saw that it lived up to its name. It was a scaled-down arena to fit the size of a large room they had been using for these trials.

    In the benches were the same man-sized golems that chased me around in the first trial, but they were all holding different weapons, and down in the ¡°arena¡± set against the far wall, was a stone throne with an up-armored humanoid golem that stood twice as tall as a normal man.

    The moment the gate closed behind me, light filled the eyes of the giant golem. It reached over to the side of its throne and grabbed a size-appropriate flanged mace that was as long as I was tall.

    It then stood up to the roaring audience, and the golem actually opened its arms wide as he slowly spun around to bask in the cheers. Whoever was controlling that golem was obviously having a good time.

    When it was done showboating, it turned to me and pointed its mace at me in challenge, and I knew there were no words needed to be said¡­ not like the golem could talk¡­ could it?

    I leveled my spear at the golem as my aura manifested from my body, covering my spear in a thin, controlled layer.

    There was no referee to start us off, but I was the one to make the first move. I moved in a blur toward the golem¡¯s off-hand side and used all the reach my spear afforded me to strike at the golem¡¯s head, but the golem moved faster than anything its size should be capable of moving, as it shifted its pauldron in the way, making my strike glance off its rounded surface before it swung its mace at me in retaliation.

    I rolled under the swing and ended up behind the golem, shortened my grip, and stabbed at the back of the left knee joint, leaving a gash in it. In retaliation, it kicked back its left leg.

    I barely had time to raise my spear in defense, but even as the shaft of my spear absorbed the blow, I was sent flying and slammed into the arena wall, no doubt making the damage indicator color my whole back in a light shade of red, but it was deemed not enough damage to trigger the mana shield.

    It was then that I decided to play dirty. I conjured a small whirlwind to circle around the scaled-down area. As the wind picked up in speed, it also picked up the sand and dust to create a small sandstorm to conceal myself.

    While I was concealed, I was confident enough to use some instinctive earth magic to passively sense the golem stomping and swing blindly into the sandstorm in hopes of getting a lucky hit.

    I took this as an excellent time to perform hit-and-run tactics. I ran toward the golem and used my spear more as a glave as I swung my spear, its shaft whipping and slashing its spearhead across its body, leaving coughs in its metal body.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    I did not intend to strike its body, but after the first two strikes aimed at its joints, it suddenly became very protective of them as it started moving around a lot more defensively. But after a few more hits, it seemed to have enough, and in an almost relaxed manner, it stuck the ground twice with his mace.

    Turns out this was a signal, as I looked around I noticed that one by one, pairs of red lights started lighting up around me, and through the howling of my sand storm, I could hear the clanking of the man-sized golems and their heavy thuds as they hopped off the benches and landed in the arena to surround me.

    Is this the second phase of the boss fight where it calls upon its minions? Well too bad for them, because the minions were as blind as the boss golem, the proof of that was how they were wildly swinging their weapons onto the sandstorm, sometimes taking down one of their own, and to my surprise, each golem had its own mana shield that worked just like mine, and deployed when they took ¡®lethal¡¯ damage. Which I guess saves the staff from repairing golems if I trash them.

    As the golems¡¯ encirclement closed in on me, I decided to open a hole in the encirclement by casting an Earth Spike at a 45¡ã angle, ¡®killing¡¯ two golems while giving me a path out, but somehow, my Earth Spike alerted the golem boss to my location and I felt it stomping to my position.

    I ran to my Earth Spike and jumped off behind the line of golems. When I landed, I bolted to the side as the boss golem rushed through my Earth Spike and its golem minions alike, sending them flying with their mana shields deployed.

    As I was thinking of a way to take this big bastard down, I came to the conclusion that this golem was just too tanky, even the strikes I successfully landed on its joints had not dealt enough damage to disable any of its limbs. If I wanted some proper damage, I needed a good opening, but this boss golem with his long-ass mace was capable of reaching me even if I stuck my spear out all the way, which was not ideal when trying to deliver powerful blows.

    As I was keeping my distance while brainstorming, I noticed that most of the golems were acting rather¡­ jerky in their movement. When I crept up behind one of them, I could hear the grinding of grit in their joints and realized what it was.

    It was sand, fucking sand that may be my solution in stopping the golem boss.

    I crept closer to the boss golem as it was taking swings at any silhouette that did not have red eyes, and noticed that it also had the same gritty sound as it moved. Did it also have dirt in its parts but was just too powerful for meer sand to bother it?

    Well, do I have a surprise for it. If a little sand does not work, how about a lot of sand!

    I added earth mana into the spell controlling the sandstorm to take partial control of the sand in the sandstorm and manipulated the sand to home in around the boss golem and seep into every crack and joint it could.

    In order to speed up the process of my plan, I exposed myself by giving it random wacks and letting it chase me around so it would move all its joints and make it easier to let the sandy goodness into every moving part.

    It took just over a minute before the results of my plan started taking effect. The motions became jerky and could no longer chase me. To test the true extent of the boss golem¡¯s hampered movements, I stood before the boss golem who started swinging its mace, but it was so slow that even an untrained child could walk away from it. That was when I knew I was ready.

    I waited for the boss golem¡¯s swing to miss me before I used my aura to grant myself a burst of speed and quickly climbed to the boss golem¡¯s shoulders and placed the tip of my spear in the collar behind its head, before putting all my weight into the spear and drove the spear down. But before my spear could sink deep, I felt the feeling of my spear hitting a mana shield.

    Did this mean I won? I checked the eyes of the golem boss and found the eye-lights to be off. I will take that as a win.

 Chapter 158

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    After the boss golem was out of the picture, the rest of the other golems were not a problem to deal with, I did not even need to maintain the sandstorm to take them down, it had already done its job gunking up all their joints, by then the golems had more trouble moving around than a drunk man with full body arthritis.

    When the lights in the eyes of the last golem dimmed, the boss golem¡¯s stone throne slid to the side, revealing the exit.

    When I opened the door to see what the next trial was, I found myself facing the balcony where the royals were seated.

    Before I figured out what was happening, the announcer informed me and everyone else, ¡°Congratulations on clearing the Battle Mage trials. It seems we have a new record for this year. 11 minutes and 4 seconds!¡±

    I bowed to the royals and was led to the rest area to wait with those who completed the trials.

    By the time the whole event for my year was completed, only thirteen people, including me, completed the trial, and of those thirteen, only me and two others were called to receive prizes.

    I was awarded 1st place for the best time, while 2nd and 3rd places were not that far behind, both of them being behind me by about one to two minutes.

    When the king came to present the trophy, he once again gave me that crazed smile while reminding me of the job offers available to me once I turned sixteen.

    ***

    I decided to skip out on watching the Battle Mage trials for the other levels and went for a walk to see the other attractions I missed.

    It was there, at a food store selling some kind of fried pastry that I saw Elise, my first opponent in the Spellcasting Duels.

    I tried to look for her immediately after the Spellcasting Duels event to offer her a future position as my family¡¯s retainer, but I could not find her. But now that she is in front of me and alone, now was a perfect time to make my offer.

    When it was Elise¡¯s turn in line, she ordered a fried pastry, ¡°One please.¡±

    ¡°That would be one copper.¡± the woman at the stand said.

    But as Elise was fishing around her pocket for the coin, I came up beside Elise and told the woman, ¡°Make that two pieces.¡± as I put two coppers in her waiting hand.

    The woman just shrugged and bagged two fried pastries for us.

    As we walked away, food in hand, I said ¡°Follow me, there is something I want to discuss with you.¡± and led the way to a nearby tea house. As we walked there, it was plain to see that she was extremely nervous, as she walked almost robotically. Her discomfort was so obvious that people around seemed to think I was leading her under duress and started giving me dirty looks.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Not wanting to make a big scene, I just bore with it and led her to a teahouse where I requested a private booth.

    When we were seated and asked what I would like to order, I just asked the waiter for something with a mild fragrance. When the waiter asked Elise what she wanted to drink, she squeaked in surprise and stuttered in indecision. So I took over and requested something floral for her.

    After the waiter left to process our orders, I turned my attention to Elise who suddenly found the table to be very interesting. Not knowing why she was so nervous, I decided to not beat around the bush and ask her.

    ¡°Elise, are you ok?¡± I asked as she squeaked and looked at me nervously.

    ¡°Ye-Yes!¡± she replied, but her tone and demeanor said otherwise.

    I just sighed, I did not know what was going on in that head of hers, and I did not feel up to figuring out this riddle, ¡°Elise, it is clear to me that you are not fine, but I can most definitely say that whatever you are thinking I am going to ask or do to you, is not going to happen.¡±

    She looked up at me wearily, ¡°Really?¡±

    I did not know what she thought I would ask her, but I just answered to reassure her, ¡°Yes, really. What did you think I was going to ask you?¡±

    She just blushed and whispered something I could not pick up, and asked her to repeat it louder, ¡°I- I thought you were going to ask me to be your concubine and buy me from my parents.¡± she said while covering her face.

    I just sat there as I felt the cogs in my head stop and start a few times while trying to put together how she came to that conclusion, but after a few seconds, I decided to just ask, ¡°And how did you come to such a conclusion?¡±

    With her face still in her hands, she replied, ¡°My parents and other people in the capital warned me that nobles sometimes buy girls from their families to become concubines¡­ I thought you were doing the same thing.¡±

    What the actual fuck! They do that here? To the point that a twelve-year-old is worried about it?! If they are openly doing this kind of grey-area bullshit, that means there are a lot worse things that people do not know about, I am starting to feel a lot better about that huge purge that the king did.

    But now that I look at her properly, Elise does look cute, in a timid mousy kind of way that invokes the urge to protect her. I could see it in my mind, if I slapped on a pair of fake mouse ears on the top of her head, I would say she could pass for one of the mouse folk.

    ¡°No, I am not going to ask you to be my concubine.¡± I said and she sighed in relief at the words of conformation that came out of my mouth, ¡°What I came to talk to you about was to offer you a position as one of my house¡¯s retainers when you graduate.¡±

    Hearing my offer, it was her turn to blank out, and when she began to stutter while trying to answer, I raised my hand to stop her and said, ¡°This is a decision that you should not answer at the spur of the moment. You have three years until you graduate, that will be the deadline to revive your answer. I assume you are going to visit your parents during the end-of-year holiday?¡±

    She nodded in the affirmative.

    ¡°Good, take your time to ask me any questions you have, and discuss it with your parents before you make this decision.¡± I said as the tea arrived.

    From there, we talked about the future and what would be expected of her should she accept my offer. I answered what was within my power to answer, for those that I could not, I promised to ask my father when I went home for the holidays. To make things easier on myself, I offered to bring her home along with Dave and Sam to see my dad who was actually holding the purse strings.

 Chapter 159

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The next day after having tea with Elise, I was once again in the Pit, this time taking part in the Monster Hunts event, and looking at the portcullis on the other side of The Pit.

    As for who, or more correctly, what, I was about to face, it was apparently up to chance. I turned my attention from the gate to the royal¡¯s booth, where next to the king, there was a spinning wheel with monster names written on the wheel and a sign on top of the wheel that said ¡°Round 1¡±

    And as expected of anything as weak sounding as ¡°Round 1¡±, the monsters on that wheel were the ¡®pest¡¯ level monsters that any grown man and woman could beat with a stick 1v1, but are a danger in large numbers, like goblins and kobolds.

    As the wheel slowed down, I saw it pass over the monsters I saw before when going out on suppression missions with Dad, and end up on one that I had only read about but never seen before. Verminar.

    While they are related to the cute and cuddly Kin, the Verminar are the cursed, blighted, and violent rat cousins of the Kin. They are one of the creatures that are killed on sight and suppressed, for if their population is not kept in check by frequent purges of a city''s sewer system or abandoned buildings, they will eventually rise up to cause havoc in an attempt to take over the city. Every large enough city has a Verminar problem, and no one has ever successfully purged all Verminar from their city, no matter how hard every ruler has tried, that''s just a fact of life living in a city.

    ¡°Stright from the local sewers in the capital, we have caught some Verminar, and what better way to use such a blight upon our world, than entertainment! But be warned, contestant, while individually weak, where there is one Verminar, there are always more, and they are crafty as they are vicious.¡± said the announcer as the portcullis opened and tournament staff herded a group of five Verminar out into the Pit with staffs that had a mana crystal at the tip which released shocks.

    When the portcullis closed behind the five Verminar, the first thing they did was look around at walls of the Pit and the thousands of audience looking down at them, and lastly, me. Seeing no way out of the pit, they first tried to gnaw on the portcullis in an attempt to get back into that dark tunnel where thousands of eyes were not on them.

    But when that and trying to climb the walls failed, like the cornered rats that they were, their fear turned into feral aggression in a bid to survive, and the only place they could turn their aggression to, was me.

    Their squeaks of fear changed into violent screeches as if they were hyping each other up, and then one of them started running toward me from across the Pit, their first few steps were on two legs, and as they picked up speed, they transitioned to all fours.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    As they got closer, I got to have a proper look at them for the first time in my life. They were just over half as tall as a grown man, fully furred bipedal rats with a mouth full of fanged teeth with prominent bucked teeth in front, these Verminar charging at me with foam frothing from their mouths all looked malnourished even through their matted fur, and said fur did not cover up the many scars and open wounds they had on their bodies, some of them were still open and infected. Truly disgusting creatures.

    When the first Verminar came close, it pounced at me claws first and fanged mouth open wide. Now that I have seen this creature for myself, I am starting to agree with the announcer, these creatures were truly a blight upon the world, and I would not suffer it to live.

    Quick and efficient, my spear struck at the lead Verminar and I separated its head from its body as I stepped aside to let its body tumble past me. Not wanting to give the other Verminar a chance to scatter at the sight of their kin being so easily dispatched, I rushed forward just as they were about to pounce and struck twice, with aura coating my spear, I bisected one from shoulder to hip, and led that strike into a stab that hit the center mass of another, skewering it straight thru.

    My momentum carried me forward and behind the last two Verminar. As they were turning around to face me, I whipped my spear with a squirming Verminar still impaled upon it and sent it flying off my spear and crashing into one of the Verminar.

    Now, there was only one Verminar left standing and looking around at its dead or downed kin and not looking as brave as it was a few seconds ago. I did not bother making my way to kill it and just mentally chanted a Wind Blade before casting it and cutting it in half at the waist.

    Now all that was left was the concussed Verminar who was trying to get its dead kin off of itself, but before it could extract itself from under its dead kin, I walked over and stabbed my spear down, nailing both the dead and living Verminar to the ground, ending the last of the rat-faced beast.

    I then looked up to the royal¡¯s balcony as they were taking out another wheel that had ¡°Round 2¡± on top. From what I heard of from previous years, the second round of the Monster Hunt event uses monsters at the level that need a hunter or trained soldier to take them down.

    The wheel spun again, and when it stopped, the announcer started speaking, ¡°It looks like we have our first undead for the year! Ghouls! While they are categorized in the zombie family, do not have them confused with their shambling brethren, Ghouls are a mutation of the average zombie, they are swift and vicious while sharing the same properties as zombies, namely the ability to ignore damage to their body and can only be put down by decapitation or destroying the head. Good luck contestant!¡±

    After a minute or so of waiting, the portcullis the Verminar came from opened, and the tournament staff wheeled out three metal boxes that were thrashing around violently. Once the metal boxes were in the Pit, the staff led some chains from the boxes back into the tunnel before the portcullis closed behind them.

    Then as one, the tournament staff yanked the chains through the portcullis grates, which triggered a mechanism on the three boxes, making their doors pop open.

    The moment the boxes opened, the violent thrashing stopped, and all was quiet in the boxes. That was until a clawed and pasty greyed hand reached out into the sunlight and clawed the ground.

 Chapter 160

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I readied myself as I observed the clawed hand rake the sand in front of the box before it retreated into the darkness of the metal box.

    After that, it was silent for seconds, but I could almost feel some form of feral and menacing killing intent coming from those metal boxes, elevating the suspense of when the Ghouls would attack.

    Suddenly, I felt a spike of that feral and wild menacing killing intent, and the rightmost Ghoul leaped out of its box and started running at me in bounding leaps on all fours, followed immediately by the other two Ghouls.

    They were gaunt creatures with a terrifyingly skeletal, emaciated appearance. Their skin was pale and sickly gray, stretched tightly over protruding bones, with a rough, almost decayed texture. They have elongated limbs, sharp claws, and sunken, hollow eyes that glint with a predatory hunger. Their mouths are filled with sharp, discolored teeth, perfect for tearing flesh.

    When the first Ghoul reached me, I performed the same move I used to kill the first Verminar, but despite being undead, it seemed to have excellent reaction as I brought its left arm up to block my sweeping strike from taking its head.

    What I did hit instead, was in between its ring and middle finger, cutting down its arm until I reached the elbow. But as the announcer warned, it did not react at all as its other clawed hand was wound up and ready to claw me.

    Seeing that my spear was caught in the Ghoul¡¯s arm and it was about to hit me, one of my options was to abandon my spear and draw my sword, but I chose differently and twisted my body to follow through with the sweeping strike while using my whole body for some extra torque.

    This sent the first Ghoul flying, leaving me wide open for the other two Ghouls. But I was prepared for this and unleashed a wave of Earth Spikes in their general direction.

    This caught the other two Ghouls off guard and ate a few blows to their bodies, but to my dismay, it was then that I discovered that the Ghouls¡¯ skeletal and emaciated appearance was not as fragile as it looked, because the furthest my Earth Spikes managed to penetrate into them was at most an inch or two, in other words, I did fuck all in terms of damage and bought myself a few seconds before they came at me again.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    I used that few seconds to dash to the first Ghoul I injured and stabbed my spear at its head, but despite being undead, it seemed to have some sense of self-preservation and dodged its head out of the way.

    But instead of counter-attacking me, it turned its attention away from me and went after the carcass of one of the Verminar that I killed in the first round. When I gave chase, it carried the carcass along while trying to open up more space between us. This gave the other two Ghouls time to recover and interrupted my pursuit of the first Ghoul.

    I blocked, parried, and counter-attacked the two Ghouls who were attacking me wildly with fangs and claws, but as I was doing so, I occasionally glanced at the Ghoul that grabbed the carcass. I had an idea of what was going to happen to the dead Verminar, but this was something I had to see for myself.

    Sure enough, when the Ghoul thought that the other two Ghouls currently attacking me would more than keep me busy, its jaw opened unnaturally wide and bit off half of the dead Verminar¡¯s head, skull and all.

    By the second bone-crunching bite that took off the rest of the Verminar¡¯s head, I noticed that the arm that I split down to the elbow started knitting itself back together. I had to stop that Ghoul from regenerating any further!

    I defended against a few more blows while waiting for an opening, and that opening came very fast as the two Ghouls swung their claws at my upper body at the same time, this gave me the opportunity to duck under their strikes, sweep the leg of one with my spear, to balance my sweeping strike from an awkward position, I kicked out my leg to balance my sweeping strike, and that kick landed center mass of the other Ghoul, sending him flying.

    I used my few seconds of freedom to flood my arm with as much aura as I could and hurled my spear at the regenerating Ghoul with all I had. The momentum of my throw made me do a forward somersault, but I managed to get back on my feet and drew my sword as my legs carried me forward.

    When my eyes rested on the Ghoul I threw my spear at, I saw it thrashing against my spear that pierced through the middle of its thigh and solidly embedded itself into the ground.

    With its mobility taken away, I made short work of the pinned Ghoul and killed it in three strikes, the first two took off its arms it sacrificed to protect the head, and my last strike split the head down the middle, making its body fall limp.

    But the few seconds I bought myself was up before I knew it. As I was about to decapitate the head of the first Ghoul, just to make sure it did not put its head back together after a while, I heard footsteps fast approach me again, and whipped around with my sword, cleaving through an arm and embedding itself into one of the remaining two Ghouls.

    To avoid having the Ghoul my sword was stuck in, crash into me, I followed through with my strike, directing the Ghoul to the side. But when I pushed the Ghoul to the side, it revealed the other Ghoul charging at me, and it was too late for me to do anything.

    The charging Ghoul tackled me to the ground, pinned my arms with its own, opened its fanged-filled mouth wide, and lunged down toward my face.

 Chapter 161

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    As the Ghoul¡¯s maw got closer to biting my head, I took advantage of my smaller size, brought both my legs under its belly, and kicked off, flipping the Ghoul above me and onto its back.

    I took this opportunity to draw my dagger and swing it above my head, plunging the blade into the Ghoul¡¯s head. Once I felt the hilt of my dagger hit the skull, I yanked out my dagger and leaped to my feet to turn to the last Ghoul.

    After I laid eyes on it, I relaxed my guard. The last Ghoul that I left my sword in was clawing its way away from me, toward a Verminar carcass. But all it was crawling on was its left hand and the stump of its right hand, all while being impeded by the hilt of my sword still stuck halfway in its body, digging a furrow in the sand.

    When I caught up to the crawling Ghoul to see why it was not using its legs, I immediately found out why. As I looked along it''s protruding spine, I saw that the blade of my sword was firmly lodged in its vertebrae, most likely paralyzing it from its upper chest down.

    It seems that physical anatomy still counts for something regardless of whether it is a magical undead.

    Sensing me standing over it, the crippled ghoul turned as much as my sword allowed and took ineffective swipes at me with its remaining arm.

    Seeing no need to prolong this, I cast a spell to manipulate the earth under the ghoul, and earth spikes rose out of the ground to crisscross over the ghoul''s arms, restraining it.

    After that, it was just a simple matter of stabbing it in the brain, retrieving my sword from its body, and decapitating it and the other two ghouls, just to be safe.

    After all the ghouls were beheaded, I looked up to the royal¡¯s balcony again to see the ¡°Round 3¡± wheel being spun. This time, the monster that I will be facing is one that needs two to five average, non-aura-capable soldiers to safely take down.

    When the wheel stopped, it landed on something called a Lesser Chimera.

    ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen, our contestant has shown us his skill in combat in these two rounds, but for a winner of three tournament events, was there any doubt to begin with?¡± the announcer asked, and the crowd cheered in response. ¡°But now, he will be putting his skill to the test facing a true monster. A Lesser Chimera!¡±

    As the portcullis opened and a cage was wheeled in, I saw it. As big as a draft horse, it had the head of a ram with a fanged maw, the body of some kind of canid, giant wolf most likely, and a very long tail that was some kind of bladed bone whip that it was running along the bars of the cage while growling at everything around.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    If I remember correctly from what I read, a Lesser Chimera is the spawn of an adult Chimera, which is a stable artificial monster that some group of mages created as weapons for a long-extinct kingdom more than two thousand years ago, and as most clich¨¦ stories go, the kingdom came under a sudden attack and the first chimeras used the opportunity to break their bonds, kill the mages and escape into the wilds to mate and multiply.

    Now, the less initiated might ask, ¡®What''s the difference between a chimera and a lesser chimera? A chimera is a chimera, they all have different beast/monster parts, so why put them in different categories?¡¯, to that, I would say size for one, the adults start at the size of a small log cabin and go up from there, the other reason is the number of different parts the chimera manages to integrate into their body.

    When a lesser chimera is born, it inherits a random beast/monster part from each of their parents, so it starts off in life with two different parts, and through some unknown process, over time it manifests parts of what it ate, and when it reaches the point that it shows five different parts from different beasts/monsters, it seems that they are considered adults and start looking for a mate.

    So, this lesser chimera in the cage before me does not seem to be a newborn and has killed enough to manifest its third part, not to mention that that tail looks mighty deadly.

    As the announcer finishes waxing poetics about the lesser chimera, the tournament staff does the same thing as the last round and closes the portcullis behind themselves before pulling a chain to open the lesser chimera¡¯s cage.

    Unlike the previous two rounds, the lesser chimera stalks out of the cage with the grace of a true predator, confident and concentrated on me.

    As it stalks over to me, it stops to give the carcasses from the first two rounds a sniff and averts its nose in disgust, apparently, it has refined enough palate to not go for undead or sewer meat, which left me as the only option, and as tasty as I surely am, I am not going to easily give it a taste, not that the mana shield would let it if I get hit too hard.

    Seeing that this monster is not mindlessly charging me, tells me that it is experienced and recognizes me and my pointy stick as a danger.

    It then starts circling me, and not wanting to get flanked, I circle it too, but as I do so, I am mentally weaving and caching spells, and after I weaved as many spells as I could maintain, I struck first.

    I reached out my hand and shot out three third-circle lightning spells, but it was already on the move the moment I raised my arm and managed to dodge two of the spells, but one was all it took for it to be shocked and stunned in place.

    As it was spazzing out from getting shocked, I charged in for the kill, but despite lacking control of its muscles, it still managed to whip its long bone blade tail in front of itself and thrash it around, and as I was in the way of this tail thrashing, I almost got hit twice and had to back away.

    It seems that being shocked has its perks, despite the ongoing electric shock making the tail attacks erratic and inaccurate, it also made the trajectory of the attacks unpredictable.

    Soon, the shock wore off and all that was left was a snarling and slightly singed lesser chimera that seemed very pissed at me.

 Chapter 162

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The lesser chimera and I were now locked in a staring contest, as we re-evaluated each other, every time I repositioned my arms or footing, the lesser chimera would twitch and lash its tail about as it dug its claws into the dirt, ready to move at a moment¡¯s notice.

    Seeing that this was a powerful and agile opponent that had excellent reaction speed, an idea came to me, and I started weaving some spells to replace the ones I cast.

    Within a few seconds, I was ready, so I made the first move. I waved my hand in a horizontal slash, releasing a Wind Blade spell, and rushed in right behind it. The lesser chimera reacted by jumping in the air, making it an easy target for me to throw another Wind Blade at it, but its bone-bladed tail sliced through the air, clashing and dispersing my Wind Blade. Those are some tough bones on that tail.

    I rushed forward on its way to the ground and thrust my spear up at its center mass, this forced the lesser chimera to use a paw to swipe away the tip of my spear, making it land on one front paw, which had to bear the weight of the rest of its body before its hind legs touched the ground.

    This force made the lesser chimera roll to the side as I spun around with the force of my spear being parried and stabbed at the lesser chimera¡¯s head, but only scoring a glancing hit that cut the skin between its horns.

    This enraged the lesser chimera as it lashed its tail at me while recovering its footing. As soon as it was on its feet and I was trading blows with it, my spear bending and warping as I tried to stab it from different angles, while the lesser chimera attacked with tail, teeth, and claws.

    Before we broke off from our clash, I managed to get in multiple cuts on its hide and a solid stab on its left shoulder, but unfortunately, according to the red markings on the first layer of the tournament-provided mana shield, I did not come out of the trade unscathed, there are four red damage marks that I know about and a few that I did not have the time to see but I know are there.

    But even if I incurred some damage, I achieved what I set out to do. Now that I have injured it, the lesser chimera now has its undivided attention not on me exactly, but on the tip of my spear. To test this, I swayed my spear around and saw its head and eyes track it. I was ready for the next stage of my plan.

    I mentally cast a sound barrier around my ears, manipulated wind mana in front of my mouth to amplify my voice, and readied a light spell at the tip of my spear. I readied myself for another clash by leveling my spear at the lesser chimera¡¯s eye level and charged, and the lesser chimera responded in kind.

    While we closed the distance to each other, the only thing I could hear with the sound barrier over my ears, was the sound of my breath, the pumping of my heart, and the impact of my feet hitting the ground. When I was just outside the striking distance of the lesser chimera, I closed my eyes and triggered the light spell at the tip of my spear. At the same time, I pictured R. Lee Ermey in my mind, commanding me to show him my war face, and shouted with all I had into the wind mana construct in front of my mouth, ¡°AHHHHH!!!¡±

    This combination of a bright flash from my spear and a shout loud enough to kick up dust was the equivalent of a flashbang going off in front of the lesser chimera¡¯s face, and I opened my eyes just in time to avoid being run over by a deaf and blind lesser chimera by diving between its legs.

    I then immediately got to my feet, turned around to face the rear of the lesser chimera, and did something I was not proud of. Not wanting to waste the opportunity to strike a disorientated opponent, I did not consider where I was hitting the lesser chimera, only that I hit it.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    The practice of my thrusting form took over me, and one aura-empowered lunge later, I luckily, or should I say unluckily, shoved half of my into the lesser chimera¡­ where the sun doesn¡¯t shine.

    When I realized what I had done, I was still, the lesser chimera was still, and the audience let out a collective ¡°Oooh!¡± while winching, but there were some weirdos in the crowd cheering and making lewd jokes.

    A second, later the lesser chimera released a screech of pain as it trashed around, which most likely made its internal injuries worse. After around ten seconds of thrashing around, the spear inside its body must have hit something important, and the lesser chimera flopped to the ground with a pathetic whine.

    I drew my sword and walked over to the creature lying on its side, when I looked into its eyes, I could still see that it was blinded by its pupils darting around despite me standing over it, this was no longer a fight, it was an execution. I poured aura into my sword and stabbed into its skull where I thought its brain should be.

    A few seconds of twitching later and the deed was done.

    ¡°Ladies and gents, give it up for our contestant!¡± the announcer said and the crowd started cheering once again. ¡°Truly, we should expect nothing less of the winner of three combat events! But take heed, dear contestant, this next round may push you to your limits.¡±

    The ¡°Round 4¡± wheel of monsters was then brought out, but I noticed that there was a lot less variety on the wheel, this round was supposedly monsters at the level where an aura-capable warrior needs to take to the field.

    When the wheel stopped, I could see the king and the announcer wince, ¡°Oooh¡­ I feel sorry for you dear contestant, you have got a most irritating opponent¡­ a Mirage Spider.¡±

    At the uttering of that creature¡¯s name, I could see confusion in the general audience¡¯s faces, but there were a few rough-looking men and women who dressed like adventures that shared the same expression as the king and announcer.

    I have never heard of this Mirage Spider, but I am sure the announcer owls enlighten me like he did for every other monster.

    ¡°To prepare for this fight, mages, please change the Pit¡¯s barrier into a dome configuration, and raise some pillars.¡± as the changes to the Pit were being made the announcer started his monologue on my next opponent

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen! Our young contestant will face one of the most elusive and fiendish creatures to ever share the land with us, the Mirage Spider!

    A true master of stealth and bane to many a mighty adventure, the Mirage Spider is a creature of shadows and subtlety, a predator that preys on fear itself. With near-invisibility cloaking its movements, it is a monster that innately uses light and dark mana to obscure itself, making it hard to pin down and even harder to strike! But watch your step, for its webs, though nearly transparent, are tough as steel and capable of ensnaring even the mightiest of warriors. This beast¡¯s lair is a death trap in every sense of the word!

    And don¡¯t let the fact that it is just a monster fool you, it¡¯s clever. Oh, it''s cunning as sin! It studies its prey, luring them into traps with a mind sharper than any blade. It waits, it stalks, and it strikes when you least expect it!

    Will our contestant prevail against the fiendish tricks and deadly webs of the Mirage Spider? Or will the hunter become the hunted? Only the battle will tell! So, place your bets, steel your nerves, and prepare for a clash you¡¯ll never forget!¡±

    Wait¡­ did he say it innately uses two kinds of mana? And did they add the pillars to give the spider a chance to spin some webs around the area? And they never mentioned how big the spider was!

    It was then that the portcullis opened, and a draft horse wheeled in a metal box that was almost twice as large as the lesser chimera¡¯s. The horse was quickly unhooked and brought back into the tunnel where they closed the portcullis behind them, and with a pull of the chain from behind the portcullis, the door of the metal box swung open, and a shimmer shot out of the box and up the nearest pillar.

    I barely saw the monster, and I already felt that this was going to be a pain in the ass to fight.

 Chapter 163

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I readied myself with my sword as I had yet to extract my spear from the lesser chimera¡¯s¡­ rear end¡­ and I was not about to wield that shit-covered weapon until I gave it a thorough scrubbing.

    After standing at the ready and staring at the pillar for more than a minute, I started to feel like something was amiss. I then recalled what the announcer said, this Marage Spider had nearly transparent webs.

    I conjured a gust of wind to pick up the sand on the ground and scatter it around the pillar before me and the open air above me, as sand flew through the air, grains of sand got caught on something that soon created a clear picture of my situation, and as I suspected and dreaded, there were lines of webs already connected to the surrounding pillars.

    ¡°Aww¡­ Shit.¡± I cursed under my breath, but before I could do anything, I saw a shimmering, dust-covered thread flutter in front of my face, and before I could register what I truly was, the thread looped around my neck, and I was pulled backward on my ass and dragged through the dirt towards one of the pillars.

    If it were not for the tournament-provided mana shield, I would have been choking and unable to breathe from the thin yet tough thread wrapped around my neck.

    Before my head smashed into the pillar, I brought my sword above my head and managed to get it in contact with the thread of web, but it was like the announcer described, it was tough as steel, and only once I inject some aura into my blade did I managed to sever the thread.

    The moment I did so, I flipped back on my feet and sent an Earth Spike crashing into the pillar, making it crumble, but I was not done, when it came crashing down, I firebombed the rubble, but I heard not a sound of distress, nor did I see any signs of struggle or the shimmer of the Mirage Spider making an escape, the only thing I saw was the surprisingly flammable thread catching fire and burning away.

    But as the threads connected to the pillar burnt away, I noticed the end of one particular smoldering thread inching away from the burning rubble in jerking movements, almost like it was being pulled in.

    I made no obvious move to see where the smoldering thread was going, but out of the corner of my vision, it was moving to a pillar to my left, which did not make much sense, I was being pulled to this pillar, but I destroyed and torched it almost immediately, does that mean the spider moved that fast?... or¡­motherfucker¡­ that spider really is cunning.

    After thinking of how a spider pulled me from a different direction, I then realized that the spider was using the pillar I had just destroyed as a fulcrum point to obscure its true location.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Not wanting to expose my hand of letting the spider know that I knew where it was, I was thinking up a strategy on how to kill this spider, and as I scrapped plan after plan in my head, I came to one final conclusion that I would be using a lot of fire, and a lot of mana to get rid of this spider.

    When I was ready with the spells in my head, I cast multiple Wind Blades around the pillar I suspected the spider was at, and followed up with another Earth Spike to destroy the pillar. And sure enough, as I saw the simmering threads connected to the pillar get cut off and shimmer as they floated to the ground, and the pillar started to collapse, I saw a shimmering form reaching and failing to grab its falling threads in time.

    I took this opportunity to cast multiple fireballs to firebomb the spider''s general area for effect, and that was the first time I heard the spider make a sound. It made a chittering screech as I saw its shimmering outline surrounded by the flames I was maintaining, and now that I could see it, I could kill it.

    I rushed in to close the distance, unbothered by the flames of my own mana¡¯s creation. When I appeared in front of the spider, I had clearly interrupted its attempts to escape the fires and surprised it, I performed a downward chop, aiming to cleave it straight down the middle of its beady eyes.

    But I guess having more than two eyes has its advantages because it saw the sword coming and moved to dodge to the side to avoid being split in half, but it did not get away unscathed as I managed to take two of its front right legs in my chop.

    It hissed in anger at losing its legs as it jumped backward, and the magic maintaining its invisibility magic dissipated. It ignored the fires that were burning the hairs on its body as it scuttled backward, but I was not going to give it the chance to escape again.

    I dived forward and managed to grab its front left leg, but that turned out to be a mistake because the spider¡¯s grappling game outclassed mine by miles as it curled in its remaining legs to grab and spin me as it brought its abdomen to spew strands of sticky web on me.

    By the time I could muster any form of resistance, my shoulders to my elbows were already wrapped and I was having a hard time stretching the webs even with my aura going at full blast. This meant I could not swing my sword, so I swiftly abandoned it and drew my dagger.

    Before the spider managed to rotate me a second time in its webs, I injected aura into my dagger and cut the webs restaining me, lunged at the spider and hugged it tight, keeping my head below where its fangs could reach me, I then started stabbing the shit out of the spider.

    One stab, and it dropped itself to the ground, with me under it, smashing me onto the ground, but it most likely did little to no damage. Three stabs, and it was lying on its back while using its legs to try and tear me off of it, but to no avail. Seven stabs, by now half of its legs were no longer working, and the ones that were barely had any strength. By the tenth stab, the spider was still and I could no longer feel the pumping of its heart. I stabbed it two more times before I felt comfortable letting go of the big-ass spider.

    I had expected to use a lot more mana in this encounter, but things turned out well, I guess that means more magic for the next monster.

    As I once again stood to face the royal¡¯s booth, I was covered in dust, spider webs, and spider ichor, all things considered, it was not very fun, but I had an event to finish, and if I am not wrong, this will be the last monster I will have to face in this event. An Ogre.

 Chapter 164

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    This time, as I looked up to the royal¡¯s booth, there was no wheel to spin, and no choice of my last opponent.

    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen! Our young contestant has just accomplished something rarely seen in the history of our kingdom for his age!¡± the announcer proclaimed. I am guessing that he is not privy to my actual age, otherwise, I may have set some kind of record, but I will keep that to myself.

    The announcer then took on an exaggerated look of regret, ¡°But unfortunately, dear contestant, it is two years too early for you to be facing the next and last monster, as none from your level has ever bested an Ogre in combat. But do not let that discourage you! For there is no dishonor in losing to the pure strength and toughness of your next foe¡­ Bring forth the Ogre!¡±

    The portcullis opened, but for a few seconds, I saw nothing. Then I started picking up the sounds of roars and the pounding of metal coming from the tunnel, and as the seconds went by, the sound of what could only be an enraged ogre got louder.

    Then out of the darkness of the tunnel, came two burly-looking aura-clad warriors who were pulling chains over their shoulders, and attached to those chains, was a tall metal box on wheels that was clearly enchanted and spotting quite a few outward dents, no doubt from the ogre¡¯s attempts to break free.

    Soon, the men pulling the chain were back in the tunnel behind the portcullis, and the chain to trigger the release of the ogre was pulled.

    The moment the door for the metal box opened, a bloodshot-eyed ogre came out swinging, spun around while throwing a haymaker into the side of the metal box that contained it, sending the box flying, took a few more swings at the open air while roaring and frothing at the mouth.

    It spun around while bellowing angry roars at the crowd in the stands before it noticed me, the moment it locked eyes on me, it charged, at first with slow lumbering steps, but as its bulk gained momentum, so did its legs.

    It was at this point that, I started feeling dread. It was all intellectual when reading about ogres in books, but seeing one in person, and charging at me, I was starting to regret not recovering my spear from the lesser chimera¡¯s ass.

    To push down the dread I was feeling, I bit my lip and readied myself and my sword as I mentally weaved a combination spell. When the ogre got within stone-throwing distance of me, I cast a third-circle earth and water fusion spell, Quagmire.

    As my spell hit the ground the ogre was treading on, the ground started becoming sloshy like it was walking in quicksand as the ogre¡¯s feet sank into the ground, the first couple of steps sunk it to its ankles, and by the time it was in spitting distance, it was up to its knees and wading toward me. I expected the spell to at least slow it down, but I severely underestimated the raw strength the ogre had to power through the thick boggy earth, and I was not powerful enough to sink it any deeper than its knees.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    But that did not mean my spell failed yet. I stopped manipulating the earth portion of the Quagmire spell to solidify and extracted the water mana out of the spell, effectively cementing the ogre''s legs up to its knees in the ground.

    This suddenly stopped its momentum and the ogre jerked its upper body forward, but from the cracks in the ground around its buried legs, I knew I was not going to hold it for long.

    When the ogre finally realized its situation, it raged even more violently than before, clawing the air trying to reach me, and when that failed, it started punching the ground where its feet were.

    While this was happening, I cast a wind blade to try and sever its head from a distance, but when it made contact with its rock-like calloused skin, all I managed to do was give it the equivalent of a paper cut, which pissed it off even more.

    I decided that if it was so tough, I could always cook its head with a flamethrower spell while keeping well out of range, but as I weaved a spell and raised my hand to cast fire upon it, the ogre managed to punch the ground enough to dislodge throwable chunks of earth, scoop them up, and throw it at me.

    I was forced to abort my spell and dodge out of the way of what was essentially grapeshot from a cannon, a second later as I rolled to my feet, I could hear the heavy thuds of dirt impacting the Pit¡¯s walls.

    I had no time to cast any spells as the ogre flung another handful of dirt at me, and seeing that nowhere was safe from getting pelted by handfuls of dirt that most likely had enough power behind it to kill a man, I was forced to take the fight up close and personal.

    As I zigzagged closer to the ogre while dodging the thrown dirt, the ogre was alternating between digging the dirt at its feet and throwing said dirt at me, and by my estimate, if I did not keep his hands busy, it would break free in less than a minute.

    When I got close to the ogre, I sidestepped a meaty palm the size of my torso that tried to squash me like a bug, and then ducked under the other arm swinging in from the side to grab me.

    When I sprung to my feet, I used the momentum to perform an upward aura-empowered slash against its body. I felt my blade split that tough skin of its ponch gut, but not even a foot into the slash, I could feel most of the momentum of my swing was already absorbed as my blade ran into resistance a few inches into its flesh.

    But I had no time to analyze what caused of the ogre¡¯s resistance to my blade as I noticed both of its hands reaching toward me. I ducked between its legs and had to dodge over to the side as the ogre did a backhand swing that almost took my head off.

    As I got to my feet again and readied myself to charge in, I saw the wound I had just made on the ogre¡¯s belly and realized that I was going to need some serious penetrating power if I wanted to do any meaningful damage to the ogre.

    From the look of the pinkish white of the wound, it turns out that I only managed to cut into its fat layer and the muscles stopped my blade¡­ my aura-coated blade.

    I gave the lesser chimera corpse where my spear was a side glance but had to abandon the idea as I dodged another handful of deadly dirt. I think I will not get the chance to retrieve it, so I was just going to have to make do with my sword.

 Chapter 165

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I spent the next minute or two dancing in and out of the ogre¡¯s melee strike range in an effort to keep its hands busy to prevent it from further digging its own legs out of the ground and also to attempt to get some hits in while looking for any vulnerable spots I can target.

    By now, I have delivered a strike to almost every part of its body except the head and groin which it fiercely protects, which is kind of a hint that the ogre is a he, as for my findings on weak spots on the body, I can say there are none so far, at least for me at my level of strength.

    Its arms and legs are almost a hundred percent muscles and each is thicker than my body, so besides cutting its skin, my sword did not get far into any of its limbs before I risked my sword getting stuck. As for the torso, besides the hanging bulging belly, its chest and back were also pure muscle.

    So if I am to do any meaningful damage to this big bastard, I can pretty much say goodbye to all forms of slashing attacks, that left me with piercing and blunt attacks, but realistically speaking, I can leave out blunt attacks, I am nowhere strong enough to knock its lights out.

    To see how much damage I could do with piercing attacks, I weaved my way through a barrage of attacks before I ended up at the ogre¡¯s left side after dodging a wide swing, and with both hands on my sword, I trusted my sword up at where I assumed should be just under the ribcage.

    After my sword sunk in three-quarters of a foot, my blade was stopped by the thick wall of muscle, now I was starting to understand why the announcer said it was two years too early to take on an ogre, because as much as aura was a force multiplier to my striking ability, my unpowered body did not have much for the force multiplier to multiply from, in the end, one multiplied by two is still just two after all. After this, I am going to seriously need to hit the gym, I now understand why my father and his men were all protein powder-snorting muscle-bound sword maniacs, they need that extra power to take down tough bastards like this ogre.

    After stabbing a few more spots to test the toughness of different spots and dodging like my life depended on it, an idea came to me. In my hand was not just a sword, but an improved war pick, allowing me to take advantage of the power of my swings.

    I dodged a few more swings at me while I got just out of arms reach, I then flipped my sword over and was now holding it by the blade, I adjusted my grip properly so I would not cut myself, and started closing in to deliver a blow.

    ¡°Oh? What is our contestant doing now? This humble announcer is no weapons expert, but I am pretty sure that is not how a sword is handled. Do you have any insight on this, Your Majesty?¡± the announcer said as he passed his mic magic tool to the king.

    ¡°Indeed I do, this is the first time I have seen a sword wielded like this, but I can see the potential application, let us watch our young contestant and see what he will do, it may be something different from what I have in mind.¡± the king commented and passed the mic back to the announcer.

    After ducking, dodging, and flash-banging in front of the ogre''s face, I circled around the ogre who was shielding its eyes with one arm and swinging wildly with the other. When I was behind the ogre, I pumped as much aura as I could into my sword, concentrating particularly on the cross guard, and swung down with all my might.

    When I was testing my piercing attacks on the ogre earlier, there were a few hits that hit the ribs or its arm and leg bones, and no matter how hard I pushed, I felt I could do no better than making small scratches on the bones, but this time I was aiming for perhaps the most important bone in the body, the spine, and the ogre was kind enough to have such a well defined back that showed the crease of where its spine should be. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Besides the head, the spine had one of the least amounts of meat protecting it, so when my cross-guard made contact with the middle of its back, the aura coating my weapon made short work of the meat in the way, while my steel cross-guard, with all its momentum largely un-expended, smashed into the ogre''s spine, and from the vibration of my sword, I felt something snap.

    The moment that happened, the ogre released a roar of anger as it tried to swing back at me, but it could not turn its waist to reach me, instead, it slumped forward and looked down at the rest of its body, the next thing to happen was it slouched forward and then its knees gave out, flopping its body backward on the ground, its face now filled with confusion and panic instead of rage.

    I did not give it any time to contemplate its lower body paralysis and raised my sword above my head, and swung down my sword like a miner would a pickaxe.

    I felt my cross-guard punch a hole in the ogre''s skull in the center of its forehead and into the squishy gray matter, and just to be safe I flared my aura down my sword and into the skull, hopefully pulping the rest of its brain, the moment that happened, the once flailing arms fell to the ground limp, and I saw the light in the ogre¡¯s eyes go out as it started bleeding from its eyes and nose.

    As I reached forward to yank my sword out by the hilt, I noticed the whole Arena was silent and slack-jawed, even those in the royal booth. Then after a few seconds, out of the audience, someone started the cheer with a ¡°Wooo!¡± that Ric Flair would be proud of, and the cheering started.

    The announcer finally got his shit together and started doing his job, ¡°Ladies and gentlemen! History has been made here today, for the first time in tournament history, a twelve-year-old¨C I¡¯m sorry, what was that Your Majesty?¡± the announcer covered his mic as the king said something to him, and after a short back and forth, the announcer got back on the mic with a shocked expression but schooled his expression back to his usual joyful face. ¡°Sorry for the interruption, it seems our young contestant, Luke Ironcrest, has truly set a high benchmark for this record because he is not twelve years old, but eight!¡±

    At this declaration, there were gasps heard around the arena, interspersed with more rabid cheering, I felt a little betrayed that my true age was publicly revealed¡­ why did he have to do me like that? But soon, I was escorted to the waiting room to await the conclusion of this event for my level.

    When I arrived at the waiting room, I was bombarded by questions about how far along I got, but I gave some vague answers and went to get a snack and a drink. When I sat at the bar, the usual bartender leaned over to me and whispered, ¡°I betted that you would make it past the fourth round, and you just made me a lot of coin, here is a little something as a sign of my appreciation. It is something new I came up with.¡± he said as he pushed a rad color milkshake to me. And I had to admit, it was his best milkshake yet.

    Hours later, me, one group of five, and another group of four were called for the award ceremony, and being the only one of us who slayed the ogre, I got first place.

    When the king was presenting the trophy to me, I could not help but have a grumpy face, now that everyone knew I was some kind of young fighting prodigy, I would be hounded to no end by people with funny ideas in their heads. The king, seeing my grumpy face, gave me a chuckle and patted my head, ¡°I am sorry for revealing your age, young Luke, but you were too juicy a target not to put on a pedestal. The young of the kingdom needs people like you to aspire to, and you fit the bill.¡±

    All I could do was keep my mouth shut while I seethed internally and took my trophy from the king¡¯s hands. Seeing me give him the silent treatment, the king once again chuckled and said with a cheeky smile, ¡°Come now, don''t be like that, I will make it up to you. Expect something in a few days.¡±

    I just sighed, what''s done is done, and nobody was really hurt by his actions, at least I will be getting something out of it, ¡°Thank you, Your Majesty.¡± I said with a flat business tone and walked off to be mobbed by my classmates as they bombarded me with questions and asked to see my trophy, even though it was the same sword trophy except with different engravings on it.

    But despite all that happened, I think I more than showed off my talents and would have no problems with future employment. So mission accomplished! I just hope the fame does not come to bite me in the ass.

 Chapter 166

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Fame has bitten me in the ass. Not a big bite, but a bite nonetheless. From the moment I got back to my seat in the stands with my class, all the way to the campus grounds, I had people or representatives of people coming up to me to introduce themselves.

    Instead of interacting with them, I got Dave and Sam¡¯s help to body-block them, and as angry as they got, they were not stupid enough to strike a twelve-year-old boy, much less one who was wearing the Royal Academy¡¯s uniform.

    But even when I made it back to campus grounds, fame was gnawing on my ass. The following days after my last tournament event, I started receiving letters of introduction and invitations from nobles, merchants, and other private entities within the kingdom, and even some from outside the kingdom, they must have been here for the tournament, but I was not interested, in fact, to me, all these letters looked like poisonous vipers ready to strike.

    If they want to be my future employers, they can employ me when I am of suitable age. I will not waste my years as a somewhat free man (boy) by being bound by someone.

    Just when I thought the letters were the worst of it, I was swiftly proven wrong by having ¡°random¡± encounters with my schoolmates, who suddenly became very interested in introducing themselves and their house to me.

    These were the same schoolmates who I was effectively persona-non-grate with, which effectively doubled my aversion to them.

    Out of all the people who approached me, there were only two who I did not, or could not avoid, that being Alistair Arundel, my last opponent in the Magic Duels event, and Lavinia Castilene, my last opponent in the Swordsmanship Duals.

    As for why I did not avoid Alistar, I found him to be rather mild and easy to get along with after I met him in the academy¡¯s hallway and got into an array of theory discussions with him. He did not invite me to any galas or to see his father, just normal talk¡­ well, not normal¡­ it was mainly about magic. But that was his thing, and I respected that.

    In Lavinia¡¯s case, it was more like I could not get rid of her. Whenever she caught sight of me, she would latch on to my arm and declare me as her future husband. I asked Dave and Sam to body block her, but they were not about to get in the way of a duke¡¯s daughter who gave anybody who approached me the stink eye and practically hissed as any girl who tried.

    My only respite was when we were separated for our different classes, and at the end of school, that is when I tried to get away before Lavinia could hunt me down and stake her claim over me.

    To avoid all these ¡°random¡± social encounters and being hunted down by my self-appointed wife-to-be, the moment my classes ended, go full stealth mode and avoid as much interaction as possible, sometimes resorting to illusion spells. When I successfully made my getaway, I would cloister myself in Professor Sageira¡¯s office, whose door was locked and protected by an array I had access to.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    The moment I re-activated the array behind me, my dragon-in-disguise professor, who was sitting in a corner, called out to me, ¡°Well if it isn''t the tournament¡¯s conquering hero and the hottest name of the year. Manage to give your suiter the slip, I see.¡± Professor Sageira said with an amused smile. I could not see the curl of her lips behind the book, but her eyes revealed her mirth at my expense.

    ¡°I am glad my inconvenience has brought you such amusement, but as usual, I will be hiding here until my pursuers have given up.¡± I replied sarcastically to Sageira as I proceeded to catch up on the lab rat experiments I did with her.

    As I checked the cages, well, they were not cages anymore; magical containment shields were now containing the huge rats because they were now powerful enough to bite through steel cages, and the academy was not willing to waste higher grades of metal on lab rats. I picked up the charts that tracked their progress, and I saw that things were going well¡­ relatively well.

    For one, there were some survivors of the experimentation of being exposed to high levels of mana and cycling said mana at an ever-increasing speed. For the rats that did not explode like a blood balloon, they had mutated in slightly gruesome ways to keep up with the mana stress.

    Firstly, all the surviving rats were now bald. Secondly, most of the surviving rats had one or more disfigurations on their body, be it overly elongated and muscular limbs, pronounced hunched back with protruding spinal bones, growth of bony layer over the tail¡¯s dermal layer, and the enlargement of the cranium or eyes of the test rats.

    The professor¡¯s conclusion of these tests is that I should not need to worry too much about the rats¡¯ results, as their mana circulatory system is not as robust as mine is and is not constantly bombarded with mana and forced to circulate mana at relatively rapidly ever-increasing speeds. According to her calculations, I should be clear to ramp up my mana pathways tempering by around fifteen percent without seeing any adverse side effects like the test rats experienced.

    So I spent the rest of the time testing her conclusions and took a seat to begin an increased regime of my mana pathways¡¯ tempering while she observed and took notes.

    When I was done with my tempering training for the day, I realized that it was past dinner time, and I would have to see what the lunch ladies had as leftovers.

    After grabbing a few sandwiches from the lunch ladies, I entered my dorm room only to see a rack adorned with a full set of half-plate armor and a parchment tucked into its collar.

    When I took the parchment and opened it, the first thing that caught my attention was the royal seal at the bottom, ¡°Oh right, the king did promise me something for revealing my age.¡±, I then concentrated on what the king wrote.

    ¡°Dear Luke Ironcrest, I promised to get you something nice, and what kind of king would I be if I did not keep my word? I noticed that you are wearing what I can only assume is the adventurers¡¯ guild rental armor, and that that just would not do. So I took it upon myself to get you something more fitting to go out adventuring.

    My agents have taken note of your preference to keep a low profile, so I got the Royal Smiths to whip something up ordinary-looking. The armor set that comes with this note is made of mithril alloy, great for mana conductivity while looking like everyday steel armor.

    I hope you like it.

    Regards, King Argus IV¡±

    After I put away the king¡¯s letter, I inspected my new armor. This consisted of the breastplate, pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves. All I need to complete the set is some chainmail to wear, cover my exposed bits and a helmet.

    Looks like I will need to do some shopping.

 Chapter 167

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Soon after the rest of the tournament events were over, and the whole tournament itself was done, the atmosphere at the academy changed because, in just a few months, the end-of-year exams were upon us.

    Just like everyone else, I hit the books during this period, but it was mainly the Elven Language books that I was hitting as I still needed to work on my grammar, other than that, I felt I was good on my other fronts.

    Before I knew it, the finals were over and done with. Naturally, this low level of education was a piece of cake for me, so I had no problems acing it.

    So now, the time has finally come for me to go home for a visit, but we will be making some stops along the way.

    Dave, Sam, Elise, and I were sitting in the waiting lounge as carriage after carriage came to pick up the other students to go home for the end-of-year break.

    Eventually, the fast carriage I booked months in advance came up and my name was called, we loaded up on the private carriage and joined the heavy traffic of carriages leaving the capital.

    The moment our carriage got out of the main gate, our fast carriage that four horses were pulling, zoomed down the road towards the Dunmire village, Dave and Sam¡¯s home.

    While Dave, Sam, and I were excited and in high spirits because we were reuniting with our families, Elise was much more nervous.

    When I made my offer to take her on as my family¡¯s retainer and asked her to think about it, she came back to me a week later with her parents and told me they accepted my offer. As for why she was so nervous, it was mainly because it was her first time going this far away from her family in the capital and meeting a whole noble family.

    The only thing I could do was assure Elise that my folks were nice people.

    The ride to Dunmire village was uneventful. I expected that we would make camp for the night for at least a day or two, but the coachman was a professional at his job; he had calculated and planned the whole journey and knew which town or village to skip so we could make the best time and end up at an inn by the end of the day, and every inn or tavern we turned up at to rest for the night knew who he was and even got us discounts.

    I ended up asking the coachman for his contact information in case I was ever in need of his services again.

    It took a week before we arrived at Dunmire village. We were about to be stopped at the gate by the village guards, but Dave and Sam stuck their heads out of the carriage windows to wave at the guards.

    ¡°Boys! You are back!¡± one of the guards happily exclaimed.

    ¡°Yeah, we are on our end-of-year break, how have things been in the village?¡± Sam asked.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Oh, you know, besides from both of your parents¡¯ farms expanding, same old, same old. But don''t let us keep you, say hi to your parents for us.¡± the other guard said as they waved our carriage through.

    As we rolled through the village, Dave and Sam kept their heads out as they greeted their fellow villagers. Dave then guided the coachman to a fork in the road that took them further away from the main village and deeper into the farmland.

    After a few minutes of travel, our carriage reached the end of the road that had two houses, one on each side of the road with huge farmland behind them, and those houses seemed to have been renovated and extended.

    We alighted from the carriage and the two boys dashed off to their respective homes while shouting ¡°I¡¯m Home!¡±

    The coachman unloaded our luggage, and I tipped him and told him to come get us in a week to continue the journey to my place. Just as the carriage was going back to the main village to get some logging for himself, the doors to Dave and Sam¡¯s houses opened, and they led who I could only assume were their mothers while their younger siblings ran deeper into the farmlands announcing their brothers¡¯ return.

    Their mothers came up to me and bowed, ¡°Thank you for gracing us with your presence Milord, and-¡±

    I raised my hand and interrupted who I assumed to be Sam¡¯s mother, ¡°Now, now, none of that, I am not one for formalities and your sons are friends of mine, and any family of my friends are also friends of mine.¡±

    Their mothers looked up at me, then at the smiling faces of their sons, ¡°In that case, welcome to our humble farms¡­ Lord Ironcrest.¡± Dave¡¯s mother said.

    I just nodded and said, ¡°Just call me Luke, or Lord Luke if it makes you feel more comfortable.¡±

    I then introduced Elise, and we gathered Dave¡¯s home, Sam¡¯s home was still undergoing more renovations in order to accommodate their shift to livestock farming.

    Soon, both families were gathered, and there were many hugs for the boys and handshakes for me and Elise. When all the greetings were done, both farming families brought out their harvested produce, and the girls of the family started putting together a feast while the boys entertained us and brought us around both farms for a tour.

    For me, this was my first time seeing the inner workings of a farm for myself, the only other times I had seen a farm was on TV back in my old world, and in this world when I followed my dad around doing monster suppression, we would sometimes stop by farms to ask them if there any sightings for the monsters we were looking for.

    But now, I had the farmers themselves explaining how the whole system works to me, the only reason I was able to keep up with their explanation was due to my surface knowledge from watching TV and internet videos back in my old world.

    After touring both farms, I realized that there was a reason Sam¡¯s family turned to livestock farming while Dave¡¯s doubled down on normal farming. It turns out that with both farms working together, they formed somewhat of a closed-loop system.

    Normal farmers would usually compost the inedible plant matter to use as fertilizer, while this was a good source of nutrients for their crops, it was not the best. But with a livestock farm nearby, that was a never-ending supply of manure that could be used as fertilizer, making their crops grow healthy and their yields plentiful.

    As for the inedible plant matter, it was only inedible to humans, but farm animals were more than happy to eat them, thus completing the closed loop, two farms feeding each other what they needed to grow.

    But that was not the end of the perks that a livestock farm brought, Sam¡¯s farm also had a small army of ducks and chickens that were unleashed daily into the fields of crops to eat any pests that predated on the crops.

    The last advantage was that both families had daily access to more milk and eggs than they knew what to do with, so their mothers took up baking a lot of cakes and selling the rest to the nearby village.

    When the tour ended, we were called back into the house for a hearty feast.

 Chapter 168

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The week I spent on the two farms was a fresh new experience that I rather enjoyed. During this time, I volunteered to help with the farm chores and get a feel for the farm life.

    My request to help freaked the two families out at first, even Dave, Sam, and Elise were looking at me like I had grown a second head, but after much asking and ensuring them that even if such labor was beneath my station, I did not mind. In fact, I wanted to try.

    Eventually, they relented, and I started my work on Dave¡¯s farm. I was just in time to plant the winter crop before it snowed. They prepared the land by borrowing a few bulls from Sam¡¯s farm, hitched them up to some plows, and let them at the fields, all I was instructed to do was prod the bulls if they were going off course.

    After the fields were all plowed, furrows for drainage were made, and manure from Sam¡¯s farm was spread, after that, it was time to plant some seeds.

    When they brought out the seeds to show them to me, I honestly could not tell one from another, but the plan was to plant root vegetables and the heartier leafy greens, mainly because they could withstand the mild winter that they usually experience.

    This took the better part of a day, even with multiple hands, and I could tell that I was slowing down the whole operation because I did not know what I was doing, but they were kind enough to humor me.

    After all the seeds were planted, the last step was to water them. Now, this was something I could easily help with, so I insisted on helping by casting a water spell to draw water from their well and sprinkle it above their fields like it was raining, and I kept the spell up until Dave¡¯s father tested soil by digging up a clump of soil and rubbing it in his palm before telling me it was enough.

    The day after that, I helped out with some weedings before I moved over to Sam¡¯s farm. The moment I arrived, I was put to work feeding the livestock, the cows, goats, and sheep got their hay, and the pigs got the vegetable clippings that we did not eat¡­ and also last night¡¯s leftovers.

    The ducks and chickens had to be herded over to Dave¡¯s farm to do some pest control on their crops, and while the birds were away, we went to their coops to collect their eggs.

    After that, it was off to milking any animal with teats¡­ of the four-legged variety, of course. I, along with Sam¡¯s family, spent a good few hours milking the cows, sheep, and goats, when they were done being milked, we let them out to pasture and used that time to clean out the barn and pens while they were unoccupied.

    Throughout the rest of the week, I learned a lot about animal husbandry, how to check their feet and maintain their health, and I even helped deliver a calf, the process was hella disgusting, but before I knew it, the calf popped out, and in a matter of minutes after the mother cow was done licking it clean, the calf was taking its first stumbling steps as it tried to find it''s footing, I had to admit the calf was a cute little bugger.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    Before I knew it, a week was over, and the coachman was back to pick us up and continue our journey. We all said our goodbyes and loaded up to finish the last leg of our journey.

    ***

    A week and a half of travel later, I rolled up to my hometown of Grenfell, and the moment I identified myself to the town guard, one of them took off running, most likely to inform my parents of my return.

    When I entered the gate of my family estate, waiting in the courtyard of the mansion were my parents, siblings, the house servants, and finally, Emma and her family.

    When I got out of the carriage, I got hit head-first by a flying missile that was my sister, Charlotte. I accepted her headbutt to my stomach with a small ¡°Ooph¡±, but took it in stride as she clung to me with her arms and legs while shouting, ¡°Big Brother is back!¡±

    I just walked up to my family while my little monkey of a sister clung on to me. When I got closer, my much more reserved younger brother Cedric broke away from my mother, tackled my other side, and emulated his older sister, climbing up my other side.

    After a few more steps while carrying the two small monkeys, I was before my parents, ¡°Welcome back, Son.¡± ¡°Welcome back, sweety.¡± my father and mother said as they leaned down to hug me.

    ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± I whispered with my head between theirs.

    When we got the hugging out of the way, I turned back to see my friends awkwardly standing beside a coachman who was waiting for his payment. I paid the man, and seeing that I was happy with his services, I booked him for the return trip.

    After that was done, I began with the introduction, ¡°Dave, Sam, Elise, this is my Father, Baron Alden Ironcrest, and my Mother, Lady Amara Ironcrest.¡± I then turned to my parents, ¡°Father, Mother, this is Dave and Sam of Dunmire village, I had a lovely time on their families¡¯ farms on the way here, and this is Elise of the capital, I have offered them positions as our family¡¯s retainers, of course pending your approval.¡±

    My father nodded, ¡°Yes, our son has mentioned much about the three of you in his letters. Be welcome, guest of house Ironcrest. As for the matter of becoming my house¡¯s retainers¡­ it seems like we will need to test your mettle before I say yes. But that is for another time, you all had a long journey¡±

    As everyone was entering the mansion, I walked up to Emma, who had been very fidgety ever since she saw me again and had a perpetual blush. ¡°Hello, Emma, aren''t you going to welcome me back?¡± I said teasingly to my childhood friend.

    Her mother, Anna, who had a naughty smile, nudged Emma toward me, ¡°Come, daughter, welcome the young master and escort him to his room to freshen up.¡±

    At her mother¡¯s words, Emma had a resolved face as she mechanically took one of my arms and hugged it as she pulled me into the house, from behind me, I could hear Anna softly chuckling.

    As Emma pulled me along to my room, I could not help but feel Emma¡¯s softness on my arm, confirming that despite her young age, her Holstaur blood ran strong in her, making certain parts of her physiology more¡­ pronounced.

    No! Bad Luke! Emma is a child and like a younger sister! Evil thoughts, BE GONE!

    I glanced down to where Little Luke was. Don¡¯t even think about coming out to say hi¡­ no matter how nice she smells¡­ Fuck! Fuck this early-onset puberty!

    After Emma brought me to my room, she bowed as maids were trained to do, and after a few seconds of hesitating, she lunged forward and hugged me, ¡°Welcome back.¡± she said in a muffled voice into my chest.

    All I could do was smile and stroke her head, ¡°I am home, Emma.¡±

    After Emma ran off, blushing, I had to take a cold shower to calm myself down.

 Chapter 169

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    It was the day after my arrival back home, and we were all sitting at the dining table for breakfast as my family had some small talk with the guest I brought along.

    As far as that, everything was normal. The only abnormal thing was Emma, who had been stuck with me ever since dinner last night. The only place that I was free of her was when I was in the bathroom or changing, tho not for lack of trying on her part.

    When I asked her what had gotten into her, she said, ¡°Because I am your personal maid, and I will stick by your side!¡± she said with a determined face before blushing and looking down while mumbling something I did not catch, she may have said ¡°Forever¡± but I may be wrong.

    As much as I wanted to tell her that I wanted some space, her cute, determined face made me banish that thought. I had just come back after not seeing her for almost a year, and I was not about to reject her company.

    So, this resulted in me allowing her to pamper me¡­ even if it went to ridiculous degrees, the most public of this pampering started when she refused to let me feed myself and insisted on feeding me. When I rejected this at first, she started trembling as tears started welling up in her eyes.

    This quickly made me change my decision, so she happily wiped away her tears and started feeding me while my friends and family snickered at my expense.

    Wanting to get to the bottom of this, I had to ask someone while Emma was not around, and my chance came when Dad took Dave and Sam to the training yard to test their skill level before he made any decision to take them in as retainers.

    Dad faced them one at a time and asked them to come at him with all they had; he was not only testing their skill but also their endurance, so this might take a while, the perfect time to setup a distraction.

    While I was sitting beside Mum, watching Dave get toyed around by Dad, I asked Emma for some fresh juice, to which she happily nodded her head and scampered off to a nearby pantry to get some.

    I then turned to Mum and asked, ¡°Mum, what is going on with Emma? She has been stuck to me like glue ever since I got back.¡±

    Mum chuckled as her eyes squinted in amusement, ¡°Luke, sweety, is that any way to talk about your betrothed?¡±

    ¡°My what?!¡± I said as I almost strained my neck when I snapped my head in her direction.

    ¡°Oh? Do you not remember the letter you sent back saying that Emma was your betrothed? A man should not play with a maiden¡¯s feelings. You should learn this now, women can be very spiteful if their affections are spurned.¡± Mum said teasingly.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°That is not what the letter meant, and you know it!¡± I hissed under my breath.

    Mum shrugged and said, ¡°We could not help it. Emma is smart and diligent, but deceitful she is not. She cannot keep up a lie, so we did the next best thing, We discussed the situation with her parents and they agreed to betroth her to you, we are lucky the Castilene house did not follow up on investigating your claims. But I thought you liked Emma¡­ Don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t¡­¡± my first reaction, like any boy my physical age, being accused of liking a girl, tried to deny it, but as I caught myself thinking about the question, could I tell myself that I did not like Emma? If I was being truthful with myself, I could not. We have been with each other ever since we were in the crib, and from time to time, I even imagine us growing up together, and if possible, I would like to see that come to pass.

    I mean, even socially speaking, coming from a newly minted Baron house that came from a common background like my dad, while it was socially expected that my family would try to marry me up to a family of higher noble standing, unlike Viscounts and above, it was not uncommon for new barons taking commoners as wives or concubines. So, even if I were to marry Emma in the future, there should be no issues.

    I just nodded my head and admitted, ¡°Yes¡­ I like Emma.¡±

    ¡°Oh my¡­ how bold.¡± Mum said while she was barely holding in laughter, but as I was about to ask her what was so funny, I noticed her gaze was slightly off-center from me, and when I turned around, there was Emma, holding a glass of juice with the biggest grin I have ever seen on her face, her eyes were staring at me, but were a little unfocused.

    ¡°Err¡­ Hi Emma, how much of that did you hear?¡± I asked but did not get a response. After calling out to her a few more times and waving my hand in front of her to no response, Mum plucked the cup of juice out of her hand and passed it to me before walking Emma back inside indoors.

    All I could do was bury my face in my hands.

    By the time Dave and Sam were done being tested, it was close to lunchtime, and the two boys had to be dragged off the field by the servants on the count that Dad worked them over so hard that they could barely move.

    He did not hit them, mind you, but he made sure that they kept moving until they gave out. When Dad came to the viewing area where I was, a butler was there to hand him a towel, ¡°Son! You got some promising friends there, it is good that you got them early¡­ whats wrong? You look like you have a lot on your mind¡­ where is your mother by the way?¡±

    ¡°Mum had to take Emma inside after she heard me say I liked her¡­ and I just found out about my betrothal.¡± I said flatly to Dad.

    ¡°Ah¡­ that.¡± he said as he took a seat beside me and we stewed in silence for a while. ¡°Son, I think it is time I gave you the talk, you see, when a daddy and mommy love each other very much-¡±

    ¡°Dad, I know what sex is and where babies come from.¡± I said, interrupting my father.

    ¡°Oh, come on, I had to rehearse that whole speech. I never had my father give me the talk before he died, and I am going to practice with you, whether you like it or not, so I can have it with your brother when he grows up.¡± Dad grumbled.

    So I just stayed there and let him do his Dad thing, after that, he just patted me on the shoulder and said, ¡°Good talk,¡± and went inside.

    At lunchtime, I saw Emma again, still wearing her goofy smile, and this time, she let me eat on my own but one-handed, she had claimed my other hand in hers for the meal and the rest of the day.

    The worst part was that I was unable to tell her to stop while she was wearing that bright smile of hers. All I could do was sigh, at least she was happy.

 Chapter 170

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    A few days went by as I got settled back into the home that I had been away from for months. I reconnected with the house staff that had taken care of me when I was confined to the mansion due to my period of uncontrolled aura, especially my previous personal maid, Alice, who still likes to pinch my cheeks like I was her baby brother, but for the woman who changed my diapers, I will allow it.

    At that time, Mum tested Elise, and I asked her to show her dual casting, this impressed Mum greatly, and she congratulated me for spotting such good talent before she was snatched up, so Elise was offered retainership and a few gold sign-on bonus.

    The day after that, I brought my friends into town to introduce them to the area, and of course, Emma had her arm wrapped around mine as we walked. When we entered the town proper, I introduced my friends as my house¡¯s future retainers to the different vendors I frequented, and besides greeting them, they also took the opportunity to tease me about Emma clinging to me like a newlywed wife, this made Emma blush happily when I did not say otherwise due to how happy it made her.

    We all got some snacks along the way, but when I reached home, there was more activity than usual, horses and a wagon were being prepared, and knights and men-at-arms who worked under my father were gathering on my front lawn. When I entered the house, there were servants helping my father into his armor.

    ¡°Ah, my son and his friends, just in time. Suit up, we just got news of Drake that attacked a livestock farm two hours hard ride from here.¡± Dad said as he turned to my friends, ¡°Luke, bring your friends to the quartermaster, I think we have some armor in their sizes, As for you-¡± he said as he focused in on Elise and turned to a maid, ¡°go ask my wife if she has any spare wands or staffs for miss Elise.¡±

    ¡°Yes, master.¡± the maid said before running off to find my mum.

    As I dragged my friends through the halls to where the quartermaster was, Elise shouted, ¡°What¡¯s happening?! Where are we going?!¡±

    ¡°We are going on an adventure!... suppression mission actually, but onward to ADVENTURE!¡± I shouted as I got them to the quartermaster and told him to get my friends some protection. As for me, I ran to my room with Emma hot on my heels.

    When I entered my room, I pulled out a chest that I had brought home from my dorm, inside was the mithril alloy armor set the king sent to me to compensate me for revealing my age. Along with the set of armor, in the chest was chainmail to wear under the armor and a Bascinet-style helmet with a purposely customized chin strap that was reinforced with chainmail sewn into it. I already died once due to a chin strap malfunction, I would like to avoid the same end, thank you very much.

    I put my gambeson and chainmail on as Emma helped me into my armor and tightened my straps, when I was all dressed up and holding my helmet by my side, Emma pushed the dressing mirror in front of me. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    ¡°You look dashing, Lord Luke, very heroic!¡± Emma excitedly said.

    ¡°Well, I don''t know about heroic, but I, too, think I look dashing in armor.¡± I said as I turned around at different angles to inspect myself.

    That is when I saw in the reflection, Emma coming behind me with a cape and started draping it around me, ¡°Something to keep yourself warm, it is getting cold outside.¡±

    As I thanked her for her help, there was a knock on my door, ¡°Young Master Luke, your father calls, he is ready to leave¡± one of the maids called through my door.

    I adjusted my cape and sword strap before we went to the courtyard where I saw my dad and his men, mounted and ready, and beside them also mounted and ready were Dave, Sam, and Elise.

    The boys were suited up in mismatched plate, chain mail, and leather armor with an arming sword on their hips and round shields on their backs, as for Elise, she had a thick gambeson on with thick leather padding at critical parts of her body, and a staff secured to the side of her horse.

    A stablehand was waiting with my horse beside my father. After mounting up, we waved goodbye to my family and house staff before we rode off.

    ***

    ¡°As long as fifty men are tall it was! Head as big as me house!¡± the old farmer with one clouded eye and the other eye pointing off to the side said as one of my Dad¡¯s men interviewed the man.

    While still on my horses, I leaned over to Dad and whispered, ¡°Do Drakes grow that big? The bestiary I read was not clear on the average size, is the man lying? To what end?¡±

    Dad just shook his head, ¡°I believe that he believes what he says, but then again, I doubt the man has the best eyesight, so who knows what the man saw.¡±

    It was then, that one of the hired hunters who tagged along came up to Dad, ¡°My Lord, from what I have seen of the tracks left behind, the drake is adult-sized and somewhere ten to fifteen meters in length.¡±

    At the end of the hunter¡¯s briefing, the knight who was interviewing the old farmer came back to report in, ¡°My Lord, all I got out of the man was that it was a big drake that ate five adult sheep before going back the same way it came from.¡±

    ¡°If it ate five whole sheep in one go, I would say the drake is closer to fifteen meters in size, maybe slightly bigger.¡± the hunter commented when he heard the knight¡¯s information.

    Dad nodded and looked at the nearby forest the Drake was most likely in. The Drake made such obvious tracks that one did not need to be a skilled hunter to see the squished vegetation and claw marks that dug up dirt and grass.

    ¡°Well, at least we know how big of a problem we are dealing with.¡± Dad said before turning to his men, ¡°Ready your heavy crossbows, we are going on foot, I doubt our horses will fare well in such a wooded area.¡±

    As I dismounted with the rest of the group, Dad asked, ¡°You didn¡¯t bring your spear? I heard news of your skill with it in the tournament, and was eager to see it in action.¡±

    ¡°It was too long and bulky to bring along. I mean, I could, but I did not want the hassle, so I left it with the Academy''s armory.¡± I replied.

    ¡°Then your sword is going to have to suffice, but from what I heard of your performance, I will have nothing to worry about.¡± Dad said with a proud look on his face as we walked to the woods after handing our horses to the old farmer.

 Chapter 171

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    For hours, we trudged through the forest, but it was not as difficult as it sounded. The drake did most of the work for us. The path we followed was paved with flattened vegetation and plowed through branches, allowing us to stroll through in a single file without issue.

    As we walked, there was one thing obvious to everyone, and that was the drastic decrease in wildlife activity. Usually, there would be the sounds of songbirds and animals making noise to attract mates or mark their terrority, and even small woodland animals scurrying about, but now, all we could hear was the sounds of insects, the howling of the wind and the rustling of leaves.

    Eventually, the hunter comes running back to us, ¡°My Lord, I have found the drake. It is sunbathing outside of a cave of a bear that used to live there, the drake either killed it or scared it off.¡±

    ¡°So how big is the thing? Any other information we should know about?¡± Dad asked the hunter.

    ¡°It is on the larger side as far as drakes get. From what I could observe, it had battle wounds, but not from human weapons, I think this drake lost a turf war for its previous territory and came here.¡± the hunter explained.

    Dad rubbed his chin before asking, ¡°You mentioned battle wounds. I take it that these are relatively fresh-looking wounds?¡± to which the hunter nodded in the affirmative.

    ¡°Nice, where is it wounded? Drake''s hide is tough enough to ward off even aura-powered blows to a certain extent. If we attack its wounds, we can bypass its natural armor.¡± Dad said.

    To which the hunter shook its head, ¡°Nothing critical, the wounds were mainly on its face and arms, I could not see some parts of its body due to it being curled up, but that is not much help, its skull is tougher than its skin and skull, maybe the only option is to target its front limbs to disable its mobility before finishing it off?¡±

    ¡°I guess that is as much of an advantage we are going to get, are there any good ambush locations?¡± Dad asked.

    Once again, the hunter shook his head ¡°We are currently downwind of the drake, so it cannot smell us, the only advantageous position is on top of its cave, but then we would be upwind of it and lose the element of surprise.¡±

    ¡°Then, from the treeline it is, lead the way, Men, let''s move!¡± Dad said to the hunter before leading his men forward.

    After walking for a few minutes, the hunter signaled all of us to walk as quietly as possible. Eventually, we were all slowly crawling on the ground to avoid making any noise, or as much as we could avoid when our armor clinked.

    Soon, we were all looking out from behind shrubs and tall grass at the snoring drake. We were all briefed on the plan. After the heavy crossbows were fired, Dad, his knights, and I would charge the drake while Elise would cast spells. As for Dave and Sam, Dad was not confident in their survival if they charged a drake, especially since they had not learned how to manifest their aura yet. Instead, they were tasked with guarding Elise in case she drew too much agro and the drake targetted her, but that did not mean they were just going to stand around doing nothing, the moment the knights dropped their heavy crossbows, they were to pick up where the knights left off and take every opportunity to harass the drake with bolt fire.

    When all the crossbows were trained on their target, the knights all gestured their readiness, and with a hand gesture from Dad, the twangs of the heavy crossbows rang out, followed by the roar of the drake who had a rude awakening from a side full of crossbow bolts.

    The moment the bolts left the crossbows, we pushed ourselves off the ground, drew our weapons, and charged while bellowing our warcries and flaring our auras.

    By the time the drake was done thrashing and locked in on us, we were almost upon it. It lunged at Dad, who was leading the charge, but its fanged maw first but only bit empty air as it snapped its maw shut, by then. Dad had jumped over its bite and slashed at its head, but the only thing that accomplished was breaking its thick skin and scratching its skull bone¡­ and also pissing it off.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    At almost the same time that happened, me and the knights, with aura coating our weapons, attacked the drake with slashes and stabs. I delivered a slash with all my might but only managed to break the skin, while Dad¡¯s men made deep gashes.

    As me and knights backed off from delivering our strikes before the drake retaliated, the knights who stabbed the drake were a split second late from pulling out their swords from the drake¡¯s flesh and were caught in a body check when the drake violently trashed its body from side to side, sending the men flying back into the surrounding treeline.

    It may sound like a serious injury for most people, but for men like that, it is just a slight tumble. I have seen my dad send them flying further during practice without armor.

    In the meantime, while waiting for the men who were sent flying to rejoin the battle, the rest of us were performing hit-and-run tactics while aiming for any open wounds. It was then that Elise called out from the rear, ¡°Spells incoming!¡±

    The moment we heard that, we all backed off as two spells fired off simultaneously. From below, an Earth Spike punched up into the bottom of the drake, while an Ice Lace fell from above towards the same point the Earth Spike manifested from.

    The Earth Spike hit the underside of the drake, lifting it barely a few inches off the ground but ultimately crumbling under the tough bulk of the drake, while the Ice Lance shattered off its back, seeming like it did not have much of an effect.

    When the Earth Spike crumbled and the drake was on its feet, it began gasping and retching. I guess this is the same feeling as someone with a bulletproof vest getting shot in the chest, the upside is you do not have a hole in your body, and the downside is that you may have some broken ribs.

    While it was retching, we melee fighters once again closed in, only to be witness to one of the most visually and olfactory disgusting things I have ever seen or smelt. On the drake¡¯s last retch, it projectile vomited the half-digested remains of what was most likely the old farmer¡¯s sheep, and two of Dad¡¯s knights had the misfortune of being directly in front of the drake.

    Just as the drake was in the middle of blowing chunks, two crossbow bolts flew into its mouth. This caused the drake to rear up on its hind legs and release a vomit-gurgling roar as it brought its forearms to its mouth to try and remove the bolts inside its mouth.

    It was not a pretty or dignified sight in the slightest.

    Me, dad and his knights took this opportunity to cripple it by attacking the hind legs it was standing on.

    While it was stumbling around while only balanced on its hind legs and tail, we started hacking away, and with so many of us concentrating solely on his hind legs, we made short work of it, making the drake fall over with a pitiful whine.

    The moment it was on the ground and wriggling around, unable to pivot properly, we swarmed it and stabbed it wherever there was an open wound on its main body. As for me, I came at it from the side while holding my sword by the blade.

    When I was in range, I swung my sword down like it was a war pick and crashed the tip of my crossguard into the drake¡¯s skull. Its skull proved a lot harder than the ogre¡¯s during the tournament, but I persisted, up and down, the crossguard of my sword went, I had to back away a few times as the drake swiped or snapped at me, but I always returned to hit the same spot.

    On my tenth hit or so, I finally felt and heard the satisfying crunch of my crossguard breaching the drake¡¯s brainbox, but I did not manage to hit the brain. This made me target number one in the drake¡¯s eyes as it chased me on its remaining forelegs and ignored everyone else in favor of trying to kill me.

    Seeing that I would no longer have the chance to attack the same spot while it was concentrated on me, I called out the target, ¡°Hole where I was hitting, stab its brain!¡±

    At my call out, the knight nearest to the head jumped on the head and rode it for dear life as he crawled over and drove his sword into the drake¡¯s skull through the hole I created. This immediately dropped the drake into a twitching mess for a few seconds before it became still.

    All those who had their blades embedded into the drake waited for any reaction, after around five seconds, one of the knights was brave enough to take off his helmet and put his ear to the side of the drake, and after a while, he shouted, ¡°No heartbeat! It is dead!¡±

    As one, we all raised our hands in the air and cheered. It was a good fight and my hands were trembling in excitement! But when I looked down at my hands, I noticed that excitement was not the only thing my hands were experiencing, it turns out that while I was using my sword as a war pick, the blade had dug past the leather of my gloves and cut into my hand, and my brain was starting to catch up with the injury.

    This was going to suck! Grandpa has gone back to his territory, so I sure hope we have a healer in town because I will not start my healing magic lessons until next year.

 Chapter 172

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Today was a day to celebrate victory, especially for my three friends who had just finished their first subjugation mission, and not just any puny subjugation, an actual drake who, if not for Dad and his knights, would have taken platoons of soldiers to take down while expecting heavy casualties.

    Not only was their first major subjugation a success but their contributions were considered critical to the swift and relatively safe subjugation of the drake, making the only truly troublesome part of the mission the transportation of the drake¡¯s carcass out of the woods.

    Dad¡¯s men had to go back to the old farmer and requisition a cart to lug the carcass and ended up needing to take a huge roundabout route to fit the cart between trees, but we managed to get home before sundown and handed the carcass over to the house staff to break the drake down.

    That night, we had the rather rare delicacy of Drake steaks. Our personal chef actually broke out in tears at the chance to cook such a rare ingredient, and I got to say, drake steaks kick the shit out of regular beef stakes, while it was slightly tougher than beef, the meaty flavor was a lot more impactful

    As for everything that was not the meat, we sold them to the alchemist and leatherworker, but with the number of holes we put in the drake, its value decreased drastically, but I did get promised a replacement for my cut gloves made from the drake¡¯s hide.

    As for the teeth, claws, and bones, they were sold to the alchemist to be tempered via an alchemical treatment that other crafters could later use.

    The only bone we did not pass to the alchemist was the drake''s skull, we had plans to mount it as a trophy in the foyer.

    ***

    Over the next few weeks, until we had to prepare to return to the academy, it was a rather relaxing break from academic life. I spent those days with my friends, visiting the town and going on a few smaller-scale subjugation missions where we were facing pest-level monsters, where the knights let my friends loose on the monsters and stood around for backup.

    This was as real as a real-life experience they were getting outside the protection of the academy, but to be honest, they were in no real danger while they had knights playing chaperone. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Other than that, when we were talking about school life, my smithing and enchanting lessons came up during one of our lunches, ¡°That sounds like a nice hobby to have, I am quite partial to archery and a little wood carving from time to time when I am stressed.¡± dad said.

    ¡°But if I pick that up as a hobby, I am going to need to bother the local blacksmith for his space.¡± I said as I bit into a piece of meat.

    ¡°Nonsense, we have a small abandoned house out back that the men use to store broken equipment. I am sure we can clear it out and spruce it up, turning it into a small workshop for you. When you come back for your breaks, and after you finish your schooling, you can use it more frequently.¡± Dad suggested, and I got to say, it sounded like a good idea, so I agreed to it,

    It was a good project to have, but I told Dad that I would only have a chance and time to use it when I got home next year. Dad just nodded and said that it would be prepared when I got home next year, saying that this was a present for doing so well in school, and bringing honor and recognition to the family name.

    Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the Royal Academy, the only difference was that Emma was following us back, she had already taken the entrance test to get a scholarship at Earl Beaufort¡¯s territory and was just waiting for the day we would be traveling together.

    We loaded up on the carriage we hired to get here and said our goodbyes. it was extra emotional for Emma¡¯s parents that their little girl was going to be away from them for a whole year.

    As Emma hugged her parents and cried into her mother¡¯s bosom, saying that they would miss each other, her father, Klaus, came up to me and bowed, ¡°Young Master Luke, please take care of our girl in the capital, she is a sweet girl, but a little naive.¡±

    I held his shoulders to prevent him from bowing any further, ¡°That goes without saying, Klaus, I will take care of her.¡± I said as I puffed my chest out, no matter how unimpressive it was before Klaus¡¯ naturally muscular figure, but all the same, he was happy with my answer.

    Soon, we were on the carriage and rolling out of the estate¡¯s gate, all the while waving goodbye to our parents and house staff.

    Sometime after we left the town, Emma, with her still puffy eyes, scooted closer to me and hugged my arm. At first, I thought she was just being extra clingy, but I felt her slightly trembling, and that''s when it came to me, this was the first time in her life that she was going to be away from her family for an extended period of time, and she was scared.

    This was the same type of fear that children experience on their first day of school, this just reminds me that she is still an eighth-year-old child who was not going to see the face of her family for the next year and that I was the closest thing to family that she had.

    As she was trembling while hugging my arm hard enough to start cutting off blood flow, I reached out with my other hand and stroked her head until she calmed down and eventually fell asleep on my shoulder.

    Don¡¯t you worry, big brother Luke will always look out for you.

 Chapter 173

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Emma and I were walking to the administration office to get the subject selection out of the way before the academic year truly began. By now, word had gotten around that Emma and I had some kind of close relationship since she was following me everywhere I went from the moment we arrived back on campus and got her settled in a dorm for her year¡¯s intake.

    It did not help that on the first day we got back, many people saw her holding onto my hand as I showed her around the campus, it took me quite some time and compromise to get her to walk with me normally without hand holding in public.

    We arrived at the administration office to get our subject selection out of the way before the bulk of the students did so, seeing that I already had a lot on my plate, I decided to drop the Advanced Combat & Tactics course as I felt I was not getting much from it and decided to take up the specialized Healing Magic course.

    When the admin staff lady saw my name and what I wanted to do with my course selection, she recognized me and recommended that I ask Instructor Greyham if I could take credit by examination for Advanced Combat & Tactics, meaning that if I passed, I would have done the equivalent of passing all four years of the course, which would look good on my graduating report.

    I decided to take the admin staff up on her idea, but first, we had to settle Emma¡¯s subject selection. Unlike me, who had a solid academic background from my previous lifetime, I did not expect Emma to pick up as many elective courses as I did, nor could she¡­ kind of.

    Because Emma was starting out at Year One, as most eight-year-olds do, the elective courses available to her were not as advanced as the ones I took when I started in Year Five, so we had another list to select from than the one I did.

    Since she studied magic under Mum, Emma had a decent foundation in magic, so we signed her up for Basic Spell Theory, and depending on the results of her tests, she may be fast-tracked to Intermediate Spell Theory.

    While I was away, Emma had taken a shine to gardening, so I suggested the Botany course that was available to all Years, but this was not your everyday backyard garden botany, this botany also included the cultivation of magical plants.

    Seeing that she could afford to take on another course without being too overburdened, we asked the admin staff for any suggestions on what course to take, to which she recommended Basic Alchemy as it would blend nicely with her Botany course, the level of Basic Alchemy dealt mainly with the fundamentals of Alchemy with mostly harmless concoctions, anything more volatile would be reserved for Year Five and onwards. So we took her advice and put Emma¡¯s name down for it.

    After handing in Emma¡¯s elective subject selection, we made our way to Instructor Greyham¡¯s office and knocked on his door. ¡°Instructor Greyham, it''s me, Luke Ironcrest. Do you have a moment to talk?¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    A second later, I could hear the muffled sounds of glass clinking and a drawer slamming shut as Instructor Greyham said, ¡°One moment!¡±

    After a few more seconds of ruffling sounds, Greyham said, ¡°Come in,¡± to which Emma and I entered.

    There, we saw Instructor Greyham sitting up, prim and proper, holding up an upside-down piece of paper that he was ¡®reading,¡¯ and there was the unmistakable scent of alcohol in the air. It must be pretty strong stuff if I can smell it just by entering his office, but besides the slightly flushed cheeks, it looked like he was in the middle of ¡®reading¡¯ some reports.

    ¡°Luke, what can I do for you, and who is this young lady by your side?¡± Grayham asked.

    ¡°This is Emma, my personal maid, she is starting Year One this year, As for what you can do for me, I have decided to drop the Advanced Combat & Tactics course to take up the Healing Magic course. The admin staff recommended I ask you for credit by examination so I can include clearing this course in my graduating report.¡± I said.

    Greyham stroked his beard as he considered my request, ¡°After the tournament and the end-of-year exam last year, I think it is safe to say that you are too advanced for this course. With the way you fight, I would say that even the majority of the graduating batch would not have a chance of beating you. So when do you want to take this test?¡±

    I just shrugged and said, ¡°How about now? How long will this take? I want to get this out of the way before the rest of the students flood the admin office¡±

    Greyham touched his communication brooch and spoke, ¡°How many assistant instructors are available at the moment?¡±

    After a few moments, an almost synthetic voice came out of the communication brooch, ¡°Thirteen.¡±

    ¡°That should be enough, we will be performing a credit by examination, tell them to meet at the training grounds in an hour.¡± Greyham said before standing and gesturing me to follow.

    ***

    The credit by examination started off with an oral theory section where Instructor Greyham would list out scenarios. When it was first explained to me, I thought it was just a question and answer, but it turned out to be a Tabletop Role Playing Game.

    Painted cloth maps of terrain were rolled out on the table, props for buildings were placed, and small wood-carved miniatures were placed to represent me, my teammates, random people, and enemies.

    I was put into different scenarios where I was controlling a solo piece, a squad, and even a platoon of pieces to run into hostile encounters. There were no dice to decide success or failure, in this world, Greyham was God, and his word was law, he decided whether an attack was successful or if I or my enemies lived or died. The only hard rule was that all my decisions had to be made in five seconds. Otherwise, Greyham got to take another turn.

    In other words, this was a sped-up D&D game. By the time we were done, out of the ten scenarios, I had won seven of them, four of the seven I won were either with heavy losses or pyrrhic victories. When I looked at Greyham¡¯s face to see if I did well on this part of the exam, his stony face revealed nothing as he told me to get dressed for the practical part of the exam.

    Honestly, I think some parts of the scenarios were rigged, when this exam was over, I would recommend they use a dice system to determine success or failure.

 Chapter 174

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I was brought to an auditorium with a high ceiling, but the special thing that stood out about this auditorium was the armor-plated walls that were covered with arrays inlaid into them. It was only when I was issued a familiar-looking bracelet that I realized what this auditorium was. It was a scaled-down version of the Arena¡¯s defensive array.

    ¡°Now, as you know, knowing and doing are two very different things. The five seconds you were allowed in the theory test are an eternity compared to what you will get in real-life combat, where things can change in a split second, and you will need to react to that change.¡± Greyham said as his assistant instructors stood behind him.

    ¡°I already know that your fighting skills are up to par, but I have yet to see how well you do in a team battle when pushed to the limit. In this practical part of the exam, you will be assigned four instructors, making you the leader of a five-man team. The rest of the instructors will be your opponents.¡± Greyham explained and pointed to the four closest instructors to stand beside me.

    Ha! Little does he know that I indeed have experience in leading 5v5 tournaments in my previous life. Granted, we did not have fancy mana shield bracelets that freeze you when you take a certain amount of damage, we went by the knockdown system¡­ Crap! Now that I think about it, it is going to be more complicated if we turn on our aura and go Super Saiyan all over the place.

    Greyham was then passed a cloth bag that he stuck his hand in and rummaged in before pulling out a piece of paper, ¡°First scenario, Escort Mission, your objective is to start from one end of the auditorium and reach the other end while under attack.¡± he then pointed at one of the assistant instructors who was supposed to be my enemy, ¡°You will be acting as the VIP.¡±

    We were then issued armbands of different shades between our teams and the VIP and separated to our respective sides of the auditorium. While we were walking, I discussed formations with my team and the VIP. It was nothing complicated, just a star formation with the VIP in the middle. I instructed the VIP to set the pace because there was no point in running ahead while leaving the VIP behind.

    Instructor Greyham gave the signal to start. The VIP burst forward with a¡­ slow jog? I am sure he could go a lot faster, but I guess this was part of the test? I mean, I can never expect every VIP to be able to flare their aura and dash as fast as a horse.

    The VIP was not ten steps from the starting line before the opposing assistant instructors were almost upon us. I was tempted to leave two of my teammates to guard the VIP while me and the other two charged ahead to blunt their charge, but with opponents of the caliber, i thought it to be a poor choice.

    In an effort to break up their formation so they do not hit us at the same time, i fired off some Earth Spikes and Wind Blades to break up their formation, and it worked¡­ somewhat. I managed to stagger them as they adjusted their position, and even managed to hit one of the assistant instructors, or more accurately, he ran face-first into an Earth Spike that one of his friends jumped out of the way of, and he could not cease his momentum before running into the Earth Spike.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The end result was that I slowed them down enough that they came in a still rather tightly packed staggered line that we had an easier time fending off instead of them dogpiling us all at the same time.

    But unlike all the other fighting tests, duels, and exams, I had to pull out all the stops this time. I put my trust in the bracelets we were all wearing and went all out with the intention of killing.

    I knew I could not outperform the instructors in strength, so I had to play dirty. I manipulated the stone floor beneath my back foot to turn the surface layer into fine dirt, and I cast a simple gust spell through the same foot when I kicked the dirt toward the tight line of opponents.

    The first three in line ate a face full of powdered floor before they could react, while those behind the unlucky three were fast enough to close their eyes or cast a wind spell to blow away the debris.

    Keeping a bubble of air around my head so I don''t fall prey to my own dirty tactics, I charged in to deal three lethal strikes to, one for each blinded assistant instructor. With three opponents down in the opening clash, we were now 5v5, excluding the VIP of course.

    Not wanting to waste a good opportunity, I turned to one of my teammates and shouted ¡°Follow me!¡± before I sent three of the ¡®slain¡¯ opponents flying towards the other assistant instructors with a few kicks.

    Together, me and my teammate surged forward to attack whoever got hit by their ¡®dead¡¯ flying teammate. Unfortunately we only managed to catch and ¡®kill¡¯ one of our opponents, the rest of them dodged the flying bodies and decided to bypass us and head straight for the VIP.

    When I turned around, I saw that the three remaining teammates closed ranks around the VIP and were doing a good job fending off the last four attackers.

    I signaled to the teammate I was with to attack the same target, and we moved as one to take out one of the opponents who was double-teaming one of my teammates.

    Now, with us outnumbering the opponents almost two to one, we mopped up the last three attackers in under a minute. We did not need to reach the other end of the auditorium before Instructor Greyham called our victory.

    I was given a few minutes'' break before Instructor Greyham reached into his bag of scenarios again, fishing out the next task I was to accomplish.

    That day, I completed four other practical scenarios, which ranged from protecting a borderline suicidal VIP who wades into battle with little regard for his surroundings, all the way to a straight-up team deathmatch. When the last practical test was done, Instructor Greyham sent me away and said that I would be notified of the results tomorrow.

    As I trudged my way back to the dorm, I felt so tired that I did not want to eat even though I was hungry. However, Emma could not ignore my rumbling stomach and dragged me to the canteen, where she attempted to spoon-feed me. This forced me to summon the energy to take the spoon from her and feed myself.

    With this display of care and affection from Emma, I felt many eyes focusing on us as whispers grew louder, especially from the lunch ladies who gave Emma a thumbs up, to which Emma returned the thumbs up¡­ I am not sure she knows what she is thumbs upping to.

 Chapter 175

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    The next day, I got the results for my credit by examination for Advanced Combat & Tactics. While I did not get a perfect score, I scored high enough to pass the course. Immediately after getting my results, I finalized my subject selection to replace Advanced Combat & Tactics with the Healing Magic course.

    Now that all the administrative tasks are taken care of, we have a week before school starts, so I take this opportunity to show Emma around the capital that I have explored. Seeing that this is Emma¡¯s first time in the capital, I decided to take Emma out for some shopping.

    When I suggested a day out in town, her eyes sparkled, and she started pulling me out of the academy gate and asking me what my favorite spots were.

    When we returned to campus at the end of the day, we were holding bags of new clothes and shoes that had been bought for Emma. At first, when she saw the prices, she was hesitant about me buying something relatively expensive for her¡­ at least from her point of view. It seems like her parents had done a good job instilling in her the value of money.

    After assuring her that I could afford it, and with the help of the store¡¯s assistant urging her to try on some clothes, we got Emma to explore what she liked to wear. Now, I am not saying that she totally does not have any dresses back home because her family was poor or anything; the wages my family is paying Emma¡¯s parents were decent, so they had all that they needed and could afford the occasional luxury. But even if they could afford to buy nice clothes from time to time, our hometown did not have much in the way of designer clothing shops, so the capital was a place where Emma could try out many different styles of clothes.

    We spent the rest of the day resting our feet from all the walking we did by sitting on a bench in the campus¡¯ large garden and chatting about silly things like we usually did before i went off to the Royal Academy.

    ***

    The week flew by, and school started again. After I was done with the mandatory classes, it was time for my first lesson in Healing Magic class. The teacher, Mr. Norman Wiles, was a specialist in healing magic, meaning he was on the government¡¯s watch list of very dangerous people, as he could technically kill someone with a touch by healing a person incorrectly.

    However, where I was expecting the lesson to start with the theory of how healing spells work, we were given books about humanoid anatomy, and Mr. Norman began a lecture on the parts and functions of the humanoid body.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    And seeing that this was a younger demographic of students, they were naturally grossed out when it first started. But boys being boys, the reactions to the lesson became a lot more immature when it came to the subject of sexual dimorphism in relation to humanoid species.

    There was always that one boy who said ¡°Boobies¡± in the classroom, making all the boys laugh or snicker, and the girls roll their eyes at the immaturity¡­ I am ashamed to admit it, but I was very tempted to be the one who called out the boobies.

    As for Mr. Norman¡¯s reaction to this, the look in his eyes told me that he had been through this a thousand times and was unfazed as he continued his lecture.

    As the lecture continued, I encountered quite a number of misconceptions compared to my modern knowledge, which was as layman-like as it was. Chief among those misconceptions was how infections came about. They knew that fire cleansed all things, but they did not know about germs and microorganisms. The current theory being taught was the concept of Miasma, or bad/chaotic mana in the air infecting the wound.

    As tempting as it was to correct the teacher, it was neither the appropriate time nor place to do so. Even if my assertions were proved to be correct, they would most likely attract attention, making people ask how a nine-year-old could have such information. At the moment, the only people I know who have this knowledge are me and Professor Sageira, the dragon in disguise.

    Although the lesson was dry, I was kept interested by trying to understand how this world¡¯s medical knowledge differed from my old world.

    At the end of the lesson, Mr. Norman closed his book and addressed the class, ¡°Thank you for your attention, students. Before I leave, are there any questions?¡±

    One of the boys raised their hands and asked, ¡°Professor, when are we going to learn any healing spells?¡±

    Mr. Norman just shook his head and answered, ¡°Not for some time. You will all be learning how the body works before applying so much as a single speck of mana to a healing spell. If I let you start trying healing spells now, we will either run out of lab rats for you to kill via malpractice, or you will somehow accidentally kill yourself or one of your classmates.¡±

    At his words, most of the class went pale. ¡°It is better you get the misconception of healing magic being able to ¡°do no harm¡± out of your head now. Healing magic can just as easily take a life as it can restore it, and it is by no means an easy subject, especially from the second year onward. So if you think you are not cut out for it, please save us both some time and register for something else.¡±

    He then walked off, leaving the class in silence.

    When I exited the classroom, Emma was there waiting for me. ¡°How long have you been waiting?¡± I asked her.

    She just lightly shook her head, ¡°Not long. Today was just an orientation, so it did not take long.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, there is no need to wait for me outside the class; let¡¯s just meet in the canteen for dinner,¡± I suggested, to which she had a slight frown before agreeing. I just patted her head at her cuteness, and we went for dinner.

    [AN: Time Skip Soon]

 Chapter 176

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Time passed, and before I knew it, I had graduated from the Royal Academy. And besides the mandatory lessons, it has been fun. I may not have made many close friends outside of Dave, Sam, Elise, and later Alistair Arundel¡­ and eventually Lavinia Castilene after she and Emma almost got into a catfight.

    Other than that, it was just a long line of acquaintances, especially those who tried to get close to me after my victories at my first tournament. Unfortunately, that list of acquaintances increased exponentially when I once again dominated the duel scene in the other three proceeding years.

    But as fun as school life was, that does not mean I was not busy; on the contrary, I was as busy as a bee. One of the things I was busy with that paid off big time was the mana pathway tempering experiments I was doing with Professor Sageira.

    With her monitoring my progress so I don¡¯t accidentally kill myself and making me soak in some unknown smelly green solution that makes my body feel like it is constantly in uncomfortably hot levels of water for hours on end, I am now able to circulate mana at the level equivalent to the lower echelon of magic beasts. To this day, she refuses to tell me about what is in that smelly green solution, and I am now afraid to ask.

    To test the result of our hard work, in the dead of night, Professor Sageira transformed into a smaller version of her dragon form and flew me out of the capital while holding me in her claws like a small doll.

    When we were deep in some monster-infested forest, we began our experiments. When I brought up the dangers of performing experiments at our current location, she just laughed at me, ¡°Silly boy, there is nothing to fear while I am here. Any creature, big or small, who so much as caught a whiff of my scent or is sensitive enough to mana would have already cleared the area. Any who did not and is stupid enough to attack would just become a late-night snack for me.¡±

    We first tested how my tempered mana pathways improved my aura usage. We started the test with some basic physical tests like sprinting, how much weight I could carry, and punching trees and rocks to see how much strength I could exert. She then compared these results against my previous benchmarks, and with some calculations to exclude the increase in my physical strength due to my growth spurt over the past four years, Professor Sageira calculated that my aura¡¯s effectiveness should be an average of 2.5x that of an average aura user at my level of aura proficiency.

    The next test was to enhance my body the way magic beasts do and see how I performed. I turned off my aura and channeled pure mana through my mana pathways, then willed the mana to infuse into my flesh. As I did so, I felt my body heat up, and my mind flashed back to the first time I tried it, and I can say it was not a fun time. All I remember from that time was pain and waking up to Professor Sageira telling me I was bleeding out of all my holes and even my pores, but we persisted with lower levels of mana to temper my flesh to the unnatural levels of mana being infused into it.

    All of this culminated in this moment. When I felt my body fully infused with mana, my flesh felt stronger, harder, and denser. However, while testing my body, I also felt slower and stiffer than my mana-infused body should be.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    When I poked my flesh and applied pressure, I felt like I was pressing on soft metal. When we tested the durability of my body, I could tell this method provided more protection than aura.

    While aura exuded a shell of protection around my body and temporarily boosted strength while it was active, infusing my flesh with mana made my body tougher. But unlike magic beasts that permanently had mana infused in their flesh until they died, I could only sustain this mana infusion for less than ten minutes at most before my muscles literally started breaking down. Professor Sageira says that as I continue to practice, my body should be able to sustain this state for more extended periods of time.

    We tested the durability against all kinds of physical and magical damage. After many cuts, bruises, shocks, and burns, all of which were healed up with healing magic, Professor Sageira rated my durability to be slightly above gold, which was not saying much when your everyday merchant could bite on gold coins to check if it was really gold.

    But when you take into account that not only my skin but the flesh under it was of the same toughness, it was safe to say that not many non-aura users could pose a threat to me in this state.

    Lastly, we wanted to see how I performed when I used my aura and mana-infused state simultaneously.

    After a bit of rest, I activated my aura and mana-infused state, and I was overcome with a feeling of euphoria and unlimited power. Professor Sageira was saying something, but my mind was not with her; I was busy feeling the strength flowing out of my core and into my limbs. The only thing I could hear was my body shouting at me to use it, so I did.

    From there, I fell into a trance. The only thing I could remember was flashes of me breaking trees and rocks and tearing apart the earth itself, only for my trance to end with pain and coughing up blood and guts as I slumped to the ground, powerless.

    After being healed and force-fed food and water, Professor Sageira said that the moment I used my aura and mana-infused state simultaneously, I just stared into the distance with a stupid look on my face before disappearing from her sight in a flash of speed. She said she had to take flight to keep up with my speed, which was leaving a trail of destruction.

    She told me that when she finally found me, I was dying. All my bones were cracked; most of my muscles were torn or stressed, and my body was suffering from both mana stress and abuse. This meant that my body subconsciously forced itself to stop producing mana to keep me alive, and if any part of my body were forced to take on more mana, it would totally break down. At that point, there would be nothing left to heal; it would just be dead meat in my body.

    When I asked how long my rampage lasted, she said it was around three minutes.

    She asked me what I had experienced on my end, and when I recounted my side of the story, she made me promise never to use this method unless we were both in the middle of nowhere and while she was supervising. Seeing the end result of my rampage, I would be stupid not to agree to her promise.

    However, as my time at the Royal Academy was coming to an end, further practicing the fusion of aura and mana-infused state would be rather difficult. When I brought up this problem with her, she just waved it off and said that it was not an issue, ¡°It is a small matter. I can fly to your home in less than an hour. The results of the fusion of aura and mana-infused human body are a lot more important.¡±

    She then plucked one of the smaller scales from her body and started inscribing something on it with her claw before blowing a white flame on it that did not exude any heat. Then, she passed the scale to me. When I inspected it, with both mundane and magical means, the only thing I could tell was that there was mana in it and nothing else. ¡°When you get home and want to try that fusion again, inject mana into that scale and talk; I will be able to hear it.¡± I thanked her as I pocketed the scale.

    But that is enough about me. I was not the only one who had done some growing in these few years.

 Chapter 177

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Dave and Sam, like most of their lives growing up, did things together like brothers from different mothers. During their time in the academy, they concentrated mainly on the martial side of their education, only learning enough magic to start a fire and conjure enough water to wash themselves.

    The most important thing they picked up from the past three years was access to their auras. Their technique of wielding their aura was the kingdom¡¯s standard, so there were no fancy techniques formed over many generations like many of the martial noble houses. This means the way Dave and Sam trained their auras was pretty much the same as mine, seeing that my dad also used the kingdom¡¯s standard and taught me as such.

    This made training with them easier, and I mentored them on the finer points of aura control so they could get closer to my level.

    Next was Elise. She had clicked with Emma after her first visit to my house, and with Emma constantly by my side, she had another girl to talk to and slowly came out of her shell. That did not mean she was still not a shy person, but she became a lot more talkative among our close clique. She will still tighten up like a clam when Lavinia Castilene comes around though, so there was still much to work on.

    However, aside from improving her social skills, she has also grown a lot as a mage. In the subsequent tournament¡¯s Magic Duels, she was a lot luckier in her placement, allowing her to show off her skills before running into me or Alistair Arundel, but even then, she puts up a good fight that not many on her level can.

    This led to many people trying to poach her, but when it was publicly known that I had already signed her as a family retainer, most backed off. But there were still a few who tried to approach me to buy out her contract like she was some football player.

    I rejected those offers, of course. But there were a few from high-ranking noble families who did not take a hint and actually took my rejection of their offer as an insult to their family name, and actually challenged me to a dual while thinking that I would back down and acquiesce to their.

    They did all this while forgetting one important detail, while we were in the academy, there was nobody to represent them in a dual like outside of school grounds, so they had to face me themselves or look like a bitch and besmirch their family name if they backed off after challenging me.

    Long story short, the honor duels did not go well for them.

    As for Alistair Arundel, while he got closer to my clique, he still spent most of his time with his group of high-born kids, who I understand had grown up with him. At the end of the day, I can describe our relationship as¡­ professionally friendly. We bonded over our interest in magic, but our social circles were worlds apart. All in all, he is a lovely chap without a stick up his arse like quite a number of hoity-toity nobles do.

    Lastly, there was Lavinia Castilene. After getting to know her better, I felt sorry for her. Growing up, she never really fit in. She was too rough and too into what boys were into to fit in with girls her age, and immature boys, being immature boys, did not really want to play with her.

    When she tried to make friends outside of her social strata, being the child of a Duke did not lend itself well to making true friendships with commoners who were not viewed through the lens of social hierarchy. So, the commoner ¡®friends¡¯ she had over the years were essentially yes-men, and she picked up on this quickly and distanced herself from them.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    So, as it turns out, when she first met me during the tournament and fought her, she was grateful that I did not pull my punches and was not weird about a woman fighting a duel, and when I did not seem to care about her unladylike behavior despite being a noble myself, she took her mother¡¯s advice about getting men to heart and proposed to my face while being clingy.

    It was only after her mother stepped in and cleared up the social norms of interacting with a boy she likes (me), that she kind of cooled off after a few arguments with Emma that almost broke out into catfights. It was later, when I eavesdropped on a few of the more socially savvy gossip girls, that I learned that Lavinia did not pull noble rank on Emma to get her way because it would be the equivalent of resorting to name-calling when losing an argument.

    Eventually, when things calmed down, while she was frosty towards Emma, she got along well with Dave, Sam, and me when we sparred outside of school time.

    In other news, when going back for my third year at the Academy, my sister, Charlotte, came along to start her first year of lower education. So, as naturally as scavengers circling a prime piece of meat, upper-class students and outsiders who had children, siblings, or relatives in the same year as my sister started sending their children, siblings, or relatives to make friends with my sister.

    At first, I was happy that my sister was making friends, but when she started excitedly rattling off house and business names and the sheer amount of people introducing themselves to her, I got suspicious. With Emma¡¯s help to keep an eye on Charlotte, I found out why my sister was so popular.

    Not even a week into the school year, Charlotte was receiving invitations to tea parties hosted by her ¡°friend¡¯s¡± parents, and in those invitations, it was hinted that I was also invited. At first, Charlotte was happy that she got to go have tea parties with her new friends and that she could also bring her big brother along.

    It pained my heart to shatter her naive view of things, but I had to explain to her that most, if not all, of those invitations were actually from her ¡°friend¡¯s¡± parents, aimed at me. That night, she cried her little heart out, and I wept a little for her little loss of innocence due to the scheming world of politics.

    After that, I asked Emma to keep an eye out for Charlotte because both of them were in lower education and thus had more opportunities to see each other. I also asked Emma to teach my sister what to look out for when making friends.

    As for the vultures using eight-year-old children to try and pull me into their schemes via my sister, I had some help dealing with them. With Alistair and Lavinia¡¯s help putting in a few words through their older relatives, the vultures soon got the message and buzzed off.

    Lastly was Emma¡¯s younger brother, Otto. Long story short, his academic tests did not make the cut for the Royal Academy, but he did not care. As long as i have known Otto, he has been an energetic boy, a little too energetic if you ask me.

    That did not lend well to sitting still and learning from words and numbers in a book or on a board. He always had to run, jump, and swing at things if he had a stick. Eventually, Dad¡¯s knights took a shine to the boy when he was hitting their training dummies, and took him under their wing to burn his extra energy. His parents were very grateful for that.

    So, after flunking the academic portion of the Royal Academy''s entrance test for commoners, Dad recommended that Otto be enrolled in a more knight-focused academy. So, after an aptitude test from some academic recruiters who camped outside to scoop up those who failed the Royal Academy entrance tests, Otto was enrolled in one of the better knight-focused academies, The Ironspire Academy. If I am not wrong, his academic year should end at the same time as mine, so I will see him back home.

    And now that all of us but Emma and Charlotte have graduated, we are saying our goodbyes mainly to Alistair and Lavinia, as Dave, Sam, and Elise will be coming to work in my territory a year later after they turn sixteen. So, as Dave, Sam, Emma, Charlotte, and I loaded up on a carriage back home, we waved goodbye to Elise, who lived in the capital.

    Now that this chapter of my life has come to an end, it is time to take a break.

 Chapter 178

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    AN: I will use [ ] for telepathic communication.

    I spent my first few weeks back home doing whatever Charlotte, Emma, and Otto wanted before they had to head back to their respective campuses. During that time, I was either out with Charlotte and/or Emma in town or in nearby villages that had their own specialty products, or I was with Otto as he showed off what he learned during his time at the Ironspire Academy to Dad¡¯s knights and me. As he excitedly swung his sword around while talking, Dad¡¯s knights looked at him with satisfied smiles on their faces that only a proud father or uncle could have.

    When the academic break was coming to an end, I realized that my house was going to become a lot quieter because not only were Emma, Charlotte, and Otto going back to their respective academies, but my youngest sibling, Cedric, was also going to start his first year at the Royal Academy, and so was Emma¡¯s younger sister, Heidi, who made the cut and would also be attending the Royal Academy.

    So that left me as the only child in the house, and the mothers were not taking it well. At least Emma¡¯s mother, Anna, did not. ¡°All my babies will be gone for a year!¡± she sobbed into her husband¡¯s chest.

    As for my mum, she was lightly sobbing while holding my arm hostage as she waved the carriage carrying Emma, her siblings, and also my siblings, escorted by half of Dad¡¯s knights and a platoon of men-at-arms.

    For the rest of the day, Mum did not let go of me as I reassured her that Charlotte and Cedric would be fine.

    ***

    It had been a week after the rest of the kids went back to school, and here I was, lying in bed with nothing to do, no one to bother me, and no reports of big beasties that the local militias could not handle.

    But somehow, I feel restless. Now that the rest of the kids had left for school, there was nobody to play with while the adults were adulting, and after four years of keeping busy with studies, just lazing around for the sake of catching up with sleep from four years of night class just felt wrong.

    As I was thinking of what to do, I looked at the nightstand drawer and reached over to open it. Inside the drawer was the scale Professor Sageira passed to me so I could contact her when I was ready to continue the life-threatening training of fusing aura with mana infusion.

    I was tempted to put it off until tomorrow, but I knew that procrastinating would only lead to more procrastinating, so I reached in and injected some mana into the scale and said, ¡°Emm¡­ Can you hear me?¡±

    After a second, I heard Professor Sageira¡¯s voice, but it sounded¡­ internal? [Took you long enough. What took you so long? The end-of-year holidays are almost over, and I will be busy with a new batch of students in a few weeks.]The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Sorry about that. I was spending family time with my siblings before they had to go back to the royal academy.¡± I said defensively because I knew I was being lazy.

    No matter, I will see you tonight. I have some administrative tasks to get done first.] she said before I felt the presence of the voice disappear from my mind.

    Not expecting that I would have the rest of the morning and afternoon free for myself, I slumped back on the bed while thinking of what I could do to burn time for the rest of the day. That''s when I remembered the workshop Dad had set up for me behind the house, but I had little time to use due to spending all my holiday free time with family and friends when I came back home. So, I decided to go take a look and keep my smithing skills sharp.

    When I arrived at the abandoned house where my dad¡¯s men used to store broken equipment, which was now turned into my workshop, I could see the dust everywhere. It was clear that it had not been used for quite some time, which was mainly my fault. I did not even come to use the workshop last year when I came home for the end-of-year break.

    When I entered and looked around, I noticed that my dad¡¯s men had started using the place for broken equipment once again. But I was not angry. In fact, they did me a favor by delivering material for me to practice with.

    But before I get anything done, I have to do some cleaning. I opened the door and all the windows, cast a very weak Air Bomb spell in the middle of the room, and stepped into cover while casting a ball of air around my head. When the Air Bomb spell went off, plumes of dust blew out the door and windows, making the whole area dusty, but with a gesture of my hand, a gust of wind blew the dust away from the workshop.

    When I once again entered the workshop, the big clumps of dust were gone, but with a simple swipe of my finger on any surface, I could tell that a layer of fine dust was still stuck to the surface.

    So now that I was alone in the back of the estate, I could finally practice my Instinctive Magic without the risk of prying eyes, and even if one of the servants saw me, I doubt they would know better and think I was using magic the way mages everywhere did.

    I channeled my inner dehumidifier and started pulling air toward myself, and as the air came toward me, I cooled an area above my palm, condensing and pulling moisture out of the air. Soon, I had a beachball-sized ball of water that spread out over every surface of the workshop. When I was done, I had a mud-brown beachball-sized ball of water that I threw outside.

    When I was satisfied with the cleanliness of my workspace, I turned my attention to the pile of broken equipment and started dismantling and separating it by metal type.

    ***

    When dinner time came around, and a servant came to fetch me, I had a few steel bars of varying quality and smaller bars of other metals. None of them were magical.

    After spending dinner time with my family, I spent the rest of my time reading while practicing my Instinctive Magic with a free hand. Eventually, as I was lying on my bed, I heard Professor Sageira''s voice in my head and snuck outside, where a dragon swooped down and snatched me away from the estate without anyone the wiser.

    After a ten-minute flight just below the speed of sound, we were in the middle of a forest clearing like the one I went berserk in and almost killed myself.

    ¡°I hope you rested well, because we have a lot of tests to do to iron out this fusion and not much time before I need to return. Let''s get started.¡± Professor Sageira said as she morphed back into her human form.

    From the mad scientist look on her face, I sure wish she had told me to rest when I first contacted her.

 Chapter 179

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    ¡°Alright, let''s try that again without making another line of destruction in the woods.¡± Professor Sageira said after waking me up from getting knocked out by her.

    We tried to perform the fusion technique again, assuming that with the foreknowledge of what to look out for, I would not be taken over by the euphoria of power and go wild. Unfortunately, the moment the power got to my head, things got fuzzy, and the next thing I knew, I woke up with a phantom pain in my jaw that seemed to be just fine.

    ¡°Alright, let''s try to do this in a more peaceful stance.¡± I said as I sat in the lotus position and tried again. I started clearing my mind of all but one thought: ¡®I need to retain my sense of self. I am Luke Ironcrest. I am the master of my mind and body. I am the wielder of myself.¡¯

    When I felt I was ready, I activated my fusion of aura and injected mana into my own flesh like a magic beast, and once again, the feeling of overwhelming power flowed out of my core to reach every part of my body. When it reached my head, I mentally recited my mantra, ¡®I need to retain my sense of self. I am Luke Ironcrest. I am the master of my mind and body. I am the wielder of myself.¡¯

    As the euphoria crashed against my mind, I could feel my sense of self being eroded as I kept chanting. Soon, I was having difficulty remembering what I was mentally chanting, so I chanted out loud so I could actually hear myself: ¡°I need to retain my sense of self¡­. I am Luke Ironcrest¡­. I¡­ am the master of my mind and body. I am the wielder offff¡­.¡±

    I then saw flashes and snippets of myself going on a rampage against the local flora and woke up with my head planted in the ground and a phantom pain on the back of my head, which was most likely Professor Sageira¡¯s doing.

    When I pulled my head out of the ground, I saw Professor Sageira before me, sitting on a log and taking notes. ¡°Did you have to face-plant me into the ground? Now I have dirt in my mouth and hair.¡± I said while spitting out the dirt I felt in my mouth.

    ¡°Have to? No. It was just the fastest way to stop your rampage before it really got out of hand or you hurt yourself.¡± she reapplied nonchalantly while continuing to take notes.

    ¡°So, with all your observations so far, do you have any ideas on how I can avoid being taken over by the feeling of overwhelming power?¡± I asked as I sat on the ground, which seemed to be a furrow in the dirt, most likely made with my face.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Oh, I have ideas. Whether you like them is a different story,¡± she replied, continuing to write.

    A short while later, I was wearing a collar and asked to try the fusion again, ¡°Err, I can feel mana from this collar. Is it supposed to increase my concentration or something?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Something like that.¡± she replied ominously, ¡°Not stop wasting time and get started! You wasted enough time being unconscious.¡± she snapped at me.

    ¡°And whose fault is that?!¡± I snapped back, and she slowly raised her fist. I got the message and quickly took a few steps away from her before sitting down and performing the fusion again.

    As usual, I mentally resisted the siren¡¯s song to use my power and test my might, but it was a losing battle. Then, when the first snippet of my body going on autopilot flashed in my mind, I was painfully brought back to reality with a jolt running through my body as I stiffened and fell to the ground like a log.

    When I stopped seizing from getting electric shocked, my body went limp as I groaned. Now I knew what the collar was for. She was going to train me like a dog to get a handle on this fusion technique. ¡°Did you really have to choose this method?¡± I groaned out.

    Professor Sageira, who was now squatting next to me, poking me and taking notes, just shrugged and said, ¡°No, but in my experience, most living things learn a lot faster when there is the threat of punishment upon failure, and that theory has yet to fail me. So let''s get as much data on this as possible before the school term starts.¡±

    By the time we were done for the night, I was face down in the dirt and smelled like ozone from the numerous times I had been zapped. ¡°I think we can call that a night. The sun is going to rise in two hours or so, and you need some rest for tomorrow night. There have been some improvements, but you are far from reliably using this skill. We also need to come up with a name for this skill. ¡°Fusion¡± just sounds lazy.¡±

    ¡°Just kill me¡­¡± I moaned, but she ignored my pleas for a merciful and quick death as she transformed back into a dragon and plucked me into the air with one clawed hand.

    When we reached my estate, Professor Sageira flew in for a bombing run and pulled up just as she released me, sending me flying through my open balcony and straight into my bed. And even though I was lying in an awkward position, I was too tired to adjust myself and just went to sleep right there and then.

    But my personal maid, Alice, rudely interrupted my sleep. ¡°Young Master, wake up. It is lunchtime. The Master and Madam would like to see you at the table.¡±

    What? Already? It felt like I had just fallen asleep. I wanted to tell Alice to leave me alone and hide under the blankets to shield myself from the daylight, but my stomach protested with its growls, ¡°Fine¡­ let me freshen up first.¡± I said as I trudged out of bed.

    When I looked in the mirror, I was impressed with the cleaning Professor Sageira had done on me while I was in flight. Not only did my clothes feel clean, but my body also did. After I had freshened up, I went down to have lunch with my parents and scarfed down enough food for two grown men.

    I had to get my body ready for another round of torture from Professor Sageira tonight.

 Chapter 180

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    Night after night of continuously being zapped, me and Professor Sageira worked on how to prolong and stabilize this skill. It did not even take three days to before my parents found it worrying that their boy was sleeping in till lunch a few days in a row and confronted me about it.

    When lunch was over, the dishes were taken away, and the moment tea was served, Dad dismissed the servants. After the doors were closed, Mum and Dad looked at me with worry in their eyes, ¡°Son, we noticed your recent sleeping habits¡­ is there anything you want to tell us?¡± Mum asked.

    ¡°I understand that you are at that age, much less your body maturity, and there are certain¡­ needs that men have that need to be¡­ fulfilled. I want you to be reassured that you can tell your parents, and there is no need to be sneaking around in the dead of night.¡± Dad added, confusing the hell out of me as to what he was alluding to.

    Mum gave me a look of disappointment as she continued, ¡°Although I feel sorry for Emma, the sweet girl. We need to know if you are sneaking out to see a girl in town, or even if it is one of the house staff¡­ or, heaven forbid, women of ill-repute.¡±

    Slowly, my still-sleepy brain starts putting together the scenario that they are painting, and then it clicks, ¡®Oh, sweet Gods of Isekais! They think I am sneaking out at night to chase skirts.¡¯

    ¡°Luke, I know you know how babies are made, and I hope you are careful about sowing your seed because it may cause issues for the family if some unknown woman comes to our gate claiming that they gave birth to our grandchild.¡± Dad said, continuing my verbal execution.

    As my parents tried to convince me to open up to them, my hand went under the table to my pants pocket, where Professor Sageira¡¯s contact scale was. I injected mana into it. [Help! My parents are on to me for the late-night training.] I said to Professor Sageira with a panicked telepathic shout.

    [Dammit, Luke! You startled me. Now I need to redo a page of my notes. This sounds like a you problem¡­ Besides, don¡¯t they already know that you can use Instinctive Magic? Just tell them that you are doing late-night training for it.] she replied.

    [I can¡¯t use that excuse when I usually train my Instinctive Magic in the daytime, and they know it. Now they think I am creeping out to the whorehouse in the middle of the night, and it is not like I can tell my father that I am training a skill that no one has ever heard of in the middle of nowhere with an ancient white dragon. Not only will my parents think I am whoring away my family¡¯s coin, they will think I am doing drugs too. Besides, it is not like you can reveal yourself, right?] I replied in agitation.

    [I don¡¯t mind revealing myself if you can vouch for them. And even if they blew my cover, all I would need to do is come up with another alias. The only consequence of outing me, is shortly after that, there would no longer be an Ironcrest family.] she replied. But there was no malice in her tone. It was just a matter of fact that she was describing.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    I pondered her words for a moment as I heard the words of my parents, but did not pay attention to them. Would it be so bad to let them know? They have supported me all my life, through thick and thin, and I do not want to lie to them. Maybe if they knew the truth, they would be on my side and give me more leeway. That was when I decided to take a shot. [Then is it ok if you bring my parents along for tonight¡¯s training?]

    After I got a simple [Sure] from Professor Sageira, I turned my attention back to my parents,

    ¡°Luke Ironcrest, are you even listening to us?¡± Dad said with some agitation, but I raised my hand to stop him.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for worrying both of you. To answer your question, no, I am not sleeping around. However, as for what I am actually doing, it would be easier to show than tell. However, it will only be tonight. Can you wait a few more hours for the answer?¡± I said as I asked for their understanding. They looked at each other before giving me the benefit of the doubt and agreed.

    ***

    It was around midnight, and I was with my parents in the woods behind the estate. My parents were dressed in clothes that were easy to move in, but I could tell from the mana wafting off of their bodies that they came packing with magic items ready to use at a moment¡¯s notice.

    Especially Mum. She may be wearing a long skirt, but it has an unnaturally high slit for its design, and when she tripped and caught herself in the woods, I actually saw a wand holstered to her thigh. As for Dad, he was wearing a normal vest, but I could see chainmail peeking out from under the vest. Other than that, all he had was an arming sword.

    When we reached the clearing, we stopped, and my parents looked around, ¡°So, Son, what was it you needed to show us that could not be put into words?¡± Dad asked.

    ¡°You¡¯ll see, she should be coming any second now.¡± I replied.

    ¡°She? Who is this ¡°She¡±? I knew it had to be a woman who was seducing my baby boy!¡± Mum said angrily.

    Just as Mum was about to work herself up, there was a loud swooping sound, followed by the sound of flapping wings that kicked up a mighty gale around us.

    Dad, who was the first to lower his arm to protect debris from getting in his eyes, was the first to look at what caused the gale. ¡°DRAGON!! Get back!¡± he shouted as he drew his sword and tried to reach out to pull me back, but I was just out of his reach.

    As Professor Sageira landed in her huge dragon form, she looked at my dad and said, ¡°That is rather rude of you, young man. I don''t go around humans and shout, ¡®Ah, Humans!¡¯ That is just stating the obvious.¡±

    At hearing Professor Sageira speak, both of my parents¡¯ eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, ¡°Elder Dragon!¡±

    Professor Sageira then turned to Mum, who had her wand drawn and trained on Professor Sageira, ¡°Same to you, young lady.¡±

    Professor Sageira then turned to me and asked, ¡°I thought you were going to tell them what you were doing.¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°I''d rather show them than spend the rest of the day trying to convince them.¡± I then turned to my parents and said, ¡°Mum, Dad, this is Professor Sageira Drackot, professor of the Royal Academy and the dragon who owns the turf our kingdom resides in.¡±

 Chapter 181

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    Deep in a forest, a ten-minute dragon flight away from the Ironcrest estate, Dad was nudging Mum awake after she passed out from the flight that was close to breaking the sound barrier. As it turns out, Mum is scared of heights.

    As for why we are here with my parents, Professor Sageira followed the theme of showing rather than telling and, as soon as the introductions were over, snatched the three of us into the air to fly us to the usual training ground.

    Mum and Dad tried to fight back, but with her huge claws wrapped around his arms and torso, there was not much Dad could do, even when he turned his aura up to the max. As for Mum, she tried casting spells, but seeing that nothing happened when she pointed her wand at Professor Sageira, Professor Sageira must have been suppressing her as she did me when we first met.

    When we landed and Professor Sageira released us, Dad ran to Mum to make sure she was ok, ¡°Son! What is happening? Why are you doing this?¡± Dad shouted at me in confusion while he tried to rouse Mum.

    All I could do was rub my temples from the oncoming headache while Professor Sageira looked on in amusement. I raised my hands in a placating gesture and said, ¡°Calm down, Dad, no harm will come to us. Once Mum is awake, all will be explained.¡±

    He looked between me and Professor Sageira warily before nodding.

    When Mum awoke, we spent some time calming her down before I started explaining what was going on.

    I told them of Professor Sageira being my professor at the academy and an ancient white dragon, her turf, her agreement with the kingdom, and what it entailed. Then, I got to the part of what I was doing that kept me up all night for the past few days.

    After the better part of an hour answering their clarifying questions and subtly impressing upon my parents the consequences of exposing the ancient white dragon, Dad summarized his questions, ¡°So, let me get this right. You and Professor Sageira created a technique to temper your body so you can copy what magic beasts do to strengthen themselves, and combined its use with aura to create¡­ what was its name again?¡±

    Professor Sageira and I looked at each other before I replied, ¡°We agreed on the name, ¡®Primal Aura. The ¡®Primal¡¯ part alludes to the mana infusion that magic beasts do, and the ¡®Aura¡¯ part is quite self-explanatory.¡±

    ¡°And you say the both of you are refining the process because this technique¡­ turns you feral?¡± Mum asks, her worry for me evident on her face and in her voice.

    I just shook my head. ¡°Not feral per se¡­ I would put it as intoxicated by the feeling of power. Something we barely managed to get a handle on, but the urge to indulge in that power is still there and still very strong. I can only last a few minutes before I need to deactivate the technique, or else I will go on a rampage.¡±

    I wanted to explain further, but Professor Sageira, who was in her human form, cleared her throat to catch our attention, ¡°Let us continue. We have wasted enough time, and they have got the gist of the situation. You can discuss the finer points of the situation when you get home.¡±

    I nodded to her and turned to my parents, ¡°Mum, Dad, for now, just watch, and we will talk later.¡±

    After my parents reluctantly settled down, I went to Professor Sageira, and we did the usual. I tested the limits of aura and mana infusion separately while Professor Sageira took notes. After that was done, I sat in the lotus position and activated Primal Aura.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    My body tensed as I felt the power rush through my body, and soon, the voices came, pleading for me to unleash my strength. Now, with my parents here, the voices even tried to play on my pride to show my parents how strong I have grown. I was disgusted, mainly at myself, because I knew that this was my subconscious trying to use my parents against my conscious mind.

    I immediately and actively snuffed that thought and centered my mind as much as I could. When I felt ready, I stood up and nodded at Professor Sageira. The moment I nodded, she started a timer magic item sitting on a dais of dirt. She then took out another timer and said, ¡°Shuttle run, ten reps.¡±

    I approached a pre-raised stone pillar and nodded, and she said, ¡°Go.¡± When she said that, I sprinted as fast as I could to another stone pillar fifty meters away, touched it, and ran back to my starting pillar. I then repeated this nine times.

    For anyone without enhanced vision, the only thing they will see and hear is dirt flying in the air between two stone pillars and the booming sound of my feet kicking off the dirt multiple times, and if you blink, you would most likely miss it as my Mum did and had to ask Dad what happen.

    With the speed test done, we moved on to a strength test where Professor Sageira laid a stone yoke across my neck and shoulders and started stacking weights while I did squats. By the time my legs started trembling, the stones stacked upon my shoulders were thrice my height, a new record!

    Next was an agility rest, during which I had to run through obstacles without damaging them. After that was done, the fun part began.

    With the snap of her finger, Professor Sageira raised over twenty stone golems, each one twice as tall as I was, and could easily crush a man, even by accident. Without a word, the stone golems charged at me, and I at them.

    This was the part of the exercise that my blood truly sang to me. There was no need to hold back my strength. All I needed to do was BREAK! As I punched and kicked, all the martial arts ingrained in me from my previous life flowed out of me. With Primal Aura active, the world and the golems felt like they were made of styrofoam to me, as each move I made broke the enemy and the surroundings.

    When the last golem crumbled, Professor Sageira¡¯s voice signaling the next exercise brought me back to the present. I almost lost my focus there.

    The next exercise was to test my physical toughness. Professor Sageira waved her hand, and weapons fell to the ground. She then summoned man-sized golems to pick up the weapons before they approached me.

    To prepare for this, I removed my shirt so it would not be damaged. As the golems closed in on me with weapons in hand, I centered myself once again. This was the part where I always went on a rampage. After much self-reflection, I could say that it was due to my own ego, which was currently hopped up on power.

    Just as the golems started raining blows down on me, I raised my guard and tensed my muscles. As I heard and felt the dull thuds of steel blades hit me, I also heard the sounds of my mum screaming and dad restraining her.

    A few seconds into the beating, I felt some of the steel weapons bite into my flesh, but that was not as bad as the blunt weapons hitting me. Those made my bones rattle, and my flesh ache. But that was not the main problem. The main problem was the voices coming back, stronger than ever.

    ¡®Why do you endure when you could dominate? Their strength is nothing compared to yours!¡¯

    ¡®Every strike you take is an insult. Show them the cost of their arrogance!¡¯

    ¡®Restraint makes you weak. Power is meant to be used, not suppressed!¡¯

    On and on, the voices shout at me and ask me why I am taking a beating when I should be the one dishing it out. When I felt I was about to lose my grip on my reason, I said, ¡°I am about to lose it!¡±

    But Professor Sageira replied, ¡°Push on! Go as far as you can.¡±

    So I did so until I blinked and saw a snippet of myself going on a rampage against the golems. And the next thing I knew, I was lying on Mum¡¯s lap.

    As it turns out, with all the hubbub of bringing my parents, we forgot about the shock collar, so Professor Sageira had to put me down the old fashion way.

 Chapter 182

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    As the night of training drew on, I sparred with Professor Sageira using my Primal Aura again and again to the point where I could barely move by the time she called an end to the night¡¯s training. All the while, my parents watched on.

    When I trudged back to where my parents were sitting, Mum had a worried look on her face as she started fussing over me and wiping the dirt from my face with her handkerchief. As for Dad, I could see that he had his thinking face on as he looked between me and Professor Sageira.

    After Professor Sageira was done packing up her stuff, she came over to us. But just as she was about to say something, Dad stepped toward her and bowed as respectfully as he would towards a king, ¡°Lady Drackot, I would like to start by thanking you for taking care of our son.¡±

    ¡°You are most welcome, young man, but I assume there is a second part to your sentence.¡± Professor Sageira replied.

    ¡°Em... yes¡­ what I mean to ask is, am I capable of learning to do the same thing as my son?¡± Dad asked.

    This question actually gave Professor Sageira pause. ¡°Technically, I do not see why not. But if my predictions are correct, it would be a lot harder for you than for Luke,¡± she said.

    At her declaration, both Dad and I asked, ¡°Why?¡± at the same time.

    ¡°The main reason is that, unlike your son, you have stopped physically growing, and because mana is a metaphysical energy that very much depends on your body to be a physical container for said metaphysical energy, it takes quite some measure of adaptability. Luke had spent four years tempering his mana pathways while his physical body grew to adapt to the stress, but if you started training as Luke did, your grown body would not be as malleable as a growing child would be. It will most likely be a slow and painful process as your mana pathways are reforged.¡± she replied.

    After a few seconds of processing this information, Dad said, ¡°Regardless of the foreseen difficulty, I would like to try, and with your permission, I would like to adopt Primal Aura as an Ironcrest family technique.¡±

    I looked at my dad and could not help but be impressed. I was mentally face-palmed myself for not having the same idea. Having a family technique, especially for a newly established Baron house, would be a massive boon to the family name, especially if this technique shows excellent results in any upcoming wars.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. This would also give me data on how this process affects adults. But only on one condition: you always come together with your son. When the school term starts, I will have even less time than I do now, and I will not see it wasted. Do we have an agreement?¡±

    Without hesitation, Dad agreed, and Professor Sageira said she would see us tomorrow night before transforming into a dragon and flying us back home.

    When we got home, the look on my parents¡¯ faces told me that they wanted to talk, but I was too tired to do so and told them we would talk at lunch tomorrow.

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    ***

    After waking up and having lunch, the servants were once again asked to clear out after pouring tea.

    From the expressions on my parents'' faces, I could see that they had obviously disagreed on something while I was not around, and I was about to learn their thoughts.

    ¡°Alden, Luke,¡± uh-oh, Mum called Dad by his name, that is not a good sign. ¡°The both of you got yourselves into something serious without even so much as consulting me, especially so when the both of you are making deals with an elder dragon, and if what Luke said is true, a very old and powerful one.¡±

    ¡°But, Dear, if Luke or I are successful at stabilizing this new technique, it could lead to the prosperity of our family and future descendants. It is too big an opportunity to pass up.¡± Dad protested.

    ¡°But it is too dangerous. There have been tales of elder dragons wiping out small kingdoms on a whim. How can we trust this elder dragon?¡± Mum shot back.

    ¡°To be fair, Mum, in the few years I have known her, she is more of a bookworm than some rampaging dragon that goes around pillaging kingdoms. Besides, from what I have learned of her kind in my many talks with her, it is mostly the younger dragons who grew old and smart enough to learn the civilized languages that go on a rampage while trying to carve out a turf for themselves, and she is well past those days.¡± I said in defense of Professor Sageira¡¯s character.

    My statement clearly made Mum¡¯s eyes glitter with interest in what I just said, but she quickly schooled her features back to looking stern, ¡°That is beside the point, how can we trust magic beasts, especially intelligent ones? They do not share or understand the same values we from the civilized races have, how can we trust her to keep her promises and not just kill or enslave us the moment she gets what data she wants from the both of you?¡±

    ¡°Come on, Mum. She has been integrated among the civilized races long before our kingdom even existed. Sure, she may not share our values, but I am pretty sure she has been around long enough to understand them. As for whether we can trust her, I would say we can trust her as much as we do any other person, but there is one major difference. Power, of which she has a lot, both personal and political, and from what I understand of her personality and beliefs among dragon kind, the strong have no need to lie to those so much weaker than they are, and to her, we are ants.¡± I said.

    Not knowing if what I was saying was true or not, Mum just folded her arms and said, ¡°Be that as it may, it is still not wise to trust her so willingly. Especially you! Dear husband!¡±

    With that, Mum pretty much ended that line of conversation, but Dad and I knew that this talk was far from over, especially for Dad.

    After lunch was done, Mum and Dad went to put their affairs in order. This actually meant that most of the administrative duties would fall to Mum to make up for Dad¡¯s soon-to-be nocturnal schedule.

    As for me, I spent the rest of the day in my workshop to polish up my skills, and now that I am away from prying eyes, I can try the different techniques I could only see people forge on internet videos. One such forging technique is Pattern-Welded Steel, or more commonly known as Damascus steel. I have yet to see anyone using Damascus steel, so I am hoping it will be a hit among the people of this world.

    After I master the art of making Damascus Steel products, I intend to progress to Traditional Damascus Steel, also known as Wootz Steel. However, I am fuzzy on the details of how it is made because it is not as popular as Pattern-Welded Steel, thus not as many videos about it. However, that is for future me to worry about.

    For now, I have a bunch of steel that needs to be tested, categorized, and sorted for its carbon content. Then, I need to find a way to cut it into even thin slices¡­ haaa¡­ so much to do, so little time. Why did I not think of this while I was lazing in bed a few days ago?

 Chapter 183

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    When night came, Professor Sageira, Dad, and I were back in the forest clearing we used for refining the Primal Aura technique. The first thing we did was get Dad started with mana pathway tempering.

    Fortunately for him, all the magical monitoring devices Professor Sageira cooked up just to monitor me so I do not accidentally kill myself were still around and fine-tuned to the different levels of thresholds. We started at the lowest setting.

    After that, Professor Sageira got Dad started on how to increase the flow of mana in his body. The nice part was that he had all the monitoring devices to tell him that he was making progress, which was more than I got when Professor Sageira and I got started on this project.

    That first night, Dad did not get much done. Dad spent the whole night getting the hang of purposely speeding up the circulation of his mana. Towards the end of the training session, Dad managed to get the hang of it, but instead of the constant and smooth increase in flow, Dad increased his mana flow rate in sharp pulses, which was more than his mana pathways could take.

    This interrupted my training as the monitoring devices Dad was hooked up to all went off, signaling that something went wrong. A few seconds after the monitoring devices went off, Dad coughed up blood and started bleeding from all his face holes and even his pores.

    Thankfully, Professor Sageira was nearby to stabilize and heal him before things got seriously bad for Dad, and after half an hour''s rest from the healed internal trauma, Dad was back at it again, but this time, Professor Sageira was paying more attention to Dad while she assigned me to more physical and mental exercises while under the influence of Primal Aura.

    By the end of the training, Dad was feeling so weak that I had to help him get up on his feet. All the healing he had experienced when he made mistakes had taken a toll on his body, and when we came home before dawn, I had to wake the house chef to whip up a hearty meal for Dad before he crashed for the night.

    After I ate with Dad and made sure he did not fall asleep and faceplant in his food, I helped him to bed. This woke Mum up, and she greeted us before I went to bed myself.

    When I woke up for lunch, Dad did not join us because he was too tired. We saw him again only after dinner.

    From that day onward, we brought rations to training so Dad had something to eat after each healing.

    ***

    The daily training continued for days, which turned into weeks until the school term officially started. That was when our training schedule changed to every other day. To be honest, it was a big relief for my whole family, Mum included, as she was now able to see more of her husband awake instead of sleeping off the exhaustive night training.

    During this training, Dad started losing an unhealthy amount of weight due to the repeated healings, despite eating a double portion at every meal. It was only recently that he gained control of his mana flow, significantly reducing the number of times he suffered internal injuries from his mistakes.

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    But Dad¡¯s progress in training came with unforeseen consequences. It was impossible to hide his rapid weight loss and the bags under his eyes. This caused the house staff to worry, and soon, rumors of Dad''s failing health spread throughout the territory, and I was somehow roped into the rumor. The staff noticed that I was not sleeping at night, and rumor has it that Dad is using the cover of night to secretly pass on his knowledge to me in preparation to take over the running of the territory when he passes on.

    After we learned of this rumor, we had a good laugh and decided not to correct the rumors. The only thing my parents did to ease the worries of the house staff and Dad¡¯s men was to assure them that their livelihood was not in jeopardy, and despite Dad¡¯s current condition, he was in no danger of dying any time soon.

    I could not say whether they really believed my parents, but in the following days, I noticed the staff became much more deferential to me. I guess they think I am going to be their new lord soon.

    Now that my schedule did not consist of purely eating, sleeping, and training like a maniac, I had come to truly appreciate my free time. So, on one such free day as today, I find myself in my workshop, stacking alternate thin plates of two types of steel to form a billet. I aimed to make a kitchen knife for the house¡¯s chef to thank him for the trouble of constantly waking him up early to feed Dad when he came back from training, hungry and tired.

    After I was happy with the number of layers on the billet, I wrapped it in wet parchment, then coated it with ash, mud, and straw before putting it into the forge and burying it with more charcoal. Then came the boring part, working the bellow while waiting for the billet to come up to temperature.

    As I was working the bellow, I pondered how to avoid wasting my time on it short of hiring someone to pump it for me. That is when I remembered an internet video of a guy using his wife¡¯s hairdryer to blow air into his charcoal for a BBQ, which got me thinking.

    I got access to copper wires, steel, and electricity, which is easily taken care of with the application of some magic, and I am pretty sure I saw some loadstones on sale at the alchemist store. This opens the door for me to make an electric motor. I made a simple one to power a toy car in my previous life, and now that I have the resources of a noble family and magic that can bend and sometimes break the laws of physics, I can see many applications. A blower for my forge can be a simple fan with a shroud over it to direct airflow, and if I scale up to a more powerful motor, I can even make a forging power hammer.

    That reminds me, I will need to check if there is a pattern system in this world, I could make some serious bank if I manage to create an electric or magic motor and scale it up.

    As I fantasized about what I would recreate in this world, I occasionally checked in on my billet until it reached the correct temperature, at which time I pulled it out of the forge and brought it to my anvil.

    I then reached out for the hammer that I created while I was at the Royal Academy. Unlike most of the blacksmith students, I sometimes use aura to put more strength into my strikes, but that led to many broken hammer handles and scolding from my dwarven blacksmith teacher, Haldor Steelbeard. He then told me that a proper blacksmith eventually makes their own tools and that if I wanted to get rough with the tools I was using, it would be better if I made my own, so I did.

    When I was done, my first hammer was a simple affair: a mana-steel hammerhead with a mana-conductive wood as the handle. All enchanted with durability and mana-conductivity in mind.

    Now, with a hammer in hand, I sprinkled charcoal ash on the bright, hot billet to act as a flux, manifested my aura, and used all my strength to hammer down on the billet, forge-welding the different layers of steel together.

    As I rained hammer blows down on the billet while rotating it, I soon had a bar that I cut, folded, and fluxed before forge-welding the folded layers together and sticking it back in the forge. As I worked the bellow again, I wondered how the patterns on the kitchen knife would turn out, which reminded me that I needed to visit the alchemist to get acid for etching so the Damascus patterns could be revealed.

 Chapter 184

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    Hammer out, fold, hammer out, heat, hammer out, fold. For three of my free days, I spent time in the workshop trying to make a simple Damascus steel kitchen knife, but due to my inexperience, I fucked up three billets when the different layers of steel split from not being forge-welded properly.

    After some trial and error, I found out that it was the strength of my aura-powered hammer strikes that was the problem. If I strike too hard on one end of the billet, flattening one side too much, the bond between the steel layers on the other end will weaken under stress and split apart. When I discovered the problem, I could only think of two solutions. Either I use less power and hammer the billet more evenly, or I use a big fucking hammer that can cover the whole billet. And seeing that I don''t have a big fuck off hammer, I had to slow down and hammer away like most other blacksmiths do.

    When I thought about why all the other equipment I forged back at the Royal Academy with aura-empowered strikes did not have such problems, the answer was obvious now that I looked back at it. It was mainly because they were mostly forged from single ingots of the same smelting batch, and even if I were using more than one ingot, they would be hammered down on top of each other to the point that they were homogeneous.

    This time, I am still using my aura, but it is more to help me speed up my work. These forging attempts have also helped me train my control over my strength while hammering. Instead of striking with all my might, I used measured strikes with less strength to hammer out the billet as evenly as possible, getting it down to the appropriate size and shape as soon as possible so I don¡¯t need to wait for too many rounds of heating up the billet.

    Eventually, when I was happy with the knife''s general profile, I ground it down to refine its shape, heat-treated it, and sharpened and polished it for a smooth finish. When all that was done, I dipped it into a metal tub of acid I bought from the alchemist.

    When I removed the blade from the acid and washed it off, I looked at the wavy layered patterns on the knife blade and was happy with my first successful attempt at making a Damascus steel product.

    My only gripe was that some of the waves dipped much lower than others, which showed where my hammering was uneven, but overall, it was a good knife. After I fitted a nice lacquered wooden handle, I wrapped it in a nice cloth and called it a day.

    ***

    On the next free day, after lunch, I requested the presence of the house¡¯s chef. Not knowing what was going on, my parents gave me a questioning look. ¡°Was there something wrong with the food, dear?¡± Mum asked.

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    I just waved my hand to dismiss her worry, ¡°Nothing of the sort, Mum. I just wanted to show the chef a token of appreciation for putting up with us, waking him up way earlier than usual for the past few weeks.¡±

    A little while later, the chef came into the dining room with a nervous expression. ¡°You called, Young Master Luke? Was the food not to your liking?¡±

    Once again, reassured another person that I was not unhappy with the food. ¡°Nothing of the sort. I just wanted to give you a gift, a small token of my appreciation for the past few weeks.¡±

    I then reached under the table to pick up a custom-made box resting on my lap and passed it to the chef. ¡°This is the first among a new style I am smithing in. I hope it serves you well in your craft as a chef.¡±

    The chef took the box and looked back and forth between me and the box. ¡°Well, go ahead and open it.¡± I encouraged.

    He opened the box and took out a German-style ten-inch chef''s knife with wavy-layered patterns. As one, the chef and my parents gazed upon the knife that I made.

    ¡°Son, you made this? It''s¡­ beautiful. What magical metal did you use to get this pattern? I have never seen this before.¡± Dad asked.

    Hearing the mention of ¡®magical metal¡¯ made the chef seize up at the mention of something so precious being used to make a simple chef¡¯s knife.

    ¡°No, can¡¯t be, I do not feel any mana coming from it.¡± Mum commented, ¡°But there is that marking on the blade near the handle. What is that?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that. It is the brand stamp I came up with. At first, I wanted to stamp our house¡¯s emblem on it, but I thought it would be a stupid idea if unscrupulous people started throwing around our family name while showing our family¡¯s emblem. Less educated people may fall for that, and our family name would be sullied. So I came up with my own brand, Wyrm Works.¡± I replied.

    The emblem, depicting an eastern dragon from my previous world coiled around a long sword, was stamped into the metal at the base of the knife blade.

    Dad nodded. ¡°Good call. I can imagine people coming to our gate trying to claim favors and saying that they hold our house¡¯s ceremonial knife.¡± He then gave the knife another look and asked me, ¡°So when can I get a sword that looks like that?¡±

    ¡°Not anytime soon. I am confident of its ability to handle tasks in the kitchen, but I am still new to this form of smithing, so I would not trust it on the battlefield as of yet.¡± I replied.

    ¡°True, I would rather have a reliable weapon than a pretty-looking one.¡± Dad said as he once again looked at the knife, ¡°I wonder if a full plate of armor of this would look good¡­ what was this style of smithing called?¡± Dad asked.

    I was not about to tell them it was Damascus steel because they had no reference to Damascus, so I said, ¡°For now¡­ I would call it Weave Smithing. Once I get better at this, I am sure I will be able to make interesting designs, as if woven tapestry was imprinted on the sword.¡±

    Dad nodded, ¡°I am looking forward to it, and if you can prepare some as gifts, I know a few people who would grant us favors if we gifted this to them. It is practically a piece of art.¡±

    Oh? Favors for pretty weapons? I can do that.

 Chapter 185

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Months of training passed, and both Dad and I were showing steady improvements. For me, the amount of time I could stay sound of mind was slowly and steadily increasing. I got to the point that if I acted passively while keeping my thoughts clear of any violence, I could keep my Primal Aura on indefinitely until my Primal Aura gave out. It was when I did anything more physical than a stroll in the woods that the voices came back in force to tempt me to go wild. This training also taught me how to use my body while Primal Aura was on so I do not break my body with my own movements.

    As for Dad, he too, was making progress, but at significant cost to his body. Every time he took the circulation speed of his mana to the next level, it put tremendous strain on his mana pathways, and even if he did not make any mistakes that needed Professor Sageira¡¯s healing, Professor Sageira sensed the constantly healing micro-tears throughout his mana pathway as they reforged themselves one healed micro-tear at a time. This caused Dad to fluctuate in weight over the months. Whenever he kicks, his mana circulation speeds up a notch, he starts losing a lot of weight as his body eats itself to heal his mana pathways, and when his body eventually gets used to the stress, he starts putting on weight from all the food he is shoving into his mouth every chance he gets. This made Mum worried that Dad would get fat, but after a few months of training, she realized that she had nothing to fear on that front.

    During this training period, I used the practice time to sharpen my swordsmanship and spearmanship, and when I discovered that my throwing power far exceeded that of an aura user, I practiced throwing techniques.

    Now that I can throw pebbles with the hitting power of a piston-caliber bullet, I regret not learning any official throwing weapons technique. The closest I ever got to an official throwing weapons technique was unscrewing the pommel of my sword and throwing it at my armored friend as a joke. So, with nobody around to teach me throwing techniques, I had to learn it myself.

    To that end, I made some simple throwing knives, throwing axes, simple darts, needles, and chakrams, and even weebed out a little when I made myself some shurikens and kunais.

    And after months of training with throwing weapons, I had nothing much to show for it. The only good thing I could say for myself was that besides the weapons like the shuriken and chakram that had edges all around them, I could now get the throwing weapons with a single pointy end to stick in the target point or blade first.

    The following milestones I am aiming for are improving my accuracy on stationary targets while I am stationary, moving targets while I am stationary, and eventually moving targets while I am moving. It will be a long road ahead before I am able to throw weapons as I see in animes, but what is a man if he cannot dream?

    What I did not know was how soon I would be putting my training to real use.

    ***

    On one of the free days, a Royal Herald came riding into town at full speed. When we greeted him at the door, the Royal Herald unfurled a scroll, revealing the royal heraldry. When Dad saw that, he went down on one knee as if the king was in front of him, so I and all the house servants around followed suit.

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    The Royal Herald cleared his throat before speaking in a commanding voice, ¡°By the grace of His Majesty, King Aldran Argus IV, Sovereign of these lands, Defender of the Realm, and Keeper of the Crown, I bring forth this royal decree!¡±

    Hearing that this was a decree and not an invitation or anything more pleasant, we tensed up while waiting for what the king¡¯s orders were.

    ¡°To Baron Alden of Ironcrest, loyal servant of the crown and defender of the northern border:

    Be it known that intelligence has reached the royal court of suspicious movements along the borders of Valorhelm Dominion. As such, His Majesty commands that you, Baron Alden Ironcrest, take immediate command of Fort Eldric and its garrison.¡±

    Oh shit! Here we go again. And now, of all times when Dad was not in the best condition. He had recently upped the speed of his mana circulation, and it had taken a lot out of him, making him look like a recovering cancer patient.

    ¡°You are to strengthen its defenses, secure its supplies, and prepare its soldiers for any act of aggression that may follow. His Majesty places his trust in your vigilance and valor. Know that this duty is of the utmost importance, for the safety of our realm depends upon your steadfast resolve. So declares His Majesty, to be enacted without delay!¡±

    Dad put his fist to his heart in a salute and said, ¡°I hear and obey!¡±

    The moment Dad said that, the Royal Herald rolled his scroll and rode off at top speed, no doubt issuing the same decree to other border nobles.

    When Dad got to his feet, he turned to his butler and said, ¡°Ready my men. Tell them we will be leaving in two hours. Tell them to split into two even groups. One group is going with me, and the other will stay to guard my wife and take charge of the men at arms.¡±

    Hearing Dad give orders, the house staff went about making preparations for our departure. As the servants scurried around, Dad walked to his room, and Mum and I followed. When we were behind closed doors, Mum embraced Dad in a hug while sobbing, and I stood a few paces away to give them some space.

    When I felt the time was right, I asked, ¡°Dad, is there no way around this? Or can you find another noble to fill in for you? You will need at least three weeks to return to normal condition.¡±

    Dad shook his head, ¡°If I really wanted to, I could petition for this duty to be passed on to another due to health reasons, but the reality of the situation is that I cannot do that, especially because we are such a young family. We do not have the political clout to do so, and even if we did, it would not reflect well on our house¡¯s name. So unless I am on my deathbed, I have no reason to object.¡±

    Seeing our sad faces, he continued, ¡°There is no need to be so worried. It is not like I will be doing the fighting. I will be the one giving out orders from the back.¡±

    Mum folded her arms and huffed, ¡°If this is going to be anything like the last time you manned that fort, I highly doubt it. The last time, an assassin walked up to your fort office and attacked you.¡±

    ¡°Dear, I can assure you that security measures have been increased since then, I will be fine.¡± Dad said as he tried to pacify Mum.

    That was when I had an idea, ¡°Yes, Mum, he will be fine,¡±

    ¡°Thank you, son. You see, dear, even Luke agrees with-¡± Dad said but was interrupted by me.

    ¡°That is because I will be coming along to guard you!¡± I said, displaying my best winning smile.

 Chapter 186

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Naturally, my parents were not thrilled with the idea of me going to a potential war at the tender age of thirteen, even if we were in a heavily defended fort. Quite the opposite, in fact.

    ¡°You will do no such thing, young man!¡± was Mum¡¯s instant reply to my suggestion of personally guarding Dad.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, it is still too early for you to be anywhere near the frontlines, much less a place where a potential war will break out.¡± Dad added.

    ¡°Mum, Dad, I am sure I can take care of myself. Besides, even if a battle breaks out, we will have the advantage of a defensive position. That way, I will have an easier time looking out for Dad, especially with the condition he is in right now.¡± I tried to argue.

    Back and forth, I tried to argue my point while my parents shot those arguments down. And despite all my arguments, they had me cornered argument-wise, there was no good reason that I, the oldest son of a baron¡¯s house at the tender age of thirteen, should be anywhere near a battlefield. Hell, I would not allow me to go to the battlefield if I was my own father.

    But on the other hand, I could not leave Dad unprotected in his weakened state. It was not that I did not trust Dad¡¯s men. I just did not like the idea of Dad being ambushed by assassins like he was in the last war.

    Now that I was out of good reasons to join Dad, I resorted to using a card I did not want to use. ¡°If you do not allow me, I will just sneak off and join Dad at the fort. At this point, I am confident the knights would not be able to stop me!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare pull that with us, young man!¡± Dad said sternly, ¡°You are not coming, and that is final, we will not speak of this further!¡±

    ¡°Fine! I''ll see you at the fort!¡± I replied, turning to go to my room to get my stuff.

    ¡°That''s right! You are not- wait! No! Come back here!¡± Dad shouted, and I turned around to face him.

    ¡°Dad, like it or not, I am coming one way or another! With or without your blessing.¡± I said as I folded my arms.

    Mum and Dad looked at each other, then went to the corner of the room to have a whispered argument before coming back to face me. From the look on their faces, they were not happy with their decision.

    ¡°We will let you tag along under two conditions. First, you go where I go. This means that even if we are under attack, the enemy is a few meters away, and there are friendly soldiers between us, you will stay put by my side. Second, if the gates are breached, you will be evacuated with all the non-combatants. Deal?¡± Dad asked.

    I wanted more freedom of movement, but I agreed to it to ease my parents¡¯ worries. My only worry now was my mother¡¯s safety, but when I considered it more, I did not really need to fret about it.

    After the first assassination attempt all those years ago, Mum asked Dad to pull some funds together to upgrade the estate¡¯s defense arrays and wards. But when she brought up this subject, Grandpa and Grandma were at the dining table and were not having any of it, especially when their daughter and grandchild were attacked.

    So Grandpa and Grandma pulled out all the stops on upgrading our magical defenses and wards, even calling in a few favors for specialists to come down to apply their craft. Now, if anyone wants to bypass the estate¡¯s magical defenses, they are going to need a lot more than some mana-reactive powder and array interruption trinket.

    Talking about trinkets, I pulled out Professor Sageira¡¯s dragon scale and told her what was going on and that we would not be available for the foreseeable future. She grumbled but eventually relented and told me to keep her scale on me and that she would drop off something to protect her investments.

    Two hours later, I was assembled in the courtyard, fully armed, armored, and ready to roll. But unlike other knights who brought their main weapon and a lance, my loadout was¡­ let''s just say I was carrying a heavier loadout than the average knight.

    Besides my mana-steel sword and the spear I made while I was still schooling, I had bandoliers and leather holsters that held my throwing weapons, and besides that, I also brought along a warhammer with a nasty-looking pick to balance out the mallet side a satchel with some magic supplies, and a backpack of camping supplies.

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    When Dad and his men looked at me, they gave me a weird look like I had grown a second head ¡°Luke, what is all of¡­ this?¡± Dad asked while gesturing to my person in general, and I am glad he asked, so I explained what I was bringing and why, but this only made him and his men chuckle at my expense.

    ¡°Son, we will be traveling fast to get to the fort, and I doubt your horse would appreciate the extra load. Leave the backpack and warhammer. Only take what you will personally use that is not standard issue, the rest can be issued at the fort.¡±

    After I lost the weight that I would have been unnecessarily carrying, we all said our goodbyes to our loved ones before riding off. Mum was still pissed at me, but she still hugged me and refused to let go until Dad called.

    ***

    The trip to Fort Eldric was uneventful. We rode hard during the day and slept under starlight at night, and when it was available, we took up residence in a village inn or compensated someone to house us for the night.

    During one of the nights that we were camping out, I got a call from Professor Sageira to stay still and reach out my hand. As it did so, expecting something to fall into my palms. Instead, I had to quickly bring my hands up to intercept a package airstrike to my face.

    I bitched at Professor Sageira for almost killing me, but she just ignored my complaining and replied with a simple [Don¡¯t die.]

    When I opened the cloth package, I found two palm-sized wooden totems and a note that read, ¡°Break in case of emergency.¡± The note did not elaborate on anything else, so I passed one of the totems to Dad and told him who it was from and the instructions.

    When we reached the fort, I noticed the sentries¡¯ expressions of unease. Dad and his men noticed it, too, but they kept quiet about it. When we entered the fort, we were greeted by the garrison commander. He was a grizzled man with more than a little white in his beard.

    When we dismounted, Dad and the garrison commander clasped arms, ¡°Woodsen, glad to see you are still alive and kicking, you old bastard.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you know me, m¡¯Lord. Healthy as an ox, I¡¯d be. And besides, someone needs to stick around to keep these youngins in line.¡± he then whispered softly, ¡°What about you, m¡¯Lord? No offense intended, but you don¡¯t look so good since the last time I saw ye.¡±

    Dad just shook his head. ¡°It is nothing that serious. I am recovering from a recent sickness. It is just bad timing that our neighbors to the north started making trouble. But what can I do? The king calls, and I must answer. Besides, I will be standing back unless someone truly strong comes knocking, but that''s why I brought these strapping lads with me.¡± Dad said while gesturing to me and the knights standing behind him.

    Then, after a few minutes of catching up, Dad¡¯s expression became more serious. ¡°As much as I would like to catch up with you over a pint, I have to ask, what is the current situation? From the looks of the men, I assume you have some worrying news to tell me.¡±

    ¡°Aye, m¡¯Lord. Since we first noticed their movements a month ago, the Valorhelm Dominion has stepped up its scouting efforts, forcing us to send out more of our scouts to counter them. It was around a week ago that their scouts started purposely exposing themselves at places that have no strategic importance, forcing us to send our own scouts further afield. But even if this is a ploy to stretch out our forces, we have no choice but to respond accordingly in case they really do push in through a place that is not strategically important.¡± Woodsen replied grimly.

    Dad just nodded and said, ¡°Let''s go to the command room to put their movements on the map.¡±

    With that, our party moved inside the fort¡¯s command building.

    ***

    When night fell, one of the laborers inside Fort Eldric crept along the shadows of the buildings until he reached the alley near the fort¡¯s wall. There, he crouched down between some crates and started pulling out some loose bricks from the alley wall to reveal a leather roll.

    The laborer removed the leather roll from the wall and unwrapped it to reveal an unstrung bow that was even shorter than the average short bow, a few arrows, and a vial of bluish liquid.

    The man then pulled out a note from his pocket, rolled and tied it around the arrow¡¯s shaft, and dripped the bluish liquid on the fletching end of the arrow. When his preparation was done, he strung the bow and shot the arrow into the night sky over the wall before quickly unstringing the bow, packing up, and stacking the leather roll back into the alley wall. The man then slinked back into the shadows with nobody the wiser.

    On the outside of the fort, out in the treeline overlooking Fort Eldric, there was a hooded man and his dog. From time to time, the hooded man would look out at Fort Eldric with a monocle that glowed dimly with the glow of magic.

    When the hooded man looked out once again, he saw what he was looking for, out in the distance, near the wall, was a faint dot of mana that was attuned to the monocle so that it was not drowned out by the glairing mana that made up the defensive arrays on the fort¡¯s walls.

    The hooded man took out a bottle of bluish liquid and put it in his dog''s nose. After a few good sniffs, the dog ran toward the fort but slowed down near the walls. The dog then closed in on the scent its master had let it smell and found an arrow sticking out of the ground.

    And just as the dog took the arrow in its mouth and plucked it out of the ground, a light was shone down from the wall. The dog froze in the magical light shone on it as a voice from the other side of the wall called, ¡°Cid, what you shining at?¡±

    The light went off as the man who shone the light called back, ¡°Just a stray mutt, Bill.¡±

    When the dog returned to its master with an arrow and a note tied to it, the man ruffled the dog''s head as a reward and took the note from the arrow to read. After the hooded man was done reading, a smile grew on his lips.

 Chapter 187

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Over the past month since arriving at Fort Eldric, things have been rather slow, and from what I overheard when acting as a bodyguard for Dad, we were essentially playing cat and mouse with Valorhelm Dominion scouts. This resulted in a few deaths on both sides when they ran into each other or got the drop on one another.

    But despite the deaths, neither the kingdom nor the Valorhelm Dominion made a fuss about it. They knew what they were doing and kept things close to their chest.

    The only change that happened recently was Dad sending his own scouts to probe into Valorhelm Dominion territory.

    As for myself, I spent shifts standing beside Dad and failing to look intimidating due to looking like a seventeen-year-old boy, a well-built seventeen-year-old boy, but inexperienced-looking nonetheless.

    Before we entered the fort, Dad told me not to use my real name, so my current cover story was that I was the son of one of his knights in Dad¡¯s retinue who had followed his father to pop his war virginity in the case that war really kicks off. So, for the moment, I am known as William, son of Jerome.

    And as William, son of Jerome, I did not have the expectations of a noble¡¯s son laid upon me. This allowed me more freedom of my own actions, especially after I begged Dad to allow me to explore the fort when I was off my shift instead of sitting by his side to help with paperwork.

    I explored the fort and chatted with the rank-and-file soldiers. More than half of them are career soldiers, and while most were rotated around to different places in the region, some were permanently posted to the fort because their families lived in nearby villages, and like any soldier who has been at it for some time, they partook in the time-honored tradition of messing with the young new guy, namely, me.

    But seeing that my cover identity was the son of a knight, they could not take things too far, so they settled with corrupting me. They made sure there were no higher-ranking soldiers around before they fished out flasks of alcohol from their pockets and tried to peer pressure me into getting drunk. When that did not work, they tried to make me flustered by telling stories of the ridiculous stunts they pulled while on leave or in brothels and told dirty jokes.

    ¡°Young Will,¡± one of the men called me as he slapped me on the back, ¡°Have you ever heard the story of the Whore and the Horse?¡± but before I could reply, he continued, ¡°It goes a little something like this. There once was a whore named Mabel, who took a trip down to a stable, she-¡±

    I was just getting into what was turning out to be a funny limerick when the door to the mess burst open, revealing a soldier who shouted, ¡°To arms! Man your post!¡±

    In an instant, everyone scrambled, and so did I. When I reached Dad¡¯s office, he had just finished barking orders to a few commanders. When there was only me, Dad, and one of his knights, I asked, ¡°Dad, what''s going on?¡±

    Dad then pointed at the map on the table, ¡°We are not so clear on the situation yet, but we just got the news that the enemy has started amassing forces close to our neighboring fort. So we are getting ready to either lend a hand or defend ourselves in case we get attacked ourselves. For now we-¡±

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    Just then, one of Dad¡¯s men swung the door open to reveal a winded runner, ¡°My Lord, there are reports that enemy forces are amassing near Fort Strep.¡±

    Hearing that, I looked back at the map to find that Fort Strep was also a neighboring fort. This meant that we were sandwiched between the two forts, with enemies on their doorsteps. That news did not bode well because our neighboring forts were pinned down, and with forces at their door, they could not help us if we were attacked.

    Dad turned from the map to the runner and said, ¡°From now on, this fort is on high alert! Increase the shifts. I want everyone well rested and ready if the enemy comes knocking.¡±

    Shit just go real, real fast.

    ***

    ~Valorhelm Dominion¡¯s 3rd Legion HQ, In no man''s land between the Valorhelm Dominion and Argus Kingdom~

    Prince Avontus Valorhelm, sixth prince of the Valorhelm Dominion, was lounging on a sofa in his tent while two scantily clad servant girls were offering him delectable pre-cut fruits that most of the normal everyday peasantry would not even hope to see or smell in their lives, and holding foreign wine so exclusive and precious that only ten barrels of it are produced annually.

    As the prince took his time biting a chunk of offered fruit and taking a sip of wine, a man clad from head to toe in highly decorative armor knelt before the prince.

    When the prince had finished leisurely chewing and swallowing his food, he lazily gazed at the armored man kneeling before him and asked, ¡°General Vash, how are the preparations going?¡±

    ¡°The preparations are going well, Your Highness. The forts beside our target have been pinned down, and we have successfully cut off all attempts of the three forts calling for help.¡± General Vash replied.

    ¡°And what of our friends from the Theocracy?¡± the prince asked.

    ¡°The priests from the Zagraf Theocracy have just arrived, Your Highness. They asked me to tell you that ¡®They come bearing gifts.¡¯¡± the general said.

    ¡°Excellent! I shall see these gifts for myself.¡± the prince said as he shooed away the two servant girls and stood up.

    As they were walking out of the tent, Prince Avontus asked General Vash, ¡°General, as I am here mainly for royal oversight and not as versed in military matters as you are, please explain to me how we managed to pin down two forts and have enough men to attack a third. I do not remember having that many men. In fact, my father only gave me five thousand men to carry out this operation.¡±

    ¡°That is because we do not have that many men, Your Highness. After we received information on the forts along the border and considering certain factors, I chose Fort Eldric as the target. And to make sure the neighboring forts do not interfere, I needed to do something to ensure they stayed put, so I just made up two fake armies.¡± the general explained.

    ¡°And how does one do such a thing? Armies do not grow on trees, do they?¡± the prince asked.

    ¡°No, they do not, Your Highness. But fake armies are a lot easier to make. All I need are warm bodies to put on a show. So I sent men to round up peasants from border villages and supplied them with uniforms and spears from our nearby forts.¡± the general replied.

    ¡°And what if the enemy sees through the ruse and attacks the fake armies?¡± the price asked.

    The general shrugged. ¡°Some peasants dying is of little concern to us. The real soldiers keeping those fake armies in order should have enough time to run to us and warn us. Then we can safely retreat before enemy backup arrives,¡± the general explained, to which the prince nodded.

    ¡°And besides, Your Highness, His Majesty the king told us that the Zagraf Theocracy priests will provide us with something that can turn the tide of battle, Do you know what it is, Your Highness? Otherwise, under normal circumstances, we would be sieging a fort with four times our current numbers.¡± the general said.

    ¡°I have an inkling of what it is, and we will see it shortly, general.¡± The prince said as they walked towards a procession of white-clad clergymen.

 Chapter 188

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    ¡°Your Highness,¡± the lead priest said as he politely bowed to Prince Avontus Valorhelm, the sixth prince of the Valorhelm Dominion. ¡°This humble priest greets you. You may call this one Advan. And as I am sure General Vash has informed you, we come bearing gifts.¡± priest Advan said as he stepped aside and gestured to ten white-clad clergymen, each wearing robes plainer than Priest Advan¡¯s and each shouldering a long wooden case. Flanking the white-clad men were an equal number of dangerous-looking men, all clad in mismatched clothes and armor, the only thing the ten men shared was a dangerous look in their eyes and the nondescript sword that looked to have come from the same batch.

    ¡°Acolytes, please present our gifts,¡± the priest said. The white-clad men responded by lining up before the prince and general and opening the cases they were carrying.

    In each case was a plain longsword that glowed with a dim light like some enchanted weapon the prince had seen. But what was not like an enchanted weapon was the lack of traces, runes, or words of power engraved on its surface, and unlike the many enchanted equipment the prince had seen in his life, none of them made him feel a pressure settling on his whole being, tempting him to hold the sword that somehow promised power.

    Yet something at the back of his mind screamed for him to abstain from such an action, warning him of danger. And being a prince in a nation where strength was everything and survival was justice, Prince Avontus had survived his fair share of assassination attempts and had developed a sense for danger, and the danger Prince Avontus was sensing right now was his growing greed for the weapons presented before him. So, with great effort, he squashed the greed for the sword and gave a polite nod to acknowledge the ¡®gifts¡¯.

    As for General Vash, there was no hiding the greed in his eyes, the only thing stopping him from immediately grabbing a presented sword was his years of military discipline, especially in the presence of royalty and foreign envoys.

    ¡°To you, close friends of the Theocracy, we give ten Divine Armaments. With this sword in hand, few warriors in the land can be your equal.¡± the priest said proudly.

    When the priest was done with his gift presentation, General Vash was the first to make a move and reached out his hand to grab one of the swords, only to be stopped by the prince grabbing his shoulder.

    The general turned and was about to throttle the person who dared touch him, but quickly schooled his expression when he realized it was the prince. The prince only showed a relaxed smile, like everything was normal. ¡°General, how about we distribute these weapons among the best swordsmen among the knights? After all, what use is a weapon if it is not being used? It would be a real shame for a weapon as powerful as this to languish in the hand of those who command from the back.¡± the prince said with a meaningful look in his eyes.

    That look snapped General Vash out of his greed. He had been around long enough to know that look, and now he looked back at the swords that called to him like coiled vipers ready to strike. ¡°Ah¡­ Yes, your words are most wise, Your Highness.¡± He then turned to some soldiers standing by and told them to receive the gifts from the acolytes.

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    When the swords, enclosed in their wooden cases, were out of sight, the prince and general looked back at the priest, all of them smiling like everything was as it should, but now more wary of the Theocracy¡¯s presence.

    The prince and general had some ideas as to why the swords were gifted to them, but they were not going to tip their hand. They had orders from their king and little men to do it with, so they were essentially depending on these ¡®gifts¡¯ that could supposedly turn the tide of battle in their favor.

    ¡®Seeing the number of soldiers I was given and the situation I am in, I can only assume that Father wants to see the power of these so-called Divine Armaments. And since the Zagraf Theocracy is not using it with their own men, I can only assume they are also testing it, but with live targets and using us so that they have a degree of separation and some plausible deniability.¡¯ the prince thought to himself as he asked the men to escort their guest to some tents for accommodation.

    ***

    ¡°Any word from the scouts sent into the no man¡¯s land?¡± Dad asked one of the runners who came to him with updates.

    ¡°None yet, m¡¯Lord.¡± the runner replied before running off.

    Dad just sat and massaged his temples. ¡°Our scouts are missing, most likely dead. The messenger birds we send out are shot down soon after they leave by hidden enemies, and I am pretty sure the fast riders I sent out to report our situation and ask for help have befallen the same fate.¡±

    Dad did not say it, but I know what he is thinking. Instead of a normal siege that we can fight off by the book, the enemy is planning something nasty, and Dad does not want me anywhere near this fort. But seeing that ambush forces box us in, it will take a sizable force to escort the non-combatants and me to safety. And if he did so, they would reduce the strength of his fighting force to fight off any invaders.

    But doing so would compromise his duty to defend this fort, and seeing that he was put in charge of every soul in this fort, he could not in good conscience sacrifice so many lives just to save his son. And neither would I want him to do so. That means that Dad cannot get rid of me, and I can stay to guard his frail ass as we spend another day collecting reports of enemy sightings and nothing else.

    ***

    *DING!* *DING!* *DING!* *DING!*

    I was woken up by the alarm bell in the dead of night. I could hear the barks of commanders shouting their men into order. I quickly rolled out of bed and put on my gear.

    When I burst out of my room, Dad and his men were already running down the hallway. When I caught up with Dad, I heard the tail end of a report. ¡°- from the front and back gates, they are already inside the outer wall.¡±

    ¡°What?! How? How did they manage to sneak siege equipment up to our gates?! Were the sentries asleep? Or did they somehow manage to cast multiple siege spells without the mages noticing?¡± Dad asked in outrage as he grabbed the soldier by the collar and shook him.

    ¡°No! No, my Lord! From what I heard, knights with shining swords ran up to our gates and hacked them down. Now, we have enemy troops flooding through our gates. We are currently trying to push them out, but the knights are too powerful!¡±

    The report was ridiculous! How the hell did swords beat a defense-arrayed and enchanted gate? I don¡¯t care how powerful the knights¡¯ aura is. Things like a proper fort¡¯s gate need at least a heft of an enchanted battering ram to breach it.

    What the fuck is going on?!!

 Chapter 189

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    We made our way to the top of the inner walls to see what was going on. When we got there, we saw the chaos unfolding.

    In both the front and back gates, there were man-sized holes with Valorhelm Dominion soldiers pushing through and pulling the gates open, while each gate had five knights with glowing swords mowing down our soldiers who were trying to rush the gates to stem the flow of Dominion troops.

    Dad immediately gave the order to his men to take back the gates, and all but two of the knights that came with him flared their aura and jumped off the wall and onto nearby roofs as they dashed to the breaches.

    As Dad¡¯s knights rushed forward, and Dad was busy barking orders to runners, I focused on the knights with glowing swords and noticed something unusual.

    Instead of finding the powerful and skillful knights who had mastered their aura and sword art to the point that they could take down fort gates without siege equipment, I see fucking maniacs laughing as they scythe men down like stocks of wheat, armor, shields, or blocking be damned. Only those who coated themselves or their weapons survived getting hit, but they were sent flying.

    Most of the men facing them did not use aura, and even if those that did use aura got a hit in on these fucking maniacs, the aura of these berserk knights shrug off these blows like it was nothing. And speaking about aura, there is something weird about the aura exuding from these knights with the glowing swords.

    Unlike the other invading knights, who had smooth and disciplined auras that were layered close to their bodies, these ten knights¡¯ aura trail flowed and flared out of their bodies like someone who had just learned how to use their aura. And I don¡¯t know if it is just me, but something feels off about the aura, it''s almost like I am feeling anger or rage from the aura, which should not be possible. I have seen quite a number of people use aura, and I have never felt an emotion emanate from one before.

    In a matter of seconds, Dad¡¯s knights were upon the berserk knights with glowing swords, and from the first clash, things did not go well for Dad¡¯s knights. They were either swatted aside or almost immediately overpowered. It was only by the intervention of our nearby troops that Dad¡¯s knights were not slain on the spot with follow-up attacks.

    From then on, Dad¡¯s knights were on the defensive, attracting the attention of the berserk knights so they would not wreak so much damage on the normal soldiers.

    When our knights decided to fight the berserk knights like they were monsters and use group tactics, the normal enemy knights stepped in to keep our knights engaged.

    It did not even take five seconds since engaging the berserk knights before our knights took their first casualty. One of Dad¡¯s men managed to stab one of the berserk knights in an unarmored part of the thigh, but before he could pull back his sword, the berserk knight grabbed the sword with one arm, and with a roar, slashed down on Dad¡¯s knight, taking one of his arms clean off and cutting through his breastplate like it was cheap leather, which I found to be bloody scary because I am damn sure all of Dad¡¯s knights have defensive enchantments on their armor.

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    Within seconds, one after another, our knights were being cut down or sent flying through nearby buildings.

    Overall, we lost in this initial clash. A few of our knights are dead, and most of those who survived were wounded in one way or another. But just as our knights were about to charge in again, I felt mana surge from beside me.

    When I turned to see where the surge of mana was coming from, I saw two squads of mages syncing up to chant siege spells, and within seconds, they chucked huge balls of fire at the enemies flooding in.

    It was glorious to see the enemies try to push their way back out the gate when they saw the huge ball of fire coming at them. It is too bad that they could not use those spells on the berserk knights due to the risk of friendly fire.

    After that initial siege spell strike, the two mage squads switched back to smaller spells and concentrated on the berserk knights. The enemy soldiers soon flooded back into the wall, and soon, groups of crossbowmen started emerging from their ranks and looking at the two squads of mages with malicious intent.

    Seeing the mages too engrossed in chucking spells from atop the wall, they did not seem aware of the danger. So I weaved a wind spell called Wind Whisper to carry my voice to the two squads of mages, ¡°Shields up! Crossbows aiming at you!¡± I shouted into my spell, and I knew they got the message when the mages jerked, and a few of them grabbed a pendant around their neck. A split second later, the shimmer of a mana shield formed in front of the mage squads, just in time to see crossbow bolts hit the mana shield.

    ¡°Good call, son,¡± Dad told me. When I turned to him, He was with me, overlooking the chaos below. ¡°I gave all the instructions I could. The only thing we can do now is let the commanders on the ground lead their men. If you ever come into command of your own, this is one of the hardest parts¡­ watching your men die on the word of your command.¡±

    ¡°Then what about all those treatises I read about historical battles where the commander of an army charges into battle?¡± I asked as we both looked over the ongoing battle.

    ¡°Those are heavily embellishments reports. That just means that the commander has someone else on staff to see the bigger picture and command accordingly. But there is no shame in that; not everyone has a talent for grand strategy, and I cannot say I have any real talent for it either. In fact, I would rather be down there fighting, but seeing as I am the highest-ranking person here and am in no condition to fight, I must be seen to be in command.¡± Dad said.

    As we observed, the battle had reached a sort of stalemate. The berserk knights were still cutting down our men left and right, but with the support of the mages, our knights were keeping the casualties relatively low compared to the initial clash. We could have pushed the enemy a bit more if we had additional magical firepower, but the enemy was suppressing our mages with ranged attacks, forcing them to sacrifice a few of their own to focus on purely defensive spells.

    However, despite our side taking more casualties, a stalemate favored us as more of our soldiers came running out of their barracks to force out the intruders, and even the enemy could feel that they were losing the initiative and needed to switch things up.

    That was when I saw one of the enemy knights at the back gate, with a feather sticking out of his helmet, shouting to get the attention of two of the berserk knights and pointing to the mage squads. The two berserk knights then knocked away the knights they were fighting and started making a beeline for the mage squads.

    I urgently reached out and tapped Dad to get his attention. ¡°Dad! Mage squads are in trouble!¡± I pointed as the berserk knights jumped up on the first roof.

    When Dad saw what I was pointing at, he could only say what I was thinking. ¡°Fuck!¡±

 Chapter 190

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    Dad looked at the two knights guarding him and pointed at the two berserk knights moving toward the mage squads, shouting, ¡°Delaying action!¡± Without hesitation, the two knights beside Dad flared their auras and jumped to intercept the incoming berserk knights.

    Dad then turned to me and said, ¡°Call the mages back to us. We are falling back to the keep. The mages can cast from there!¡± I did as instructed, and soon, the mages made an orderly retreat while keeping their mana shields up.

    As the mages made their way to us along the wall while taking the occasional projectile fire, the mages¡¯ retreat to the keep seemed to have caught the attention of the attacking enemy commander at the front gate, and he decided to send two of his berserk knights after the mages. This is what most people would describe as a shit situation all around.

    Dad saw the same problem coming and knew that at the speed the berserk knights were coming at us by jumping from roof to roof, they would reach the mages before they could get into the keep. ¡°Luke! In the keep, now!¡±

    ¡°But the mage squads! They are not going to make it in time! We must buy them some time!¡± I said as I stood my ground, but I could not refute Dad¡¯s observation. If there was one thing mages did not excel at, it was physical fitness, which in turn greatly affected their speed.

    ¡°Not at the expense of your life!¡± Dad shouted at me as he forcefully turned me to face him.

    ¡°But if we lose the mage support, many others fighting below will die!¡± I tried to reason with Dad while we were just at the gate of the keep. That''s when I knew I had to try something. ¡°Let me try something. If those knights get on the wall, we will go in and shut the gate.¡± I tried to compromise with Dad.

    Reluctantly, Dad agreed with a head nod, and I sprung into action and ran toward the mages while casting Wind Whisper to get my message to them faster. ¡°Squad in the front, suppressive fire on the two knights coming from the front gate!¡± I shouted into the spell with as much of a commanding voice as I could muster while pointing at their target, and it turned out to be enough as the mage squad¡¯s leader brought his mages to a stop and started raining spells on the two approaching berserk knights, allowing the slower group to overtake the first group.

    After the second mage squad got some distance ahead of the first, I shouted for them to switch roles as I had just arrived at the second mage squad and started slinging my own spells to keep the two approaching berserk knights from getting anywhere near us fast.

    As we leaped and bounded while raining spells on the two charging knights, we were making good progress to the keep. We by no means stopped their advance, but we sure as hell slowed them down. Just as things were going well, a body flew overhead and landed near Dad, and from the armor, I recognized it as one of the two men Dad sent to delay the berserk knights from the back gate.

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    When I looked over from where the body flew from, I saw the other man Dad sent to delay and one of the berserk knights on a roof, both kneeling in front of each other in a growing pool of blood. Dad¡¯s knight was run clean through his armored chest with a sword that was not glowing anymore, but Dad¡¯s knight had his sword through the berserk knight¡¯s neck. He had brought down a powerful enemy at the cost of his own life.

    As for the other berserk knight, I can safely assume he was the one who sent Dad¡¯s other knight flying overhead, and with the speed and power, the berserk knight displayed, I had no illusions of him not making it to the mages before they got to the keep.

    ¡°LUKE! IN THE KEEP, NOW!¡± I heard Dad shout from behind me, but I had already acted before he called out as I hefted my spear, flared my aura, and dashed past the mages to put myself between the mages and the remaining berserk knight from the back gate who was charging at me.

    As the berserk knight closed in on me, I started swirling around the tip of my spear in a small circle, the red tassel fluttering in its wake, and as the berserk knight came within my range, I trusted my spear for center mass of his chest.

    The berserk knight recognized the obvious trajectory of my spear, and I noticed the twitch of his arms as he positioned his sword to intercept my thrust. However, at the last moment, I jerked my flexible spear, causing the tip to snake over his guard and aim for his head.

    My spear struck the target and even managed to luckily enter the eye slit of the knight''s armor, plunging into his right eye. But just as I thought I was in for an easy and quick win, one of the knight''s hands shot up to grab the tip of my spear, preventing it from pushing deeper into his head.

    Hoping to brute force the rest of my spear into his head, I pushed forward with all my strength, causing the man¡¯s feet to drag along the ground, but my spearhead did not get any deeper into his head as he held it in place. Seeing that he was strong enough to prevent my spear from sinking any deeper while pushing him across the ground, I swerved to the side and drove his back into the parapet, and with that impact, I heard him grunt with displeasure as I felt my spear sink ever so slightly into his eyesocket.

    ¡°Well done, little knight. You have pushed me this far, but this is where you end.¡± the berserk knight said in a gruff voice as he raised his sword to strike me down. Naturally, I tried to disengage before he cut me and my spear in two, but as I tugged at my spear, it did not budge an inch.

    I wanted to try and shock the berserk knight with a spell, but his sword was already swinging down at me, forcing me to back off. So I released my forward grip on my spear and hopped backward as my off-hand slid down the spear shaft and gripped my spear just before the butt.

    Just as the berserk knight was about to follow up his missed downward chop with an upward swing that would most likely chop my spear in two, I delivered a palm strike to the butt of my spear while sneaking some lightning along the shaft with Instinctive Magic.

    This sent electricity into the berserk knight, who had just removed the spear tip from his eye socket, causing him to lose control of his body, allowing my spear to be driven into his skull with the palm strike.

    The berserk knight stills and then hangs limply off my spear, glowing sword still clung in his hand. I swiftly pull my spear from his helmet¡¯s eye slit just as Dad¡¯s voice called out to me again, ¡°LUKE! BACK! NOW!¡±

    I turned to his voice and saw the two squads of mages cast a barrage of spells just over my head, and a split second later, I heard a bunch of explosions behind me. When I turned around, I saw two more of those berserk knights step through the smoke and start running at me with malicious intent. So I listened to my father¡¯s wise words and dashed toward the keeps¡¯s doors and helped Dad push the heavy doors close.

 Chapter 191

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    The high-pitched dings of swords striking the defensive array on the keep¡¯s door continue as three other mages and I, who are versed in array magic, spend mana and concentration on maintaining the defensive array.

    As for the other mages, they had gone to the turrets on the upper levels of the keep to support the troops by raining down spells on the intruders at the front and back gates. But at the rate we were going, we were going to run out of mana before the two berserk knights hacking away at the keep¡¯s door ran out of whatever was powering their monstrous strength that could take on defensive arrays.

    ¡°Dad, at this rate, I don¡¯t think we can hold out.¡± I shouted at Dad as I saw him come out of his office holding a large ornate amulet.

    ¡°Luke, send a message to the mages above to stay away until we say it is safe. But before that, take off your glove,¡± Dad said as he pulled a needle out of the ornate amulet.

    ¡°What''s that?¡± I asked Dad while taking off my glove and eyeing the needle.

    ¡°This is the control amulet for the Last Stand array for this room. I will need a drop of all of your blood to exclude you as one of the array¡¯s targets.¡± Dad announced to me and the three other mages. He then leaned into me and whispered, ¡°You may need to use ¡®that¡¯, there is no holding back if we want to live.¡±

    Understanding what Dad was talking about, I nodded. It seems like Pirmal Aura will be having its debut appearance.

    When a drop of all our blood was collected and dripped into a hole in the array control amulet, Dad told the mages to get to an advantageous position to support as Dad and I readied ourselves.

    The seconds passed as the mana crystal powering the door¡¯s defensive array grew ever dimmer as it struggled to maintain power for a defensive array that was not only being drained with every blow but degraded at the same time. Now that I am seeing the degradation of the array firsthand, I can hardly blame the fort¡¯s gates for falling so fast due to there being no mage on standby to at least slow down the damage to the defensive arrays.

    As for how the arrays actually got damaged, I doubt any aura-powered knight can do that, even if they had the will and a can-do attitude, which means that all that destructive power most likely comes from those glowing swords those few knights were whooping our asses with.

    Just as I thought if I could get my hands on one of those swords if I managed to get out of this alive, the array gave out before the mana crystal was drained of power, and we heard the reverberating *DONG* of the enemy¡¯s sword hitting the keep¡¯s heavy metal door.

    Impact after impact rained upon the metal door until finally, like an old-fashioned can opener, the tip of a sword punctured the six-inch-thick metal door and started prying it apart.

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    As a delaying action, one of the mages sent a stream of fire through the created hole, but from the shimmer on the surface of the berserk knight''s armor I saw when the flames abated, I could tell that their armor''s enchantment nullified the flames.

    It seems that this will require more force to penetrate that armor. As the two berserk knights took turns widening the gap in the metal door, I timed the instances between blows and jabbed my spear out of the hole they made. However, the hole was too obvious an attack vector, allowing them to dodge out of the way of the spear easily and almost had my spear cut off.

    I decided then to save my strength and just wait for them to get through the door before I do anything.

    They soon managed to cut their way down the door and cut the bolt holding it closed. At that moment, there was silence for a few tense seconds before one of the berserk knights kicked the door open while the other charged in. The berserk knight who kicked down the door followed shortly after.

    When both knights were well beyond the keep¡¯s entrance, Dad held up the array control and released his mana into it. The moment he did that, the floor and walls lit up with the magical lines, forming multiple arrays. From the floor, blue translucent chains of mana and tentacles of earth rose up to restrain the two berserk knights.

    As the two knights tried and failed to dodge the forest of mana chains and earth tentacles, the arrays on the walls started to glow brighter, each with the color of a different element. But despite being bound by physical and magical means, the two berserk knights powered forward as they thrashed, hacked, and slashed away at the array¡¯s restraints like they were wild beasts tearing through a hunter¡¯s net.

    But their advance was swiftly put to a stop when the arrays on the walls started pelting the two knights with different elemental spells. This forced them to stand their ground and use their glowing swords to cut down the incoming spells, but as they stood their ground, the restraints that they had been ripping away and powering through started piling up on their bodies, making it harder for them to move.

    While this was going on, we just stood ready to spring into action. We could have shot our own spells or charged in and tried to cut down the berserk knights, but that would have been counterproductive to the Last Stand array due to us having different mana signatures from the array. Had I cast a spell to try and blow up the berserk knight, my spell would have hit the restraints first, damaging the restraints binding the two knights, and if I had charged into melee, I would have been caught in friendly fire from the arrays. Despite giving our blood to the array control amulet to recognize us as friendly, that just meant that the arrays would not target us. We could very much be affected by splash damage.

    A few seconds into the bombardment, the two knights failed to cut down quite a few spells, and I could see the enchantments on their armor start to sputter and fail. But before that happened, one of the berserk knights seemed to have an idea.

    ¡°Cover me!¡± one of them shouted to the other. Disregarding his defense, he stabbed his sword into the cobblestone floor and dragged his glowing sword through the floor as he slowly advanced toward us. The other knight did not hesitate to jump in front of the knight dragging his sword, cutting down spells, and putting his body in the way of the other knight.

    Around five paces in, the floor array started to flicker, and as I poured mana into my eyes and looked at the floor array, I could see the floor array unraveling with every step they took. I am sure the other mages with me saw the same thing as we started to panic and dropped to the floor to connect to the array and try and repair it. ¡°Dad! Make the array target the rear knight!¡±

    Dad shook his head. ¡°It does not have that function. Prepare yourself. It looks like we really are going to have to fight for our lives.¡±

 Chapter 192

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    As the restraint array on the floor started to unravel, causing the bindings already on the two advancing knights to fall away, we prepared ourselves for battle while milking every second the arrays restrained and bombarded them.

    Eventually, the array on the floor failed, and the two berserk knights dashed out of the way of the wall arrays bombarding them and headed straight for Dad. which meant it was time to use ¡®that¡¯.

    As I charged forward to intercept one of the charging knights, I activated my Primal Aura. The usually translucent blue aura that manifested from my body started turning deep violet. If I had not been covered head to toe in armor, people would have seen the veins throughout my body bulge from just below my skin and turn dark blue.

    As I clashed with the knight that had been doing all the defending while the other was disabling the floor array, Dad shouted from behind, ¡°When I said ¡®that¡¯, I meant to use the totems!¡± as I heard something behind me snap and felt a gush of ambient mana being sucked behind me.

    Oh. Well, it''s too late now. I had already clashed with the knight, and we had already exchanged more than ten rapid blows in that time. And with each blow we exchanged, my blood boiled with more and more excitement. A small part of my mind acknowledges that it is most likely the power lust induced by using Primal Aura, but at the moment, I could not be happier.

    Throughout training on how to best use Primal Aura, the only thing I had to use it on was the terrain or beasts that were too stupid to run away when a dragon was nearby, and that was no challenge at all. The only other person I could use my Primal Aura on was Professor Sageira, but just as there was nothing much to learn from sparing a person who was too weak, there was little I could learn from someone who could defeat me without breaking so much as a sweat. This knight, on the other hand, was matching me blow for blow, and I felt I had more to give.

    I started ramping up the speed and power of my attacks, immediately putting him on the back foot. ¡°What?!¡± the knight exclaimed as I changed up my attacks, jerking around my spear, making it curve and target other areas of his body. This forced the knight to hop back, opening some space between us. But just as he hopped back, the other knight who destroyed the floor array dashed around our fight and headed for Dad.

    I tried to intercept him by swinging my spear but just came up short, and before I could turn around to give chase, my attention was pulled back in by my original opponent as I was forced to sidestep a downward slash that would have bisected if it hit.

    Just as I was thinking of a way to disengage and go help Dad, I heard the sound of an impact accompanied by the crunching sound of metal being crushed. A body was sent flying over my head. While it was airborne, the wall arrays decided that the target was enough in the clear to avoid hitting those marked as allies. They bombarded the flying body in midair, sending it in different directions until it smashed into the wall.

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    When I managed to turn my head slightly for a sneak peek, I saw a fist-clenched arm the size of my whole body sticking out of a growing blob of wood, and at the base of that blob of wood were the two halves of the totem I passed to Dad, and that blob of wood was growing bigger and taking on humanoid features to match the arm that was already grown even as I was looking at it.

    ***

    ~Alden Ironcrest¡¯s POV~

    Alden felt helpless as he saw his son charge headlong into danger and cursed his weakened body and bad timing for a conflict to kick off. But as he saw Luke engage an enemy who had reaped the lives of his soldiers as if they were stalks of grain and treated his knights as if they were children, internally, he was beaming with pride when he saw his son take on the knight currently before them on even footing.

    Ever since Luke managed to manipulate mana as a mere toddler, Alden had known his son had the makings of greatness. Even with the mishap of his first timing manifesting his aura that made him unable to off his aura, the fact that he was able to manifest it at the age he did was unheard of. And now, his son was using a technique that had never been battle-tested but was showing great results.

    As Alden snapped the totem their draconic benefactor had given them for use in an emergency, he looked at the back of his son as he masterfully wielded his spear, thrusting so fast and in so many bending arcs that every thrust made the afterimages of at least three attacks from different angles.

    This lit a fire in Alden¡¯s belly. He should be the one protecting his son, but due to his current condition and duty as the fort commander, he had to stay back and stay alive. He promised himself that if he and his son got out of this situation alive, he would redouble his efforts to build and condition his body enough to withstand the manifestation of Primal Aura.

    Alden¡¯s attention was brought back to the totem in his hands that he snapped in two. Rapidly growing vines grew from the break and joined together to create an increasingly heavy blob of wood that he was eventually forced to drop.

    The moment the blob of wood hit the ground with a thud, the knight that tore up the floor array charged past Luke and headed for him.

    Seeing the knight charge at him with unnatural speed, even by aura user standards, Alden activated his aura with the knowledge that using aura in his condition was not wise, but a few internal injuries were better than death.

    Alden had his sword drawn and was prepared to sell his life dearly when he felt a tug on his mind as he considered how he would defend himself against a vastly stronger opponent. With that thought in mind, Alden felt a faint sensation of¡­ acknowledgement?

    As the enemy knight was about to hop over the growing blob of wood to cleave Alden in half, a huge wooden fist sprung out of the wooden blob and caved in the knight¡¯s breastplate, sending him flying and getting blasted by the wall arrays.

    After that, it took slightly over ten seconds for the wooden blob to grow into a four-meter-tall wooden giant. Its head was full of luminescent green leaves, and vines grew on its face to form a beard that reached down to its chest.

    When the wooden giant rose to its full height, it turned to look at Alden as the luminescent leaves on its head started falling to the ground one at a time, and when their eyes met, Alden felt a voice in his head. [Time short. Orders?]

    Not wanting to question what manner of magic this was in a time of crisis, Alden pointed to the knight fighting his son and mentally picturing all the invaders, ¡°Destroy the enemy!¡±

 Chapter 193

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    My spear slid past the berserk knight¡¯s guard and streaked toward his shoulder, but it was only by bringing up his arm to divert the path of my spear that he avoided getting skewered, and my spear that was covered in Primal Aura tore apart his pauldron.

    While my spear was extended beyond him, the knight used my over-extended posture to strike at me, but he had fallen for my trap. While stepping back to avoid the incoming sword strike, I angled my spear against the knight¡¯s now pauldron-less shoulder and viciously pulled back my spear. This let my abnormally long spearhead that was covered in Primal Aura slice into the knight¡¯s shoulder.

    With a fluid motion of my spear being withdrawn, a gout of blood sprayed out of the knight¡¯s right shoulder, making his whole right arm hang limp. As we stood facing each other to reassess each other, I noticed his sword glow brighter.

    But just as I thought he was readying for some kind of superpowered attack, I noticed his injured and limp arm start to recover from its limp state and start twitching. That was when my attention was brought to the wound on his shoulder. The wound was rapidly knitting itself back together right before my eyes, and within seconds, the knight was rotating his previously wounded shoulder to test its condition and clenching his fist to test his grip.

    That¡­ was just not natural, even in a world with magic. When I was taking my Healing Magic course at the Royal Academy, we often went to hospitals to get experience in healing, and even when we saw professional healers reattaching severed limbs, they did not heal anywhere as fast as this.

    I don¡¯t know why, but seeing that my opponent would not break so easily brought a feral smile to my face. The only thing that was spoiling the fun for me was a small voice in the back of my head warning me about something, asking me to pull back, but I ignored it and charged in to see how far I could go with my Primal Aura.

    This time, as we charged each other, I saw the knight smile through the opening in his helmet while noticing an opening in his abdomen. When I struck, my spear pierced his armor, which had long lost the power of its enchantment, and ran the man through.

    But just as I pulled back my spear for another attack, the knight grabbed my spear with one hand and struck it down with his sword. Without hesitation, I released my spear, sidestepped the chop, and threw a haymaker right at his face.

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    When my fist impacted the knight¡¯s helmet, I heard the clashing of metal and felt the metal of the helmet deforming around my mailed fist. The feeling was intoxicating! It was so intoxicating, in fact, that I forgone drawing my other weapons and started raining punches and kicks on the knight.

    The berserk knight tried to fight back the extremely close-range fighting by bringing his sword closer to his body, but it was futile. From the first few blows, it was clear to me that this knight was not very versed in unarmed combat. A punch to the shoulder, a jab at his upper arm, and a light kick to his inner calf were all it took for me to open up many more openings and rain more blows on my new punching bag. Not to mention, the spear still sticking out of his gut was not helping his situation at all.

    At this point, the knight¡¯s helmet was so deformed I doubted he could properly see out of it. So, in his desperation, the berserk knight decided to forgo defense and started taking wild swings at me, even with his sword in hand. That gave me a huge opening to grab one of his arms he threw out in a punch and threw him over my shoulder.

    But instead of slamming onto the ground, the knight¡¯s body was stuck mid-air, and when I looked up, I saw the wooden golem Dad summoned by breaking the totem, holding my opponent upside down by his torso.

    I was about to shout at the wooden golem to put down my opponent so I could continue the beatdown when the golem crushed the knight like an empty drink can. This made blood burst out everywhere, especially from me, who was right below.

    As I conjured water to wash the blood away from my eyes, I saw the impossible. The berserk knight was dropped on the floor before me. His once burly armored chest compacted to the diameter of my calf.

    By all accounts, the man should be dead as a doornail, but despite that, his head was gasping for air that could not fill destroyed lungs, and just like when I sliced his shoulder, the sword he was still holding was glowing brighter than usual. At first, it was a steady glow, but when it failed to do anything, it pulsed brightly. With each pulse, I noticed that the edges of the crushed breastplate were bending a little, but ultimately, as the pulse receded, the crushed metal bent back.

    This cycle carried on for a good ten seconds before the light of the sword died out, and once that happened, so did the knight holding the sword.

    I stared at this phenomenon in wonder. Nothing I learned came anywhere close to having artifacts that can keep someone alive from such grievous injuries. But as my Primal Aura burned, another thought came to my mind. How dare this piece of wood take away my prey!

    Just as I was winding up for a punch to turn this stupid wood golem into tinder for stealing my kill, Dad¡¯s voice snapped me out of it. ¡°Luke! Are you ok?¡±

    As I turned to Dad, the wooden golem lumbered past me toward the sounds of battle. That was when a thought came to me. There were more of those knights with glowing swords, more chances to test my power!

    As Dad shouted something that I was not paying attention to, I pulled my spear out of the crushed knight and rushed out of the keep to join the battle before the wooden golem beat me to the punch.

 Chapter 194

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    Brimming with power, I dashed out the door and examined the front and back gates to see which would provide me with the biggest fight.

    The front gate was losing ground, but their situation was not as bad as the back gate, they were getting their shit pushed in.

    I jumped off the wall, landed on a nearby roof, and broke my fall by rolling and continuing my run to the big fight. As I ran from roof to roof, I picked up some loose and broken tiles and started throwing them like frisbees into the enemy¡¯s rank-and-file. And with my superhuman strength, the ceramic roof tiles shattered upon the enemy, killing or maiming them if it hit them in unprotected areas or knocking them clean off their feet if it hit them on their armor.

    When I reached the roof nearest to the fighting with one of the knights with the glowing swords, I went to the roof''s edge and launched myself off the edge, straight for one of the berserk knights cutting down our people. And in the process of that launch, I most likely destroyed the roof.

    Naturally, since I was flying at him directly from the front, that berserk knight easily saw me coming and performed a last wide swing to disengage from those he was currently fighting and parried my spear aimed at his chest. But that was a mistake on his side as momentum carried my body forward and my knee into his chest.

    This sent the berserk knight crashing back into his own men, allowing me to return the favor of slathering the soldiers on my side and started poking holes in the nearby enemy soldiers.

    At first, they leveled their spears at me to try to use their superior numbers to skewer me full of holes, but they soon found out that I was too fast for them. Like the knights with the glowing swords on their side, their normal spears, which were not even covered with aura, could not so much as scratch me. These men were soon poked full of holes.

    Seeing me kick away the berserk knight that they had been barely containing, the knights on my side took advantage of the tide of battle and rushed the enemy forces to reclaim as much lost ground as possible.

    As all this was happening, I was keeping an eye on the berserk knight that I sent flying. After he got up from the pile of soldiers he crashed into, he ripped off his dented breast place and stared at me with hate in his eyes.

    Within seconds of ripping off his dented armor that was most likely pressing into his chest, the berserk knight¡¯s aura flared more violently than ever, and so did whatever energy came from his glowing sword.

    The next moment, he pushed off from his position, the impact of his push-off sending his own men flying and sending him right in front of me in the blink of an eye. He swung with a diagonal slash, but I sidestepped and thrust my spear at his now unarmored chest.

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    In response, he rushed into my space while useing his offhand to bat away my incoming spear while closing in to try and cut me down.

    Since he was too close to me to wield my spear, I released my spear and grabbed the knight¡¯s hand that was holding the glowing sword mid-swing. And before his other arm could wind up for a punch after swatting my spear away, I drew my knife with my other hand and stabbed into the armpit of the knight¡¯s off-arm and wretched my blade out sideways, severing his shoulder socket bone.

    This made the knight roar in pain, but I did not relent in my attack. I head-butted the man to stun him and used that moment to stretch out his sword-wielding arm and sever it with my Primal Aura coated knife.

    By now, I had an inkling that those swords they were wielding may have something to do with their rapid regeneration, so let''s see if they can heal without the sword connected to their body.

    Before the knight could react to his hand being chopped off, I grabbed him by the back of the neck and started rapidly shanking him as they did in prison TV shows.

    After about the tenth stab, I released him to fall to the ground and looked at the sword that I relieved from the knight¡¯s body and was glad to see that it was not glowing. Just to make sure the man was truly dead and not healing while lying face down, I flipped him over with my foot and looked into his lifeless eyes, and then I looked down at his chest, which was riddled with open stab wounds. Seeing that none of them were healing, I felt a satisfied grin creep up on my face.

    But before I could get too happy about bringing down these knights who were killing our men so easily, my body jerked forward as I felt something pierce me from my back to my front. On instinct, I horse-kicked backward and felt I connected with something. In the movement that happened, I felt whatever had pierced me violently exit the way it came through.

    I immediately turned around to see what I kicked and saw another knight with a glowing sword. And that was when I felt it. The place where I felt the impact was burning with pain, and as I looked down at my chest, I was bleeding from an exit wound on my chest. But that was not the worst part.

    The worst part was the drowning sensation I was feeling on the right side of my torso, and I started coughing up blood as I forced myself to face the enemy while pointing my knife at him.

    As the enemy knight walked toward me with his glowing sword at the ready, I realized that this bastard had backstabbed me and that my right lung was most likely drowning in my own blood.

    This pain I was experiencing snapped me out of being high on the power of my Primal Aura. As I wheezed every blood-curdled breath, barely getting the oxygen I needed, I realized how exhausted and in pain my body was from all the strenuous movements that were beyond what my body could handle, causing my subconscious to shut off my Primal Aura.

    Now, in my weakened state, I realized how vulnerable I was. Primal Aura made me feel big and powerful to the point that I thought nothing in the world could hurt me¡­ to the point that I did not even have situational awareness to not fixate so hard on a downed enemy and get backstabbed.

    Primal Aura may be powerful, but it takes a toll on the mind to ensure I don''t become a prideful beast, which, in hindsight, I realized I failed. But that is for another time if I survive. Now, I needed time to use some healing magic to patch myself up. But if I retreated now, those behind me would be killed by this knight who was stalking toward me.

    As I was thinking of what to do, I remembered the totem Professor Sageira passed to us. I quickly sheathed my knife, took out my totem, and snapped it in half.

 Chapter 195

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    ~Alden Ironcrest POV~

    ¡°Luke! Get back here!¡± Alden shouted at Luke as he dashed out of the keep in a violet blur. But Luke did not seem to listen and was gone from his sight as he jumped from the wall towards the back gate.

    But despite his son running headlong into danger, the only thing Alden could do was grit his teeth and trust that his son was strong enough to keep himself alive and chase after the wooden golem that was just about to exit the keep.

    When he got out of the keep, Alden looked at both gates. He saw his son running along the roofs towards the back gate, and seeing that he had demonstrated that Luke was powerful enough to stand up to these knights with glowing swords, he needed to stop thinking like a father and start thinking more like a commander and act according to the bigger picture.

    So Alden turned to the front gate, and it was easy to spot the three knights with glowing swords. Not just because of their glowing swords but mainly because of the bodies of his men that they were leaving in their wake.

    Alden looked at the wood golem beside him, which was waiting for instructions. He pointed and mentally envisioned the three glowing sword-wielders and simply said, ¡°Kill.¡±

    Hearing the command, the wooden golem, who looked like it had already shed a tenth of the leaves on its head, stepped off the wall and crashed through the roof of a building. From there, the golem walked through wall after wall like they were made of styrofoam bricks without any glue holding them together.

    As the golem made its way to the battle, most of the larger buildings were lucky to be still standing with a huge hole in them, while smaller buildings stood no chance as they got bulldozed by a walking wrecking ball.

    When the golem burst through the final wall and came face to face with the back line of the defending force, who almost shit themselves thinking they were getting backstabbed. Alden gave the mental instruction to not harm the friendly forces.

    To comply with Alden¡¯s command, while the friendly troops were throwing ineffectual stabs at the wood golem with their spears, the golem used its long arms to slowly and gently push aside the soldiers as if they were toddlers.

    Soon enough, one of the commanders on site saw that the golem was not aggressive and was making its way toward the enemy. Catching on quickly, he shouted for his men to make a hole.

    When the wooden golem made its way to its first target, it reached out with one huge hand to crush a knight wielding a glowing sword. But with unnatural swiftness and strength, the knight swung his sword and severed the golem¡¯s outstretched arm. But as the knight was confidently bringing his sword up on the reverse swing to fell the golem, the golem decked the knight with its other huge hand, sending the knight into the ground, making a small man-sized crater.

    The golem looked at the knight it had just punched. He was stumbling in the crater created by the impact of his body hitting the ground as the sword he was holding glowed brighter, making the limbs that were bent the wrong way from the impact start snapping back into their correct position.

    The golem did not wait for the knight to recover and started stomping the knight flat, armor and all. After three stomps, all that was left of the knight was a flattened suit of armor surrounded by meat paste and a glowing sword that was weakly pulsing and soon winked out.

    The surrounding soldiers who witnessed this one-sided beatdown stared in awe or fear, depending on which side they were on. But the golem did not care for their reaction. It turned its head and locked on its next target.

    Seeing that there were many bodies between itself and the next knight with a glowing sword, the golem started walking toward its next target as it regrew its severed arm. But instead of stopping at regrowing its arm, both arms started morphing from the brutish facsimile of hands into vine tendrils as thick as a man¡¯s waist and longer than the golem was tall.

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    With these thick vine arms, the golem started sweeping away the normal enemy knights and their rank-and-file soldiers.

    This act of so easily killing one of their elite units and sending men flying did not go unnoticed by the remaining two wielders of glowing swords, and with but a simple nod between each other, they dropped what they were currently doing and jumped toward the wooden golem, with their aura and whatever power was emanating from their swords.

    Unlike their departed comrade, these two remaining knights saw the golem for the threat it was and attacked conservatively. When the golem reached for them with its vine arms, they either avoided or cut it off.

    After avoiding a few attacks, the two knights started acting more aggressively, probing the golem¡¯s defenses and reaction speed. Once they were done probing, the two knights started attacking the golem with coordination that belied years of teamwork and training, as they darted in and out of range, trying to draw agro away from each other as the other attacked.

    Eventually, the two knights found a successful pattern of attack as they started successfully taking chunks out of the golem before they ducked out of range or defended an attack for one another.

    As the two knights circled the golem once again, they gave each other a subtle nod before they both dashed in at the same time, feinted to the side as the golem launched a vine arm at each of them, and rushed into a blind spot that they had found. They were going in for the kill.

    What they did not know was that despite successfully entering the golem¡¯s blind spot, there was another pair of eyes watching them from the keep¡¯s walls. Seeing that the golem did not have the speed to catch these opponents unless they underestimated it, Alden used his connection to the golem to instruct it to ignore attacks from its ¡®blind spot¡¯ to lure them in.

    When Alden saw the two knights commit to a finishing attack, he gave the golem the mental signal. Receiving the signal from Alden, the golem turned its whole body, and the thick vine arms split into smaller vines, effectively forming two nets that used rotation to snare the two knights that were too close and moving too fast to back off.

    The webs of vines crashed into the knights and started wrapping around them. At first, the knights, with their swords close to their bodies, managed to cut their way out of the web of vines, but from the cut ends of the web of vines, more vines grew, wrapping around the swords and arms of the knights. This rapid growth of vines cocooned them in green.

    The vine cocoons wriggled and trembled as the encased knights struggled to break free, but as they struggled, they felt small vines wiggling up their faces. Those small vines started trying to invade their mouths, and as much as they tried, the vines pried their lips apart as it started invading their mouths, so they ripped and tore at the small vines with their teeth, but that did not stop the advance of the other small vines.

    The other small vines started crawling up the rest of their faces and started invading other holes. Their nose, eyes, and ears, the small vines, started making their way into the knights¡¯ bodies as they cried and choked to death, only being kept alive by the swords in their hands until the sword could heal them no more.

    When the golem felt the life and mana leave two knights, it detached the cocoons from its arms and turned to loom over the terrified enemy soldiers, who had just watched their elite knights die in a way they could not and did not want to fathom.

    Satisfied with the results and knowing that there was not much time left for the golem, Alden ordered the golem to kill as many enemies as it could. But just as the golem grew another pair of long vine arms, Alden noticed five men who did not wear the colors of his army or the Valorhelm Dominion, running in through the broken gates, using the Valorhelm Dominion soldiers as stepping stones, and even from his distance atop the keep walls, Alden could tell that these five men were all masters from how tight and uniform their auras formed around their bodies.

    Two of the new arrivals attacked the golem while the other three rushed and slaughtered their way to where the knights with the glowing swords were. When they arrived at the corpses, they reached down and took only the sword, or in the case of the two cocooned knights, the whole cocoon, and rushed back the way they came.

    The last two newcomers who were engaging the golem broke off back behind some of the enemy soldiers.

    Alden concentrated on them as they took out some kind of device. One of them looked in Alden¡¯s direction, while the other looked at the place on the roof where one of his men had sacrificed himself to take down the enemy knight. The moment they locked on their targets, they started making a beeline to where they were looking.

    Alden knew that whatever they were trying to retrieve was important, and he had already lost too much to let whatever these people were doing do what they wanted. He grabbed the mage next to him and said while pointing at the two newcomers, ¡°Tell all mage squads to bombard those two!¡±

 Chapter 196

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    I had my arms draped over two soldiers as they helped me back behind friendly lines, all while hearing the booms of the wooden golem I summoned swinging and trashing the bastard who backstabbed me by his legs.

    I had already cast enough healing magic to close up my wounds and make sure my blood stayed inside my body, but that was all just surface-level. Just beyond my skin, I was still suffering from severed muscles and a fucking punctured lung that had blood constantly flowing inside of it.

    I was soon brought to a tent and was quickly attended to by an apothecary who tried to push me down on a cot, only for me to resist and wheeze out, ¡°No¡­ lung¡­ big hole¡­ I heal.¡±

    Now that I am out of danger and not being dragged and jostled around to get here, I can finally concentrate my way through the pain and drowning sensation I am currently experiencing. It was only after the glow of healing magic appeared in my hand that the apothecary left me to my business.

    First things first, I brought the healing light to the right side of my chest and willed the magic to ignore my cut-up muscles and go directly to the puncture wounds in my right lung. As the spell took effect, I felt like ants were inside my lung and crawling all over the wound, biting on the edges of the holes in my lung. It made me want to reach through the wound in my chest and scratch, but that would defeat the purpose, so I just had to put up with squirming on my cot.

    A few minutes later, I felt the wound in my lung heal, but that did not take care of the blood sloshing around in my lung. To do that, I had to make another hole in my lung. Counterintuitive, I know, but that is the only way I know how to drain my lung short of hanging me up by my legs and hoping the blood flows out of my mouth.

    I grabbed an apothecary who was walking by and said, ¡°Help¡­ armor¡­ off. Bring thin blade¡­ and small tube¡­ and strong spirits.¡±

    The apothecary nodded and started undoing the straps for my armor and helping me out of my chainmail and gambeson. Which was a bitch of an experience with my right chest and back muscles cut up.

    The moment I was bare-chested, the apothecary rushed off to get the stuff I requested. When he came back with what I asked for, I got the apothecary to assist me in stabbing myself in the bottom of my lung in order to shove a small tube up into it. But not before dousing the strong spirit on the area I was going to get stabbed, along with whatever was going into my body. And just for good luck, I took a big swig of whatever this spirit was and told the apothecary to get on with it.

    Without hesitation, the apothecary cut into me with a practiced motion and shoved the tube into my lung, almost like he had done this before. The moment I felt the tube pop into the bottom of my lung, I adjusted the mouth of the tube to be near flush with my lung before I used a healing spell to heal my lung around the mouth of the tube, making a nice seal, allowing all the blood pooled in my lung to flow out.

    This gave near-instant relief to my breathing, but there was still the faint feeling of drowning. I guess that is something that would eventually go away.

    Now that I had my breathing more or less back, I concentrated on the rest of my wounds.

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    As I was spending a shit load of my mana making sure that my muscle fibers healed back correctly, I have been getting general mental feedback on how the wooden golem was doing. The bastard who stabbed me was flung so hard that his body snapped and tore in two at his waist, and now the golem was following my latest instruction to kill the last of the glowing sword knights.

    The only problem was that the knight I instructed the golem to kill was actively avoiding the golem as he dashed around, killing more of our soldiers. So, instead of running after the knight, I was going to make the knight come to the golem.

    With a mental command, the golem stopped chasing after the knight and instead started making its way to the breach in the back gate. At first, the knight ignored the golem and continued slaughtering our men, but what really got his attention was when the golem reached the gate and reached out with its vine-like arms and started pulling the gate close.

    As the gate was slowly being closed, the enemy soldiers did all they could to try and push it open and attack the golem in an effort to stop it. But the golem was rooted to the ground, literally, providing a good anchor to exert its supernatural strength to close the gate, and while the gate was being closed, the wood golem¡¯s vine arms started creeping along the gate, seeping into and infesting the wood.

    When the gate finally boomed close, there was still a man-sized hole that was hacked into it, but when the creeping vines got to the hole, the gap was soon filled, and vines from both sides of the door crept and overlapped, effectively sealing the gates shut.

    Just as the gates were shut, I felt a phantom pressure at my waist and soon realized that the sensation was coming from my connection with the golem. As the golem looked down, it realized that it was cut in half at the waist, and in a flash, the was another two phantom pressures at my arms, most likely meaning that the golem¡¯s arms were cut off too.

    But from the impression I got from the golem, this was not a serious injury at all, as within the next second, tendrils came out of the cut-off sections and brought the cut-off parts back together.

    The golem rotated its head 180¡ã to see the knight, glowing sword held high, ready to split the golem in half down the middle, only for the golem to bend backward and headbutt the knight, sending him flying, allowing the golem time to uproot itself and detach its arms from the gate and regrow them.

    By the time the golem lumbered its way to the knight, it just headbutted, the knight was stumbling around like he had drunk a whole bar shelf while tugging at his dented helmet. The golem simply used its hand and slapped the knight down into the ground like a bug and kept slapping until there was no more reaction.

    ***

    Outside the wall at the back gate, five men in mismatched armor were each holding an amulet in their hands, but out of the five, only one remained inert.

    A few moments later, the last amulet lit up with a floating holographic arrow pointing inside the fort¡¯s walls.

    ¡°The last wielder of the Divine Armaments has fallen. Begin retrieval mission.¡± one of the men said.

    But as they looked at the gate that had been resealed by vines of some sort, another of the men asked, ¡°But how are we to get inside? Run to the front gate and hope they are still open?¡±

    After a few seconds of contemplation, one of them said, ¡°I have an idea, but this idea means only four of you can get in, and those four will need to make their own way out.¡±

    A few minutes later, four men were fifty meters away from the wall, while the last of the five was just at the base of the wall in a squatting position with his hands low to the ground, fingers interlocked, and palms up.

    When he was given the ready signal, the man at the base of the fort¡¯s wall flared his aura, and the other four men followed suit with their aura and started running at the man at the wall one after the other within a few seconds of each other.

    When the first of the four runners reached the man at the wall, he stepped into his open palms and pushed off as the squatting man heaved with all his might, tossing the first runner up in the air and over the wall. After doing so, the man at the base of the wall squatted and repeated this three more times.

 Chapter 197

    AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.

    Just as I had just finished connecting all the severed and torn muscle fibers in my body while watching the golem wreak havoc across the yard, four men who wore different armor from the Kingdom or the Dominion jumped over the wall, one after another, and seeing that the dominion soldiers did not mind them, it was clear which side they were on.

    The four men took out some kind of amulet that glowed, one of them holding two. After looking around the battlefield, they seemed to lock on to what they were looking for and jumped off the wall as their aura covered their body.

    They hopped over and stepped on the Dominion soldiers to get to wherever they were heading, but as they split up, it soon became obvious where they were heading. They were going toward where the three glowing sword knights had fallen.

    I did not know what they wanted with the corpses, but I was not going to let some unknown people barge in and try to recover something in the middle of a battle. That was downright rude in my book.

    I paused my healing to Whisper Wind what was left of my father¡¯s knights and the commanders keeping our troops in line. [Enemy Aura users incoming, headed toward bodies of enemy elites, High priority target, keep incoming unknown knights away.]

    The golem received the same message and started lumbering its way to the target closest to it.

    As for myself, I grabbed my spear, which a soldier was kind enough to help me retrieve, and pushed myself up with it. I immediately regretted that as I felt the barely healed would ache with pain, feeling like it would tear if I moved too much. But I can deal with that later; now I had to stop one of those newcomers who was heading toward the keep.

    Due to still being extremely sore due to overusing my Primal Aura to boost my strength and speed earlier, I resorted to just using my normal aura to chase after the guy heading to the keep.

    As I ran after him and jumped up onto a nearby roof, my bones creaked in protest, and my muscles screamed in pain, especially those from my barely healed wound.

    After chasing him over three roofs, I knew I was not going to catch him as he was running faster than I was. I also noticed that as he got closer to the wall the keep was on, he was fixated on two glowing amulets he had in his hands. But most important of all, I think he did not detect me chasing him, this gave me a chance to keep him from getting close to where Dad was.

    I stopped on the fourth roof, brought back my spear in a throwing position, and threw it as hard as I could, tearing my freshly healed wound in the process. I just gritted my teeth from the pain as I kept running while my spear was in flight.

    My spear flew and hit the man, catching him by surprise. But his aura was as strong as it seemed and blunted most of my spear¡¯s impact, causing the tip to veer off course and catch the side of his armor, throwing him off his jump trajectory and sending him spinning and crashing into a building.

    I ran toward the crash site of the man while awkwardly trying to unsheath the sword on my left hip with my left hand.

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    I landed on the roof of the building just in front of the building the man crashed into and was about to reach the edge to jump down and hopefully finish off the man when that same man jumped up on the same roof as me, sword in hand.

    The moment our eyes met, he charged me with a speed I had never experienced before. Slower than Professor Sageira, but still nothing to sneeze at. In the blink of an eye, he was before me, performing a vertical slice toward my right shoulder.

    In my battered state, I could only tilt my sword in time for his simple yet perfect slice to come in contact with my sword and deflect it off to the side, but even if I deflected the strike, I was still sent rolling from the impact.

    I recovered from my roll in time to dodge a stab to the head and parried away another stab. I sent a kick toward the man¡¯s groin, which got him to back off for the sake of his family jewels. This gave me time to get to my feet and ready my sword.

    As we eyeballed each other, I knew I was not in a good position. Besides my current condition, I was holding my sword in my left hand, but I was right-handed, and my right arm was in no condition to move. The worst part was that when I saw the look in the man¡¯s eyes, he knew that I was not using my dormant arm. I hate to admit it, but I was always kind of lazy training with my left hand, so I do not have much muscle memory of wielding a weapon with it. Guess this means I will need to get creative.

    The man began the fight again by dashing at me and taking a swing at my right side, followed by another at my legs when I dodged the first. I blocked the swipe at my legs and transitioned the impact from the block to swing my sword up and transition it into a stab at his chest, to which he parried at riposted.

    Back and forth, we tested the limits of each other¡¯s skills. After exchanging blows with this man, I can say that his technique is rather basic, focusing on setting up the opponent to be open for a powerful strike, and I have to say that those powerful strikes he delivers are close to perfection, something that can only be achieved by doing that same strike thousands, maybe even millions of times.

    As for what I think he sees in me, I think he sees me as some sort of agility fighter, and at this moment, he is right because it is the only thing keeping me alive as he is currently overpowering me by virtue of being in better condition than me.

    A few minutes later, defending against the man¡¯s onslaught, my exhaustion was catching up to me, and I could feel that my aura could not last much longer.

    It was then that I made a mistake. Seeing an opening, I lunged for the man¡¯s neck, but he was able to step back while bringing his sword up to meet my sword, and I pushed forward and guided my blade away from my body.

    Not having the speed or strength to contest this, I was disarmed of my sword, and when I quickly reached behind me to draw my dagger, the man¡¯s aura-coated sword lashed out on the return stroke, sending my helmet flying off my head.

    I stumbled and fell backward from the blow, and instead of drawing my dagger, my hand reached for the throwing knife holster at my thigh and sent three knives flying with what aura I had left on my way down.

    As I rolled backward, I could only hear the sound of one PING. When I laid eyes on the man again on recovering. He had one hand holding his sword up in front of him while his other hand was clutching his bleeding neck. When I looked further up, one of my throwing knives was embedded in his left eye, while his right eye wore the appearance of shock.

    A few seconds later, the man clattered to his knees and fell face-first on the ground.

    I slowly and painfully got on my feet and went to retrieve my sword, all while keeping my eyes on the supposedly dead man.

    It was only after I stabbed his body in the neck, did it fall back on my ass, too tired to move. I am just going to have to trust the other men and the golem to sort out the other three.

 Chapter 198

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    I lay limp on the roof next to this unknown warrior as the sounds of battle raged further in the distance. Using the last dregs of strength I could squeeze out of my muscles, I rotated myself and sat up to face the onboarding battle at the back gate. Just in time, I saw the other three men in mismatched armor jump back over the wall, each clutching something.

    I do not know what they took, but I am grateful that such formidable opponents did not stay to fight. As for the enemies that were still inside the walls, they were getting their asses handed to them with the help of my golem, who I sensed its time was nearly up. The only thing I could do was watch on as the soldiers did their jobs.

    Within half an hour, the enemies within our walls had either surrendered or died, and the walls were successfully defended against any climbers. As for the golem I summoned, the last leaf from its head had fallen when the enemy was almost cleared up and became still, a few seconds later, it started rooting itself to the ground and growing into an actual tree, if a little humanoid looking.

    Shortly after the inside of the fort had been secured and what was left of the enemy outside the walls shrank back into the darkness of night, one of Dad¡¯s knights, whose left arm was dangling from a strip of meat, landed on the roof where I was. ¡°Young Master, it''s good to see you are alive and well.¡± he said as he looked between me and the unknown warrior I had killed.

    ¡°I can only agree with the alive part, Sir Hammel. The well part, not so much. I have not the strength to move, much less stand. And I doubt you are in any position to help me at the moment.¡± I said as I jerked my head at his almost severed arm. ¡°Go have that arm looked at before you really lose it. Just call someone to come and pick me up. I don¡¯t mind lying here for a while.¡±

    Sir Hammel just huffed and walked towards me, ¡°Young Master, what do you take me for? Some kind of soft-handed lady, tis but a flesh wound, and besides, I have another arm.¡± He then single-handedly picked me up like a sack of potatoes and brought me back to the keep, where Dad was shouting orders and shouting some more to request the latest updates.

    But he was interrupted by Sir Hammel, who knocked on the door with his foot. ¡°My Lord, I found him.¡±

    The moment Dad heard that, he pushed a few of the commanders out of the way and ran to me, ¡°Son? Are you hurt anywhere?¡± he said as he patted me down to check for injuries and found the hole punched through my armor.

    ¡°I got stabbed through my chest, but I got that healed. Other than that, I am just too tired to move. And weren''t we keeping our identity secret?¡± I asked, but Dad only gave me the side eye.

    ¡°You revealed your identity when you called me Dad in front of the mages. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if half the fort knows by now,¡± Dad replied. ¡°But we can talk about that later. The place is still in chaos, and we don¡¯t know the situation outside. Sir Hammel, please take my son to his room to rest.¡±

    Just as Sir Hammel turned around to take me to my room, I said, ¡°Dad, when all those knights with the glowing swords died, some unknown warriors came and took something from the corpses of those knights, and I managed to kill one. What were they after? I saw them take something, but I was too far away to see what it was.¡±

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    Dad turned to me and said, ¡°They took the glowing swords off the dead knights. We even captured one of the knights who used the glowing swords. It was the one you fought on the wall¡­ but he isn¡¯t responding to anything. He just sits like a puppet with its strings cut.¡±

    I just nodded, and Sir Hammel brought me to my room and helped me out of my armor. The moment my head hit the pillow, I was out.

    ***

    ~Alden Ironcrest POV~

    Alden was glad that his son was fine, but he still had a fort to command, and his current objective was to secure the fort. Besides the dead and captured, he could not rule out saboteurs who slipped in during the fighting.

    He had every commander take account of their men and make sure everyone was who they said they were, at this point, Alden did not think the enemy was above wearing a fallen soldier¡¯s armor in order to slip into his ranks. To combat this, he gave out the command to hold anyone who nobody recognized.

    The next big thing on the list he needed to address was the breach points, namely the front and back gates. They had man-sized holes punched through them, and said damage had also damaged the enchantments and arrays protecting the gates. Seeing that the physical and magical repairs would be time-consuming, he decided on the fast and dirty method of securing the gate by piling rubble from broken buildings behind the gates, at least for the night, while he had the engineers rope down from the walls to repair the holes, or to be more accurate, hole.

    Turns out, from what he heard, his son¡¯s golem used its plant magic to grow vines to plug the hole and fuse the gate shut. The engineer who was going to un-fuse the gate was going to do a lot of sawing.

    Next was the thing that was really plaguing him: a major lack of intel. All Alden knew before he was attacked was that the sister-forts on both sides of him were under attack. And now that he survived a surprise attack from a relatively small force, was there a bigger force coming to finish the job? Alden did not know, and he wanted to find out, but he knew that doing so was sending his scouts to their certain deaths due to the enemy forces that retreated back into the darkness of the night. So he did what he could and simply tripled the guard on the walls.

    Hours later, after all the security measures he could think of were implemented, the morning sun peeked over the horizon. Alden was still awake, and so were most of the command staff. One of the commanders came up to Alden¡¯s desk and handed him a report. ¡°Here is the causality report, My Lord.¡±

    This was the part of any conflict that Alden hated when he was in command, win or lose. What he saw was numbers on parchment, but he knew that it was more than that. It was husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers who would not be coming to see their loved ones. What made it worse was that among the dead were almost half of the knights he had brought with him.

    Those men were his friends and brothers-in-arms from his previous knight order who chose to uproot their lives and follow him. And now, if he survived whatever was going on out there, he was going to go home to face the family of his dead brothers-in-arms and give them the news.

    Knowing that he had lost so many of his close friends, Alden had half a mind to torture and kill the captured soldiers. Especially the knight who was the wielder of one of the glowing swords that they had captured. But seeing that he was in a vegetative state, Alden did not think he would even register anything.

    It took a few seconds of fuming with his dark thoughts before Alden snapped out of it. Now was not the time to linger with his dark thoughts. The living still depended on his command, and he would not let down the living.

 Chapter 199

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    ~Valorhelm Dominion¡¯s 3rd Legion HQ, In no man''s land between the Valorhelm Dominion and Argus Kingdom~

    Prince Avontus Valorhelm, the sixth prince of the Valorhelm Dominion, sipped wine in the company of Priest Advan, who was served tea by his acolytes. Both of them were waiting for their forces to return from the assault on the fort with news of victory.

    They were mid-conversation on the finer points of philosophy when the simple wooden gates to their temporary camp opened. This allowed in what remained of the Dominion troops, along with nine warriors in mismatched armor.

    Soon, General Vash was kneeling down before his prince while the nine warriors stood before Priest Advan.

    ¡°Report, General. The fact that you are here yourself and not a messenger to fetch me to the fort means you have failed to capture the fort. Despite the gifts from our friends.¡± the prince said while emphasizing ¡®friends¡¯ while giving the side eye to the priest.

    ¡°Apologies, My Lord.¡± General Vash said while facing the ground and reported on what his observers saw before the wood golems plugged the breached gates.

    After listening to the report, the anger that had once been in the prince¡¯s eyes was replaced by worry and slight incredulity. ¡®Our knights with Divine Armaments were sweeping through their lines, only to be stopped by golems of a level that crushed those knights like bugs and wiped out swathes of my troops? What is something like that doing here? I only ever heard of things like that guarding capitals or major cities or strategically being deployed in large-scale conflicts.¡¯

    While the general was reporting, the priest was listening intently. While the prince was thinking, the priest addressed his men: ¡°Paladins, is this true? Did you face these golems? I noticed one of your battle brothers is missing. What happened to him?¡±

    The oldest among the paladins in disguise spoke up. ¡°The general speaks true, brother. The golems were most fearsome. We had to avoid them when carrying out our retrieval of the Divine Armaments. We managed to retrieve six of them, but the other four wielders of Divine Armaments died further inside the fort. By the time we retrieved the few easy ones, the enemy was wise to our targets and concentrated on us, forcing us to retreat. Brother Kronos, Andos, and Daeros went after the swords further inside the fort but were repelled by enemy mage squads. Bother Kronos was killed by an enemy knight.¡±

    The priest nodded while gesturing his religion¡¯s holy sign, and the rest of the priest¡¯s group nearby followed his example.

    ¡°Then what of the swords left at the fort? What if the enemy turns these weapons against us?¡± the prince asked.

    The priest shook his head. ¡°It is of little consequence. And there is no chance of those blades being turned against you. When those men died, the power in those swords died with them. They were bound as one.¡± the priest explained. ¡°We retrieved as many as we could for research and precaution''s sake.¡±

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    ¡°That is good to hear.¡± Said a man draped in a hooded cloak as black as night, the hood hiding his face as the cloak hid the rest of his body. The only thing distinct about his appearance was a golden chain around his neck that had a golden eye medallion.

    This hooded man standing before them is a Dominion¡¯s Eye, one of a select few who report directly to the king of the Valorhelm Dominion and enact his will. Not even the prince could order them around.

    The sudden appearance of the man shocked everyone and put every experienced combatant on edge. Someone who could manipulate their aura to such an extent that they could move unnoticed in their midst was not one to be taken lightly by any stretch of the imagination.

    Just as the priest was stepping away and the paladins of the Zagraf Theocracy were about to draw their swords, Prince Avontus quickly got down on one knee and asked, ¡°What is my father¡¯s will?¡±

    This stopped the Zagraf Theocracy delegation as the Dominion¡¯s Eye looked down upon the prince. ¡°I have heard the reports and see firsthand the power of the Divine Armaments.¡± he then turned to the priest and said, ¡°The king thanks you for your service and will get in touch with your people soon.¡±

    The priest was uncertain about what was happening, but seeing that the prince recognized the man and was showing respect to him, or at least to the person behind him, the priest decided to go with the flow. He gave a polite nod before asking, ¡°So I take it that this concludes our business?¡±

    The Dominion¡¯s Eye nodded, and the priest decided that this was his cue to get his people away from this dangerous man.

    When the Zagraf Theocracy delegation left, the prince turned to the Dominion¡¯s Eye and said, ¡°Eye, if my father would grant me more men, I am sure we can take the fort. All I need is one more chance to-¡± The prince said this but was cut off by the Dominion¡¯s Eye raising his hand.

    ¡°That is not necessary. Now that your part has been played, I can reveal to you that the fort was never meant to be taken. This was all just a weapon¡¯s test.¡± he then gestured into the distance where many forts along the border were. ¡°Your group is one among many that are testing different weapons of the Theocracy. In exchange, they will provide us with said weapons when the time comes. Although the resistance at this fort was unexpected, we got the results that we came for. For now, your job is done, and your father has called you home.¡±

    When the Dominion¡¯s Eye was finished with what he had to say, he walked out of the tent, blended in with the darkness, and was gone.

    ***

    I woke up the next day with my body aching everywhere, but it was an improvement from yesterday. However, as I took in a breath of morning air, the same could not be said about how I smelled.

    After freshening up and getting into some new clothes, I felt my stomach protest in hunger. So, I made my way to the mess hall for some food. On my way there, more than a few men who saw me in the hallway seemed to greet me more respectfully than they did since I got here.

    At first, I was wondering what stick got shoved up their asses, but I then remembered what happened yesterday. I had blown my cover, and it did not take a genius for the men to put two and two together. If news of me being the Fort Commander¡¯s son got to half of the fort yesterday, I could be damned sure that the whole fort knows by today. The only silver lining I can see is that not everyone can put my face to a name yet, but I am sure that will change in the days to come.

    After a big breakfast, I went to find Dad in his office, but he was not there. When I asked around, I was informed that he was in the dungeon overseeing the interrogation. So I made my way to see him. I wonder what info they got out of the survivors so far.

 Chapter 200

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    When I made my way to the fort¡¯s dungeon, I found Dad and a few other men looking down at a man in chains. And for some reason, that man looked familiar. After tilting my head while looking, things clicked in my head.

    This was the knight who I ran my spear into his head through his eye. Yet, here he was with an eyeball in the socket that I was damned sure I had destroyed. Even if someone reattached his eye, it would take days to restore its function, but it looked like this man¡¯s eye was regenerated. Regenerating lost body parts was the very, very expensive work of skilled healers that took months. This just did not make sense.

    But as I studied him longer and looked at him, I felt something was wrong¡­ it was his eyes. Even though I could see his chest rising and falling with each breath, the light of life, or maybe consciousness I see in people and even animals, was not there. The lights were on, but nobody was home.

    I stepped up to Dad to make my presence known. ¡°What¡¯s the deal with him?¡± I asked, gesturing to the chained-up vegetable before us.

    ¡°He was the only one of those knights with glowing swords that we managed to capture alive¡­ if you can call this alive.¡± Dad said as he gave the man¡¯s foot a light kick. But there was no response. ¡°When we found him, he was just lying there, and his sword was no longer glowing.¡±

    By now, I knew that those glowing swords had something to do with their regeneration, but I wondered if something went wrong when healing from my spear to his head. ¡°Huh¡­ last time I saw him, I put my spear in his head. Did the fort¡¯s healer take a look to see what''s wrong with him?¡±

    Dad just shook his head, ¡°At the moment, you are the only person in this fort with healing magic. The fort¡¯s healer caught a stray bolt to the head while he was in the healer¡¯s tent. Maybe you can see what is wrong with the man.¡±

    I just shrugged and stepped forward to give it my best shot. I chanted a diagnostic spell and put my hand on his head, letting the mana from the spell flow into the man, and that''s when I found the first oddity. My mana entered him way too easily.

    During my Healer course back at the Academy, after hours upon hours of dry theory, the diagnostic spell, Scan, was the first spell we learned, and we got to test this spell on everything that could be considered alive before we even got a chance to use it on another person. That meant I scanned horses, cattle, and bunny rabbits all the way down to an ant that had been glued to the table. Yet, even the any I scanned gave me more resistance than the man before me.

    After I was done scanning his whole body with my spell, besides some old scars and signs of small kidney stones, he was healthy as a horse. Finding no immediate answers, I concentrated on his head, seeing that that was where I stabbed the man.

    As I concentrated on his head, I started looking for any fresh tissue growth. What I found was a suspiciously pointed patch of fresh tissue growth in the shape of my spearhead. But other than that, his brain was whole and healthy.

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    As I was thinking about what else to test, an idea came to me. Medical science in this world was not as advanced, mainly because magic could solve most woes, so they did not know the finer points of why and how the body did what it did, and I cannot claim I was much better.

    But even with my layman level of medical knowledge and anatomy from my previous world, I knew that the body operated by the brain sending almost undetectable electrical signals to and from the brain. All I needed to do was sense those signals. I had a theory, and I was not afraid to test it on this bastard who invaded the fort.

    To accomplish this, I had to add some Instinctive magic to the mix. Thankfully, those in the cell with me were not mages, so they might not pick up on what I was doing. When I was exchanging information with Professor Sageira, she trained me on how to use instinctive magic as most magic beasts do, which needed me to sense the element I was using. After I got the hang of it, I could sense the elements in my surroundings if I concentrated hard enough. So that was what I was going to do now, I was going to try to sense the electrical activity in this man¡¯s brain.

    I asked for the man to be tied to a chair, and when the man was ready, I stepped behind him, grabbed his head with both my hands, and cast Scan again, but with a twist. As the Scan Spell entered the man¡¯s body, I isolated the mana from the spell only to his head while I concentrated on sensing electrical signals in the man¡¯s head.

    After a few minutes of hard concentration, I got nothing. I am guessing the electrical signals flowing through the body were just too minute for me to sense, and it did not help that the man was a fucking vegetable.

    After brainstorming for a while, I thought maybe I could use external simulation to get a reaction, so I asked one of the men standing around to squeeze one of the fingertips of my test subject, enough to cause pain.

    When he did, I thought I saw the ghost of a reaction, but I could not be sure it was just my wishful thinking. So, I asked my newly appointed assistant to do it again, and once again, I saw the ghost of a reaction. But I still did not trust what I saw. This will take some testing.

    After the better part of two hours, I was drenched in sweat and low on mana from nonstop use of Scan. But despite my fatigue, I had a huge ass smile on my face because I may be the first person in this world to perform an Electroencephalogram (EEG).

    It took me concentrating to the point that I was sweating bullets, but I did it, I was able to sense the brain activity when my subject was subjected to external stimuli. Those stimuli involved inflicting pain by squeezing his fingers, poking him with a needle, and slapping his arms and legs. We also tried running a feather across his skin and ticklish areas, waving a torch in front of his eyes, shouting at him, and even having him smell the inside of one of the men¡¯s boots.

    Each of these actions made different parts of his brain light up for me, and after seeing what lit up and what did not, I had a hypothesis on what was going on.

    After wiping the sweat from my face, I turned to Dad and said, ¡°I think I know what is going on. I suspect that after I stabbed and destroyed part of his brain, the glowing sword regenerated the damaged part. But the brain is something we do not really understand, so I can only speculate that the brain that grew back is just that, the brain, but maybe the memories stored in the part I destroyed could not be regrown. But that is just my opinion. I could be wrong.¡±

    Dad tilted his head in contemplation, ¡°If what you say is true, then this man may be useless to us.¡± he signed.

    Seeing that Dad was rather bummed out, I steered the subject. ¡°So, what intel did we get out of the other prisoners?¡±

 Chapter 201

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    What we got out of the prisoners of war was not much. According to Dad, most of the information we got could have been obtained from the spies we had in the Valorhelm Dominion. The only thing interesting was the involvement of a third party.

    That being the Zagraf Theocracy, but we could not prove any of that. The recovered glowing swords, which were not glowing anymore, were all unmarked, well-made, ordinary swords. They were not even made of any mana-conductive metals.

    As for the warrior I killed on the roof, we suspected that he belonged to the theocracy, but after thoroughly searching his corpse, we could find nothing tying him back to the Zagraf Theocracy, which meant another dead end.

    But that was a problem for later. Our problem now was that we were blind to beyond what we could see from our walls, and we were still recovering from last night''s attack. What we needed right now was to get word of the attack to the rear lines so that we could get some serious backup.

    In an effort to do that, Dad was rounding up some men, led by one of these knights, to ride hard to the rear and get the word out. In the meantime, on the count of the main healer being dead, Dad put me to work.

    When I entered the infirmary, apothecaries and other infirmary staff were running around, changing bandages and tending to the wounded. This amazed me because it had been a few hours since I went to sleep, and I spent a couple of hours scanning the POW, and they were still this busy.

    I closed my eyes and checked on my mana levels. I was somewhat low, but if I played my cards right, I could clear some patients out of the infirmary.

    I caught an infirmary staff walking in with fresh bandages and said, ¡°I am the new healer. Bring me to the most critical patients.¡±

    The man looked at me like I was the second coming of Christ and quickly led me to the back of the infirmary. When I reached there, all of the critically injured mainly consisted of those with head and chest wounds.

    My first patient was a deathly pail and had an arrow sticking out of his chest. When I scanned him with a spell, I found that the tip of the arrow had just nicked a hole in one of the main arteries connected to his heart, and the arrowhead plugging the hole was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out a lot faster than he already was.

    Seeing that the man was going to die at any moment, I decided that the quick and dirty method was the way to go. I washed my hands and called over one of the apothecaries to assist me. But first, I had to confirm something. ¡°Are the arrows barbed?¡±

    ¡°No, My Lord, they are all bodkin tipped.¡± he replied.

    ¡°Good, here''s the plan: you pull the arrow out as straight as possible, and I will stick my finger in to heal the puncture.¡± I said, but the only look I got from the man was one of incredulity.

    ¡°My Lord, are you sure that is wise? The arrow is at his heart. I do not think poking it is advisable.¡± he protested.

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    I just shook my head. ¡°Correction, near the heart, not at the heart. It is one of the main arteries that got hit. So are you ready? This man does not have long.¡±

    The man just sighed, nodded, and hovered his hands over the arrow, ready to pull it out.

    I cast and concentrated a healing spell on my index finger, and on my signal, the apothecary pulled out the arrow with steady hands. When the arrow tip left the wound, I drove my finger with the healing spell into the open wound and moved my finger to the now-gushing artery under the guidance of the Scan spell I was channeling with my other hand.

    My finger plugged the hole, and the healing spell started taking effect on the local area my finger was touching. As the hole started healing around my fingertip, I slowly pulled my finger back until the wound closed from inside the artery. By the time my finger left the artery, the hole had closed up, and the outer layers of the artery had healed.

    I pulled my finger out of the hole and said, ¡°All done.¡± as I washed my hands in a basin.

    ¡°My Lord, what of the hole in his chest?¡± the apothecary asked.

    ¡°I was already low on mana before I got here, so I need to conserve mana to treat the others. The life-threatening wound has already been healed. Apply some salves to prevent infection and sew close the wound. If the alchemist has a blood-producing potion, give it to him. Now, bring me to the next patient.¡± I said as I dried off my hands.

    Patient after patient, I scanned and healed them to the point that their lives were not in danger. Every other non-life-threatening wound they had would be left to be treated by more mundane means.

    The only patients that I was not confident in treating were those with wounds to their heads. Fortunately, most of them were just minor concussions and brain bleeding. Those I could handle by using a healing spell to reduce the swelling or cutting using a scalpel covered in aura to cut a small hole in their skull to drain the blood and relieve pressure. The real problems were those who suffered injuries similar to those of the enemy knight in the dungeon.

    They had parts of their brain destroyed with skull fragments embedded inside but were somehow still alive, and I was not confident to go rooting around to pluck out skull fragments in case I worsened their condition.

    The best I could do was pluck out what fragments I could see, heal them up, and hope they do not become vegetables in the future.

    After twenty or so patients, I was totally tapped out of mana. All this while, I was barely keeping up with the mana I naturally generated, but now, even with my conditioned mana pathways, I was feeling the stress of mana abuse. So I told the infirmary staff to come and get me in four hours.

    I then dragged my ass to the mess hall to stuff my face and went to crash on my bed to rest up.

    What felt like five minutes later, I was shaken awake, ¡°My Lord. It is time.¡±

    ¡°... five more minutes¡­¡± I muttered out as I turned in my bed away from whoever was shaking me.

    ¡°But, My Lord, you told us to wake you up four hours later. It is time.¡± the voice said.

    I opened an eye that was facing out the window and noticed that it was late in the afternoon, yet I felt like I had barely slept. Mana abuse is a bitch.

    I dragged my ass out of bed and made my way to the infirmary to carry on with the healing.

    ***

    Three days later, the group of riders Dad sent out to send a message came back. We had all expected them to be ambushed, but the only injuries they got were big bites and scratches from riding too close to tree branches.

    It turns out that when the enemy retreated, so did the ambush teams. Now, all we had to do was hold out while waiting for reinforcements to come and relieve us and our sister forts. When they came, we could go home.

    I just hope news of me getting stabbed through the chest does not get back to Mum. Otherwise, I can kiss my chances of going anywhere without her making a fuss goodbye.