《War Of Mortal Gods》


 prologue: Memories Of A Soul

    As the weightless feeling pulled me along purgatory , I began recalling old memories of my life That I once lived resurfaced in my mind I saw memories of my first life, well only the end of my first life.


    I remember vaguely that I was in an airport when a massive bombing hit the building. I remembered throwing myself over the closest person to me unconsciously when the first initial explosion went off. When all the explosions went off I could hardly see because most of the bombs compromised the building causing some places to collapse and large dust and smokes clouds to rise obscuring my vision. Possibly by luck, a nearby phone was nearby giving off enough light and allowing me to vaguely see my surroundings, so when I looked down to see the person I covered, I found two young girls below me. Both were possibly around the age of eight or nine and aside from some cuts and bruises, both seemed okay, except for one was unconscious.


    Quickly looking up at my surroundings, what I saw forced to look away again, what I saw were the bodies of dozens of people, some bleeding badly and injured, others dead, but some bodies weren¡¯t even in one piece with limbs missing. The little girl that was still conscious, began crying and then tried to turn her head to look around while in a daze, but I stopped her.


    I kept telling her comforting words and trying to prevent her from being traumatized by what was around her. Even though I strangely felt my life sipping away as I found it difficult to stay awake and felt my body gradually getting cold and weaker, but I continued trying to calm the girl. I can¡¯t remember what she said or what I said but moments drew longer as it felt like time slowed until my eyes finally lost the fight as darkness finally pulled me and my life was extinguished.


    Who knows how long until I felt my thoughts return and I found myself in a purgatory; how¡¯d I know to call it at purgatory, well, when you look around and all you see is black and white everywhere that defied reason as I could see both colors fill the strange void everywhere at the same time. Black where white was and white where black was, you just learn assume to call it purgatory. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    It was hard to describe what I saw in detailed, but if I had to give an idea it was numerous beings that surrounded me, these beings seemed in to be irreconcilable and was similar to the void around me, they seemed to be everything and nothing, young and old, curious and indifferent. They seemed to embody every contradiction or paradox possible with no care to how vastly different the concepts were to each other. All I could call them were true gods, an entity that was so incomprehensible that I gave up trying to fully understand then.


    These beings I called the gods began to speak to me, but being in front of them and trying to understand these beings caused me to zone out, but strangely everything they said still stuck in my mind.


    From what I could understand was they spoke of me having a special soul that they explained in a way that was easy for me to understand. They said that I held the hero attribute that made my soul special even though I always felt normal when comparing myself to my friends and family around me and then gave me a choice.


    I say it was a choice but that is not true, I was told that I could either become a hero that protects the balance of various worlds and after a set number of what they called tasks were completed, I would have one wish granted or choose the other option, which was that I would have my memories forcibly wiped and then sent through the reincarnation cycle.


    Seeing which one was the best choice easily, I choose to become a hero that defends the balance. I always liked helping others throughout my life and becoming a hero seemed like a good way to help others in need so this seemed to be the best choice for me to choose.


    Ironically, little did I know back then, that I would eventually regret not choosing the second choice, as I may have suffered a lot less than I have later down the line, but that is what the definition of regret means, to go back and wish to choose a different outcome in the linear path that¡¯s called life.

 Chapter 1- The Summoning Of Heroes

    On a world that for five years has been in peaceful state with no wars, an oracle was received all around the world that foretold of a great danger that would threaten to eradicate all life on the planet from an unknown entity.


    Panic spread across thevarious kingdomsleadersfrom this oracle, having already experienced a calamity just five years before, the world was in a fragile state to begin with. Many felt that this was truly the end for them, but little did most of them, the universe and the gods that rule are the ones that value the balance and work to prevent the destruction of whole worlds.


    Days after the oracle was received, the two strongest allied nations agreed to commence with the failsafe plan given to them by the gods above in the heavens. The failsafe that was given was the Hero Summoning that would summon beings that defend the natural balance, but one king held hesitation. His hesitation is understandable since they already had to use the hero summoning only 12 years before, but regardless he proceeded with the plan to protect the world.


    Days later two pillars of pure light rained down over both nations royal capital symbolizing the usage of the hero summoning and alerting everyone in the world about the presence of the Heroes arrival. Many people rejoiced as the heroes always brought with them a new era to the world, while some held fear, since the arrival of heroes also represented a danger that required heroes to fight was approaching in the future. No matter what the heroes represent, no one could truly tell what will be the outcome of this battle, not even the gods that oversee the worlds could foresee the outcome of it.


    -Grand Anthis Kingdom-


    (??? POV)


    As the blinding light that surrounded me began to dim and gradually fade, I finally could scan my surroundings to grasp the situation. Unfortunately, this sight is nothing new to me as what I see is a grey room made of stone and numerous men dressed in long dark robes that were overly decorated. Standing behind the robed men were a handful of others that wore grey armor that while looked like useless ceremonial armor for knights tricked the eye since I could see that they were made practically for the most optimal combat. I noticed a few of the robed mages collapse onto the floor, most likely due to mana exhaustion from the large toll that results from the hero summoning. Turning around, much to my relief I found my best friend also standing close by along with an unfamiliar face as well. The unfamiliar face belonged to a tall muscular man, probably around 6 foot 2 inches in height with short blonde hair and green eyes with an average looking face.


    I guess I should explain who I am, my name is Aearial which was my name when I lived my first life. I am what is known as a trans dimensional hero and no am I not some delusional teenager, I am given the task of being a warrior that defends the natural balance of different worlds and this is my third time I have been summoned.


    You may be wondering how this happened to me, well it all began just like all the stories my sister used to read all the time, it began when I died in my first life. I died when I attempting to rescue a young girl from getting kidnapped by some big burly men, I was confident in my martial arts so when I sneaked close to them while they were in the alleyway, I got the drop on a few of them and knocked three of them down before I grabbed the girl and ran away with her. I knew it was a losing fight since I lost my element of surprise and there being around six guys, it was hopeless so I ran. Long story short, one of the men pulled a gun out and began firing at us who were almost out the alley, a few of the bullets flew past us alerting me to the gun in which I proceeded to get behind the girl to cover her. This action resulted in me getting hit by two bullets, but the girl I rescued didn¡¯t know this. Taking advantage of this I kept yelling to keep running no matter what, I guess the fear of death gripped her as she kept running while crying even when I collapsed from my wounds and leaving me behind unknowningly. Now this may seem heartless but I was happy that with my life, I finally could save someone from harm just like he did that day. These thoughts were the last thing that ran through my head until I finally died and felt darkness consume me as I succumbed to my wounds, my only regret was that I was leaving my sister behind once I died.


    After I died, I found myself in front of 12 orbs that cut me a deal in which I become what they call a hero that defends the natural balance and be summoned to various worlds. They also said that when I completed 50 tasks or summoning, then I could have one wish granted of my choice. Even though I had the chance to have a wish granted, I didn¡¯t really care for that since I had the chance to protect others and save lives so I accepted the offer, thus here I am today working to complete task number four in this journey I walk. I should probably end the inner monologue since my friend will get mad if I continue ignoring her. My friend¡¯s name by the way is Elena and she is 5 Ft 9 inches in height with both long black hair and black eyes.


    ¡°¡­hey Aria, are you listening to me, I said did you get your task already.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Yep, I assume it¡¯s the same as yours right, converge and meet with the other heroes, train under the leading hero, prepare surrounding nations and combat the fallen legends whoever they are.¡± (Aearial)


    ¡°That¡¯s right, well what about you new face, is that the same as what you got?¡± (Elena)


    ¡°That¡¯s correct, based on what you two said, is this your first time for this or what, also my name is Halbert, not new face.¡± (Halbert)


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    ¡°Alright Halbert, well answering your question, no this isn¡¯t our first time, we are well experienced with this, so I guess this is your first time¡± (Elena)


    ¡°That¡¯s right, while I¡¯m not new to actual combat, I¡¯m new to the whole summoning business, also nice to me both of you and if I could know your names as well?¡± (Halbert)


    "My Name is Aearial, but my friends call me Aria and this is Elena." (Aearial)


    After everyone greeted each other, we all turned to the old man that walked towards us along with a woman wearing knights armor who looked around 30 or so while the old man looked around 40 years old. When they got closer, the old man who was wearing very formal clothing began to talk to us.


    ¡°I would like to formally welcome you heroes to this world that you have been summoned into and extend our gratitua and apologize in place for our majesty. Due to recent events, the amount of paperwork he has gotten has been demanding his immediate attention that he is unable to greet all of you.¡± (Old man)


    ¡°Its no problem for us, to be honest excess formalities are annoying for us since it takes up too much time.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Thank you for your understanding, if you could please follow me, I can take you to another room where we can discuss matters in private and what is to come in the future.¡± (Old Man)


    With that, all of us followed the old man and female knight out the current room and down a few corridors until finally arriving in front of another room. When we entered the room, all I saw was fancy furniture that consisted of three couches, two chairs, and a coffee table in the center of the room with all the furniture being similar in design and being the color red. After all of us sat down and got comfortable except for the female knight who continued to stand next to the old man.


    ¡°Well to begin with based on past records, I can assume that you heroes already know what you must do even before you were summoned, am I correct.¡± (Old man)


    Since I have never been one for these conversations and most likely because we are more than experienced than he is, Halbert and I left the role of speaking to Elena who was better at this.


    ¡°That is correct, all three of us already received our task. We were all instructed that we are to meet up with the other heroes and then begin training. We were also told that we need to prepare the surrounding nations for the it.¡± (Elena)


    When Elena explained that, the old man looked slightly shocked before he regained his composure and replied.


    ¡°When that¡¯s fortunate since, when our majesty planned along with the neighboring kingdoms king before commencing the summoning, they decided that once the heroes are summoned, it would be helpful for them to grasp the situation by having them all head to the Grand Magic and Martial Arts Academy.¡± (Old man)


    Geez, what a mouthful to say, I never really did understand why in fantasy medieval settings that they had the habit of making long and hard to say names.


    ¡°Well that would be very helpful, if you don¡¯t mind us asking, when would the latest that we can depart. Its not that we dislike this place, but from experience, it is usually best to begin preparation as soon as possible.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Well like I stated earlier, based on experience as well, we assumed that you would want to get started as soon as possible. Anticipating this, we already had a few Wyvern¡¯s and riders¡¯s prepared before hand. Also, you don¡¯t have to worry about preparing surrounding countries, that can be discussed in a month during the world summit.¡± (Old man)


    ¡°That¡¯s good to know, well we shouldn¡¯t dilly dally for long, it was good to meet you, but we should begin departure.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°We share mutual feelings as well, we hope for your safe travel and may the gods above watch over you in these uncertain times. Also, if I could ask, what does ¡®dilly dally¡¯ mean?¡± (Old Man)


    Elena who was listening began to blush at her slip of the tongue over the foreign slang that she said, quickly tried to gloss over it.


    ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about it, its just something that people used to say from where I came from, it basically means to not waste time. I apologize for my speech if it offended you before.¡± (Elena)


    Elena who quickly explained, began to apologize while bowing slightly. I¡¯m somewhat happy about her slip as I now have some ammunition to tease her with later, but leaving that for later after saying goodbye to the old man, we all left along with the female knight who began leading us to what they called the landing hanger.


    Even though she has been around us for some time, we still haven¡¯t heard a single word from the female knight, but before i could ask why, she spoke first as I noticed we arrived in a wide area with large winged creatures that were like dragons were lying down with harness gear on them and some people moving around them and strapping things to them as well. While I say, they were large, they were probably about half as tall as me who stood at 5 foot and 8 inches, but big enough to fit around two or three people based on the size of the harness. Also, before you ask, no I have seen a real dragon much to my disappointment, even though its fantasy, how come there are no dragons. Isn¡¯t the hero supposed to fight a dragon¡¯s based on what my sister always said, but I digress from the point.


    ¡°This is the landing hanger where you will be departing from, it should take only a day of flying to arrival at the academy up north. If you excuse me, I have other tasks to complete, I wish all of you the best and a safe journey.¡± (Female Knight)


    Before we could even reply, she turned around and left quickly leaving us to the riders to help us get set for the flight which took an hour to finally get set and leave.


    Long story short, it took around 30 minutes do get the harnesses set and strapped to us, but the problem we faced was that when we got near the Wyvern¡¯s, for some reason they got spooked by something and began to panic much to the surprise of their riders, but they quickly brought them under control allowing us to finally get going to leave. Even though they were controlled, for most of the ride it was uncomfortable having to sit through constant shaking coming from them.

 Chapter 2- Back In The familiar Purgatory

    (Cyril POV)


    As coherent thoughts finally began to return to my soul enough that I could focus on my surroundings, I once again recognized purgatory. Looking around, my eyes finally fell onto a woman holding a heavenly beautiful body, she had long silver hair that fell past her legs and the purest of cyan eyes that seemed to slightly grow in radiance, she maintained an hourglass body that would probably make even other gods drool in lust and a beautiful face that held ideal features for anyone no matter their preferences.


    She was a goddess that I am very familiar with that I can never forget no matter how broken or fragmented my memories become with the passage of time. Probably due to experience, I guessed that I was here because I already completed my last task and I am going to receive my next task to complete from my patron goddess who was named Alvina the Goddess of Revolution.


    ¡°You know, no matter times you say it, why is it that every time you arrive and meet with me, that¡¯s the thing you always first think of.¡± (Alvina)


    Who knows why I do that, you should know better than me how that it probably means that my soul is reaching its limit, I have gone through probably 78 lifetimes throughout time so it makes sense that there will be some problems with my soul and the memories I have. Moving on, so what¡¯s my next task for me, the faster I complete tasks, the faster I can earn my finish my set number of tasks and going through tedious work.


    ¡°I will never understand why even with the passage of time how you can change so much, but at the same time, not change at all. It truly is one of the mysteries that come with mortal souls, but that¡¯s what have always peaked our curiosity as gods especially mine seeing as i¡¯m the goddess of revolution. Alright, enough, you don¡¯t have to glare at me even if you don¡¯t have a body right now.¡± (Alvina)


    You know for a Goddess of Revolution, your habits also don¡¯t change as well, they can get annoying as well when you begin rambling on and on.


    ¡°Well, gods and goddess are incapable of evolving and changing with time, so sucks to be you since you have to get used to it. Already before you get any more annoyed, your next task is a bit different than what you¡¯ve experienced before. This time an anomaly that has been named the Fallen Legend is going to appear again soon. For your next task, you are being sent back to the world you were previously on since it is going to appear there next. You are going to be summoned along with three other heroes, two are still new while one is a bit experienced, you are going to assist in training them and teaching them. You are the acting leader this time and you¡¯ll have roughly three years to prepare the heroes and the surrounding nations.¡± (Alvina)The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    I get the gests of it, is there anything else I need to know before I am summoned?


    ¡°Yes, since you are being summoned back to the world you were on previously, you also have a side objective this time. As you already know, we cannot directly see things that are done by mortals, but we can feel possible threats to the worlds balance. Well aside from the Fallen Legends, we also felt another threat that is originating down south on the continent, we want you to investigate it and if necessary, eliminate it.


    You will have full reign over this task, you decide what needs to be done and the method needed to achieve it. Also, a word of warning with the Fallen Legends, you absolutely cannot allow yourself or the heroes be killed by them, if you should get killed by them, then your soul will be destroyed just like if you kill one of them then their souls will get destroyed. Both sides can destroy each other¡¯s souls, but not the souls of others that are not considered heroes.¡± (Alvina)


    Alright I understand the task this time and I should be off, I want to get this done as quickly and efficient as I can and be done with this hero business already.


    ¡°Good luck Cyril, I hope you succeed in finding what you need, and you better not allow yourself to die, I know how it¡¯s hard for you, but just don¡¯t allow yourself to be killed by them and don¡¯t kill the other heroes no matter how they may be while you are training them.¡± (Alvina)


    With the last warning, I felt my soul begin to get pulled and wrapped in a warm energy that seemed to act as a blanket as I felt the summoning process taking place and my physical body begin manifesting between the process as blinding light began radiating around me, symbolizing the successful hero summoning taking place.


    It¡¯s always a strange feeling when you see yourself in front like a mirror only to realize that you looking at a lifeless body without a soul while your soul floats in front of it. While floating in purgatory, it feels like you are submerged in a sea of nothing, moments later that same lifeless body that I was looking at began pulling my soul towards it as my body and soul began to synchronize together.


    The process is always strange since during the synchronization, the memories in my soul began to fill my brain as it imprints onto the physical body along with everything that makes up me. It imprints everything such as memories, muscle memories, habits, all my heightened senses. As it copies it from my soul which symbolizes my very existence, what makes up Cyril, but the problem lies with the memories as during the process I must remember every memory I have experienced and sometimes, certain memories are better left forgotten.


    Even though I won¡¯t be able to recall all my memories like someone with photographic memory, certain particularly strong memories tend to stick with me, some good, most though are bad. Once this was complete and my body and soul became one, I felt my body lifting from the seas of nothing and began experiencing familiar vertigo as it felt as if I was falling forever and in an instance standing on solid ground as blinding light surrounded me.


    It¡¯s seems that I have finally arrived back on this world, back on Coireall.

 Chapter 3- The Familiar Summoning Room once again

    (Cyril POV)


    As the blinding light finally began to fade and the lights intensity disappeared, I scan my surroundings and found that I was in a familiar room. It¡¯s very familiar since this was the same room that I was summoned to during my last task, but the sound of running pulled my attention as I noticed a shadow sprinting at me. Realizing this, I did the most normal thing that was possible, I avoided the small person attempting to tackle me resulting in the small person flying past me and falling flat on his face.


    ¡°When are going to learn that you won¡¯t ever succeed if you continue being loud when you are running. Seriously the first thing you do is attack me the second I arrive.¡± (Cyril)


    The young boy that was picking himself up while rubbing his face with small tears in his eyes was someone that pretty much grew up with me around him. His name was Henry and he was the first prince of the Azure Empire and second child to the king, he looked around until he laid his eyes on me and began to cry.


    ¡°Is that what you do when someone happily runs to hug you after seeing someone who has been gone for almost five years.¡± (Henry)


    ¡°I would say that it¡¯s an appropriate action to take when you appear in a room and someone is sprinting towards you.¡± (Cyril)


    Even though I replied, Henry still looks shocked at my words, if I had to say, it¡¯s a very normal reaction in my opinion, but who knows what¡¯s common sense anymore once you have traveled to numerous types of worlds. If you can imagine a world setting, I¡¯ve probably been there at least once. I have been to medieval worlds, wuxia worlds, xianxia worlds, futuristic worlds, contemporary worlds, but mostly magical worlds like this world.


    Speaking of this world, if I had to describe it, it¡¯s a magical world with little recorded history. While it¡¯s still a new and young world and somewhat advanced for its age, there are barely any focus on history and mythology that¡¯s known international. This world also only contains only two races that form a civilized society, they are humans and elves, but there are two lesser known races as well.


    One is the spirits of the world but their existence isn¡¯t generally known unless one is extremely gifted in magic. The other race, if you can call it a race since I know of only know of one such person, are still unnamed and only have a one in a billion chance of being born on a world. Aside from that, this world is still fairly average and the only calamity the world faced was destroyed by me just like Henry mentioned five years ago, but I digress.


    ¡°How can you call that a normal reaction even though I have missed you for five years since you disappeared.¡± (Henry)


    All I gave was a shoulder shrug while looking around some more before finding the person I was looking for.


    ¡°Hey, geezer, learn to teach your son better manners, he still continues to trying to tackle me everytime he see¡¯s me.¡± (Cyril)


    After calling out to him, the father of Henry, the king, who was in a state of shock finally regained himself and replied after a moment while shaking his head.


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    ¡°You are lucky that everyone in the room are the same ones that were there when you were summoned for the first time and are already familiar with you attitude. Also, I feel that¡¯s an appropriate action for when you see someone you dearly miss after a long time. Well, let¡¯s not just stand here, shall we head into another room to talk privately.¡± (Geezer)


    After agreeing while annoyed, leaving the summoning room, I followed the geezer and the now recomposed Henry into a private room. After sitting down on the couches inside the room, we got down to business once again.


    ¡°Knowing you for a while, I can assume you want to get started getting to work as soon as possible so I need to hear what¡¯s your tasks are this time.¡± (Geezer)


    ¡°It¡¯s fairly tedious but I have a few tasks this time. The main task is that I need to meet up and begin training the other heroes in combat as well as preparing the surrounding kingdoms for the fight against something called the Fallen Legends. I was also asked to investigate down south since there has been a danger to the natural balance detected down there as well.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I see, well regarding the last point regarding down south I can answer, as you may know that with the undead legion that attacked all those years ago while travelling north, after defeating them some problems arised.¡± (Geezer)


    Summarizing what the geezer explained It seems that once I killed the group of necromancers that created them the undead, all the undead fell apart, but the result was the mana in the area down south was corrupted by the malice given off by the undead. The outcome was that due to the corrupted mana, it became a breeding group for corrupted magical creatures in which this country and the neighboring country to the west had to step in and send soldiers to build a large buffer zone between the corrupted zone and the surviving country¡¯s that were almost destroyed for them to recover enough to stand independently.


    After asking about the current political state of the world I felt a headache begin to grow once again. The makeup of this world consisted of one huge continent (AN: the shape is like how Africa looks) with this country and their ally, the Grand Anthis Kingdom to the west cut off the continent down the middle horizontally. Going down south you will find the Mercenary nation, Zest to the west and the Providence of Fireheart that was mostly devastated by the damage. Going up north, directly in the center is the neutral terrority centered around the Grand Academy, bordering that to the Northeast is the Elf Empire that maintain a very hostile border control. moving in a counterclockwise direction you¡¯ll find North of the Elves empire is the Republic of terra, then the Heribalb Kingdom at the very far north, and finally the Militant Kingdom of Bellum. The problem was the political state was in a fragile state similar to a potential world war waiting to explode. I am currently in the Azure Empire and dont I don¡¯t have to worry about Anthis since both mainly focus on maintaining peace around the continent.


    The problem that makes it fragile most likely originates around Bellum who bolsters a powerful military but lack a lot of fertile land. Heribalb on the other hand is known as a trading hub due to their artic climate at the tip of the nation resulting in fishing industry and down south which was bountiful fertile lands for crops, but their military is not very strong compared to Bellum. To compensate for this, they are allied with the Republic of Terra very closely to deter invasion. Bellum is also allied with the elves when they signed an agreement. Down south of the continent, with Zest who didn¡¯t suffer much damage from the undead may jump on the chance to invade Fireheart who suffered huge damage and is attempting to recover. The only reason that world war wasn¡¯t happened is due to Azure and Anthis threatening to defend Heribalb and Fireheart in case of attack and since I personally helped reorganize their military structure and instated new tactics and training regiment, it would most likely result in the Bellum, Zest and the elves losing the war.


    That¡¯s why I never like politics, since most of the time they are controlled by moronic incompetent leaders that focus on personal gain.


    Yes, that may sound biased from me, but travel to dozens of different worlds and then make your decision if its biased. Moving on, all in all, the world is going to be annoying to prepare for the fight, but that¡¯s exactly why I have a plan for it.


    ¡°Well, leave the politics to me for now, since Wilcome and I both organized the summoning of the heroes, we both agreed based on how you want to get started as soon as possible, that it would be best to have the heroes meet at the academy.¡± (Geezer)


    Suddenly remembering something I asked the geezer about it since I had a bad feeling about it.


    ¡°Hey geezer, so where¡¯s your daughter, knowing her, I thought she would be after me.¡± (Cyril)


    Towards the question, the Geezer and Henry who¡¯s been silent for a while began to visibly sweat and avoiding my eyes. With that action, my feeling was pretty much confirmed.


    ¡°Erline is at the academy isn¡¯t she.¡± (Cyril)


    Both nodded in confirmation while both apologized. This is going to be annoying isn¡¯t it, I can only see future headaches gradually growing for me.

 Chapter 4- The White Haired Snake Called Ambrosia

    -Cyril POV-


    After talking a bit more with the geezer and Henry, I decided that it¡¯s about time to leave but once again something else crossed my mind and asked another question towards the geezer.


    ¡°Hey, I want to know before I leave, but is that damn witch still alive as the headmaster.¡± (Cyril)


    Even though I asked him a question, we continued walking while heading to the landing hanger. We left Henry behind since he apparently had some etiquette lessons to finish, poor kid.


    ¡°hmm... Miss Ambrosia is still the headmaster of the academy like she always is, why do you ask? (Geezer)


    I already knew the answer to my question, but a guy can pray can¡¯t he. It¡¯s not that I hold hatred towards her, but her personality is hard to ignore no matter how hard you try. I can only see more irritating things appearing very rapidly and its making begin to curse the gods for sending me back to this world. Well I guess it makes it easier to complete my job since I know some influential people here.


    ¡°You should know better than anybody that I hate irritating things, well she is one of them that irritates me the most.¡± (Cyril)


    After another minute of walking we finally arrived where their hold and prepare the Wyverns and where I separated from the geezer and easily got suited up in the harness, much to the surprise from the riders who I assumed never saw me before. After everything was set, we quickly departed the royal capital and began heading Northwest towards the academy that should roughly take around six hours of constant flight in which the whole time I comfortably slept through.


    -Six hours later-


    How much misfortune do I carry that I ended up in the situation I am in. I guess I should explain where I am and what happened in order and why I am currently very annoyed. Currently I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in a room that contained a large desk with piles of paperwork along with two sofas to sit on and a tall woman with white hair and red eyes in front of me. While this situation doesn¡¯t seem strange, what if I told you only seconds before I was riding passenger on a Wyvern that was flying above cloud level and only began to see the academy over the horizon.


    Going back roughly moments before, I had woken up as I felt the slight resistance that came from when you pass through an intangible barrier that is meant to identify anyone entering the area. This is all normal since this barrier is always in place to keep out any known criminals or dangerous people that mean harm towards the city out.


    Everything was all well and dandy until a second after we passed through the barrier, multiple magic circles appeared around me who was currently moving on a wyvern in the air. Understanding that there was only one person who could prepare this type of teleportation array while calculating my current location and rapid change of position down to milliseconds could only come from one woman.


    Understanding this I quickly grave my thanks and apology to the rider who would most likely be panicking later before I felt the space around me warp as the familiar felling of instantaneous weightlessness before I was pulled through the other side of the teleportation circle and found myself in the previously described room.


    The only problem was the moment I arrived, I was met with many magic circles around my body and limbs that were meant for the restriction of an individual¡¯s movements. I was annoyed by this since she practically read my intention to attack her the moment I was teleported and prepared some restriction magic.


    The woman in front of me who was smile victoriously was that damn witch I spoke of earlier, the founding and current headmaster of the neutral academy, Ambrosia. Guessing my irritation towards her, Ambrosia began to casually talk to me as if nothing strange happened.


    ¡°Is that the kind of face you give when reuniting with your friends that missed you so much.¡± (Ambrosia)Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Do friends teleport their friends who just arrived in the area and then place enough restriction magic on them to halt a small army in place, also, I feel ¡®very old friend¡¯ suites you better, Ambrosia¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I could say the same to you who has lived way longer than me. Well let¡¯s move on from this lovely reunion, what can I do for you today, Cyril.¡± (Ambrosia)


    Putting on a smiling poker face, you asked the most obvious question that I could think of. Knowing that allowing myself to go along with her pace will only place more stress on my ever-growing headache, I decided to get straight to the point.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure the geezer should have already told you about the plan for the heroes, well I am tasked with acting as their instructor and train them for the upcoming fight.¡± (Cyril)


    After hearing my reply, Ambrosia who was previously was standing in front of me began to walk around my back before her head appeared over my shoulder with a large grin. She then proceeded to ask a question while her head sat parallel to my head on my shoulder like a snake that was slowly trapping her prey before constricting it.


    ¡°What will you give me in return that would persuade me to allow you to act as a teacher even though I could be risking my reputation as an educator on allowing you to teach others. You should know that this academy while neutral, is very prestigious and only wants the best curriculum for its students that attend. It also doesn¡¯t help your case than you almost destroyed part of the school in anger all those years ago, how can I place my faith and trust in you as an instructor.¡± (Ambrosia)


    Damn her and her silver tongue, even though I knew she didn¡¯t really mean any of the words, I did know that the only way to get out of this magic was to go along with her demands. Swallowing my frustration with some difficulty, I gave the word that she wanted to hear from me.


    ¡°What do you want in return you sly witch, if it¡¯s possible to complete, I should agree with them.¡± (Cyril)


    Once again, that smile didn¡¯t leave her face but grew even bigger and spread across her whole face. Moving away from me and towards the desk that sat placed in front of me and precede to sit on it before talking again.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s simple, I have only three conditions for you, first and foremost, I hold the power to put any students into your class at any time.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°Hmmm, I don¡¯t see anything wrong with that if I have the power to drop them if they don¡¯t live up to standards or their pompous prick¡¯s.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°That¡¯s agreeable as well, moving along, second you cannot purposely attempt to kill any students like last time, even though I built this academy using magic doesn¡¯t mean it is easy to repair quickly.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°No promises on that one, I try not to kill any students, but that doesn¡¯t mean I may not harm them if they annoy enough.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Fair enough, and last but most important, you have to allow me to test a new spell on you that I created two years ago.¡± (Ambrosia)


    Everything was alright but the last demand sounded extremely suspicious to me, I mean really who would in the right mind agree to be a guinea pig for a newly invented and potentially extremely volatile spell.


    ¡°What type of spell is it and what are the effects that should happen if you cast it on someone?¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°hmmm... well the spell is centered around something you briefly mentioned years back involving souls. You stated that heroes have unique souls compared to regular people so I invented a spell to analyze an individual¡¯s soul. I need your help as when I analyze your soul, I can get an idea of what makes a hero¡¯s soul.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°Is this spell harmful to me in any way?¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be, since the spell is more like an analysis spell except it scans where an individual¡¯s mana originates and homes in on it on a far deeper level than simple mana tests.¡± (Ambrosia)


    I guess that makes since, a good example to make it easy to understand is with mana tests that are meant to measure an individual¡¯s current mana pool is like a magnifying glass while her spell most likely is taking that previous example and instead of a magnifying glass, its replaced with the strongest planetarium telescope that can be built.


    (AN: The Hubble Space Telescope can see several billion of light years, a light year is the distance that light travels in a year. The More You Know!)


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll agree with your little experiment, but I also have a condition of my own, I am going to most likely need assistance if I need help teaching any magic related studies.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Perfect, I¡¯ll also agree with your condition, now hold still for a moment, oh wait you can¡¯t move anyways, hahaha!¡± (Ambrosia)


    I really don¡¯t know if misfortune hates or loves my company because I have to suffer through Ambrosia¡¯s jokes that she knows are already awful making me want to hit her after that train wreck of a joke, the moment I get the chance, I won¡¯t let it past.


    After an hour of boring torture from Ambrosia, I was finally released from my restraints once she finished her experiment. She said I was good to leave after going over some formalities such as when I can start my classes and where I could find my room. Apparently, she should have the new students she is adding by tonight and then I can start training when the heroes arrive tomorrow. Having nothing else to do I went and grabbed some food at the cafeteria decided to head to my room that I receivedand resume my peaceful sleep that was previously interrupted and this ended my eventful day.

 Chapter 5- Analysis of a Soul and Transcendent Weapons

    -Ambrosia POV-


    After Cyril left my office once I finished doing my analysis on his soul, I recalled what I found when I saw it. Even though I told him that he was the first that I tested the new spell on, that wasn¡¯t true, I have already tested it on convicted criminals that were sentenced to death. Well it took a few subjects until I got the right adjustments, but they were scheduled to die anyway.


    Going back, the souls that I did succeed in analyzing gave me some interesting results, it seemed that the soul of mortals seems to resemble a ball of bluish fire that gave off faint energy. I tested this on multiple criminals and got similar results except the radiating energy varied in strength between individuals which lead me to assume that this is what you can call the average shape of a soul.


    When I studied Cyril¡¯s soul, I immediately found key differences between his soul and others. For one, the size of the soul was almost double the size of the others I studied, but who knows if that is because the others were convicted criminals charged with horrible crimes or because Cyril is a hero.


    Moving past that possible theory, I also noticed that the energy radiating was a lot stronger than the others but at the same time the energy felt almost as if it was growing weaker. It was strange, I mean while the energy was a lot stronger than the other test subjects, at the same time it felt almost hollow or frail. I question if this is because of the age of Cyril and if it holds a connection to the strength and its age.


    Lastly, the main difference was that while the average soul looked like a ball of bluish fire, Cyril¡¯s soul had a brighter bluish hue, but still had the similar shape except for the flame spread out a bit and formed what seemed to resemble a pair of wings enclosing the ball of fire as well as golden chains that were tightly wrapped around the soul that seemed to suppress the soul¡¯s strong radiating energy to an extent.


    I can only guess who was it that was doing that for Cyril while bringing up the image of a young blonde girl. But what I found problematic was that their seemed to be slightly small holes in Cyril¡¯s soul and I couldn¡¯t understand why.


    Deciding to shelve those thoughts for later, I began getting back to work in finding the students who will be entering Cyril¡¯s class. I had one idea of someone who is most likely a potential candidate, but I need to search if there are any others.


    After the number of successful tests for the spell, I can conclude the safety of it is just right and decided to invoke the spell on a larger scale than what I did before. This time the spell will cover the entire campus so I can search all at once for what I¡¯m looking for.


    Even though this is the first time I have invoked the spell on a large scale, I¡¯m confident that I will succeed, but if the chance it does fail, well, it¡¯s going to be a hassle to clean all the blood all over the campus that results from failure causing the body to explode, but who cares, I¡¯m confident enough.


    -Cyril POV-


    After waking up the next morning, I grabbed some food and then headed to my designated classroom. I am now relaxing around in a classroom while daydreaming and humming a tune. I was currently waiting for my new students to arrive so I can get started, unfortunately, the other heroes are running behind and haven¡¯t arrived on campus.


    Ambrosia already told me that she detected them enter her barrier and they should arrive in an hour. She then left while saying that she is going to retrieve the other new students entering my class and was told to just wait here.


    While relaxing I felt the familiar feeling that she gives off when she finally wakes up from her sleep.


    ¡°Good to see that your awake now Mai, have a nice nap¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Yes, it was a wonderful slumber that I had while resting in your soul. So, did anything interesting happen while I was asleep.¡± (Mai)


    Even though she asks that through our telepathic link I don¡¯t answer since she can already view my memories whenever she wants, I know she just asks for no reason except for the sake of conversation.


    ¡°You should already know the answer to that Mai, that¡¯s what being contracted as your partner means.¡± (Cyril)


    Yes, I said contracted, Mai who was previously sleeping in my soul is my partner and she is considered a transcendent weapon. To explain what that means, it simply refers to a weapon that has survived thousands of years in a heavily mana soaked area after they take hundreds of lives, thus, eventually these weapons developed personalities and grow stronger exponentially in strength.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    While I only say that they grow stronger, in reality, they developed incredibly strong durability against breaking to the point of being unbreakable, but they also develop unique characteristics or abilities that define them.


    A good example was if I remember correctly, back in my first life, there was a legend of a sword that was named ¡®Fragarach¡¯ and was said that no armor could stop it and it also grants the wielder command over the power of wind. Most likely Fragarach was a transcendent weapon due the unique abilities it had been described with. While there may have other transcendent with similar abilities, the strength and versatility is always strangely unique.


    Mai is unique in the fact that her ability she was born with was that she could become any form of weapon that her wielder desires if they can strongly imagine and picture the weapon. She is great for wielders that focus purely on physical combat and techniques, rather than magic, such as people like me who have small mana pools. While I say that, she does have magical capabilities but they can only act as support such as guiding mana precisely as a catalyst.


    The only limitation to her ability is that she can only turn into one weapon so she can turn into dual swords or weapons. She also can¡¯t turn into things such as missiles or bombs as that is suicide for her.


    ¡°I know, but you should also know that I don¡¯t want to invade your privacy without your permission all the time, I value our partnership since you¡¯re the best partner I have ever had in terms of personality.¡± (Mai)


    Most likely because we are linked, I can clearly feel her pouting with displeasure, but really the best in personality, I don¡¯t see that as correct if you view me under a microscope, I have committed to many sins to be considered having a good personality.


    ¡°I thought I already told you that I don¡¯t care what you see in my memories, I have long since given up caring how people view me. I probably wouldn¡¯t care if you went and told others, it won¡¯t change the past anyways.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll keep that in mind next time, so what is the plan this time Cyril?¡± (Mai)


    hmmm... my plan is going to be centered around the party that will probably take place in two or three weeks to celebrate the summoning of the heroes. With the party, almost every leader and influential noble should be attending to gain favor or gauge the newly summoned heroes and their potential use.


    I already have two of the most powerful nations on the continent backing us as a support, maybe even Ambrosia can be considered as political support due to her massive magic power and contribution towards maintaining the academy, which also acts as a neutral party in foreign affairs and allows for the nobles and citizens from all kingdoms to attend and learn what they want without risk of political pressure.


    It won¡¯t be all that hard to begin silently moving through the political scene and trying to garner some more support from the other nations, but that can wait, it seems that Ambrosia will be arriving soon because I feel myself getting more and more annoyed as time goes on, I can almost feel that witch laughing right now.


    ¡°Alright, oh yeah, I¡¯m also going to materialize right now, I want to move my body again before I get stiff from inactivity, I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡± (Mai)


    Just as she telepathically told me what she was doing, I felt the subtle tug from my chest as a small golden ball of fire appeared from it and floated in front of me. The golden orb than began glowing with bright radiance though not as much as the summoning process, but still blinding and grew before it began to change into a humanoid shape from what I could see through the light.


    When the bright light finally subsidized, in the place of the golden orb was a young girl with long golden hair and golden eyes that stood around 5ft 3in and wearing a simple one piece dress to wear.


    Most likely due to the blinding light, I failed to notice that the door to the class was opened and standing there was Ambrosia and three others who were most likely the new shares students. All three of the students all wore different expressions on their face from what they saw happen when they entered.


    The first was a rather short girl who looked very boyish and was dressed in a male uniform consisting of a white blazer and white formal pants with the usual red floral embroidery. She was at around 5ft 5in with short light brown hair and brown eyes and currently had a slightly fearful expression with a hint of surprise while staring at Mai as well as myself.


    The second was a young man also wore the same type of uniform and was at around 5ft 10in and had dark brown hair and eyes as well and had a surprised and dubious expression with his jaw opened while staring at Mai.


    The last was a familiar young girl wore a female version of the uniform that consisted of a similar type of white blazer and a white skirt that reached down to her knees and had long fiery red hair and black eyes and wore an enraged expression while staring at me, she was familiar since she is the daughter of the geezer and the first princess of the Azure Empire, Erline.


    ¡°Please meet your new instructor who will be in charge with training you as of today. I would say that this is where you would attend class but most likely all you time training will be spent at one of the training grounds that I already scheduled for your class to personal use. I hope you enjoy your time in this class and improve yourself and find what you consider as strength.¡± (Ambrosia)


    Even though she is speaking formally since she¡¯s the headmaster, I can see that she is smirking and enjoying seeing their reactions. Damn witch will never grow up will she, but a bigger question is on my mind.


    ¡°Hey Ambrosia, where are the heroes that are supposed to be here already, can¡¯t you just teleport them already.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I could never do such a thing Mr. Cyril, I cannot just teleport them here if I have never met them before, can I now, that would be beyond rude in etiquette wouldn¡¯t it.¡± (Ambrosia)


    As if, and I didn¡¯t miss her words that basically said since she knows me, it¡¯s okay to teleport me whenever she wants and it won¡¯t be considered rude to me.


    All I did was glare at her while ignoring the new students, I was going to complain but I just gave up since I knew that it would get me nowhere and will only continue to increase my frustration. Unfortunately, Ambrosia saw through my thoughts and decided to continue trying to provoke me as she began talking.


    ¡°Well if you want to know where the heroes are, well they should be on their way to this class. All you had to do was ask me nicely, well I guess that it would be only proper that everyone move inside the class while we wait patiently for the other new arrivals, now shall we.¡± (Ambrosia)


    Even though I know that just asking where the heroes were,instead of what I said would have been easier, but I overlooked that due to headache that I always get when I start taking to her. After everyone moved inside, the three students sat down in the front row while I continued leaning against the wall behind the Instructors desk while Mai sat in a chair off to my side. I decided to start ignoring Ambrosia who stayed as well while smirking in the classroom for now on and I continued thinking about my plans that I have for the future.

 Chapter 6- Arrival of The Other Heroes

    -Elena POV-


    We are currently flying above the clouds as we traveled to the academy where we will be meeting the other hero who apparently was summoned in the neighboring kingdom. In the beginning the ride was very uncomfortable due to the constant shaking that came from the wyverns, but they slowly stopped as time went on.


    From the words from the rider that was in control of the wyvern that I was riding, we should arrive in a few minutes. I was slightly hesitant to believe that since the clouds were currently obscuring the view of the ground, but almost as if the clouds heard my thoughts, they slowly parted way and began to reveal the ground.


    Looking down where the clouds parted left me completely speechless, the beautiful sight was breathtaking and I keep staring down without blinking.


    I saw a massive city that stretched out far in perfect circle with no deformities in shape with a large wall that surrounded and enclosed the city. The city was made up largely of whitish colored buildings that seemed as if they meticulously planned and built. What mainly shocked me was the attention to detail for the roads and their layout.


    Starting at the wall was a large road that ran along the wall that separated the buildings on the outer perimeter and the wall. The city seemed to have four gates placed at each cardinal direction and had a wide road that each meet at the center and overall create something that resembled a jasmine flower¡¯s petals.


    This whole beautifully crafted city was built on a large hill and right at the top was a large school like structure that is most likely the academy. directly in the center was a large tower that jutted out the ground and resembled a beacon like tower.


    By time I finally regained my focus away from admiring the city I found that we already had landed on the large tower that I saw before. Realizing this, I began the process of undoing all the harnesses and gear that kept me from falling off during flight.


    I quickly noted Aria and Halbert doing the same as we all descend from the wyvern only to notice a woman walking towards us who just arrived.


    When I noticed her though, I was once again stunned as the woman seemed to elude true beauty, if I had to compare her, I feel the city was a close comparison but still fell short. The most striking features on the woman was her long beautiful pure white hair and bright red eyes that revealed intelligence behind them.


    She was probably around 5ft 7in with a figure that made hourglasses look at her in envy and wore a sky-blue tailcoat that had golden trims along the edges and went down to her thighs. She wore under the tailcoat a long blue long sleeve blouse as well as long blue skirt that fell to her ankles and black heeled boots.


    This woman who was walking towards us finally arrived in front of us and began looking each of us over, almost as if she was probing us. Looking at Aria and Halbert, I also noticed that they were the same as me while staring at her, well Aria to a lesser extent but she never was one to focus on physical appearances though.


    After an awkward moment of utter silence, she finally decided to begin talking after finishing looking each of us over.


    ¡°I can safely assume that you three are the newly summoned heroes correct. Welcome to my academy young heroes, I am the current headmaster of the Academy. I have already received the request to admit all the heroes as students to have your training conducted and allow you to grow in preparation for your task.¡± (Headmaster)


    Speaking with a gentle voice and formal words, she welcomed us, but I did wonder how she knew that we came her to train and not just to meet up. Well that may mean that the other heroes already arrived and talked to her, well moving on, she went over a few formalities and then asked us to follow her.


    As we began to follow her towards the entrance to the tower, I realized that we never introduced ourselves to each other.


    ¡°I do believe that we have yet to formally introduce ourselves yet if I may. My name is Elena, the girl next to me is Aearial, and the large man is Halbert.¡± (Elena)


    After I acted once again as the voice of our group, it seemed that the headmaster realized as well her mistake of not introducing herself.


    ¡°Oh my, I completely forgot to introduce myself properly, my apologies. I have been rather absent minded even since I reunited with one of my old friends since he arrived just yesterday. Also, you don¡¯t need to use formal speech when talking to me, anyone that is a hero just like my friend, is a friend to me as well.¡± (Headmaster)


    Huh? So, her old friend is one of the heroes summoned as well, I guess I was right about the other heroes already arriving before us, but for some reason I overlooked any thoughts that may have questioned her possible age.


    ¡°Well with that I guess my introduction is in order now.¡± (Headmaster)


    Even though we were continuing to walk while speaking to each other, the headmaster stopped walking and spun around while spreading her arms outward in a grand manner before proudly announcing.


    ¡°My name is Ambrosia Arthion, once again I am the current headmaster of this academy and I welcome you here and I hope you enjoy it here and learn what you wish with freedom.¡± (Ambrosia)


    After that we continued following as Ms. Ambrosia guided us into the tower and onto a large platform that she activated with switch. The platform than began to descend downwards, much to our surprise and Halbert¡¯s complete shock.


    I must say that this world is very advanced in terms of technology even though from what I have seen, it is stuck in a medieval age, but I guess that with magic, it¡¯s possible that it advanced but stayed in place at the same if that makes since.


    After a moment, the elevator finally stopped and we got off on what I assumed was most likely the third floor based on the view out the windows. We continued walking down a corridor and I began looking out the windows we passed and noticed cleared areas of flat ground with students currently paired up and fighting each other using wooden swords while some instructors was walking around observing them. I was pulled away from my thoughts when I heard Aria begin talking and I turned to once again look straight.


    ¡°Ms. Ambrosia, I want to ask about what you said before, you said that you were friends with one of the summoned heroes and how you just reunited with him. I¡¯m curious about what he¡¯s like since we will be meeting him soon.¡± (Aearial)


    Taking a moment to think, Ms. Ambrosia than began to speak.


    ¡°Well first of I met him when he was summoned as the sole hero about twelve years ago, I met him when he arrived at academy to do some research. I was friends with him for about seven years until he finally completed his task and disappeared.¡± (Ambrosia)


    So, he was a previously summoned hero, but I wonder why he was the only summoned hero since I have always been summoned for as long a can remember with others and Aria.


    ¡°Aside from that, I do know that in terms of combat experience, there is no one greater or stronger than him.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°Why do you say that, I mean, yes, heroes are by nature stronger than normal but it can¡¯t be that great since we are still only humans, right, we still have limits?¡± (Elena)Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°Well I can say that because he has mentioned before about his age. He said that in terms of age based on years, he is about over one thousand years old and he said that he completed around 76 tasks that you heroes are always mentioning at that time. So, in combat experience, he is more than qualified to be called one of the strongest.¡± (Ambrosia)


    Wow, over a thousand years old, that seems like an impossible number that I could never think I could ever think to come close to as a hero. But, I can understand what she means by combat experience now, if you live for that long you will probably have also fought a massive number of battles. I guess Aria and Halbert shared the same thoughts, but Halbert beat Aria to shouting his shock out.


    ¡°Wha- what, how can he even be that old and still be consider human, but still, wow, that seems a bit hard to actually believe!¡± (Halbert)


    Noticing his comment that showed his inexperience as a hero because of his lack of knowledge of how the heroes work Aria decided to correcthim and explain.


    ¡°Just so you know, as heroes, we are given a set number of tasks to complete right, well we continue to complete them and it doesn¡¯t matter how long it takes to complete each task, we don¡¯t stop until we are killed in that world and that task is considered as a failure. Weren¡¯t you told this when you spoke to the gods and they explained to you about the tasks and our job.¡± (Aearial)


    Realizing what she said was true, Halbert turned slightly red from embarrassment, but seeing a twenty something year old, large, muscular man turn red is strange.


    ¡°Sorry about that, I kind of spaced out at that part, hard to keep focus when you are talking to gods for the first time, you know.¡± (Halbert)


    ¡°I see, well going by personality, he rarely shows his emotions and thoughts except when you annoy or anger him or he finds something interesting, but that is extremely hard to do, but you probably don¡¯t have to worry about that much, I can assure you that if he is decides to do something, he commits to it with everything he has.¡± (Ambrosia)


    After that, we continued walking until she stopped at a door to before telling us that we had arrived. I would be lying if I didn¡¯t say that I wasn¡¯t excited to meet our instructor, I mean he may some answers to what I want to know. If I¡¯m lucky, he may even have a solution as well to my problem as well.


    -Cyril POV-


    After who knows how long in a room that was filled with an awkward silence along with a white witch that is in the back of the room while silently snickering.


    What about me, well I am currently relaxing in a chair doing nothing while Mai is reading a book that she went and quickly got from the academy library to pass the time.


    After a bit of time, a bit of noise coming from the hallway alerted me to our new arrivals that are late. Not even a moment later did the door to the classroom open and in walked in Ambrosia and three new faces.


    Once again going over their features that each had, I did note that all three were humans, I always found it strange that most heroes are usually humans even though there are many different races, but I digress.


    First off, the large guy in the back had short blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He was taller than me by maybe around two inches and was sporting large muscles under his cloths that we always have by default when summoned.


    Since our bodies are always formed during the summoning process, naturally cloths are included with it and tend to be simple white shirt and black pants.


    The second girl that I looked over was a lot short than the guy at around 5ft 6in and looked eastern with short black hair and black eyes.


    The last girl was at around 5ft 8in with long curly brown hair and bluish green eyes. Overall all three seemed normal enough but I knew that wasn¡¯t true at all since they are summoned heroes.


    There was one thing that all three had in common except for the clothing, they all had shocked and confused expression and their eyes were rapidly alternating from Ambrosia that was standing next to them and Ambrosia who was standing in the back of the classroom looking at them.


    Once again silence reigned supreme in the class, but history dictates that absolute reigns are always overthrown in revolt. What was the revolt this time, well it was both Ambrosia¡¯s that began to openly began laughing hard while holding their stomachs.


    ¡°Hahahaha... oh my, you should see the look on all of your faces, its priceless. Seeing that reaction was worth the wait completely.¡± (Ambrosia)


    To explain the prank that she pulled on them, what she did was create a doppelganger using magic that allowed her to act in multiple places at once, stupid prank right.


    ¡°Hey old lady, are you done yet with your little prank, I want to get started with training them already.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Old Lady! I don¡¯t know how you can call me that when I am obviously far younger than you!¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°ha, yeah right, you may be younger, but by only around 200 years or so, so in essence, you are an old lady you witch. Don¡¯t you go and attend to hide your age from them to feel young again.¡± (Cyril)


    Once I stated this fact, once again everyone had the expression as if a bombshell dropped on the room.


    ¡°Wha-what! Wait are you saying that she is that old, she said that you were over one thousand years old but you said that she¡¯s only two hundred years younger than you, how is that possible if she isn¡¯t a summoned hero.¡± (Black haired girl)


    Trying to comprehend what is going on, the girl will black hair began rapidly asking how it¡¯s possible, but I thought that the answer was obvious though, well I guess that means that these heroes truly are inexperienced to the possibilities of the world. Fortunately, Ambrosia decided to answer her question, though her mood looks depressed much to my amusement.


    ¡°Well to simply answer your question, I am what you call an immortal. Knowing that you will ask for more information, the reason for that is that I trained for who knows how long through magic, I keep at training with every effort that I possessed until one day, I became so powerful in magic, that I achieved immortality for some reason.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t answer why there¡¯s a connection to you being immortal, that doesn¡¯t really make much sense in the first place.¡± (black haired girl)


    ¡°Since this is the first time that this has every happened in recorded history, I never figured out why, but I guess that once you reach a certain point of understanding of magic than you achieve this state, who knows.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°Give it up, questioning her will never get you anything except for headaches, she works more on instinctual nature and through talent and less from hard work, let¡¯s just ignore her for now and begin with introduction.¡± (Cyril)


    Once I said that and ignored the glare coming from Ambrosia who finally released her doppelganger and grumbled something while sitting down, we began with their introductions by having each person stand to speak once the new arrives sat down. I asked for a standard introduction consisting of name and what they excel in combat wise.


    ¡°why don¡¯t you start us off black haired girl.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°black hai-, never mind alright, well my name is Elena and I am skilled in no areas in particular making me more of a jack of all trades, please take care of me.¡± (Elena)


    Moving on the next one was the other girl that arrived with the other heroes who stood up after Elena sat down.


    ¡°My name is Aearial, but most people call me Aria, I specialize in martial arts and hand to hand combat, but I am terrible with weapons, I hope we can be friends.¡± (Aearial)


    ¡°My name is Halbert, I am a hero of the innocent, I specialize in fighting close combat, good to meet everyone.¡± (Halbert)


    Going after Aearial was the large guy, but something about him felt off, it wasn¡¯t in a bad way but it was as if he was hiding something that is important based on what he said. I will leave that for when I figure it out during training, so moving on was the girl that was looking fearful when she arrived and saw Mai and me.


    ¡°M-My name is Florian Arthion, I am adept in most forms of magic, I am weak in close combat though.¡±


    Hearing her last name, I briefly looked towards Ambrosia in the back but she only gave a look as if she¡¯ll explain later, so I dropped it as well. But I am annoyed that this ¡®Florian¡¯ is only skilled in magic but weak in close combat, I¡¯m going to have to work on that. Standing up was the dark brown guy sitting next to Florian.


    ¡°My name is Lex Speros, I specialize in purely defense involving shields and lack any form of offense power by my own choice. I am somewhat skilled in using magic as well but I am only talented in reinforcement magic and defense oriented magic, I hope we can get along.¡± (Lex)


    Interesting, someone who only specializes in defense, nothing new, but they are not common though since they are usually reliant on support from others to attack while they defend. Moving on the last one was the familiar face that has been releasing bloodlust and glaring at me from the beginning that I was ignoring.


    ¡°My name is Erline Lorenia, first princess of the Azure Empire, I am skilled in swordsmanship and I also have confidence in my speed, nice to meet everyone and if you could disregard formalities due to status I would be grateful, also it¡¯s nice to see you once again Cyril.¡± (Erline)


    Once she ended her introduction, everyone¡¯s eyes were planted on me with a questioning look. I know that it may sound repetitive for me to say this, but my headaches are only continuing to increase with each passing moment. Nevertheless, I did my introductions for them just like they did while explaining my position.


    ¡°Well, my name is Cyril, I am what may people call a jack of all trades and a master of all. My job is that I will be training all of you and assisting in improving your capabilities for the upcoming task, I was also assigned to act as the leader for the heroes.¡± (Cyril)

 Chapter 7- First Test Of The Students

    -Cyril POV-


    The best thing to do in an awkward situation is to act as if nothing about it is awkward in the first place. Some may say that this method won¡¯t always work for certain situations, but for me, it has never failed me before.


    Moving past that, after Erline finished her introductions, I decided that to have a better grasp on how to go about teaching, I need to first understand what area each of them need working on. The best way to do this is not simply observing them and analyzing how they fight, but to directly have a spar with them and see how they fight and react.


    Having said that, I had everyone follow me after I had them go and retrieve their end combat equipment as we headed over to our designated training field. Once we arrived on the open barren area that is the training field, but before starting the sparing, I decided to ask a simple question to get a feel for everyone thoughts and how they view morality.


    ¡°Before we begin, I have a question that I want each of you to answer. My question is what each of you think what the role a hero should play when there is a war between two nations when it has nothing to do with their task.¡± (Cyril)


    I ask this question as it is important for the future if there should be a war that breaks out due to the political state of this world. In truth, there isn¡¯t really a correct or incorrect answer as this question is more of their opinion.


    After giving them a few moments to ponder this I asked each of them their answer in the same order that they did introductions starting with Elena.


    ¡°In my opinion, I think that as a hero, they should stand neutral in the war, but I also think that they should be ready immediately if need be to protect the innocent civilians if it turns into that type of war that seeks to drag the innocents in as casualties.¡± (Elena)


    Going next was Aearial after Elena gave a very by the book type of answer but still a good answer in my opinion.


    ¡°Honestly, I am unsure how to answer as I feel that getting involved with politics and nobles is a bad plan waiting to explode, add on to that a hero that possesses strong combat experience and strength, then you have a nuclear bomb waiting to go off as it will only benefit in helping the nobles.¡± (Aearial)


    Most likely the is a story behind her view but I honest can¡¯t see her answer as wrong, I feel that it is a right decision if as a hero, you have no experience in politics or social interactions, avoiding getting involved with the politics of war is very responsible.


    After Aearial gave her answer, next was Halbert, in honestly, I have curious in his answer since I think that he may be the type of person that follows the idealized version of a superhero and follows beliefs along those lines.


    ¡°I would say that getting involved should be the role of a hero, but to tell the truth, I am not sure when getting involved should be done, I have lived with the belief of protecting the innocent is always the duty of a hero, but I have only saved lives, I have never taken them.¡± (Halbert)


    That could be a problem for Halbert in the future if he continues to follow that belief of not taking lives. I understand better than anyone here that there will be times that taking or giving up lives will save more in return, they at times can even be innocent, but that can wait for a later day. Next off the list would be Florian and her answer.


    ¡°I would say that fighting wars are idiotic as they only fuel hatred and sadness while achieving only temporary peace afterwards. My answer isn¡¯t some pure and innocent thought either, I consider that it is a realistic view.¡± (Florian)


    Her answer is very scholar like in that its more philosophical on her view of war, I can tell she understands war, but she also views it based on knowledge but not experience. I know that you can say that she is still young so most likely she wasn¡¯t seen a war since there hasn¡¯t been any full wars in decades, but she will need to learn that in war is never simple to explain using facts from a book, no matter how advanced a society is, war is the one thing that never advances, it always stays primitive.


    Next was Lex and then last was going to be Erline, well since I¡¯ve known Erline for years now, I can already pretty much expect her answer. Looking at Lex who was silent for a minute, finally began talking about what his answer was, but unexpectedly, his answer was surprising since people that fight like him tend to have similar views usually.


    ¡°My view on your question is hard since I have never experienced war and until I do then this will never hold much true weight, but growing up in the south, I would meet many soldiers and Adventurers that constantly protected the citizens from bandits and monsters. When ever I talked to them about what it was like, most of the time they would get a strange look while recounting what they saw. They spoke of the good parts and I felt as if they were heroic tales, so when I asked them if they were like heroes, they just shook their head while smiling and denied my words.


    They always said something similar everytime along the lines of ¡®that in battles of life and death, there are no heroes, there are only your instincts to survive and your comrades that have your back.¡¯


    So, regarding your question, I honestly think that there are truely no heroes that can participate in a war because wars aren¡¯t won by a single man, but by an army, if that makes sense.¡± (Lex)


    I think that I need to rethink my previous statement about people like him having similar beliefs, I think that I almost forgot an important rule of heroes, they always overturn expectations when you think you understand them. After what he said, most of the heroes looked at him with subtle surprise while Florian is looking with wide eyes toward him, well I can understand why somewhat. Well moving on, finally is Erline and seeing that she is last, everyone is looking towards her with more interest than before.


    ¡°In my opinion, my view on heroes choosing sides in a war is that is the most dangerous thing that can be done in a war. To almost everyone, the existence of heroes are the paragons of righteousness, so if heroes decided to pick sides in a war, there will be the common view that the side that the heroes are on are by default the good guys while the other side are the villainous tyrants that the good guys must defeat. That¡¯s why my answer aligns with Lex¡¯s answer in that wars aren¡¯t won by a single hero but by the army that is tasked with being the ones to fight and not heroes.¡± (Erline)


    As expect of the royal princess raised in the world of politics and military officials, her view is looking at it from various angles, from seeing the moral repercussions that come from it, how the people would view the war, and rather having wars fought by the ones that are meant to fight them since it¡¯s their job as soldiers to fight to protect their country.


    Overall, all their answers can¡¯t be considered wrong, but at the same time there are aspects that also can¡¯t be correct either.


    No matter though, it¡¯s time to see what they can truly do when words fail to hold meaning and only actions carry weight. Just like the old saying goes, actions speak louder than hurricanes compared to words sometimes.


    ¡°Alright, with that out of the way, let¡¯s move onto something else.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Wait what was the correct answer to your question you asked?¡± (Halbert)


    I see this guy doesn¡¯t understand the difference between questions with a right or wrong answer and a question that¡¯s answer is only based purely on opinions. I guess I¡¯m going to have to teach him that, but seeing a chance test something I decided to try something out on him.


    ¡°What are you a complete moron, couldn¡¯t you understand that there is no correct answer to that question based on everyone¡¯s answers being opinions. I guess all those muscles are only there to compensate for the brain you seem to lack, you know with that small brain, protecting any more than two people will put a strain on your brains compacity.¡± (Cyril)


    You know, if I had to say, I would say that I am proud of what I thought of to provoke him. You can say that my insults were far from original, but I prefer keeping it simple and clear as it makes it easier to build upon it furher. Another bonus is if they are intelligent enough, I could even add on that I made my insults simple just for them so that even they could easily comprehend it.


    Well that seems unnecessary though, seeing as everyone is clearly shocked by my blatant insults that came out of nowhere and seemed to hit them as if they were hit by a large truck while looking at Halbert, I got the reaction I was expecting from him, anger.


    I wanted to piss him off because I felt that if he wasn¡¯t angered, then he wouldn¡¯t spar against me seriously, so deciding to capitalize on it, I provoked him even further.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, did the truth hurt your feelings or did processing the first sentence I said cause your brain to short circuit from exceeding you brains compacity. No matter, if you want to start something I guess I am benevolent enough to humor you¨D oh sorry I guess I should stop using words that exceed elementary school standards for you to understand. Let¡¯s make it as simple as possible, I planned on sparing with each individual, so I guess I can allow you to go first, it may not be able to act as a good warm up but I¡¯m nice enough, so are you in?¡± (Cyril)


    With each passing word that I said, Halbert¡¯s face grew a brighter shade of red until it was practically scarlet. With each insult that was spoken, his fists clenched even tighter while his veins grew to the point of popping. Looks like my plan succeeded just like I planned, let¡¯s see where this shall lead.


    -Aearial POV-


    Almost everyone was completely speechless from what we heard, for me I could clearly tell that they were clearly words of provocation, but that still didn¡¯t make it any less surprising. So far, the feeling I got from Cyril was complete disinterest in things that don¡¯t pertain to the task given, I couldn¡¯t read anything from his expression even when the words he said to Ambrosia previously sounded annoyed, his face never showed it though and just stayed a completely blank expression.


    You hear and see people like you him on characters in fictional stories and shows, but seeing it in person is something else entirely, it¡¯s like he¡¯s a one-sided glass window, he can see through you as if it¡¯s natural, but you can¡¯t see anything though him no matter how hard you try.


    The shock comes from that even though he never showed his emotions on his face, he never said anything on the level to what he said to Halbert just now.


    Halbert on the other hand was the complete opposite to Cyril¡¯s emotionless face, he was clearly showing his anger in full view to the world. Cyril as is completely ignorant of Halbert¡¯s anger continued provoking he until he offered him to spar with him.


    ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, I understand completely, alright if you want, lets fight. Maybe beating you will knock you down a peg from your high throne teach you to show at least minimum respect to others.¡± (Halbert)


    Once both walked towards the center of the field and stood around ten feet apart and they faced each other. Cyril continued looking disinterested and expressionless while standing with his arms at his side looking very relaxed.


    Halbert on the other hand stood with his feet spread slightly apart and his arms raised in a loose boxing stance. Just looking at Halbert who looked ready to pounce at any moment was surprising since the whole time I have been near him, it seemed as if he was rather docile and quiet. It was a complete contrast to how he was now, but it wasn¡¯t surprising since there are a lot of people that are like that.


    They act one way when socializing with others, but when they do certain things, their personality seems as if it completely changes, it isn¡¯t just them focusing either, it is something different than that. I completely understand what it is because most heroes I have met are like that in some way or another, it¡¯s almost like a light switch that is flipped.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to get in a stance or are you just underestimating my abilities.¡± (Halbert)


    ¡°huh- a stance, no need. Didn¡¯t I tell you earlier, sparring with you won¡¯t even be act as a proper warm up so come at me whenever you want, it matters not.¡± (Cyril)


    After Cyril said that, I felt a shiver go up my spine when I heard Halbert mutter something about ¡®your wish¡¯. After Halbert muttered that, I noticed his left leg slightly tense as it subtly slides back before kicking up a large cloud of dust into the air while Halbert accelerated forward at high speed toward Cyril before his image disappeared for a moment and reappearing behind Cyril with his arm tensed back before it shot forward towards the back of Cyril¡¯s head.


    Most people would expect Cyril to get hit since Halbert practically disappear and instantly appeared behind Cyril, but without care for that expectation that most people would have, Cyril casually turned his head to the side allowing Halbert¡¯s fist to pass by with ease even though he never turned around and saw him coming.


    Cyril than proceeded to wrap his arms around Halbert¡¯s arm that missed its target before in a fluent motion, proceeded to manipulate Halbert¡¯s momentum and used his weight to his advantage and threw Halbert over his shoulder while bending forward and pulling Halbert¡¯s wrapped arm downward before letting go and allowing Halbert to momentarily fly in the air before he crashed onto his back when he hit the ground with a dazed look while looking winded.


    ¡°Is that all, you need to learn that brute strength won¡¯t always win the fight.¡± (Cyril)


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    What Cyril said was completely correct when fighting hand to hand. Just from that one exchange, it was clear that Halbert¡¯s form is very raw and unrefined and filled with a boat load of flaws. It¡¯s not bad, but I could tell that his fighting style was based on fighting opponents that are most likely weaker in terms of their physical capabilities compared to him.


    While I that may sound very negative since it¡¯s like saying her only fought weaker opponents, I don¡¯t mean to condemn him, because it¡¯s possible that he is just the luckiest guy in the world that he never fought any overwhelming enemies compared to him throughout his whole life.


    Going back to the spar, Halbert who was previously dazed on the ground regain his focus as he quickly stood back up and faced Cyril again. Halbert once again took his previous stance before doing the same thing as last time by accelerating fast towards Cyril except this time he didn¡¯t attack from behind.


    This time Halbert began throwing punches towards Cyril while mixing faints in between, he began with throwing a punch with his right towards Cyril¡¯s face before pulling it back in a feint and punching with his left arm at his chest.


    Halbert continued with this while trying to mix up the variance in his punches and feints, but to Cyril it made no difference. All Cyril did was casually move his head to avoid any punches towards it by a small margin and any other attack to his body was met with him parrying the fist by pushing it slightly to his side with the back of his hands.


    Observing this spar, even someone who isn¡¯t knowledgeable in combat could clearly tell that it was one sided with Cyril completely controlling every aspect of the fight while responding to every attack to him. To anyone experienced in actual combat, it would probably look like a trained military special forces soldier toying around with a common street thug that thinks that fighting is all about throwing the strongest punch.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I damn hit you, it¡¯s like I¡¯m trying to punch a leaf in a hurricane with you damn it.¡± (Halbert)


    ¡°It¡¯s simple really but I¡¯ll explain afterwards, for now why don¡¯t I end this, we need to get through everyone today.¡± (Cyril)


    After saying that, Cyril vanished in an instance, I was completely surprised because Cyril did the exact same thing that Halbert was doing before as he accelerated forward. Though he did the same thing, compared to Halbert who when he accelerated a huge cloud of dust was kicked up, Cyril on the other hand accelerated without any clear dust kicking up. Since both where in relatively close distance while I stood a bit away in distance, I could see the moment after Cyril disappeared and reappeared in front of Halbert and proceeded to use his palm to strike the shocked Halbert¡¯s chin resulting in his head being pushed to look upwards.


    Cyril than slid his right leg between Halbert¡¯s legs and around and then placed his left hand onto his chest, in a fluent motion once again, Cyril pulled his leg back towards himself while pulling Halbert¡¯s left leg as well and pushed against Halbert¡¯s chest causing him to completely lose his balance and fall backwards hard onto his back once again.


    I was mesmerized by what Cyril did, the way he in fluent motions executed the attack without any clear wasted movement and the simplicity of it was amazing. Everything that was done practically screamed efficiency in the actions executed with little effort needed at all, simply amazing.


    ¡°Well that concludes this little spar doesn¡¯t it, alright who¡¯s next on the list.¡± (Cyril)


    -Cyril POV-


    After sparring a bit with Halbert, since no one can forward, I decided to volunteer the magic users to see what they can to and get it out the way first starting with Florian.


    ¡°Alright Florian, this will be more of a demonstration than a spar, I just want you to execute as many intermediate tier spells as you know without losing control of them and as fast as you can.¡± (Cyril)


    Asking her to invoke intermediate spells should be a good test for her so I can grasp her skills in magic as well get a rough guess of the amount of mana she has. I guess I should explain how magic is classified in tiers on this world, since almost every world has differences in their classifications of magic.


    At the lowest tier is beginner¡¯s spells that usually consist of basic magic that holds little combat potential, but are practical for everyday usage such as cooking or mundane tasks that need a small flame or some water.


    The next tier is the intermediate spells, these spells are useable in combat but are used by almost every mediocre mage that gets basic instruction from an old book can cast.


    After that is the advanced tier that mainly consists of spells that stronger versions of the previous tier and much more versatile attack spells such as the elemental lances. This tier also contains compounded spells that combine various elements to create various other spells such as magna and ice versions.


    These are the three main classifications and while there are sub classifications for other magic types, they could wait for another time to be explained.


    After Florian walked to the middle of the field, she began quietly muttering words which are the spells chants. Seconds later large amounts of magic circles began to appear at once and from them appeared various lances made of fire and earth that floated in the air.


    After confirming that it succeeded, Florian once again began muttering chants and began forming large balls of water, fire, earth, and a vortex of wind from various magic circles.


    Along with that I could see a bluish glow coming off her body which is the sign that physical reinforcement magic was invoked as well.


    I know that I asked for her to cast as much intermediate tier magic as she could but she decided to instead cast intermediate tier magic such as the. Overall it was an impressive display of magic skill and control since she was maintaining each spell simultaneously without firing them off, even though the clear sign of slight of exhaustion can be seen from the sweat dripping from her forehead.


    ¡°Alright Florian, that¡¯s enough for now, you can fire off the spells into the air if you want or if possible try to cancel the spells without causing rebound.¡± (Cyril)


    Nodding to my words, she closed her eyes in concentration while the spells began to break apart into particles gradually until every spell finally faded along with cancelling the physical reinforcement magic. After that Florian planted herself on the ground while breathing roughly while trying to rest.


    ¡°Alright Lex, you¡¯re next, your confident in your defense correct.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°That¡¯s correct, I am confident that I can withstand a blow from a large grown man wielding a Warhammer striking my shield, just don¡¯t ask why I know that, it¡¯s a long story.¡± (Lex)


    Hearing that, I could tell this wasn¡¯t arrogance but pure self-confidence, so I am tempted to test his limit that he can defend against.


    ¡°Alright Lex, this is the plan, I¡¯m going to send an attack towards you and you try to defend without injuries.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°That¡¯s it? Nothing else needs to be done to test me.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Well since you said all that you excel in is defense, I want to test what your limit is in defending against attacks. Are you ready Mai.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I am ready anytime that you are Cyril.¡± (Mai)


    After saying that her body was engulfed in golden light and her body disappeared and turned into a golden flame that flew and landed into my hand. I began to imagine the imagine of a gun. I pictured the image of a more modernized version of the classic Colt Single Action Army Revolver that I saw during a past task, the design was different than the original design as it had more square and sharper edges instead of rounded parts.


    After clearly imagining the Colt SAA clearly, I could see Mai who was originally a ball of golden fire begin to morph and change to mimic the image that I envisioned in my head. After the golden flames turned into the form of the revolver, she finally began to manifesting into a physical state as the revolvers details and color began to form until she completely turned into the overall image in my head.


    She does assist in the process because she will handle ascetics since she calls it important. Looking at her, instead of a grey and dull revolver, the look was more clean looking, the color was mainly a solid glossy black with electric blue outlines and line work. Looking at the small open space that was just below the cylinder of the revolver and above the trigger was the symbol of our contract that resembled a sword and a crown fused together.


    ¡°Alright are you ready Lex, because I¡¯m not going to wait for you to stop being shocked by every little thing, smart rule of thumb you know.¡± (Cyril)


    After saying that I raised the Revolver and aimed directly at Lex¡¯s chest who just registered what I said and stared blankly at me before realizing what I said. Let¡¯s see if he can react appropriately to this since I aimed for a moment before firing at Lex who hasn¡¯t every readied his shield.


    Luckily for him since it seems that he has good instincts and reflexes, because the moment I pulled the trigger, he registered the danger and instinctively brought his shield up at an angle in the hope of deflecting the foreign projectile.


    It seems that he was muttered a short chant as a bluish glow began to come from his body before it moved to his shield as it covered it.


    Everything happened in the span of a second, it began with what sounds like a gun firing with a silencer before the violent sound of metal deforming rang out and the sound of sliding feet on dirt was heard.


    What happened was that even though he properly tried to deflect the attack instead of taking it full on, but unfortunately it seems that I may have fired it with too much force since even though he successfully deflected it, the force of the bullet was still too much for him to completely deflect.


    Lex who was previously standing around thirty feet away was now standing around ten feet further than before while holding a deformed shield that was heavily dented on one side so much that it collapsed inward from the force of the bullet and now barely resembled a shield at all.


    ¡°My mistake Lex, I misjudged your ability to defend and fired off a bullet stronger than I originally planned on, don¡¯t worry about your shield, I¡¯ll replace it later.¡± (Cyril)


    Looking dazed once again, Lex finally looked down at his shield in confusion.


    ¡°Bullet? What¨DWait, what happened to my shield!¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Well I fired a type of projectile called a bullet at you, but since firing off a normal bullet would probably kill you, I changed the property of it so that it caused blunt force instead of penetration so that it didn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t account the amount of force that you could handle so I winged it based on your confidence.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Umm¨D Mr. Cyril, what do you mean by changed the properties, I felt a small buildup of mana in your weapon before a muffled sound was heard and Lex was blown back, what did you do? What was that attack!¡± (Florian)


    Before I could even answer a question, Florian who was originally fearful towards me for some reason, was now firing on questions like a machine gun without any sight of fear. Those two are really to alike in that aspect I guess.


    ¡°Well before answering anymore questions, little let me answer the first few. The buildup of mana was me forming the bullet using mana which allowed me to manipulate the properties of the mana to go from it focusing on penetration to blunt force, that¡¯s pretty much all I did.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Hey now, don¡¯t try to make it seem as if it¡¯s that easy, do you understand that there are probably only two people in this world that understand how to condense mana so much that it becomes solid. Also, I would have never understood the process if you were never summoned as well.¡± (Ambrosia)


    ¡°Oh, Ambrosia, your still here, I forgot all about you with that small presences of yours, sorry about that, maybe growing older made your presence smaller than before.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Wha¨D my presence isn¡¯t that small is it that it gets thinner with age!¡± (Ambrosia)


    After shooting down Ambrosia after continuing my plan of ignoring her existence which seems to work since she begins muttering words while looking slightly depressed, Aearial finally asked a question after the commotion settled down.


    ¡°Hey Cyril, I had assumed that blonde girl was also a student, but what is she really, since she transformed into that revolver in your hands?¡± (Aearial)


    ¡°Oh¨D well since she never introduced herself, I¡¯ll do it for her, her name is Mai and she is considered a transcendent weapon and can turn into most forms of weaponry that the wielder imagines, she is also my partner that is contracted to me.¡± (Cyril)


    After explaining that, we continued the spars with Aearial next since she seemed the most capable in terms of combat. It was easy to tell looking at her posture, the way she walked as well as well as how she watched her surroundings.


    ¡°You¡¯re up next Aearial, also since you said you skilled in multiple forms of martial arts, I want you to use the one that your most proficient in and use that if you would. Since this is only for me to gauge everyone¡¯s capabilities, I mainly want to see your physical capabilities and reflexes and how you react to the situation.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Alright than I can do that.¡± (Aearial)


    One we took our places ten feet away Aearial began to take a low stance that allowed her to begin sprinting and avoiding attacks at a moment¡¯s notice based on my usage of Mai as a revolver and took into account of it. But I want to see how she reacts to things that she doesn¡¯t encounter previously or see¡¯s so I had Mai change forms from a gun to a combat knife that was based on the ¡®Ari B¡¯Lilah¡¯ counterterrorism knife, but instead of imagining it with a sharp edge, I imagined a dull edge since it¡¯s a spar.


    Aearial seeing that I changed to using a knife also changed her stance from a low stance that focus on leg power to a stance that was focused on self-defense and counters based on how she is keeping her body squared and arms in tight. I couldn¡¯t really name the martial arts form, but it seems based on various forms of martial arts like how MMA fighting is used, except her style seems to have been developed for actual combat and not sport.


    After she was ready and I began the spar, neither of us rushed at each other and just stayed in place while watching each other¡¯s actions. Observing her, I can tell that she was truthful in that she is highly skilled in hand to hand combat as I found it hard to figure out how to approach without being countered, but since I am the instructor, I guess I should start it off since standing her won¡¯t help anyone.


    Deciding this, I also took a stance that was focus on defensive fighting and reacting to attacks used by soldiers. The stance consisted of me holding Mai outward ready to thrust anytime while my other hand floated above the blade with my palm parallel to the ground with me bending forward slightly.


    I decided to see how good she is in a defensive battle when faced with an opponent that does the same. I slowly moved closer towards her until I was just outside her range of her reach.


    Both of us stared each other square the eyes the whole time waiting for the other to make a mistake at any moment. Making the first move, I quickly thrust my right arm holding Mai towards Aearial aiming for her stomach.


    Aearial easily reacted by using her right arm to push by outstretched hand to her side, missing her body while at the same time using her other hand to stop my other arm that was aiming for her face as well.


    Catching my left arm by the wrist, she used her right hand and attempted to put me in an adductive wristlock while she tried to break my balance by kicking my feet out from under me and force me onto the ground to give herself the advantage in position.


    The problem arose when her leg that tried to break my balance only hit air where my legs should have been. After I saw her aim to put me in a wristlock, without her noticing, I grabbed onto her cloths on her back using my hand that was Previously holding Mai who I had to let go.


    After I latched onto her without her knowledge, I took advantage of her abnormal strength that I noticed she had after she grabbed my wrist. The reason her leg met with air was because I lifted both of my legs up to my chest before she realized.


    When she finally noticed the sight of my legs in front of her, the look of realization finally bloomed on her face but it was too late for that.


    When my legs finally reached right where I wanted them, I pushed them out and towards Aearial¡¯s abdomen. She attempted to jump back to weaken the blow after letting go of my wrist but failed to get away since I had pulled her back to me using my right arm that was secretly holding on to her. This little oversight was her mistake as my legs connected with her abdomen and knocked the air out of her.


    The kick ended up sending her flying back a few feet from the force and sliding onto her back. Once she hit the ground, she tightly clutched her stomach while gasping for breath desperately.


    ¡°Aria!¡±


    Elena rushed over to Aearial while shouting her name along with Halbert. When they arrived by her side, Halbert had Elena help him and they moved Aearial into a crouching position since Aearial couldn¡¯t do this by herself due to the pain from being winded.


    After few minutes of this, her muscles finally relaxed enough for her to breathe properly or at least without as much difficulty. During this time, I moved to the side and ignored Halbert¡¯s glare towards my back and went to pick up Mai who I had to let go previously while she continued to complain towards me about throwing her like I did through our telepathic link in a vain effort.


    Well, two more to go before I guess I should end class for the day, all that¡¯s left is Elena and Erline who I need to spar against, but seeing as Elena never mentioned having much skill in hand to hand combat or anything I decided that I may just need to gauge how well are her reflexes are for now. I¡¯m going to have to guess using that for now and then maybe tomorrow during training, I can see more into about that.

 Chapter 8- Failure is the first step to success

    -Aearial POV-


    After my spar with Cyril and my humiliating loss, I felt frustrated thinking about it. I wasn¡¯t frustrated towards losing or at Cyril, but towards my oversight.


    During the match and even before it, I failed to noticed that I psyched myself out with nervousness. I didn¡¯t realize that I was nervous from facing a hero that far exceeded my skill and age and it resulted in me on the ground from being winded.


    When I faced Cyril, I thought I roughly figured out how he operated based on the previous spars with Lex and Halbert. I assumed that Cyril was more of a passive fighter that will do things with the least amount of effort and exploit kinks in his opponent¡¯s armor and then rip that armor away leaving them open to the world.


    During his spar with Halbert, he purposely provoked Halbert which made his attacks become more straightforward. All Cyril did during the spar was use Judo throws and grapples to bring down Halbert who is a large man. When he tested Lex¡¯s defense, instead of using physical attacks, he used the young blonde girl named Mai who transformed into a gun just like in fictional stories to test him.


    In both situations, Cyril didn¡¯t attack aggressively and only used grapples and ranged attacks to spar with both guys so I assumed that he fought in a more passive style that took advantage of the opponents flaws to counter them at the right moment.


    So, when it was my turn to spar I thought about this and decided to use one a special martial arts form that I personally created using key points of various defensive martial arts forms. I never named it anything in particular except for ¡®Form Six¡¯ and this form focused on pure defensive counters and grappling.


    But Cyril did something different, instead of a gun, the girl named Mai turned into a combat knife. He also took a stance for the first time that I recognized was called the knife fighters stance used mainly by the military and soldiers. Seeing that he wasn¡¯t using a gun anymore I switched my stance from ¡®Form Six¡¯ over to ¡®Form Nine¡¯ which is like what form six is meant for, except it has more focus on counters against blades and weaponry while standing still and less on moving from one spot in a moment¡¯s notice.


    After the spar began, it was over in only a minute with my complete loss, but what did I do wrong you may think, What I failed at was that I assumed. I thought that he was a passive fighter, but he fought me in a defensive battle that I lost in, I also failed when I assumed that since he said that him and Mai are partners, that he wouldn¡¯t do one thing, let go of her to achieve victory.


    It¡¯s basic psychology for most people that if someone with a weapon is facing someone without a weapon, the armed fighter will by nature, attempt to hold on to their weapon and not lose it as it will place them on the same playing field as their unarmed opponent.


    I assumed this would be the same with Cyril as well, but he didn¡¯t think the same way that most people would which I realized while I was on the ground desperately trying to breathe.


    I had nothing to complain about how I was treated because I was the one that made the mistake. The heavy feeling of frustration keep my thoughts from moving on from the past. Even though it would be smart to learn from my mistake and just move on with the day, I am unable to.


    I can¡¯t because of a haunting feeling that has already burrowed deep into my heart and left a deep scar after it violently dug its way in. This feeling was like a parasite that would constantly mock me and act as a reminder of my powerlessness and my failure to save someone.


    Every time I feel that I can finally move past my failures and call myself strong enough, this parasite will resurface on my heart and then reality will tightly grasp onto my fantasy and rip it apart as if it was made of paper.


    Before these negative thoughts could further grab ahold of my mind, the sound of Cyril¡¯s voice refocused my mind on what¡¯s in front of me and away from my inner thoughts.


    ¡°Alright Erline lets have you go next since I can see that you can¡¯t wait any longer, but I should probably apologize to your father later when I see him again.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°With pleasure, Mr. Cyril, but why the apology if I may ask.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll know later¡± (Cyril)


    Due to me being lost in my thoughts, I didn¡¯t realize how long it¡¯s been from when I was winded from my spar, but I can tell it¡¯s been a few minutes since there isn¡¯t any more noticeable pain. I realized that I once again allowed my mind to wander to deep once again and I decided to refocus my mind on what¡¯s in front of me which is the next spar.


    Looking at Erline with her striking bright red hair, she seemed to elude a feeling of grace, but at the same time anger from her eyes. As she stood with her feet slightly spread apart she finally began to unsheathe her weapon that was hanging down from her right side at her hip.


    The weapon that she unsheathed was a sword that I honestly couldn¡¯t name when I saw it. Overall it resembled a Katana but it lacked the wavy lines, that I never cared to remember what they were called, that are usually seen on katanas.


    Looking at it, even though I have never been so much of a sword enthusiasts, even I could tell that the blade was a beautifully crafted weapon. The blade was simplistic except for a small engraving near the swords cross guard that must have been the blacksmiths signature, the guard was a bit more elaborate and looked like what you would see on other katanas for its guard I guess.


    Moving my eyes from Erline over to Cyril and at that moment saw Cyril have Mai change back into Revolver again although the shape was slightly different with its larger barrel and overall size.


    ¡°Alright, shall we begin.¡± (Cyril)


    After saying that, Erline smiled coldly while staring at him and readied her sword by holding it with the blades tip pointed backwards on her right side. She slowly lowered her stance and leaned forward ever so slightly until she vanished.


    I say vanished instead of accelerated forwards because what Erline did was like what Cyril did previously against Halbert when he overwhelmed him. If I had to say how fast she was then Erline is a whole other level above in speed compared to Halbert but still slightly below Cyril¡¯s speed.


    Compared to Halbert who kicked up a large cloud of dust when he moved, the only indicator that showed she was previously there was an indication of her footprint that was left.


    The moment that Erline vanished, Cyril turned his body to the side completely in a casual manner and then her onslaught began a second later.


    After Cyril moved his whole body to the side, Erline reappeared behind him and following her was her blade that moved in an upward vertical slash towards the place that Cyril previously stood at.


    Even though her blade only hit air, it seems that she predicted that outcome and followed up after the first missed strike. With a quick twist of the sword, Erline turned the direction of the edge of the blade that was pointing up and turned it so that it was facing down and then slashed down again while shifting her weight so that her right side was beginning the motion for a full spin around.


    To some people, this movement would be difficult if not impossible due to the inertia that from the first upward slash would resisting the sudden change, but I could tell that Erline was extremely talented in swordsmanship.


    Some may say that talent with swords doesn¡¯t have any connection with ignoring inertia, but that wasn¡¯t all that she had. From her previous conversations with Cyril, it¡¯s clear that they are well acquainted with each other, which makes sense since Ms. Ambrosia even stated that he was summoned here before.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Going back to the first strike, the reason that she could turn the blade and slash backdown with little effort was because she expected it to miss most likely. When she slashed the first time, she didn¡¯t put much strength and weight behind it that would cause excessive inertia to form and place only the minimum amount of strength needed to effortlessly change directions.


    That is why I brought up her talent with swords and her knowing Cyril, because these two things are what allowed her to continue her offense.


    The problem lies though with knowing Cyril, because it means that he also knows her habits as well most likely which explains why he could avoid the first slash as well as the downward slash that Erline just attacked with.


    Cyril just causally avoided her slashes by turning his body once he turned around after the first strike. After Erline failed to land the second strike, he movement didn¡¯t end with it as she was already beginning her third strike when she shifted her weight and used the momentum from the downward slash to spin around in tight, fast motion to prevent any excessive time between her view of Cyril and her turning around in a spin.


    Once she completed he spin that was followed by a horizontal slash that was aimed at Cyril¡¯s chest which once again met with air since Cyril bent his upper body back to avoid it. This exchange continued for a several minutes that consisted of Erline aggressive slashing at Cyril while he continued to avoid the blade.


    Watching both was a sight to behold that made me completely forget about my previous frustration. Watching Erline fight was like watching a beautiful blade dancer preform, each slash was precisely done and he movements were smooth and well-practiced to the point that it became art that combined beauty and practical combat.


    Watching Cyril continue avoiding the edge of the blade with efficient and casual movements was just as amazing to watch as well that he was like a leaf.


    The way that both seemed to predict each other¡¯s movements and their attempt to gain the upper hand showed the skill that both possessed. The continued onslaught of Erline¡¯s attacks were done in rapid and nonstop motions, but she showed little evidence of being exhausted at all.


    Both continued this exchange, but the whole time it was evident that even though Erline was attacking and Cyril was dodging, it was clear who was the instructor and who was the disciple.


    Suddenly when Erline was in the middle of another diagonal slash that was aimed downward towards Cyril¡¯s left shoulder, he made his first and last offensive move.


    Cyril¡¯s right hand that was holding Mai instantly moved towards Erline except not towards her body, but her blade. Before Erline¡¯s blade could connect with Cyril, it was met with the end of the barrel from a revolver as Cyril pressed it against the side of her blade.


    The sound of a silenced gun and the loud sound of metal violently breaking resounded. Instantly I grabbed Elena who was standing right next to me on by right and pushed her away just in time as a blade flew past right where Elena was standing and lodging itself in the ground behind us.


    Looking at it after it landed in the ground it was obvious where it came from but it was missing something and that was the other half.


    Elena who I had to push away looked at me before following my gaze and understood why I did that since if I hadn¡¯t than she would be moving on to her next task right now.


    ¡°Thanks for that Aria, wow that was an unpleasant surprise I guess.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Sorry about that Elena, since you currently have no weapons yet and since it seems that you don¡¯t have much experience in hand to hand combat, I just wanted to at minimum test how you react for now until I get some training gear.¡± (Cyril)


    Looking back where Erline and Cyril were sparring, I saw Cyril who was turned towards us while speaking and the sight of Erline standing motionless while continuing to blankly stare at her broken sword.


    ¡°Next time, please don¡¯t do something that could potential turn me into something that a butcher will sell daily just to test me, please. I honestly prefer my body kept in one whole piece.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°No promises on that, well I guess that ends our spars for today as well as training. Tomorrow we will meet here again and then I will explain what each of you need to improve upon. For tonight, I just want you to think about how and why you either lost or could improve after your spar. Dismissed.¡± (Cyril)


    After hearing what Cyril said, I guess that ends for today all the spars for today and after helping Elena back up from off the ground and along with Halbert and me, all three of us left along with Ms. Ambrosia so that we can get our room arrangements and discuss so small things such as uniforms and such.


    -Cyril POV-


    After I dismissed everyone and most of them left in different directions and that included Mai who changed back into her humanoid form and since I wasn¡¯t planning on fighting anymore today allowed her to leave so she could go to the library. The only ones left at the training grounds was me and Erline who was still left in a daze.


    Seeing that it may be my fault that she is like this, I decided to wait for when she finally recovers. It didn¡¯t take long though because after around five minutes she finally fell to her knees and broke down while she began to laugh.


    ¡°Hahahaha¨C even though I have been training so hard for over five years, I still can¡¯t even put a single god damn scratch on you. Even though I am not the strongest or smartest, I still had pride in my speed, I believed that with that alone, I could at least hold my own you know.¡± (Erline)


    I stayed silent as I listened to Erline continue to ramble on while tears streamed down her face like a river and her eyes stared upward at the sky as if searching for some sort of answer.


    ¡°I trained day in and day out in pursuit of my goal, I never stopped training after you disappeared five years ago, because I hoped that one day I can reach that point where if you ever saw me again then you would comment on how strong you have become. I believed that desperately as that was all I had after you failed to keep your promise to me and disappeared without even saying goodbye once.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°You should know better than anyone that you shouldn¡¯t make promises that you know others won¡¯t keep.¡± (Cyril)


    I am not the right person that you want to make promises with since I suck at keeping them at the most crucial of moments when I need. But I guess I should at least apologize to her as a basic curtsy at least so I started walking towards Erline who looked like she was waiting to break at any moment.


    After I arrived in front of her I silently stood looking down at her as I saw Erline visibly tense up and my movement. I than silently extended my right arm and moved it towards Erline who grew tenser with each passing moment before he body completely relaxed once I placed my hand on top of her head and gently began to rub it.


    ¡°You know that during our spar today, I was somewhat surprised by how far you have come from the timid little princess that always clung to my leg since she was so shy to a grown-up princess that doesn¡¯t shy away from fighting and fights with everything she has in her pursuit of her dreams. Seeing the clear growth that you have gone through over five years, I can confidently say to you that you have become strong.¡± (Cyril)


    While listening to my words, I could see Erline¡¯s eyes regain some light again, but I am not some gentle father that encourages his children, but an instructor that will mix scolding and encouragement together.


    ¡°But you are far from reaching the strength that you secretly desire for because it is an impossible goal to gain absolute strength even for me. As you are now, you are nothing more than a rock that was found near the river bed with part of the inner gemstone revealed from a small crack in the rock. That little crack is what shows your potential to grow, but you have yet to become polished to fully reveal all the gemstone that¡¯s hidden inside. Even after you have been polished, you are still not done.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Wha¨C gemstones, polished?¡± (Erline)


    Looking somewhat confused by the analogy, Erline stared up at me while she stopped crying.


    ¡°What I am trying to say is that you will never come to a point where you can call yourself strong enough, because by saying that, you are admitting that it¡¯s okay to stop when you say it¡¯s enough. If you desire to become like a hero than you must have the resolution to never stop fighting and always stand back up despite the pain you feel, because heroes are people that fight for good or righteousness, but they are the individuals that know when to stand back up when they need to.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°But how do you know when you need to stand back up when you need to know, what if you never know when it¡¯s right.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°One outcome is that you either regret your mistake and learn from it for the future. The other outcome is you learn to believe that every situation is one that you need to continue to stand back up because it lowers the chances of regretting that you didn¡¯t stand back up when you need to.¡± (Cyril)


    Honestly the answer should be simple to most people but as humans we love to make everything complicated and complex when it doesn¡¯t need to be. I can¡¯t make fun of people since I am also human and not perfect, but once you live for time that I have, you tend to lower the number of faults by one or two at least.


    After hearing my words, Erline began to cry once again while looking up at me before she asked one final question.


    ¡°But will I be able to protect others when I truly need to if I¡¯m not strong when I need to be.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°I¡¯m going to be honest with you, people may see heroes as idealized and over glorified, but you need to remember that we are still mortals, we aren¡¯t gods. There will be times that you will be able to save people when you need to, but there will also be times when you will fail to save others. I don¡¯t consider myself as some sinner or saint either, I am only an old warrior that fights to protect the natural balance, that¡¯s all.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°So, your saying its hopeless to dream of saving people, I can¡¯t accept that.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°I never said that, like I said I am only an old warrior that protects the balance, but you can walk down a different path than I do, you can be someone that works to destroy balance and tries to save more people than you lose. Don¡¯t weigh yourself down by the ones you fail to lose and ignore the ones you save or else the weigh you continue to carry will make it harder to stand back up when you truly need to.¡± (Cyril)


    After hearing, what I said, Erline once again broke down and began to act like she did when she was younger when she would cling to me. She began tightly wrapping her arms around my stomach while letting her eyes gates to finally break open and allow her tears to spill out completely.


    She stayed like this for a while as she continued to cry, but I knew my words had an impact with inspiring her to learn to stand back up after failure. From past experiences, I understood that with this her growth will now truly begin to shine like a polished gemstone.


    While letting my mind wander in thought again, I vaguely remembered an old proverb from some island country in my first life as I quietly whispered to only myself.


    ¡°Fall down seven, get up eight¡± (Cyril)

 Chapter 9- The best way to relieve stress is to eat sweets

    -Cyril POV-


    After Erline finally calmed down enough and stop crying, it seemed that she suddenly remembered something since she suddenly gasped and turned her head to look back at her sword that is useless now.


    ¡°My precious sword I completely forgot about it. What am I gonna do, that was the precious family sword that I was given by father.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°That old piece of junk was a family heirloom, it wasn¡¯t even about to handle taking a single hit.¡± (Cyril)


    It seems that my assessment of that old sword shocked her as she looked at me flabbergasted in disbelief. Even though I may not be an expert, I do have knowledge in the quality of weapons and I can tell if the weapon is good or a piece of crap.


    ¡°Piece of Junk! That sword has been passed down for generations since my ancestors established the Azure Empire and it has been the royal families symbol since then. That weapon that you called junk is a national treasure that has been used in every war that the Empire has been a part of and has been through countless battlefields for centuries.¡± (Erline)


    ¡°Oh well no use crying of spilled milk since what¡¯s done is done, no use trying to change it. Since it seems that your somewhat back to your old self, I¡¯m going to leave now since I have some things I need to prepare, I¡¯ll pay you back later.¡± (Cyril)


    After saying that I turned my back and left while ignoring the complaints that came flying at me from the angry princess that was yelling at me.


    After that, I decided to leave the academy grounds since I need to buy some temporary equipment for class. I was lucky that before I left the old man¡¯s castle to head to the academy that he remembered to give me some spending funds that he called reward for the past and future achievements.


    Why am I lucky you may ask because wouldn¡¯t the academy supplyyou with equipment so that the teachers and instructors wouldn¡¯t have to you may ask.


    The answer is no because, and I quote directly from that annoying witch words, ¡°What funds, aren¡¯t you are a hero, so acquiring funds should be a breeze for someone like you seeing as you must have had to do it for hundreds of years already.¡±


    I will omit the annoying witch¡¯s laughing that immediately followed because it will only annoy me further just thinking about it. So, in conclusion, I am lucky that I won¡¯t have to go out and make any money for some time since I got enough money to last me for roughly seven years if I spent it sparingly.


    In total I was given around 300 silver coins, 10 gold coins, and 1 platinum coin for spending and since I was only purchasing basic equipment thats usable for training soit shouldn¡¯t cost no more than around 50 silver coins.


    Once I finally exited the academy grounds, I continued walking towards the southern district where most of the market and stores were located. I ignored the curious glances that I kept getting from the people passing by as they noticed me.


    I can¡¯t blame them since my appearance is a rare sight in this region or for that matter this world. From my straight pitch, black hair as well as my bright electric blue eyes which basically screamedthat they were oddities.


    Black hair for some reason has always been a rare on most worlds I have been to, there are a few that had people with that color but they were constantly seen as exotic and you know what happens when people label others with the word exotic or unique in societies that were stuck in the medieval age, enslavement.


    Just by looking around the common hair color consisted mainly of brown to blonde hair colors with most eye colors being either brown, green, and dark blue. Fortunately, slavery has been outlawed in this country and the Azure empire for decades even before I arrived, but this couldn¡¯t be said the same for a few other countries.


    What made my appearance even more uncommon was that even though I had Black hair, my eye color was also apparently unique since while blue eyes aren¡¯t rare, the brightness that seemed to glow almost of my eyes, along with the clearness and vibrancy that came from them made them unique.


    Well moving past appearances, I continued ignoring the looks I was getting and stopped describing my physical appearance since it felt as if I continued do that I would turn into some narcissist.


    After walking for around twenty minutes, I finally arrived in the southern district where the number of people drastically increased while shouting merchants continued calling out to customers everywhere. Looking around I found that this place was the perfect place for pickpockets, the amount of people walking around along with the noise made it perfect to get pickpocket, add on to that most of the guards were unable to watch everywhere due to the amount of people.


    So how do I prevent myself from getting pickpocketed since I stated the amount of money that I was carrying already, well I carried all of it inside a small multitool that was shaped like a locket around my neck.


    This little multitool is extremely useful for me because of some of its features. Overall this is tool carries three main functions with each one being priceless.


    The first one is that it can act as a special storage space that can carry items and inorganic materials. This is useful since it makes carrying equipment easy, the only downside is that it is incapable of carrying most weaponry since most of the time the problem originates from what the hilt is made with which is usually covered with shagreen or ray skin which is technically considered as organic.


    The second feature is that is can act as a memory camera. What that means is that it can be used similarly to how a camera works as well as a photo album at once. How it does that is you would press it to your forehead and then you strongly imagine the memory that you want to capture and then it will simply capture it and then it will allow you to permanently see that memory in the form of a hologram that it creates.


    The final feature is that it can act as a locator for people that you register. All I simply have to do is press it against the desired person and imagine it registering them, after that if they are not died or not on this world I will be able to locate them, but the downside is that it can only register three people at a time and if I register any more than it will delete the first person registered and continue from that.


    Well the benefits far out way the small restrictions so it¡¯s not like it really bothers me much since there is no such thing that is only beneficial and carries no conditions with it.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    I continued roaming until I found where I was searching for that is perfect for obtaining quality equipment that should work. I turned down a certain alleyway that lead deeper into the backways until I arrived in front of a large doorway to a building that had a sign saying closed hanging from a hook.


    Most people would probably question why the buildings closed and possible leave and inquire with the surrounding businesses about it. So, I did the most normal thing I could do, I began to loudly bang on the door for around a minute.


    It didn¡¯t take long for a loud voice began yelling a sea of swears that would make even the most hardened mercenary cry to his grandmother. The loud swearing was followed by the loud sound of a crash and metal falling to the ground after being knocked over and another wave of swears before the door was violently swung open.


    Standing in the place where a large 8ft door previously stood was a slightly smaller door that was only a few inches shorter than the previous door. While I say another door, maybe describing it as a large bear would be more as fitting since even the meaning behind the name of the bear describes it so much you would question if the parents predicted the growth of the bear.


    ¡°How¡¯s it going Bernita, people still running when they see you come to the door.¡± (Cyril)


    With that one sentence, it seemed I surprised her since Bernita stared at me blankly as if she saw a ghost. The Bear named Bernita was a large woman that would make bulky body builders worship her just with a glance with her huge muscles and large intimidating figure.


    Bernita is also the woman who I went to for quality equipment during my previous task since she was a great blacksmith even without using her unique magic to assist in the smithing process.


    Not even a few moments later after opening the door, was I grabbed and lifted into a bear hug that had enough strength put into it that I think that even Hercules would grunt in discomfort and I should know since I met him once. It is interesting to note that he was surprising the artistic type that loved painting portraits of landscapes, but I digress.


    Moving back to the death hug, I was forced to expand by mana to reinforce my body while attempting to prevent myself from having my bones turned into powder.


    ¡°Hey you know that if you continue hugging me you may lose another customer, and it won¡¯t because I was dissatisfied with the service and left either, but because I am no longer living you know.¡± (Cyril)


    I had to put of effort just to squeeze those words out of my throat that was being constricted tighter than a boa constrictor that was doped on steroids.


    Also, you may think how could I know what that¡¯s like, well simply put, I have lived a long time, you experience things all the time that you never expected to.


    Before I could completely lose focus on maintaining the physical reinforcement spell due to the lack of oxygen that wasn¡¯t being properly supplied to my brain I was finally released from death¡¯s grip before he was able to close both arms around my back and crush me after revealing himself from a suit of armor as if it was a game.


    After falling to my knees, I was relieved to find that nothing was broken in my body and oxygen was allowed back into my once fleeting life.


    ¡°Seriously, that¡¯s why you don¡¯t have much customers that ever return, will you ever change.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I could say the same to you as well, that same emotionless expression and sarcastic attitude also hasn¡¯t changed since the last time I saw you all those years ago. Alright let¡¯s continue this inside why don¡¯t we, I¡¯m sure you aren¡¯t here for a touching reunion since that isnt like you.¡± (Bernita)


    Just like her to hit the mark and switch over to all business. I followed here inside and was met with the same sight that never changed, a cluttered mess that consisted of scattered failed weapons that she made as well as alcohol bottles that were unopened.


    ¡°So, what can I do for my number one customer today. Knowing you, the request probably won¡¯t be an easy one and will require all my effort to fulfill.¡± (Bernita)


    ¡°Well you are right, since I was summoned here again I was also given the task of training the other heroes, two of them fight using hand to hand combat so they can wait. The problem is that one is a jack of all trades like me and I destroyed one of my students shield while sparing along with another''s sword.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°So, you need a shield and a sword to replacethere weapons,but what about the other one? Can¡¯t supply you if I don¡¯t know what you need.¡± (Bernita)


    ¡°I know, for now I just need a basic shield, some throwing knifes, a basic bow with arrows, and two blades, also if you could have some equipment made again for me¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Is that a special order because if it is, do you want the same equipment made like last time or are you in the mood for something new.¡± (Bernita)


    ¡°No need, I trust your decision, but aside from any changes to the armor, can I get everything else the same as last time.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I can handle that, is there anything else you need made? If that¡¯s all then you can just go grab what you need from this room, I¡¯ll add that charge to the bill when you pay later, I should be finished with your equipment in a week. Your equipment should come out to around two gold while the shield and everything should be around fifty silver.¡± (Bernita)


    ¡°That would be it for now, also I will bring the other heroes and students here so that they can also place their orders for their equipment when I return to get my equipment alright.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Alright.¡± (Bernita)


    After saying that she got up and proceeded to leave into the backroom so that she could get to work. I also got up and looked around the room to find what I need.


    After looking around at the clutter of various weapons, I settled for a shield that was like what Lex was using in size. I also found some throwing knifes that Bernita kept in a container that she considered to be the minimum that she will organize the mess. I also found a bow that should be usable for someone of Elena¡¯s size and after grabbing some arrows along ith a curved and straight swordthat were nearbyand than I finally left.


    After exiting the store and leaving the alleyway, instead of turning right out the alley which lead towards the academy, I went the opposite direction with one mission in mind. I needed to buy something else important and I could also feel Mai agreeing with my thoughts through the link that we shared.


    After walking for around five minutes I finally arrived at the store that will help relieve my stress that I have been accumulating since I arrived.


    Before any assumptions are made, no I am not standing in front of some tavern or brothel. Yes, both places are said to relieve stress and aside from taverns, I have never even been to a brothel before and never planned on it.


    What I am standing in front of is even better than what those two places could ever be, a bakery. What makes this bakery special though is that it is one of the few places that sells not only bread but other various sweets, after some assistance for me with the recipes.


    Since I was the reason that this place didn¡¯t go under and fall into bankruptcy, they give huge discounts to me and since it¡¯s been over five years, I expect that their sweets got even better with the bakers growing experience and time.


    After entering I was meet with the beautiful scent of freshly made sweets that couldn¡¯t be found anywhere else as I walked towards the counter where some woman greeted me and I briskly placed my order. She must be new since she was about to charge me the usual price for all the sweets that I was purchasing much to her surprise.


    If it wasn¡¯t for the owner walking in holding a tray with some fresh bread, I would have had to pay almost one gold instead of thirty silver from the discount. After she was reprimanded for her mistake, I could purchase the sweets with the discount and finally left in a relatively good mood.


    After that I finally headed back to the academy and headed back to my room where Mai who waited there when she realized what I bought and I could enjoy the sweets that we missed. Nothing else could ever come close to being on the same plane of existence when compared to sweets as a way of releaving stress.


    From the assortment of flavored cakes that ranged across the whole spectrum of sweetness was truely a sight to behold. Both Mai and me were in complete agreement in our love for sweets and the blissful feeling they brought and not waiting any longer, we began to eat them much to our sadness over the noble sacrifice of the cakes allowing themselves to fall in the face of battle.

 Extra - The Encyclopedia of Mai, Entries 1-3

    Mai¡¯s Encyclopedia of knowledge


    I am writing this as a way of documenting all my observations that I have found based on all things related to the heroes, the soul, gods, etc. This will carry all my theories that I have formulated and the things that I can consider as facts of natural laws. This is mainly to make it easier to explain for others because I¡¯m in a very good mood after Cyril brought me sweets today.


    Basic Information of current world:


    Name of world: Coireall


    Universal currency system:


    -1 Platinum coin = 1000 Gold coins


    -1 Gold coin = 100 Silver coins


    -1 Silver coin = 100 Bronze coins


    magic is classified into five tiers of ranking.


    -There are four basic elements that can be manipulated as long as they hold talent in the element. These elements are Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth.


    -Tier 1: Beginners Magic; consists of basic small scale spells that are used for day to day usage such as igniting a small flame or creating small amounts of water.


    -Tier 2: Intermediate Magic; consists of basic combat spells that have short and simple chants but fall behind in power and strength of spell.


    Ex: Fireball, Earth Spike, Water Sprout, Wind blade, Physical Reinforcement, Weak Magic Barriers.


    -Tier 3: Advanced Magic; improved versions of Intermediate Magic that contain wider versatility and strength with spells, chants are slightly lengthier than the previous tier, but deep knowledge in a certain element will vastly improve the spells and allow for various forms and uses.


    Ex: Flame Lance, Elemental Reinforcement, Magic/Physical Barriers, Water torrent, Earth Wall.


    -Tier 4: Compound Magic; requires extensive knowledge and understanding of the various elements and how they interact with natures forces to utilize compound magic. Allows for the combining and fusing of multiple elements and weaving hybrid spells.


    Ex: Lightning Spells, Ice Spells, Lava Spells, etc.


    -Tier 5: Unique Magic; makes up any form of magic that does not fall under the four basic elements or reinforcement/Barrier spells that are unique to a single individual and named as the unique factor. It should be noted that certain individuals hold a 1 in 10 million chance of carrying the unique factor, but their magic would remain dormant in the wielder. The magic is considered extremely valuable since the unique factor is a blank slate while dormant, but when the wielder¡¯s emotional state reaches a certain peak where they desire and crave something so greatly that the strength of their desire outweighs the strength of their soul, then the unique factor will awaken and become imprinted by their desire and manifest into a unique form of magic or ability that they can utilize.


    Ex: Necromancy Magic, Creation Magic, Spatial Magic.


    Entry# 1¨C The Uniqueness of the Soul


    Souls in general can be considered as strange in the sense that they are always unique from each other. In fact, they are so unique that even if you compared an individual¡¯s soul alongside a parallel version of them, both souls will hold some small unique aspect which defines them and separates them apart.


    This difference is the reason why the gods do not completely understand mortal soul¡¯s and why they are so unique and vary.


    One unique characteristic of the souls is that it will never reincarnate on the same world or better yet it cannot reincarnate in the same world. What that means is when a soul¡¯s physical body parishes on a world, then the soul is severed from the physical body and enters the space that Cyril labels as Purgatory where it will re-enter the reincarnation cycle where it will be reborn in a new world with a new physical body.


    Whenever I had the chance to converse with Alvena the Goddess of Revolution that oversees Cyril when he is between tasks and his souls is momentarily in a stasis in purgatory so that his soul doesn¡¯t suffer any permanent damage from fatigue, I would ask Alvena various questions.


    One question I asked her was what happens if you send a soul back to a world that it has previous been reincarnated in. What Alvena said was that the soul will suffer something similar to radiation poisoning over long time exposure. The soul won¡¯t immediately parish from it, but gradually over the years if it continues to reside on the world it will weaken rapidly and permanent repercussions will result.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    If given an approximate timeline than from the point of physical birth on the world, after around two years the soul and body will begin to rapidly weaken, after another year than permanent effects will take effect and any longer after than the soul will then suffer rapid deterioration until it is finally empty and it disappears permanently.


    This is a natural law is the reason why Heroes cannot be summoned back to a world that they have died on, but if a hero has not perished though and they completed their task than this law will not have effect on them because they are summoned off the world the moment their task is complete or until the balance is restored.


    Entry# 2¨C The Soul of Heroes


    What are Heroes and what makes their souls even more unique when compared to others, this is a question that many people may ask. The majority consensus of people that hear of the heroes is that they are beings that are summoned to save the world, protect the people, and defeat the bad guy, but what does that mean exactly.


    Who do you define as the people that meant to be protected and the bad guy that must be defeated. What if the only way to save the world was to eradicate all sentient life on it, these questions have always interested me when observing human¡¯s interactions with each other.


    Its these common views that carry so much flaws and hypocritical views that blind mortals from facing reality when they need to, but I don¡¯t hate observing them or condemn them because while they are so flawed and imperfect, when they open their eyes to the world when they truly need to, then it because a scene that is painted with beauty and breath taking to watch as it unfolds.


    Going back on the topic of heroes, the term hero is only a relative term that describes them and what they are tasked with, but what is a hero¡¯s soul and why are they formed. To be honest the only knowledge I have of their creation is that they are anomalies that spontaneously born in the reincarnation cycle at random.


    If you compare the soul of a regular person and a hero, then the differences are easy to see. The basic image that people see when viewing a soul is of a ball of bluish fire that is roughly the size of the average heart of a human. The soul also radiates with a unique energy that is unique for everyone, but that will be explained more in depth in a later entry.


    If you compare the basic image of a soul to a hero¡¯s soul, you will notice the soul is almost twice the size of the average soul and it radiates energy that is much purer than normal. The defining characteristic of the hero¡¯s soul is that the energy radiating will form the image of large wings that wrap around the soul as if gently hugging and cradling it. These are the characteristics of a hero¡¯s soul that is commonly seen from my observations.


    Throughout the time that I have spent with Cyril which adds up for almost half the time he has been a hero, there was one common thing that I noticed whenever I converse with the other heroes that are usually summoned alongside Cyril. I always found it strange that every summoned hero looks either in their teens or at most in their early thirties, but after questioning them I may have formed a theory on why that is.


    The theory that I formed is that similar how mortals carry certain instincts such as the instinct to survive and reproduce, I believe that heroes may not carry these basic human instincts inside them as priority instincts and only as secondary instincts if that makes since. I believe that in place of common instincts such as survival or reproducing, they are almost by nature saviors and what I mean is that they do not fear death when it comes to saving others when they need to and tend to value the life of the individual above all else.


    Possibly because of this instinct to protect others, this is the reason they never live long since they will place them in front of harm¡¯s way to protect others from harm. After the first death that a hero experiences in their soul¡¯s memories and they agree to work with the gods, the gods use a blueprint to create the physical body for summoning, the gods will gain this from the soul¡¯s memories and use the form that the soul is most familiar with to create from.


    In conclusion, people can view heroes as foolish for putting the safety of others before their own life as idiotic, but isn¡¯t that what makes them so beautiful when listening of their epic tales of sacrifice and heroics throughout the ages. It¡¯s the feeling of overcoming the impossible odds though pure determination and hard work that is so addicting to people when they listen to these tales.


    When the hero dies for the first time and meets the gods they give them the choice of reincarnating with their memories wiped or becoming defenders of the natural balance while completing a set number of task. The number of tasks that they are given to complete is usually based on the strength of the souls radiating energy, the stronger the soul¡¯s energy means they are need to complete more tasks while weaker souls complete less task.


    Strangely it is interesting to note that based on what Alvena the Goddess of Revolution said, almost every hero will agree with becoming a defender instead of reincarnating without memories. I guess heroes do carry some normal human instincts that shows their mortality and fear of disappearing permanently.


    Entry# 3¨C Common Problems of a Heroes Soul


    While most of the time people carry the view that heroes are beings that are above normal mortals and just below gods which isn¡¯t completely incorrect, it isn¡¯t completely correct either. Truthfully, the hero¡¯s soul is considered by the gods as being highly imperfect with a large amount of problems as if they were a defected product in a factory.


    There are three main problems that involve heroes that I have observed first hand throughout the centuries. The first problem lies with their task as heroes and their memories that they have. Even though it has been found that the human brain has a huge capacity to hold memories, in truth it¡¯s the soul that carries the memories, but it doesn¡¯t mean that it has a limitless compacity.


    At a certain point, the soul¡¯s memories will begin to deteriorate and this will lead to heroes losing various memories as a safety measure to prevent any problems unconsciously. The soul will begin losing weaker memories such as day to day life or old acquaintances that they may have met shortly, while stronger memories such as important individuals or defining moments will slowly fade over a long period.


    While these can be a major problem, the hero won¡¯t become an amnesiac that forgets things a minute ago, but instead overtime they will only be able to remember at most one hundred years back clearly. Another thing to note is that this problem is only seen after the hero reaches the point that they carry around 700 years of worth of memories.


    The second problem lies in the soul¡¯s energy and how it is very pure compared to normal souls and the energy is extremely pure to begin with from the beginning. I found that the purer things are though, the easier it is for impurities to corrupt it when it wants to.


    This basically means that while heroes are by nature stronger than regular mortals in every aspect from their vitality and strength to their ideals such as their determination and courage that can¡¯t be broken unless a god strikes with all they have, they are extremely moved by their emotions. So, what do you do to break a hero that gains strength from those that they protect, you aim at the root of the hero¡¯s strength that drives them, those they protect.


    By nature, heroes don¡¯t randomly fall in love for no reason, because as I¡¯ve have stated earlier, the instinct to reproduce is secondary for heroes and while they may have perverted thoughts at times, they are so pure that they rarely act on their sexual desire as if they have a problem with it unless they are committed, but there are sometimes the select few that a hero will fall for and they can strongly state that they love them with all their heart.


    So, if a hero finds that special someone which is at times rare and hard to find for them making them much more special to them, what do you think will happen if you should take that away. If you take away what they hold close, then this can lead the problem number three that comes from breaking the heroes emotional state and implanting negativity into their pure and positive heart.


    The third problem is that heroes carry the blessings of the gods and what this means is that they carry protection from certain magic¡¯s or abilities that affect, damage, or control the mind or soul. The only thing that works on the hero¡¯s soul would be curses that do not damage the soul and only restrict or suppress the soul.


    It is unknown if this is a blessing or a curse though because the gods blessing as another effect, it prevents the mind from going mad and losing its sanity, but it does not protect against major changes to the hero¡¯s ideals, personality, or morals in extreme ways. A perfect example of this happening is what happens to anti-heroes and what creates them but that is an entry for another time.

 Side Story– Its a fact that Warhammers hurt... Alot.

    -Lex Speros POV-


    ¡°Hey Lex, you mentioned earlier during the spars, that you once blocked a grown man¡¯s Warhammer right.¡± (Aearial)


    ¡°Hmm...that¡¯s correct, why?¡± (Lex)


    Right now, all of us are in the cafeteria except for Mr. Cyril, Ms. Erline and Florian who I guess are doing other things right now. It¡¯s been a short while after we finished our first day of class with our new Instructor.


    ¡°You said that it was a long story to explain, but to be honest, I¡¯m m very interested in what it felt like when compared to what you felt today.¡± (Aearial)


    ¡°Same here, it¡¯s not every day that someone can say that they blocked a strike from a Warhammer and lived.¡± (Elena)


    How long has it been since that day, if I remember correctly it has been about two years since that event, but where should I begin though, I guess the reason for it is only appropriate.


    -Two years ago-


    Today was a normal day than for me as I walked while chatting with some friends from class. Currently it¡¯s been a few days since class began after I was admitted into the academy and it has been fun.


    The classes are so far rather simple since this is the beginners class which teaches things that range from basic arithmetic to survival skills. Even though it is the start, I feel excited because this is the first step that I have taken towards my dream.


    Everything was normal as I chatted and laughed with some friends until I began to hear loud voices and some grunts of pain.


    It was after we finally rounded the corner that lead to the open courtyard that I knew where the sounds were coming from.


    What I saw was a group of three large guys that surrounded another smaller guy who was clutching his stomach on his knees. They threw insults at him and punched him a few more times.


    I felt something rising in my stomach as I watched this, but before I could act, I felt a hand on my shoulder and when I turned it was one of my so-called friend John.


    ¡°Come on let¡¯s go, getting involved won¡¯t help anyone except make them change their target to us. Besides I think that guy is a noble as well so it gives us more reason to walk away.¡± (John)


    I was shocked by his words that bluntly said that we should just allow them to continue bullying that guy. I was shocked, but I was also disappointed in them, even though I felt that they were good guys it only extended towards keeping their heads low and avoiding danger to protect themselves.


    I shook away John¡¯s hand off my shoulder while I ignored his words and proceeded to begin quickly moving towards the group of bullies.


    ¡°What. You still think that you are better than us just because you read some books. I don¡¯t care if you are favored by some instructors, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that the only place that you belong is groveling beneath others feet.¡± (Noble)


    ¡°Are you finished yet, because if you are than can you get out the way, I have some class to get to.¡± (Smaller guy)


    After he said that was when they began to violently kick him repeatedly and that was when my hurried walk that was hoping to resolve the situation peacefully changed into a raging run that changed its mind after seeing that.


    Even though I was pissed off, I couldn¡¯t help but smile from what the small guy had said to them making it sound as if it was a simple guy blocking the way.


    It seems that the guy that was insulting him before was the group¡¯s leader and when I was closing in on them, it seems that he heard me coming from my loud footsteps as he turned around.


    What he was greeted with was someone that wanted to be good friends with him and his name was my right fist as it connected with his unsightly face. It seems that the sucker punch caught him even more off guard than I expected because he got knocked away into one of the other guys and they fell on top of each other.


    ¡°Well said, you are correct because if you don¡¯t hurry then you may be late for class!¡± (Lex)


    It was as if time stopped after I appeared because everyone froze and nobody spoke a word for a few moments. I placed myself in front of the small guy to protect him while I stared down at the other three guys.


    ¡°Who the hell are you, this doesn¡¯t involve you. If you walk away now we won¡¯t come after you as well.¡± (Noble)


    Th annoying guy that I punched said this while him and his friend got up while angrily glaring at me, but it doesn¡¯t sound convincing when you and your friends are moving to surround me and the small guy.


    ¡°I would if you stopped harassing this guy, but that doesn¡¯t seem very likely to happen.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°As if!¡± (Noble)


    Once he said that it began with their group charging towards me while I firmly stood my ground ready to meet them with everything I had.


    -30 minutes later-


    Currently I was on the ground while enduring the pain I was feeling while the guy who I defended was next to me while we sat in silence.


    After the group began their attack on me after I refused to back down I held them off while protecting him, but fortunately numbers weren¡¯t in my favor but they changed their focus and target onto me.


    They continued striking at me while I tried to fend them off until they finally gave up after seeing my resilience to not back down.


    Ha that¡¯ll teach them, but before they left the noble said that I¡¯ll be seeing him again as if it mattered. Both of us sat there with our back leaning against the wall while I was currently breathing haggardly.


    Looking at him, I studied him and found that my earlier statement on his height was accurate as he was short, smaller than the average male. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would mistake him for someone who¡¯s around 13 years old.


    He had short light brown hair and dark brown eyes and was sporting a nasty nosebleed with a few bruises on his gender-neutral face that seemed to lean on feminine.


    While I was silently studying his appearance, he asked me a question.


    ¡°So are you an idiot or what, you know that since you got involved and defied them then they are going to go after you as well.¡± (Short Guy)


    ¡°Who cares if they do, if I see someone that needs to be protected then I shall answer their call. Also, even if they do, I figured that if we stick together we have better chances against them don¡¯t you think, by the way, my names Lex Speros, it¡¯s good to meet you.¡± (Lex)


    I answered while smiling towards him while I extended my hand in greeting since its only proper to introduce yourself first to start a friendship.


    Strangely though I was only greeted with silence from him as he stared blankly at me, strange, I thought that it was proper to introduce yourself first when meeting new people or maybe I was mistaken.


    The awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments before it was slowly replaced by growing chuckles from him that gradually evolved into full blown laughter.


    ¡°Hey what¡¯s so funny, I thought it was only proper to give my name first!¡± (Lex)


    Even though I felt myself turning slightly red from embarrassment over my potential flop at first impressions, it didn¡¯t stop him from continuing to laugh for a few moments as tears slightly gathered.


    ¡°No, No it¡¯s not that. It¡¯s just that I never thought that I would meet someone like you. Even though your reckless and don¡¯t think first about your choices, it strangely feels that if I don¡¯t work at it than I will get pulled along with your rivers current.¡± (Small guy)


    ¡°Hey I rather be reckless and act than cautious and ignore others in need. After all that is my lifestyle as a guy that only uses shields to defend my allies.¡± (Lex)


    Apparently, my statement was once again seen as funny as it was once again greeted by more laughter.


    ¡°Your lifestyle as a guy that only uses a shield, you¡¯re not serious right. That is a one way pass to being made fun of in this academy you know that right seeing how its seen as the trend to use either the swordor magic.¡± (Small Guy)


    ¡°I am as serious as the old undead threat, I don¡¯t care if using only a shield is strange or going against common sense, it doesn¡¯t matter to me because if I don¡¯t do it than who will when its needed.¡± (Lex)


    Who cares if using a shield without any means of offense goes against social standards, because that is why I am here, to change that stupid thought pattern that people have towards shield bearers.


    ¡°you know what, even though you have nothing to back your thoughts up, I think that that it¡¯s futile to resist going along with your river¡¯s current and it would be better to just let it pull me along.¡± (Small Guy)


    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean exactly, also you never even properly introduced yourself even though I did.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Well obviously it¡¯s because I didn¡¯t trust you at all, but after hearing what I just did, I think you¡¯re the type of person that I can. Also, I guess now would be a better time than any to introduce myself.¡± (Small Guy)


    After saying that, he picked himself up after placing his hand on his knee to push off while wincing from the pain he must have received to his side. Once he stood up with slight difficulty, he than extended his hand out to me who was still sitting on the ground.


    Understanding what he was doing, I went along with it and grabbed his hand and held it tightly as if we were simply shaking hands. Strange thing that I noticed was his has was surprisingly soft and smooth, I guess that is because he is not in the knight¡¯s courses and must be in the mage¡¯s courses.


    After I grabbed his hand, he pulled back while he tried to help me up off the ground while he finally introduced himself while he showed the first true smile that I have seen on him so far.


    ¡°My name is Florian Arthion, it¡¯s nice to me you Lex, I hope we can be good friends since you suggested that if we stick together we would have a better chance.¡± (Florian)


    Thus, began our long-lasting friendship with each other that even magic wouldn¡¯t be able to break. What we didn¡¯t expect was our new friendship would be tested so quickly by a certain annoying noble.


    -Few weeks later-


    It¡¯s been a couple weeks since I first befriended Florian and it seems his predictions of those nobles turning their attention on me was in deed correct. So far it has been small things such simple verbal harassment and threats, but aside from that nothing else.


    When we befriended each other we both agreed that it would be best to stick together as much as possible and stay in view of the instructors and teachers when we can. While you may think, this was simply us hiding and running from the problem, both of us have been hanging out without even thinking about the problem.


    When talking about Florian, I would say that at first, he was more quiet and reserved in what he said, but after the first couple days he quickly opened and chatted more. Both of us found that we enjoyed each other¡¯s company since we had similar drives to pursue our dreams and goals that we found mutual understanding.


    I discovered that Florian was indeed studying as a mage and he is interested in anything related to magic or technology. Don¡¯t get me wrong it isn¡¯t on the level of curiosity or interest either, what I mean is if he hears anything about a new magical theory or invention than he will drop everything and lust after it as if its pure gold.


    To be honest it¡¯s funny to see since he usually has either a disinterested expression or no expression at all, but when he learns of something new, almost like a mask that falls off, he turns into a completely different person.


    I also found that Florian has a unique quirk that I learned of when we went to see one of the instructors that oversaw magic courses related to reinforcement magic.


    The instructor was known as being highly skilled in reinforcement magic and he was also once a S rank adventurer back in his younger days.


    Also, the adventurers are divided into six rankings with the highest being S rank, after that is A rank, B rank, C rank, D rank, and at the bottom E rank. Extremely detailed and difficult requirements are need to be completed before someone could rise into the S rank so it makes since that the instructor who was a S rank adventurer is obviously strong.


    Going back to what I learned about Florian is that when he meets someone who is far stronger than him, he will almost sense it instinctively and begin shaking in fear with little control over his body.


    Today was the same as usual for the two of us with the idiotic and failed attempts to harass us from that noble¡¯s goons, but it seems that our laidback attitude that we had annoyed him so much that he decided to get off his prideful ass and harass us personally.


    Both Florian and I were currently relaxing outside the school building on a bench under a tree since it was summer and it was hot.


    Both of us were causally discussing some points that would help lower the cost and increase the output of the physical reinforcement spell until we were interrupted by you know who.


    ¡°So, the peasants are capable of learning from what they are taught. I am honestly surprised that they are even capable of that seeing as they seem capable of herding together in fear of strong.¡± (Prideful ass)


    You know what I learned about most nobles that are like this guy. I learned that while they throw insults towards us so called lower class, we aren¡¯t bothered by it much, but the moment you insult Them in the slightest, than they blow up. Really, they have so little tolerance that a lightweight could handle more if he began drinking highly alcoholic Ale.


    ¡°So, the lord of prideful assholes has decided to grace us with his horrid stench after coming down from his high throne, it must be a day of celebration over our misery.¡± (Lex)


    Yes, I said this directly towards a noble and I did it with a big smile on my face which enlisted a chuckle from Florian as well while he began to slightly laugh at the asshole¡¯s face that was rapidly growing redder than the Azure Empires royal bloodlines famous red hair that they are known for having.


    ¡°H-how dare you speak to me, Bertrand Methodius like that, do you even know what power I can wield whenever I so desire.¡± (Bertrand)


    ¡°Correction, you can wield that power whenever you want to only in your own country, but here, you carry none of that so-called authority that you got from sucking from your parent¡¯s tits.¡± (Lex)


    I do not understand why there are so many nobles that are like this guy, we I guess that is very subjective and biased since if I look at nobles from either the Azure Empire or the Grand Anthis Kingdom, then the number of nobles that are like him are harder to find here.


    It seems that most of the nobles like him come from up further north rather than south, but that is just my own opinion though.


    It seems that Florian began snickering from my comment while I was lost in thought for a moment and hearing him laughing at him must have pissed off Bertrand because he practically exploded in anger.


    ¡°How dare you continue laughing when you should be licking my shoes you filth.¡± (Bertrand)


    It seems that he went passed verbal insults and changed to getting physical because he pulled his arm pack and aimed at Florian who was still laughing while not noticing the impending attack, but I did notice.


    Before his fist could even come close to connecting with Florian¡¯s face, my hand was tightly gripping his wrist and preventing it from moving any further.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care if you try to hit me, but if you even think that you would be able to hit my friend while I¡¯m here than you have another thing coming and it won¡¯t end with me punching you once.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Alright how about this, since you want a fight we¡¯ll give you one. Since you want to attack us why don¡¯t we make it official where punishment won¡¯t happen if caught by having a duel. It will be a simple 2 v 2 duel with the two of us against you and someone else, sound good to you.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Fine, sounds good. We¡¯ll have it tomorrow at noon and you better not think about wimping out either.¡± (Bertrand)


    After saying that he tried to yank his arm out of my grip which wouldn¡¯t have worked if I didn¡¯t decide to let go since he was incredibly weak compared to me who worked out daily.


    After he finally left leaving Florian and I to our business, Florian turned to me.


    ¡°Sorry about dragging you in Lex, but that guy has been getting on my nerves for a while and seeing a chance to end it, I took it.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing this chance you speak of is from befriending me and taking the chance you decided to involve me in your problems right.¡± (Lex)


    After I said that, Florian¡¯s eyes rose slightly surprised by what I said before his mask returned and hide his surprise.


    ¡°That is correct, while I didn¡¯t befriend you with that in mind I did see the chance to use you to solve my problems by nipping them permanently.¡± (Florian)


    After hearing him confess, the was only one thing that I was currently feeling now from what Florian said.


    ¡°You know that you are one of the few that would say that directly to others without any guilt involved.¡± (Lex)This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°I know that, so what.¡± (Florian)


    I couldn¡¯t help it as a smile began to bloom on my face as it spread across my whole face.


    ¡°To be honest, I am happy right now that you decided to use me you know.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Why is that, even though I clear told you that I was using you, most people would be angered about that.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Well that is true, but even though you said you are using me, it also means that you have trust in me that using me can solve your problems and that makes me happy.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°How did you come to that conclusion Lex.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°who knows, it¡¯s just a feeling that I¡¯m getting so don¡¯t pay it much notice. Aside from that so how are we going to go about this duel, I defend and you attack using magic I assume.¡± (Lex)


    Looking at Florian who was listening to me about our formation began to smile as I spoke.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, but do you have faith in your ability to defend me tomorrow.¡± (Florian)


    This time it was my turn to begin smiling from his words as I felt that my confidence rise where I felt that victory was ours and there was no room for failure.


    ¡°I have as much confidence in my ability to defend as you do in your ability to hide your emotions behind a mask, that¡¯s why let¡¯s win this and put the arrogant noble in his place.¡± (Lex)


    After that we parted ways as it was almost time for our next classes and decided that we will meet up tomorrow before the time of the duel.


    -Day of match-


    Right now, Florian and I are currently sitting in a waiting room while the academy¡¯s sparring grounds are set up with magic barriers that will act to prevent any deaths from happening from the headmaster.


    I was currently wearing my school uniform, but I didn¡¯t wear the blazer since it would get in the way since its restricting and instead wore a thin shirt. I also wear some tough leather armor that I have had for a while and brought along one of my shields that I decided on using.


    Also, just so you know, yes, I do have multiple shields and to be exact, I have about five shields that I own, but the one I chose today was my favorite shield that I owned.


    I chose the heater shield today because it was a lightweight shield that could handle some abuse. I picked it because while the coverage area is smaller than some of the other shields, I needed to keep light and mobile to defend Florian from any attacks that come his way and since I could use physical reinforcement, I should be able to handle some damage.


    While waiting for an instructor to come and bring us to the arena, Florian began talking to break the silence that was hanging in the air.


    ¡°Hey Lex, I have been wondering about this for a while, but why aren¡¯t you scared about facing nobles. I know you would say that if someone needs to be protected than you¡¯ll answer the call, but aren¡¯t you fearful that you could anger them that they go after your family?¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Oh that, I¡¯m not scared of that at all.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Wha¨C why not, shouldn¡¯t you want to protect your family from any harm.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Well that¡¯s just it, you can¡¯t protect people that are already gone.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Wait you mea¨C¡± (Florian)


    Before he could ask further the door opened and an instructor entered.


    ¡°Are you two ready, the arena is prepared and ready.¡± (Instructor)


    ¡°That¡¯s correct we are ready, right Florian.¡± (Lex)


    I stood up and stretched my arms before picking my shield up that was resting next to me.


    ¡°Your right, no time to let myself get distracted. That¡¯s correct we are ready.¡± (Florian)


    After that we were lead down a hallway until we entered through a door into a large open indoor room where the duel will be held.


    Looking around the room was a wide circular room that had seating all along the wall that was packed full with students that were noisily talking while watching Florian and me as we entered.


    Looking forward I found Bertrand and an unknown guy who was wearing some leather armor just like me and carrying a large Warhammer. The only problem was that the guy was obviously not a student seeing as he¡¯s looks around thirty years old and he was wearing the insignia for the Bellum kingdom.


    Why this matters is because any student that attends the academy is told that they are forbidden from wearing any form of insignia or item that carries the symbol of any kingdom or country. This is a rule that is enforced to represent that this is a neutral territory and there is no weight of influence or power from anyone that attends the academy.


    ¡°Hey Bertrand, who¡¯s the new guy, because I am positive that he is not a student here.¡± (Lex)


    Hearing what I said when I spoke up, Bertrand began to smile as if he assumed victory was his with arrogant confidence.


    ¡°Oh him, don¡¯t mind him. He is just one of my private guards that I brought as my partner since you never specified that this was going to be a match between students only.¡± (Bertrand)


    ¡°Does it really matter since we know that you have no chance of winning right Lex.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right.¡± (Lex)


    After saying that I moved till I was in front of Florian and stood in a stance while holding my heater shield in front of me while lowering my center of gravity by bending forward slightly and spreading my legs apart while I waited for the signal to begin.


    After seeing that both sides ready, the same instructor that led us hear walked between us and our opponents and began running through the basic rules of the duel.


    ¡°The rules of the duel are as follow; this match will be between both sides with no outside interference. This match is being overseen by me and the use of underhand means such as use of poison will cause immediate disqualification and punishment. This match will end when one side is either unable to continue fighting or they surrender. Do both sides understand, because if you do than nod your heads.¡± (Instructor)


    After he saw all of us nod our heads in agreement he looked satisfied as he raised his hand high in the air.


    ¡°Let this match BEGIN!¡± (Instructor)


    With that it began and the man with the Warhammer rushed towards us. I couldn¡¯t let him get to close to Florian just in case I moved to meet him head on. The problem was that I also couldn¡¯t move away from Florian too far in case I needed to stop any attacks from Bertrand who was apparently also a mage since he brought staff that carried a magic stone for magic.


    I quickly invoked physical reinforcement on myself before the large man could get close enough while I stood my ground ready to confront him while I stood around ten feet away from Florian.


    When the large man arrived close enough to attack me he lowered his Warhammer so it was on his right side with the head closest to the ground while he was aiming for my left side with and underhand swing.


    I obviously knew that taking the Warhammer head on its stupid so I decided to step in closer towards the man so that I could bash him and possibly knock him off balance.


    While I knew, I wasn¡¯t a large guy with a heavy build compared to this man with the Warhammer, I did know that when attacking that you will leave an opening that could be used to knock you off balance and break your stance.


    As I moved close towards him, his Warhammer was halfway through its swing and the moment that I was about to try knocking him off balance I felt a pain in my right side as I felt myself get pushed back.


    What happened? I couldn¡¯t understand what happened until the large man finally spoke.


    ¡°You have good instincts kid you know. Most people would try to avoid my Warhammer but you stepped closer to me to knock me off balance, by the way my names James.¡± (James)


    ¡°What did you do just now.¡± (Lex)


    My right side was flaring up with numbing pain as I questioned him, I quickly glanced towards Bertrand and Florian who were firing off magic towards each other that continued canceling each other¡¯s out. Their little battle continued but I noticed that Florian was different than usual.


    ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t notice the feint that I did, but I guess it makes sense. Most people don¡¯t expect that you can feint your opponent using a Warhammer. To make it simple when you stepped in towards me while I was mid swing, I forcefully used the pommel of my Warhammer instead to strike your right side, usually this is difficult to do but when your strong enough it gets easier.¡± (James)


    While I head what, he said, my mind was still focused on Florian who wasn¡¯t attacking like he usually does and I should know since I have watched him practice a few times andI ask him to help me train to defend against magic attacks. It should be noted that its possible, but the first few times hurt like hell when I screwed up.


    After James explained what he did he once again went on the attack and continued attacking me while I tried to stop him from getting any closer to Florian who was preoccupied facing off with Bertrand. It was obvious that James is highly skilled and experienced because I could clear see that his aim wasn¡¯t me but Florian.


    He understood easily that if he takes Florian out that its over since I only have a shield, but I would not allow that to happen. I continued meeting James head on while I continued enduring all his attacks and feints while I shifted his attacks away from me using my shield to shift the force away and not taking it head on. This exchange kept up, but James didn''t get agitated like most people by my persistent behavior that continued trying to stop him, but it also didnt help that occasionally some times he breaks through my defenseby striking me using his Warhammers pommel or even releasing a hand off the handle and throwing in some punchs at me that I don''t see coming.


    I also keep throwing glances towards the magic side of the battle where numerous fire balls thrown by Bertrand at Florian butwas met with balls of water that extinguished the fire spells. This type of exchange between both sides continued with me doing everything I could to stop James advancement while Florian and Bertrand fired spells at each other, but this didn¡¯t last forever.


    I was correct because it seemed that Florian really was different today and wasn¡¯t focused because while he keeps canceling out Bertrand¡¯s attacks, one fire ball finally broke through the stalemateand headed straight for Florian who seemed to not even notice it.


    ¡°FLORIAN!¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Wha¨C?¡± (Florian)


    Damn it, Florian won¡¯t be able to defend against it in time so I quickly moved while turning around to sprint towards Florian.


    ¡°Don¡¯t forget about me!¡± (James)


    Crap, I shouldn¡¯t have turned my back because James took advantage of it and was now swinging his Warhammer just like he did the first time he swung it.


    I watched as his Warhammer was swinging upward while moving closer towards my side while a fire ball was inching closer and closer towards Florian.


    Damn it, think Lex, think! You vowed to be someone who protects so think of a way! Suddenly my mind was reminded of the day, blood and human entrails filling my view along with dead and empty eyes that stared back at me as if mocking me of my sin and my guilt.


    As my mind was reminded of this, I remembered when I first befriended Florian and how he smiled for the first time while he helped me up off the ground and then I suddenly thought of a way.


    The plan was absolutely reckless and I didn¡¯t even know if it would work since I had no prior practice since it was only a magic theory that Florian and I created.


    I calmed my breathing while it felt as if time slowed down to a crawl as I felt my blood pumping as if it was a second from exploding from my body. I closed my eyes as I pictured the spell for physical reinforcement, after that I manipulated my mana that flowed throughout my body while picturing it moving to my arms and to my hands. I used my mana that I flowed to my arms and this began the formation of the magic array, but instead of using the spell on myself, instead I did something different.


    When I imagined the desired spell and its effect, I didn¡¯t imagine it reinforcing me but instead my shield. I imagined that it would reinforce my shield and increase its strength and durability as I formed the magic array and when it was complete I lit the flame by supplying it with my mana as fuel and began the chant that was used to properly complete the spell that Florian and I theorized about and gave it a name.


    Mana Infusion


    Usually physical reinforcement doesn¡¯t have a chant since the spell is strengthening the body with mana temporarily so a chant was unnecessary, but since it wasn¡¯t my body that was reinforced, a chant was needed to be spoken and I knew the words that willgive life to the spell that I gave birth two as well as named Mana Infused Reinforcement. I know the name doesn''t have any glamour to it but I can''t help it if my naming sense sucks so I don''t care what others think of it.


    [I call upon the strength that lies in mana to heed my call and follow my desires, use the strength you hold and grant my weaponthe abilityto protect] (Lex)


    Once the chant was finished I could see my shield began to glow as sparks flashed around it until finally it began to steadily glow with a bluish aura.


    I didn¡¯t let it end there because since I had my back to James who was almost complete with his Warhammers swing. I slowly turned around to face him as if I was desperate to protect myself, because I needed to hit it at the right time, any deviation from that moment by even a second could result in failure.


    I watched as the Warhammer inched closer and closer towards my side as the seconds seemed to extend to what felt like hours until it was barely half of an arm¡¯s length away from my chest. At that moment, it was now or never and I made my move that would make even the most reckless of people scold me over its recklessness.


    I did what James would ever expect me to do using a heater shield, I moved it so that it would be hit head on by his Warhammer.


    Just before the Warhammer contacted my mana infusedreinforced shield that I feltas if the spellwould give out at any moment, I lifted my legs up to my chest as I held my shield using both my hands to withstand the strike.


    My plan clearly shocked James because his face was painted with shock over my movements because he saw what I was going with it and failed to stop his strike as it finally contacted my shield as I could feel a huge smile bloom on my face.


    ¡°LIFT OFF!¡± (Lex)


    ¡°What!¡± (James)


    I yelled this the moment his Warhammer met my shield and since I had lifted my legs into the air there wasn¡¯t any resistance from me as I allowed the force of his strike to propel me through the air and right in the path of the fireball that was thrown by Bertrand at Florian.


    Since the fire ball was only a tier 2 spell, I could easily block it with no injuries and to be honest, Florian¡¯s tier 2 spells carry more weight and power to them anyways.


    While I say that it was easy to block it that doesn¡¯t mean that it doesn¡¯t have power to it because I was blown downward towards Florian which made my flight path change from looking like a straight line to what looked like a ¡®L¡¯.


    When I finally landed messilyon my back and slid towards Florian, I could hear the whole room go quiet from my actions until Florian snapped out of it first.


    ¡°Wh¨C what did you just do Lex.¡± (Florian)


    Now that I was laying on my back and my blood calmed down slightly, I could feel pain all over my body and searing pain that came from my right arm. I think I may of either fractured or broken it when I used James Warhammer to propel myself but who could know for sure.


    Florian who was shocked by my grand entrance quickly crotched down to me while trying to assess my condition but that doesn¡¯t matter right now. Seeing the chance since he is close to me I used my left arm that didn¡¯t feel as much pain as my right and used it to hit Florian on the head but with my strength right now and the effects of mana exhaustion that came just from one spell taking effect on me it must have felt like a gentle tap.


    ¡°You idiot, the whole time you have been acting strange even though you said it was time to focus. Don¡¯t let your thoughts wander from needless things that don''t belong here right now. You said that you are using me to help solve your problems so don¡¯t half ass it and insteadput everything into it because that is your responsibility you carry.¡± (Lex)


    If you are going to pursue something than you need to be prepared to put everything into it. I remember something my father once said because he was a hunter and said, ¡°When you plan to hunt a small rabbit, hunt it as if you are trying to hunt a dragon.¡±


    ¡°If you plan to hunt a rabbit, plan to hunt it as if you are hunting a dragon. Remember Florian that I promised to defend you with everything I had and stop any harm from getting to you, but do you know why I said this. It¡¯s because I placed my trust and full confidence in you, I trust that I can defend you with everything I have because I trust that you have my back and will handle the offense while I carry the defense.¡± (Lex)


    It seems that James and Bertrand finally snapped out of the shock as James began laughing loudly.


    ¡°Amazing kid! Never in my days have I met someone that will do what you just did without fear of possible death. I was right when I said that you have good instincts, but it seems that it cost you too much that you are unable to move much anymore.¡± (James)


    ¡°Hahaha¨C your right, but while I may be down and out, my best friend here is still standing strong and he has some debts to pay and he hates being in debt to others.¡± (Lex)


    I could see the sight of James who was happily laughing early and Bertrand who was looking as if he won quickly grow pale until they were almost as white as snow.


    I guess it is only natural because while I replied towards James about our guaranteed victory Florian had already stood back up with eyes that were full of resolution as his whole body began emitting large amounts of mana that was almost visible to the naked eye although very faintly.


    Moments later Florian spoke the chant that would seal our victory tightly like a noose.


    [I call upon fire that lies dormant in mana using my own mana as fuel and my words as sparks, ignite with your light and burn away my foes.] (Florian)


    After that, a beautiful spectacle was seen as numerous fireballs appeared surrounding Florian and me who was next to him. The amount was insane for most people since it most likely numbered in the hundreds as they softly floated in the air as if saying to me, this is how you truly fly in the air.


    It was breathtaking enough that I forgot all the pain in my body while I burned the sight into my mind so that I never forget it. The beautiful sight of balls of fire and burned with abundant life while gently floating with contradiction. The beautiful fire that burned while floating seemed as if you can reach out and hold it without fearing being burn, but at the same time you can''t help but understand that the fire can''t be underestimated unless you want it to consume you.


    The sight of numerous sources of light reminded me of the night sky thats filled with stars, whenever I looked up at night and saw the stars it made me think about all the possibilities in lifethat rivaled the stars in numbers. I always feel inspired by the stars in the sky as it felt as they can be grabbed so easily but at the same time are to far to reach, just like a dream that someone pursues, just like the dream that I pursue.


    ¡°Damn, looks like it¡¯s our loss, isn¡¯t that right milord.¡± (James)


    Even though he sounded calm, I could see his legs shaking rapidly in fear from the scale of Florian¡¯s magic, but I must commend Bertrand on the size of his arrogance because even though the victor was obvious, he refuses to admit it.


    ¡°I¨CI refuse to admit defeat to this peasant, I refus¨C¡± (Bertrand)


    What caused him to stop mid-sentence was the sight of half of the total number of fireballs that flew towards him where they covered the distance in the time between an eye blinking before stopping inches away from Bertrand.


    Seeing the fireballs that we instantly in front of him scared him so much that he flinched back so hard that he fell on his ass while his white pants quickly changed as they got darker while the area expanded and liquid pooled all around him as he pissed himself.


    ¡°W-w-we Surrender¡± (Bertrand)


    ¡°The victory goes to the challenged side and Florian Arthion and Lex Speros¡± (Instructor)


    After that while Florian canceled his magic safely, some officials rushed towards me while carrying a stretcher. Once they arrived they assessed my condition while asking me the places it hurt until they finally lifted me and placed me on the stretcher much to my pain and began taking me away, but before I left.


    ¡°See you later Florian, I¡¯ll see you in the infirmary, don¡¯t forget to visit.¡± (Lex)


    After that the officials began to transport me back towards the door that we originally entered from as I felt myself blackout finally from the pain.


    -Two days later-


    When I finally woke up, I found myself staring at the white ceiling before turning my head to the right and seeing empty beds and curtains that were folded between each bed.


    I didn¡¯t try to move my body any more than my head because I knew that my body scream in complaint at me from the pain. It sucks that healing magic can¡¯t be used on me since its safer to let my body heal naturally.


    I learned in class that healing magic is considered as a double edge sword because while it will heal injuries in only a little amount of time, the only problem lies in what the price calls for.


    Healing magic is known as having the heaviest price because while almost every type of magic use mana as fuel, healing magic needs two types of fuel to work. One is of course mana to fuel it but the other is what people call vitality or more specifically it uses the vitality of the one being healed.


    While this may should like an easy price to pay since it only uses the bodies energy or vitality to heal it, but think about it. The one thing that an injured person lacks is energy, strength, vitality, whatever you want to call it they just won¡¯t have so what does healing magic use instead.


    The answer is the bodies life force as compensation for the fuel when thebodies energy isn''t enough,which is why healing magic is never constantly used on people unless the injuries are life threatening or they are soldiers that need to be healed so they can continue fighting on because it shaves away the individual¡¯s lifespan.


    I don¡¯t know about you, but I want to live until I see my dream fulfilled so living with some scratches are nothing for me.


    I didn¡¯t notice her since I only turned my head right but when she began speaking I could feel my heart jump in my chest from being surprised.


    "I see you are finally awake." (???)


    When I quickly turned my head to the other side, I could feel my body begin yelling at me from the sudden movement as I winced from the pain.


    ¡°Easy now Mr. Speros, you shouldn¡¯t be moving so much with those injuries.¡± (???)


    She ignored my questioning gaze over who she was and continued talking while looking at some papers.


    ¡°Two fractured ribs on the right side, broken right forearm along with a hairline fractures on your left forearm as well as on your hairline fractures on your left fibula that resulted from your reckless landing. You know that you are also lucky since you also could have damaged your mana pathways from recklessly invoking that new spell of yours that you created with Mr. Arthion without proper practice or preparation and only using the theory behind it.


    You will most likely need to be bedridden for 6-8 weeks to properly heal your ribs, yourhairline fractures will take around 10 weeks to healand even then you will need to avoid putting to much stress on them and your broken right forearm will take anywhere between 12-24 weeks to heal. You need to learn to take better care of your body or else you won''t be able to protect anyone when you are bedridden.¡± (???)


    ¡°Wha¨C how do you know that, who are you.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, but it¡¯s obvious for me to know that since I always know what¡¯s happening when you two are practicing and training. Though tobe honest I must applaud you since you just technically just created a new spell and it was invoked for the first time in the world.¡± (???)


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me? How can I when you suddenly appear and act as if you know everything that happens.¡± (Lex)


    Even though my retort made every bit of sense, this woman ignored it without a shred of guilt on her face.


    ¡°Be proud that you successfully created a new spell and here¡¯s some advice for you, new spells are like infants, in the beginning they may not be strong or be able to do much, but they can grow and when they do then you will find that they are just like children because they carry so much potential that you never know the heights they can grow to. Continue nurturing that infant and you will learn that it will never leave you and it will open the door to endless possibilities that you could never imagine, good luck and I would appreciate it if you continue taking care of my child.¡± (???)


    ¡°Wha¨C?¡± (Lex)


    Before I could speak I could hear the door to the infirmary open on my right side. When I immediately began turning my head in the direction of the opening door I saw Florian entering while once again wearing his usual expressionless mask.


    ¡°I see you are finally awake, you¡¯ve been asleep for around two days straight. I was beginning to think if my first friend would never wake up forcing me to put you six feet under the earth.¡± (Florian)


    Hearing what he said, I couldn¡¯t help but begin laughing loudly even though it hurt so much with my broken ribs. I couldn¡¯t help it because it was the first time since we met that I heard Florian tell a joke and I found it hilarious that the content of the first joke was about burying me.


    Even though I may not know what runs through his mind like during the duel or any other time, I don¡¯t care because while he may hide his emotions behind a mask, I understand that there is a reason for it. I understand that when he wants to, he will tell me so I won¡¯t force the topic now or any time in the future.


    I understand this because sometimes you can''t put things into wordssometimes and stay choose to stay silent, but I also know that sometimes there are things that fear prevents you from speaking about. You continue locking it away deep in your heart as if praying that keeping it their will make you forget about it, but that isn¡¯t true at all.


    The deeper you keep memories and feelings in your heart, the easier it is for you to remember it as it grows stronger each passing day without you knowing it, I understand this because I am the same.


    ¡°You can¡¯t get rid of me that easily, the day that I die is the day that I can no longer protect others and I can¡¯t do that because if someone needs to be protected than I will answer that call.¡± (Lex)


    This time it was Florian¡¯s turn to laugh from my words, but as he laughed I suddenly remembered the woman that I was previously speaking to.


    ¡°Oh yeah, sorry abo¨C what, she¡¯s gone?¡± (Lex)


    That¡¯s right, the woman who I was previously speaking to was gone as if she was never there leaving me in confusion.


    ¡°Who are talking to? Are you sure you didn¡¯t also hit you head adding to the list of all your injuries.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Forget about it, it was nothing. Must have been a dream or something.¡± (Lex)


    Even though I passed it off as a dream or illusion, I still couldn¡¯t get what she said out of my mind and what did she mean taking care of her child.


    I may not know who she was or what for that matter, but I probably won¡¯t forget her that easily when I remember the long pure white hair and bright red eyes that she had because there is no one in this world that I have seen with those two colors, but strangely enough when I first saw her, the first thing I imagined was a white flower.

 Chapter 10- Being aware of your faults makes it simple to easily correct.

    -Cyril POV-


    Right now, I am standing in front of my new students once again on the training field for our second day of training. I told them after our spars yesterday to spend the rest of the day thinking what they could have improved on and now I am waiting for each of their answers. The only exceptions to this is Elena since she didn¡¯t have a spar with me yet.


    After looking over each of them one last time I finally decided to begin our lesson.


    ¡°So, what did you each figure out after yesterday¡¯s spars, we¡¯ll start with you Lex, because even though we didn¡¯t spar, you still made mistakes.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Honestly, I am not entirely sure if it was because you are that much stronger or that I am just weaker in defense, I felt that if I had a stronger defense than I could have handled your attack.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Half a point on your answer, you need to learn two things if you want to be someone who uses a shield.¡± (Cyril)


    While saying that I raised my hand while gesturing towards the shield that I gave Lex and told him to raise it up.


    ¡°First thing you need to understand is you can¡¯t block everything with your shield. Even if you try to angle the attack to deflect it, sometimes that isn¡¯t enough. The reason is evident when you got knocked back and your shield was destroyed because you overestimated the attacks weight and power or in other words you assumed since it wasn¡¯t a large attack than you could stop it.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Can I ask about that, I see where you are heading about the weight of the attack, but how can an attack that small be so heavy?¡± (Lex)


    ¡°I guess I can¡¯t blame you since basics and understanding of physics aren¡¯t that advanced along, well to put it simply the force of the projectile equals the mass x velocity. Since the mass of the projectile is small, the velocity makes up for that by being fired at high speeds thus giving it a strong force.¡± (Cyril)


    I¡¯m not going to explain further since even though this is my class, I never cared to remember physics and the laws of motions and what not, but this should give them a general idea of it.


    ¡°I noticed that when I fired, you instinctively defended, but you felt the pressure that it gave off before impact, this was why you also physically reinforced yourself from the threat to your life. Second also stems from the first lesson and that is that it never crossed your mind what if the attack is meant to bypass defense.¡± (Cyril)


    Even though I said that, I could only see question marks floating around his head.


    ¡°Do you remember when I said that I changed the property from penetration to blunt force. If I didn¡¯t change the property before firing, your shield wouldn¡¯t have been turned into that malformed scape of metal.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Why is that then?¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Because instead of scrape metal, there would only be a small hole in your shield and your chest. In other words, the bullet is meant to penetrate and since mine are stronger than a normal bullet since its made from mana, than your shield and magic would be like paper to it and it would pierce through with ease.¡± (Cyril)


    At the harsh truth, I could see a shiver move up Lex¡¯s body before he settled and nodded towards my critique and advice.


    ¡°On to the second point can I assume that you never had anyone strike your shield, but you still got hurt from their attack as if you never blocked it at all, am I correct.¡±


    ¡°I guess, I have had attacks strike my shield head on and I still got hurt because I couldn¡¯t handle the difference in shield, but the damage was minimal since I blocked it.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Good, this makes it easier for me since I can show you personally. I want you to try blocking my attack with you shield when I say so.¡± (Cyril)


    After nodding his head in confirmation, Lex raised his shield in a ready stance while he waited. Since this will be the first time he feels this I¡¯ll go easy on him so I don¡¯t cause to much harm.


    Saying that, I stood about arm¡¯s length away from Lex before I took a calm deep breath and in an instant I sharply exhaled the air while I thrust my arm towards Lex¡¯s shield with my fist while injecting a small amount of my mana while focusing the concentration of mana into my fist and pushing it outward.


    I added a bit of rotation into my fist just as it connected with Lex¡¯s shield and the ping of metal rang out.


    Everyone was looking at the demonstration while watching closely, but nothing seemed to happen is what their eyes were saying.


    Silence hung in the air before it was interrupted by Lex who fell to his knees while letting go of his shield before collapsing onto his side. His breathing was rough while his body was shaking with slight spasms while he closed his eyes tightly in hopes of easing the pain.


    Florian was the first to move when she moved to his side while she forced him to lay down on his back before turning to me.


    ¡°Mr. Cyril, may I ask what you did to Lex and how I can ease the pain since it seems that it won¡¯t go away with time based on how his mana is reacting from your attack.¡± (Florian)


    She asked that with a calm voice while patiently waiting for my response, but this is a test for Lex where no one can help him, but I can assure you that it must hurt like hell.


    ¡°When I attacked, I injected some mana into my fist so that when my fist struck, I bypassed his defenses by pushing my mana through his shield and cause his mana pathways to become disrupted because of the foreign mana that was forcefully injected into his body by me.¡± (Cyril)


    I learned this from another hero that was a monk that used martial arts that focused on the bodies chi and what not. I developed an attack like his because, I apparently didn¡¯t have much talent with understanding things involving chi and things related, but that didn¡¯t matter to me since I could get some tips from him about it anyways.


    When I developed this technique, which took years of practice before I was able to master it correctly to utilize it in practical combat, but time is something I always have.


    This attack can be compared to a magic parasite since I inject my mana into their body which causes extreme pain and even prevents them from properly casting magic correctly. This is less effective against highly skilled mages since they are should be skilled in manipulating their mana, but it will still make it somewhat difficult and make an opening against them.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to worry because nothing can be done unless Lex fixes it himself by forcefully regaining control over his mana and expelling the foreign mana that is currently circulating throughout his body. You don¡¯t need to worry since there is no risk of death unless I wanted to kill him since it was one of those damn conditions I agreed to.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Conditio-¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Alright let¡¯s move on since I took a bit too much time explaining and demonstrating, next up on the list will be Halbert since his is the easiest. So halbert what did you figure out what you need to improve on.¡± (Cyril)


    I guess this was frustrating for him since I noticed a slight twitch in his eyes that was followed with slight agitation.


    ¡°I need to mostly improve my form and learn some martial arts to help me, seeing as I couldn¡¯t even hit you once.¡± (Halbert)


    ¡°While that is correct, in my opinion your attacks were to telegraphed making you an open book, but it also seemed as if as the spar went on you gradually kept getting faster as if you were holding back constant, but we talk about it another day.¡± (Cyril)


    Since I want to get started on training them since you never know what could happen, even though I was told by Alvena that we have roughly three years to prepare, there are other things that need to be done before then.


    I have a plan laid out and the first step will be in a few weeks when they hold the summoning party to celebrate the heroes summoned. The only problem is that I need to have the other heroes ready and it seems that only one of them is at the level needed.


    ¡°Next on the list will be Florian and the places you can improve on.¡± (Florian)


    With a slight nod, she began talking while explaining what she could improve on.


    ¡°I still need to improve the efficiency and fuel consumption of my magic since a lot of my spells still consume a lot of mana. I have mostly solved the consumption problem for my tier 2 and lower spells as much as I can, but higher tier spells still cost a lot for me to cast.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°That¡¯s correct and like I said, I have some training and advice that will help with that, but you also need to learn to invoke spells by either cutting down that chant time or creating pseudo chants and I will teach you and Lex together and teach this.¡± (Cyril)


    I got in confirmations a nod from Florian and a pained groan from Lex who was still on the ground, but he has improved seeing as his breathing is under control even though he still can move.


    ¡°Wait. What do you mean by pseudo chant? Isn¡¯t it possible to completely eliminate chants if you are skilled enough.¡± (Aearial)


    Her argument is very reasonable since this eliminating the incantations and chants is possible in a lot of places, but unfortunately not here on this world.


    ¡°This world is special because the mana here is in a way much denser than usual which makes it harder to control it which is why it is a natural rule of magic on this world that there must be a chant to control the spell so that you can invoke it properly.¡± (Cyril)Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°So, what¡¯s a pseudo chant than¡± (Elena)


    ¡°What I meant by pseudo chants is using a method that takes the place of a chant such as what I do to condense mana using my own mana instead of external mana in the air which I¡¯ll explain on a later date. The other way is the closer you are to the density of the mana in the air than the easier it is to control it such as with Ambrosia but even she needs to use key words to properly visual some of her strong spells.¡± (Cyril)


    With that quick lesson on the magic of this world and how the mana density effects the users magic I could once again resume our little analysis on their areas to improve.


    ¡°Next is Aearial and what you can improve on.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°It¡¯s embarrassing to say but I felt that I placed too much faith in my ability and assumed you fought in a certain way and didn¡¯t assume you could fight using different styles even though you said you¡¯re a jack of all trades. I was surprised when you suddenly had Mai change from a gun to a knife and came at me the way you did which threw me off and caused me to not expect you letting go of her and secretly grabbing me without me noticing and finishing me with that kick.¡± (Aearial)


    I see she is very self-aware of her mistakes down to every detail she messed up on and understands how to correct them.


    ¡°I also completely psyched myself out when I faced you and I felt the pressure you gave off, but still felt that I had the chance to beat you after observing your spar with Halbert.¡± (Aearial)


    She said that while smiling and rubbing the back of her head, but I can see that she falls under the category of fighters that love a good brawl and don¡¯t care if they win or lose in the end. The only problem is that they tend to want to fight you more if you win every time as if it fuels them like food and they need to win to survive.


    ¡°Good, last one is Erline and her areas to improve.¡± (Cyril)


    Hearing it¡¯s her turn, Erline nodded and began with her answer.


    ¡°I need to continue practicing my movements and increasing my speed while I refine my strikes while adding in more variance in my attack pattern I assume is the correct answer, but unfortunately I can¡¯t after a certain instructor went and broke my sword that was a family heirloom for a long time and I am still waiting for adequate compensation to be paid for it.¡± (Erline)


    She is still anger at that piece of crap that looked like it would be able to handle one more attack in its life. Even though she got everything correct about what she needs to improve on, she still doesn¡¯t learn to give up beginning pissed off about things that break.


    ¡°No use crying over spilled milk, your answers were all more or less correct and we will begin working on them tomorrow. I will group each of you in pairs to make training easier to teach, starting with group one will be Florian and Lex since they are the only two with capabilities for magic. Group two will be our two hand-to-hand fighters with Aearial and Halbert and the last group will have Erline and Elena.¡± (Cyril)


    After everyone understood how things will be working they nodded while Lex still grunted on the ground.


    ¡°Aearial can I also ask you to assist in training and correcting Halbert¡¯s fighting style whenever I am working with the others.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Hm... that¡¯s fine with me, I may have no experience in teaching, but I can give advice and tips to help him.¡± (Aearial)


    ¡°That¡¯s good enough, that okay with you Halbert, because while you have experience, you may not have any in fighting stronger opponents as an everyday occurrence.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Sure, I guess if it helps me than I¡¯m good.¡± (Halbert)


    ¡°Last one is Elena, but just so I understand correctly, what areas are you proficient in, I know that martial arts aren¡¯t your strong suit, but what weapons are you used to in particular.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Proficient in huh, well I am used to fighting using mid-range combat so throwing projectiles and I have a little experience in wielding a short sword but not enough to help in a fight against skilled opponents.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Anything else such as any special skills or whatnot?¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°I can answer that one since she tends to overlook it, but she has abnormally good eyesight that she can clearly see things that are miles away without any difficulty!¡± (Aearial)


    Aearial who answered my question with glee and had a proud look on her face as if she was bragging about herself, but still, if she is telling the truth than this should work out for her.


    ¡°Alright, based on what Aearial said, then I am going to need to test it first before we leave.¡± (Cyril)


    Looking around I found a perfect target to test her eyesight with, but first I am going to need to confirm an exact target.


    ¡°If you would kindly Mai.¡± (Cyril)


    It will be my pleasure. (Mai)


    Mai replied happily to my request by communicating through our mental link since she was currently residing in my soul today and not holding up in the library.


    I began visualizing my desired weapon that I need right now which was easy because of the amount of times I have visualized and used it throughout the years.


    The weapon I visualized was a long-range sniper rifle that was called the L115A3 that I regularly use to help me when I need to take out targets discretely. It¡¯s a bolt action rifle and its original caliber was .338 Lapua magnum, but I won¡¯t go into too much specifics since I am not really that much into knowing about guns except what I need to about it.


    Also, since I create the bullets using condensed mana, it makes it very easy to fire through even stone or a mana barrier if I need to since the bullet is extremely strong compared to the original bullets.


    After Mai finished changing into the rifle, I then raised the rifle while resting the stock against my right shoulder and aimed at the academy tower where the wyverns land and take off.


    I rested my cheek on the cheek piece so that I could easily look down the rifles scope while I adjusted the magnification and focus of the scope taking into account of the distance.


    Once I adjusted the scope to the right settings, I scanned the railings of the landing bridge that were built to prevent anyone from falling easily until I found two riders who were standing while leaning on the rails talking to each other.


    Both were young males in their late twenties, the one on the right had curly dark brown hair with tanned skin while the other had short dirty blonde hair and did not have a tan as much as the other guy.


    If I had to give an exact measurement on the distance than it would be hard because the rifle doesn¡¯t have any markings to tell me the exact distance or anything of that nature except for markings that tell what magnification and focus I set it too.


    This is one of the limitations I have because I forgot what the markings showed and so thus they don¡¯t appear on the rifle except the ones I do use and know.


    To compensate for this I got skilled at estimations at judging distances and making calculations on the fly when I need to. So, based on that and using the school¡¯s distance between each floor as a reference point, then I would guess that the tower is roughly around 400 meters tall from the bottom to where the two guys currently are.


    Once I roughly confirmed the distance I changed from looking through the scope to trying to spot them the best I can using just my own eyesight without the scope.


    To be honest while I could roughly see the two figures, it was impossible to even tell what they were if I didn¡¯t already see them before because they are a blur.


    Confirming that it was hard for me to even make them out, I turned to Elena and the others who I was ignoring them and their questions that they asked while I was focusing on aiming.


    ¡°Alright Elena, I want you to look up at the landing bridge and tell me what you see from here.¡± (Cyril)


    I gave her a few moments while I watched her follow my instructions and looked upward while squinting her eyes slightly.


    Few seconds later Elena looked back and turned to me before she gave her answer.


    ¡°All I could make out was two figures near the railings, I couldn¡¯t clearly make them out but if I had to guess than based on their build then the two are most likely male with one having dark brown hair and the other having a lighter shade of brown or blonde hair.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Anything else that you could see¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Sorry, everything else is harder to clearly make out except the hair color though.¡± (Elena)


    The only thing that¡¯s clear is that her eyesight is indeed very good and Aearial was indeed correct. Even though she wasn¡¯t completely certain about her answers it still passes with flying colors that I could formulate a training guide for her.


    ¡°Alright I have a good idea on how to train you now, but you¡¯ll find out tomorrow.¡± (Cyril)


    Alright with that out the way without any difficulties I could move on to the next thing on the schedule today.


    ¡°With that out the way, we can move on with the next objective, getting everyone new equipment prepared.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°Equipment? So, we are going to visit a blacksmith to get equipment, but can¡¯t we do that by ourselves if we have money.¡± (Elena)


    ¡°That is correct, but it will be a blacksmith that I recommend since she is probably the best blacksmith to go to for our needs, but I need to ask a question before heading there.¡± (Cyril)


    Saying that I turned towards Florian, Erline, and Lex who surprisingly is finally recovered enough to sit up compared to before where he was laying on his back which means he is close to expelling all my mana inside him.


    ¡°This is a question for you three and what you need to decide right now.¡± (Cyril)


    ¡°For three of us?¡± (Lex)


    ¡°Yes, as you may have noticed or not noticed except for Erline, the four of us are summoned heroes given the task of protecting the natural balance in the future. What I want to know is what are you three going to do since you aren¡¯t obligated to follow us and fight. Also, don¡¯t get mistaken, I will still teach you three and train you with what I know, but you aren¡¯t committed to having to fight with us.¡± (Cyril)


    This question is important because while they aren¡¯t heroes and their souls won¡¯t disappear should they be killed by the fallen legends, they can still die and leave this world. This is the choice that will decide if they will risk their lives fighting with us and possibly experience pain, regret, and even death or refusing and possibly living a long and happy life.


    Either way I need their choice now because I need to see if they have the resolution to take that step towards the cliff and walking off without hesitation with violent rapids below.


    Taking that step off the cliff will lead to two things for them, either they fall towards their death or they learn to fly and grow wings that will carry them.


    All three of them stayed silent for a few moments while they thought about it, but I somewhat can guess already that Erline will chose to fight since I practically watched her grow up and she constantly heard how she wanted to protect others when she grew up.


    After a few more seconds of silence, just like I guess, Erline stepped forward first while her eyes carried a shine to them.


    ¡°Even though you already know my answer, I still need to state my answer. I will choose to fight alongside you, not because of obligation as a princess who works to protect her citizens, but as myself who desires to protect people just as I was when I was younger.¡± (Erline)


    After proudly saying her answer, the next to step forward was Lex who¡¯s eyes also carried a shine to them.


    ¡°Coming to this academy, I have a dream that will I pursue till I see it fulfill. There were never any teachers that could teach me in using shields without a sword so I practiced and taught myself, but when I was approached by the headmaster and asked to enter this class, she said if I did enter this class then I will find the key that will open the door to a path towards my dream and she was right. I know already that learning from you doesn¡¯t require my having to fight, but I feel that by following you all and fighting alongside you then I will be able to easily see my dream fulfilled.¡± (Lex)


    ¡°If I may ask, what is your dream exactly Lex?¡± (Elena)


    ¡°Well, as I said before how I could never find someone to teach me how to fight only using shields, this is because this style of shields without a weapon is looked down on in favor of magic and swordsmanship. My dream is to overturn the idea that only using shields is worthless and show the world the glory of shields and make everyone acknowledge my way of life as useful.¡± (Lex)


    I can understand his determination because I have met a lot of people just like him and these individuals will usually make an impact. His dream may not be realistically possible but that is what makes it that much more tempting to pursue.


    After Lex showed his determination to follow us, the only one left is Florian who finally stepped forward.


    ¡°While I have no desire to risk my life, I do feel that just like Lex said, following along with you will help me achieve my goals so I will fight as well. I guess you can¡¯t achieve anything without equal risk, but just so you know I won¡¯t say my goals like Lex did.¡± (Florian)


    ¡°Come on why don¡¯t you just be honest and say you don¡¯t want to see your best friend fight alone without you having my back.¡± (Lex)


    While throwing his arm around her shoulder, Lex said that while Florian simply ignored him without minding him his contact, even looking subtly pleasured with it.


    ¡°Alright, since that¡¯s finished, why don¡¯t we start heading out now.¡± (Cyril)


    With that I began leading everyone towards the main gates and towards the southern district where they will order their new equipment from a bear.