ã€ŠPretending To Be Godã€‹


 Chapter 1: Struggle Part 1 (Edited)

    <h4>Chapter 1: Struggle Part 1 (Edited)</h4>

    <i>Ahh¡­</i>

    Hey on the ground, struggling to move an inch, but his body wouldn''t budge; it was old and frail.

    <i>It''s all red¡­</i> His eyesight was blurry, and the blood rolling down his face made it even worse, making his eyes see through a blood-red lens.

    <i>No¡­ If I''m going to die, I might as well diefortably.</i> He rolled his body to the side so his head could lie in a morefortable position. However, as he did that, his face nearly fell into a water puddle that was a hair near him.

    But through that water puddle, he saw the figure with a ck robe and a scythe on its right hand reflected on the water, but as he looked away from the water, the figure was not there. It existed only in the reflected world.

    He knew this because this figure had been following him for his entire life, <strong>The Grim Reaper</strong>.

    <i>Hah, you''re here again. I don''t even remember how I ended up here¡­</i> However he wanted to know how, it would be a shame if he were to die and not even know the reason why.

    <i>I shouldn''t have lived like this¡­ I should have gotten a normal job, got a family, and died in bed.</i> His eyes started getting teary, and his life regrets started pouring in, not of what he had done but what he hadn''t done.

    Through the reflection of the water, the figure raised its hand and pointed with its bone finger pointing at his forehead.

    His vision slowly turned from blurry red to white. Reliving hisst moments again.

    <strong>20 minutes ago¡­</strong>

    He was in a cafe, and in front of him, another man, who wore a simple but obviously expensive office suit, his face smooth and his hair gray, but we''ll tidy. And just like any movie businessman, his eyes were sharp and his jaw wide.

    Meanwhile, he was the total opposite, he looked old, and although he had never taken drugs in his entire life, he looked like one of those people who were addicted to meth. Those bottles and hours of sleepless nights didn''t do him very well.

    His hair was untidy, and his clothes were torn and stitched all over and over again. And his face was not shaved.

    "So, what is life doing for you?" The man asked while adjusting his silver watch.

    "Uhm, you know, it''s okay. I''m getting by." He replied, trying to raise the cup of coffee to his mouth. However, his hands were shaking, and it inadvertently led to the cup falling on the table.

    But instead of the coffee spilling out of the cup, an almost invisible barrier that looked holographic with a tinge of blue blocked it, keeping the table clean and dry.

    "George, it''s pretty obvious you are not doing well." The manmented he was his younger brother, named Lyle, and although they looked identical, the clothes and the detail on George made the both of them a night and dayparison.

    "Yeah¡­" He replied before taking a sip of his coffee that had been heated up to the perfect temperature to drink. He couldn''t help but close his eyes and enjoy the texture of the milk and the coffee.

    He would not be able to afford this kind of coffee these days, and it would be best if he enjoyed every little bit of it while he still could.

    "Got a job yet?" His brother asked.

    "Uh, no." George answered while cing the coffee back, "I tried applying, none of them epted."

    The world had shifted to learning and depending more on Artificial Intelligence to solve most of the problems, and it turns out it was the right choice. Mostpanies saw a boost in profits, and with AI managing more than justpanies but also the government sectors, the everyday citizen was also able to livefortably with everyone who was able-bodied worked, and everyone in the country was able to eat three times a day, putting their homelessness and hunger crisis to rest.

    George, however, was the 0.000000301% of the poption who had no job. Don''t do the math because the only able-bodied person who didn''t have a job was him.

    Lyle shook his head, "Maybe you shouldn''t have tried taking down the entire world''s AI!" He gritted his teeth.

    The cafe owner quickly took out a remote before pressing it in their direction, quickly activating an invisible barrier around them simr to the one that blocked the coffee from spilling, but this time, it was meant to block any noise froming out of there.

    "Not this conversation again, Lyle¡­" George lowered his head.

    Lyle continuedining for a few minutes straight, and it had been years that he had beenining about this that George had somehow managed to learn to ignore everything that he was saying.

    But deep down, he knew that his brother was right, <i>Yeah, I shouldn''t have done that¡­ After losing myw career and my acting after it was taken away by Artificial Intelligence, I harbored a resentment toward everything rted to AI. </i>

    <i>The worst part was when I went into magic tricks, and this time, it wasn''t AI, but technology as a whole that made magic seem like nothing but something that everyone could do with technology; some of it was something that even magic tricks couldn''t surpass. </i>

    <i>And in turn, when I finally got a job in one of those AIpanies, I tried deleting the Oracle software, which was responsible for nearly the entire world''s AI-rted activities; I failed and became cklisted by everypany on the and till this day they would never allow me to touch anything that would give me even a small chance of doing something like that.</i>

    "We had this conversation just a few weeks ago, and this hurts me more than it hurts you, so can you give me a break?" George finally said.

    Lyle closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, then letting it go, "Yeah, <i>whoo¡­</i>" He took out a letter from a pocket hidden inside his suit. "Here."

    George lowered his head as he received the letter that was filled with money to get him by till the next time the both of them met.

    Lyle stood up, his eyes still on his watch while turning his back on his brother, ready to walk towards the exit, but as he checked his pocket, he stopped, "Wait¡­"

    "Hmm?" He raised his head, keeping the letter in his only working pocket, wondering why his brother had just stopped. "Lyle?"

    He turned his back, taking something out of the front pocket of his suit; it was a gold ring with a ruby cut so finely on top, and raising it for his older brother to see. He sat down before a smile appeared on his face, "Do you remember this ring?"

    George stared at, trying to recollect his memories before a smile appeared on his face, "Yeah¡­ I do. It''s father''s."

    cing the ring down, Lyle nodded. "Remember the times when he would do his magic tricks and call this ring his magic ring?"

    "Hah, yeah¡­" George choked up while chuckling lightly, "And we both bought the act till we entered highschool."

    "Yeah, we did¡­" Lyle smiled before lowering his face on the table.

    Both of their smiles slowly disappeared before Lyle nodded and looked back at his time, "I''ll have to go now; Sarah will kill me if I''m not back on time; my grandkids are probably waiting for me there." He said before getting up.

    Seeing that the ring was still on the table, George pointed at it, "Lyle, the ring."

    Lyle turned back before shaking his head, "Keep it. You need some magic in your life."

    George smiled again, nodding, "Yeah." He took the ring and put it in the same pocket in which he ced the letter.

    "I''ll see youter."

    "Yeah." George replied before seeing the back of his younger brother leaving the cafe.

    <i>Look at you¡­ a wife, children, grandkids, and a great job, what don''t you have?</i> There was nothing to hide; he was jealous, not just because his younger brother had everything that he didn''t have, but for the fact that he knew that he could have gotten the same thing.

    <i>AI¡­ It''s always the freaking AI¡­ Taking mywyer job, taking my acting job, and taking my career as a magician!! </i>He started curling up his fist before letting it go, <i>Ah what good will it do¡­ I''m ruined already.</i>

    He stood up with the cup of coffee in his hands, and he barely took a sip on it,<i> I can''t just drink this here; I''ve got to drink this while watching Breaking No-good.</i> he walked, pushing the ss door and got out of the cafe and couldn''t wait to get back home since it was also pretty dark outside.

    But as he raised his head, taking his attention away from the cup, he saw the building on the opposite side of the cafe, nearly made entirely out of ss; he could see the reflection of the Grim Reaper staring at him, <i>What now¡­</i>

    The figure had followed him ever since childhood, and from how many times he had encountered the being, it took the fear factor out of it. Now, it only made him intrigued.

    The Grim Reaper, through the reflection, pointed its finger towards a water puddle.

    George stared at the water puddle, but there was nothing that he could see there from the distance that he was at, so he walked towards it, and there he could see the reflection of the bony figure, pointing to the left.

    Following the direction, he turned his head slowly, and suddenly, a bright light shined in his eyes, "Oh! Jeez¡­" He covered it, protecting his eyes.

    And only after the light was turned off, he took off his hand, and there he could see a red car with a logo showing colors of gold, red, and ck, with the middle having a horse. <i>A red Torque 911?</i>

    It was an expensive car, and it was one of the only cars that used a traditional gasoline engine. In this day and age, it is extremely expensive to even fill up gas tanks. A full tank would cost $10k, with the government putting regtions on it.

    But George shook his head, knowing who owned it.

    A man came out of the car, his head was bald in the middle, but the side of his head was still full and wasbed back cleanly with pomade, his clothes were made up of polo clothes and on his right hand a golden watch.

    "No¡­ Not now¡­" George thought, his legs trembling. "Salvatore, what are you doin'' here?"

    "My mother calls me that, you call me Rusty¡­ you demented old fu-," the man said with a thick New York Italian ent before getting cut off by one of the two men who had just walked back behind him.

    "Yo boss¡­ sorry we came a bitte, Benny had a bit of a problem," the man said.

    "The heck I care about Benny! I was talkin'' to the vegetable here, don''t cut me off!" He screamed while raising his fist.

    "Sorry boss!"

    Salvatore (Rusty) Marino, a loan shark who worked with one of the very few existing Mafia families in the United States, made him a low boss of sorts. They had no political power, and they couldn''t do business that involved criminal activity, as AI had also made it possible to track who was most likely about to kick the bucket.

    Behind him were two of his ''henchmen,'' although it would be more urate to refer to them as his workers since he pays them a normal sry every month. On his left was Frankie Martino, better known as the Fist, and on his right Vincent Romano or Vinnie.

    Turning back to George, Rusty shook his head, "Ya know, I really feel bad for ya, lost your job to those pesky AI''s and whatnot, but yet ya believe in yourself, but ya ruined your life again and again. Now, where''s the money?"

    "I¡­ have it here¡­" He took out the letter with his hands shaking, making sure not to take out the ring identally, but the shiver from his hands caused him to drop the letter.

    He picked it up before handing it over, "Here."

    Snatching it, Rusty smiled before opening it, "One¡­Two¡­Three¡­Four¡­Five¡­Six¡­Hmm?" He counted the bills that were inside of the letter again before crushing it, "You demented piece of¡­. AHHH!!! TEN YEARS!!! Ten years of debt!! And you still can''t pay back!! This is $600!!! I told you to bring $5,000 by today!! You old ahh!!!" He screamed before stomping on the ground, stopping and looking, staring at the ground, and drawing a switchde out of his pocket.

    Seeing the de, George took a few steps back, "Hey, I can get you the $5,000¡­ I just need more time."

    Rusty closed his eyes breathing in, pressing a button to unveil the sharp de andbing his hair back with the knife as carefully as he could, making sure to not cut himself in the process, before opening his eyes again, staring at George, "No."

 Chapter 2: Struggle Part 2 (Edited)

    <h4>Chapter 2: Struggle Part 2 (Edited)</h4>

    Hearing this answer, his jaw clenched at an instant, but hiswyer instincts kicked in before he uttered the next word. It was important not to make a mistake speaking in a moment like this; even when facing death, it was essential to appear unflinching. "I don''t know what you''re suggesting here¡­" he uttered clearly.

    "Oh, you don''t?" Rusty raised his switchde; George''s eyes moved from the man''s eye towards the weapon. He didn''t do it intentionally, but it was as if the muscles around his eyes acted on their own. His eyes focused on it, and for a moment, his slightly deteriorating vision suddenly sharpened; he could see the lines on the switchde, detail after detail.

    As if everything was ying in slow motion, the knife slowly pointed at him, and from the small point, he could see his own reflection, only this time it wasn''t as clear as a mirror but seen through a crimson lens.

    "Hey! You even listenin'' to me?!" Rusty shouted.

    "Huh?" His attention was quickly taken away from the knife as he looked at the man holding it.

    "Are you deaf?" Rusty questioned, his teeth gritting, before looking beside George.

    Suddenly, a crimson light shone on the three of them, causing them to step further to the side of the street.

    Seeing them move to the side, George did the same before looking to the back.

    Whoosh!

    "Oh, it''s just a car¡­" he thought as the vehicle passed by them. The headlight, however, was white, but suddenly, another sh of red light bathed the street. As he looked more closely, he could see the white light from the car passing through a small piece of broken red ss bottle standing upright in the road''s crack, causing the color change.

    Turning back to Rusty, he saw him holding the knife close while scanning the surroundings.

    Crime was almost non-existent in the country since Artificial Intelligence had be so advanced that it could predict if someone wouldmit a crime or harm another. It would immediately run an algorithm to find the best way to prevent the crime.

    ''A new one-hundred percent sess rate¡­ So why are there no police here yet?'' George began to wonder if the AI was functioning correctly. Thest time he attempted to delete the Oracle, the algorithm had figured out his intentions. But currently, there were no police sirens.

    "Rusty, put down the knife¡­" he said, extending his hands. "Please."

    "You know what, old man, I would, if only you would-" Before he could continue, the light above them started blinking; raising his eyebrow, Rusty looked up, seeing the streetlight blinking, "Strange¡­" He whispered.

    "Boss, I don''t recall streetlights malfunctioning¡­" Vinnie asked as he looked up, his hands raised, covering his eyes from the blinking lights.

    "Me neither¡­" He replied before his eyes returned to George, staring at the blinking street light shadow on the floor.

    The shadow appeared normal to them, but to George, it resembled the Grim Reaper. The shadow slowly moved across the illuminated pavement to the next shadow of another streetlight before engulfing the ordinary shadow and transforming into it. The streetlight stopped blinking and worked as usual, but another streetlight was now blinking.

    "What the heck is going on here¡­" Rusty''s attention shifted to the newly blinking streetlight.

    With their current technology, this was thest thing that should happen to the light.

    Shaking his head, Rusty redirected his focus to George, raising the knife slightly.

    George''s eyes dted as he stared at the knife, feeling as if there was only him and the knife; it grewrger until it overshadowed him to the point where he could see his own reflection, from the top of his head to the tips of his shoes he felt a pain that resembled a cut.

    "Wake up!" Rusty shouted, covering his face, exasperated by George''s daydream.

    "Sorry¡­" George shook his head again, pulling himself out of his imagination. He didn''t know what was causing him to drift away from the present moment, but it was bing troublesome.

    He took a deep breath before locking eyes with Rusty. "I will get the money, I promise, and I know that I''ve made many promises, but this time, I will get your money, and if I don''t¡ª"

    "If you don''t, then what can you offer me, huh?"

    Closing his eyes, George gritted his teeth before exhaling and reopening his eyes. "My house. If I fail to get you your money, my house is yours."

    Hearing this, Rusty nodded and rubbed his chin. "Hmm, you should have thought of this earlier; maybe we wouldn''t even need to have this conversation."

    Vinnie, however, leaned over to Rusty, whispering, "Boss, no one is buying property these days. You won''t be able to sell his house. Why don''t we just cut him up and sell what''s left of him."

    Although it was a whisper, it was loud enough for George to hear. "Wait, no, I know how you could sell it; we are in New York after all. If we sell it at a low price, people will fight to buy it!!" He shouted.

    Shrugging, Rusty replied, "I don''t know, it seems like you''re just trying to get out of this situation. Why should I trust you?"

    "I¡­" George tried thinking of a reason for the low Boss to trust him, but he knew that he had failed to pay back the money long enough that anything he said could be thrown out the window. ''Is it today?''

    "Look, I will give you onest chance. You can either take that or you could take this option," he said while raising his de.

    "I would take anything but the de¡­" He answered without hesitation. After all, there couldn''t be anything worse than having your guts ripped out and sold. ''I''m not even sure if my organs could be sold with how bad their condition is¡­''

    "Smart. I like how you''re thinking¡­" He replied before closing the switchde and putting it back in his pocket.

    ''Whew¡­'' The sweat on George''s back finally felt the cool air cooling it; with the knife gone, everything seemed more peaceful.

    It would have continued that way if Rusty had left, but that wouldn''t even happen in an alternate universe. "Now, it is time for you to pay. Empty everything you have, and pray that it is enough to pay off the debt."

    George''s face quickly changed again. "That''s impossible; I have nothing worth that much on me."

    "I don''t like to wait, Georgy, don''t make me wait¡­" He said, almost whispering, with his hand touching the pocket where his switchde was.

    "Yeah¡­" George quickly moved his hands, trying to empty every pocket he had taken things out of. But as he reached his left side pocket and pulled his hands out, the ring that had been given to him by Lyle fell out.

    The ring fell onto the rough ground, bouncing and rolling toward Rusty. George tried bending down to reach for it, but his back was so stiff that if he bent any lower, he might have broken in half.

    The sound the ring made was loud, metallic, and nky. Before it could stop on its own, a brown muddy boot stomped on it, and the sound of the gold ring rolling ceased. However, George''s face looked even more terrified than when he was faced with the knife.

    Lifting his boot, Rusty squatted before picking up the ring, which was now covered with a bit of dust from the sole of his boot. "What do we have here¡­" He dusted it off with his finger, revealing a shiny gold that was incredibly reflective.

    But through the reflection, he could see a dark shadow behind him, causing him to turn around, but there was only Frankie behind him with his dark jacket. "Jeez! You scared me!"

    Raising his brow, "Sorry, Boss¡­ I didn''t mean to."

    Rusty sighed before turning back to George, who had his eyes on the ring. "From how you are looking at this ring, I assume that it is precious to you?"

    George couldn''t answer; if Rusty were to think that the ring was worth something, he would definitely take it.

    "Can you give it back?"

    Hearing this, Martino raised the side of his lips. "So it is worth something."

    George came to a halt, not saying anything.

    Rusty chuckled before throwing the ring up and catching it. "I''ll tell you what, I''m not a bad person. If this ring is genuine, I will give you what is left after I deduct what you owe me. Or else¡­"

    ''Or you''ll slit my stomach and sell what''s left of me¡­'' He thought. ''There is no choice.''

    "What do you say?" Rusty asked as he walked toward George.

    Staring at the ring in another man''s hand hurt. ''Am I really going to sell the ring, given by my father, given by my brother, trusted to me?''

    Just looking at the ring reminded him of the times with his father. "Damn it¡­" He whispered to himself. ''I know Lyle would rather me live without the ring than die with it¡­ Besides, if I die, they will get it anyway¡­''

    He nodded, "Fine."

    "Alright¡­" Rusty smiled, closing one eye to look at the ring more closely. "Come back right here tomorrow when the sun sets. If this ring is genuine, you''ll be debt-free, and with how big this ruby is, you might get something back. But if it is not¡­"

    "I understand¡­ I will be back¡­" George replied before turning and walking away.

    But before he could even take ten steps away from the three men, he could hear Vinnie talking, "Boss, how can you be sure that this ring is real? What if he is trying to trick you and doesn''te here tomorrow?"

    George started walking faster, hearing this, hoping that Rusty would ignore this long enough so he could walk away. The Amish were still a thriving society, so it made sense that he would go there as ast attempt to survive. If the ring was not real, at least he wouldn''t get dismembered living in New York City.

    But life wasn''t so kind to him, and as he took the next step, Rusty''s voice called him, "Georgy¡­ Old man, would youe here?"

    Turning back, George nodded with a fake smile, or what he used to call awyer''s business smile. He slowly walked back, shaking his head. "Uhm, what is the problem here?"

    "You see, I trust that you will return here tomorrow, but my men here don''t think so. To me, this gold looks real, feels real, you know? But I wouldn''t know if it is truly real if I don''t know if the ruby is."

    George chuckled slightly; a hint of his anxiousness seeped through it. "I can assure you, I got this ring even before I was born; it was my father''s. This is real, that I can tell you."

    "I''ll put that to the test." Vinnie raised his voice with his hands raised while holding an item.

    As George''s eyes gazed upon the item, he could feel his stomach weakening. ''A diamond detector?''

    "Whoa, Vinnie, I didn''t know you had that," Rustymented on seeing the diamond tester.

    "Yeah, Benny had a simr problem, hence why I have this," he replied before handing it to the Boss. "I think it would be pretty useful for this situation."

    "Yeah, I think it would be¡­" He nodded before turning to George, who looked pale white and was walking towards the road. "Hey old man, stay on the side of the road¡­" He then turned to his men and continued talking.

    "I''m not dying today!" George screamed before running as fast as his old legs could, looking back at the three men glowing red, with a Grim Reaper-like shadow behind them, holding its scythe aloft.

    Rusty quickly turned to see the old man run. "Hey, stop!"

    "NO!" George screamed back, increasing his speed while still looking back.

    "You''re running toward a car, you fool!"

    "Huh?" George turned back in front and suddenly saw an old SUV in front of him, trying to brake but sliding toward George.

    Raising his hands, George tried moving out of the way, but he couldn''t move fast enough to avoid the carpletely. Even though the car had tried to swerve to miss George, its side still struck his arm.

    Even though it wasn''t a direct hit, that small impact was enough to send him flying eight feet into the air beforending by the side of the road.

    "Shoot!" Rusty shouted as he saw the old man on the ground. He quickly turned to Vinnie. "Call 911."

    "I''m already on it, sir!" Vinnie had his phone at his ear, waiting for someone to pick up from the other end of the line.

    "Ah¡­" He grunted, and slowly, his vision was tinged red; his eyes had developed Erythropsia.

    ''It''s all red¡­''

    Suddenly, time sped up in his mind, taking him back to where it all began. "So that''s what happened¡­" He whispered to himself after the memory had reyed itself.

    ''You will be great¡­'' A whisper from the past told him his father was confident, and everyone in his life had believed he would be great too.

    But who would have known that every source of luck would drain away from him? "I could have been more¡­ no, I should have been more than this." He whispered to himself as he held back his tears.

    Through his red-tinged vision, he saw his ruby ring rolling into a puddle. Through the lens, the ruby looked shinier.

    With all the strength he could muster, he picked the ring out of the puddle and saw the Skeletor figure through it. But his eyelids grew heavy, and everything through his vision darkened.

    Before, a light appeared once more.

 Chapter 3: Emerald Castle

    <h4>Chapter 3: Emerald Castle</h4>

    "Please... please..." George kept muttering.

    "Wake up!" George heard a loud high pitched voice beside him and felt a pair of small hands pushing him.

    George opened his eyes; the pain in his chest was no more; he felt fresh, different. And the pain in his back was gone. He looked around and jumped back as he saw a monkey beside him.

    "What the..." He whispered as he looked at the creature that had brown fur around its body, and although standing straight as if it was human, it was clear it wasn''t. "What is a monkey like you wearing a suit?"

    The creature donned a stylish suit that might have cost thousands of dors to make, and considering that it was this small, it was most likely tailored for the monkey making it more expensive.

    George, who had performed as a professional magician, had an expensive suit that had been tailored for him, but even he hadn''t owned a suit of this caliber in his lifetime.

    "Why?" The monkey replied.

    "No, it''s just that you are a monkey, and so I assumed you wouldn''t be able to talk." George replied before his eyes widened in realization, "Wait... How are you talking?!!"

    George moved back in fright, struggling to get off the ground from the shock.

    "I don''t know what you are talking about! Now tell me, how are you here?! Answer me!" The monkey shouted.

    "No, you tell me why I''m here!? How are you even talking?!!" He screamed as he stood up and distanced himself from the talking monkey.

    As he looked around, he saw designs that were far different from the ones that he was familiar with.

    There was no sign of 23rd-century technology, and the design might have looked much older than the ones of the 21st to the 19th century. It could be designs that were inspired by medieval architecture and aesthetics, but he couldn''t be sure.

    "No... Oztanfil is gone... and now some strange guy appeared... What is going on?" The monkey whispered to himself, looking anxious about what was about to happen.

    George had been drafted into the military through mandatory service for picking up mines that were still in certain areas in the United States after the country had a civil war at the end of the 21st century, but from the professional military training alone, he could tell that the monkey didn''t pose any threat.

    "Hey monkey, I won''t repeat myself; where am I?" George asked, still processing the fact that there was a talking monkey in front of him.

    The monkey raised its eyebrow in confusion as he inspected George''s clothing. "Do you really not know who I am?"

    "Look, the only monkey I know is Curious George. I still don''t know where I am. And here you are expecting a person like me to know who you are?"

    ''His clothing is strange indeed, but how does he not know who I am?'' The monkey thought before responding, "I am Michael, a friend of Oztanfil." He responded with his furry chin up high.

    George responded with silence; he couldn''t remember any name that was simr to Oztanfil; was it even a real name to begin with?

    "You seriously do not know who Oz is?"

    As the monkey uttered that name, George''s memory sent him back to years ago when he was still a little boy; his father, an avid fantasy book reader, loved reading the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. "Oz, you mean, the Wizard¡­"

    "The Great Wizard of Oz, yes. You''re in Emerald City, and there is a wizard outside of this castle that wants to challenge Oz in a deathmatch!!! And if Oz loses, we all die!!" The monkey screamed as it started scratching its whole body like the other monkeys.

    George shook his head as he heard thising from the mouth of the monkey, "Yeah, this isn''t making any sense¡­ A monkey¡­ Wizards¡­ oz¡­ This is a dream definitely¡­"

    "A dream? This is a nightmare!" The monkey shivered.

    "Hey, monkey, p me."

    Pah!

    The monkey didn''t hesitate to deliver, which helped George to realize, he could feel pain, and it was the only evidence he needed that whatever he was experiencing was not a DREAM.

    "Holy crap¡­ I am in Emerald City¡­" He whispered to himself.

    "Yeah, doofus, where have youe from, New York?" The monkey asked while slightly chuckling while still shivering slightly in fear.

    George nodded, wondering how the monkey knew where he came from. "As a matter of fact, yes. I am from New York."

    The monkey jolted back in surprise. It was a known fact that Oztanfil came from New York, where most of them believed to be the realm of gods. Oztanfil disappeared, alongside most of the things that he had brought from New York, and now this man has appeared in front of him.

    "Wait... so you must be rted to Oztanfil, right?"

    George shook his head, "No, I''m not. I just heard some stories, that''s all."

    The monkey face-palmed himself and sat down on the floor; "We are doomed. Lumindra is going to kill us all. I told Oz to not challenge him, and now he ran away! That guy doesn''t even have any power, so why challenge a real wizard?"

    George took a step back, this situation happened very simr to what happens to Oz, who is not a real all-powerful wizard as he imed to be, but a magician pretending to be one.

    George strolled for a while, thinking about the situation that he was in before seeing a reflection of himself on a reflective emerald wall, but he didn''t see a 60-year-old man; he saw a 17-year-old George staring back at him. "What the¡­"

    *BOOM*

    The whole building shook, causing George to turn to where the sound came from, "What was that!?"

    "It''s Lumindra; he is probably angry that Oz hasn''t greeted him yet."

    "Lumindra, is that the other Wizard you were talking about?" George had not heard of any wizard named Lumindra in the book, but seeing that there was one here, he didn''t know what to think.

    The monkey then started pacing back and forth again as he bit on his fingernails before taking a nce at George''s ruby ring, which was on his finger, "Wait, that ring..."

    "What about it?"

    "It''s... isn''t that the Persona Ring? I thought only Oz had that?"

    George raised his hands up before the ground beneath him shook again, "What?"

    "That ring! You could use it! You can save us all and yourself!"

    George looked at his ring and shook his head, "What are you even talking about?!"

    Meanwhile, the City Guards were shooting their arrows toward the violent wizard, trying to stop him from breaking in any further, "Oztanfil!! You dare disrespect me, and now you cower?!!"

    He continued pushing the arrows away as if they held no weight, using his magical telekic abilities and breaking the walls that secured Oz''s throne room.

    *Crack!*

    The door that was the entrance to Oz''s door could be seen, in which he flew towards it and opened it using his telekic abilities.

    As he stepped into the room, he could see Oz sitting on his throne instead of his head in smoke form floating above it. "Why are you in your physical state? Have you used up your ethereal energy?"

    Oz didn''t respond; he just sat there, staring at Lumindra.

    "Am I talking to myself here?"

    Oz raised his hands, causing Lumindra to take a step back. There are legends surrounding Oz''s power that a flick of his finger could kill and destroy anything, but instead of that, Oz wiped off his forehead sweat.

    ''Where the heck is the monkey???'' George thought while sitting on the throne pretending as Oz.

    It turns out the ring was a magical ring that allowed the user to look like anyone he desires and to survive; the monkey had him pretending to Oz, "Fine... If you''re not going to answer me. I''ll attack you first."

    George then stood up from Oz''s throne, causing Lumindra to jolt down, "What is it... Are you scared?" Lumindra asked. "I have reached the 8th circle; yes, I, Lumindra, have finally reached the sacred 8th circle ranks... I am just like you. You''re not so special now, aren''t you?"

    George used all of his experience when he acted at this moment, straightening his back and extending his right arm towards the window before pigeons appeared out of nowhere and flew out the window, distracted.

    Lumindra looked at the pigeons flying and shook his head, "I came here to fight, and you show me some teleportation magic?" He chuckled and shook his head before turning to the throne where George was standing, but there was no one to be seen on the seat.

    "Huh?" Lumindra wondered as he tried detecting Oz with his mana, ''Wait... he just teleported pigeons here... without mana?" He realized.

    He tried detecting any signs of mana in this room, but nothing.

    "Finding for me?" George asked.

    "Ah!" Lumindra jumped and turned behind him, where he saw ''Oztanfil''. He had heard of legends that the pinnacle any wizard or witch could achieve was 8th-circle magic. But among the wizards, they knew that theoretically, one more was possible; if a wizard could eliminate the need to use mana when using magic, he would reach the true pinnacle of magic, which was theoretical godhood.

    "How..." Lumindra asked as he took careful steps back.

    "I will give you one more chance; if you challenge me once more, I will kill you."

    "But you challenged me..." Lumindra replied, sounding confused.

    "Are you questioning me?"

    "No! No! I''ll leave!" Lumindra quickly floated off the ground and flew away from the throne room.

    George maintained a strong stance before dropping to his knees, "I''m alive... I''m alive..."

 Chapter 4: Emerald Castle 2

    <h4>Chapter 4: Emerald Castle 2</h4>

    "Good job acting there." The monkey said as he climbed through the window.

    George was still sitting on the floor, "I need to get out of here... Hey monkey, bring me back to New York!"

    The monkey shook his head, "I can''t help you; the only person who knows how to get there is Oz himself. And don''t call me a monkey! I have a name, and it''s Michael."

    "That''s great. That''s just great. Now I will have to depend on some guy who takes his job so recklessly; that he will leave a whole city at risk of getting destroyed... Or maybe I can make a hot air balloon... Gosh dang it, if only I knew how to make that!! Hey monkey, can you give me something to drink?"

    "I said my name is Michael!" he shouted, scratching his head. "But, honestly, how did you make the pigeonse out of nowhere and appear behind Lumindra out of nowhere? I have always wondered how Oztanfil did that without learning magic himself¡­"

    "I just saw some of the equipment in his room; it looks like the magic trick items that I used long time ago. There is this tool which allows me to let go of the pigeons that are engaged in a cage hidden inside of my suit." He said while opening the gown and showing the machinery that was involved with the trick.

    "So a trick¡­ And the disappearing?"

    "Well, I distracted Lumindra, and I went underneath this door hidden here." He said while pointing at the front of the throne. "This trick is also pretty popr back where I am from."

    The monkey walked towards it and tried opening the entrance to the floor.

    "Oz must have been a very skillful illusionist to make this." Georgemented as he stepped on top of the entrance before stepping on both ends of it, dropping him under the floor and automatically covering the top.

    Michael quickly tried replicating what George had just done and fell underneath, "Ow..." he said while massaging his head which had bumped to the ground. "Whoah, so this was what he was working on..."

    George then climbed out of the other side, "And that was how I ''teleported''."

    "Whoo..." Michael breathed out as he thought about the situation that they were in.

    He was Oz''s friend and ally and was always there to help him, but now that he had disappeared, Emerald City needed a gap to be filled, and if anyone other than him knew that Oz went missing for some reason, the evil witches and wizards would definitely target Emerald City.

    And not even the great Magic Academy that Oz had built could help them as they only had new and young students that only knew the basic to advanced types of magic, which ranged from the 1st circle up to the 5th circle. And the teachers whose ranks were higher were few in number.

    George, who had just arrived here, could only act as Oz, and since he was new, he didn''t know how to act as well as Oztanfil while performing the tricks that Oz did to trick the other real wizards and witches.

    George had been staring at the throne that he had sat down on just now; his heart felt drawn to it as if there was a spell on him making him attracted to it, ''I have lived my life so long, and I couldn''t use mywyer skills, my acting skills, or my magic tricks... This is it... THIS IS IT, MY CHANCE TO FINALLY BE SOMEONE!!!''

    "Hey, uh, man, Fake Oz, I think we have brought you into problems that you don''t deserve; you should run and find somewhere to hide," Michael said as he tapped on his back.

    George turned to look at Michael, "But you need someone to help you, right? You need someone to pretend to be Oz to make sure that this City stays safe, right?"

    "Uhm, well, yeah... But you have to go; I will find Oz to make sure that doesn''t happen."

    George couldn''t let the opportunity of a lifetime slip by him; it was now or never, "No! I will stay; I mean, what would happen to the poor little munchkins then?"

    Michael looked surprised as he looked at George''s expression; he could see that George really cared and he wanted to help, which was true, technically. "Wait, how do you know about the munchkins? I thought you weren''t from this world?"

    "Well, we got books about your world."

    "Hmm, did they have me in it?" Michael looked excited since he was pretty known other than being the monkey who was with Oz.

    "Uhm, I don''t remember there being a Michael the Monkey of Oz," George replied with a chuckle before throwing a nce at the throne again.

    "So, you would like to help us, right? Even though it might mean dying?"

    George nodded lightly, he had died once, but if he was going to die once more, it would be better to die as a powerful and legendary wizard than some random man on the street who died because he couldn''t pay what he owed. "Yeah, I always believed that doing the right thing is always, uhh, right?"

    "I''m d someone like you appeared. I''m sure that the pipsqueak idiot Oztanfil would just think about being some grand wizard, sitting on his throne..." Michael said as he looked slightly annoyed by just thinking about Oz and his behavior.

    Little did he know George was one and the same in terms of behavior.

    "So what now?" George asked.

    "Well, you will have to meet the King of Veridiana; I remembered that Oz threatened to destroy the country if they didn''t add Oz''s name to their g; it really angered them..." The monkey replied.

    "Dang, Oz is much more... uhh, unfavourable than the Oz I read in the books... And I don''t think I have heard about Veridiana... only Gilikin, Winkie, Quadling and Emerald..."

    "I will ask you onest time, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Michael asked.

    George didn''t hesitate; this was his one and only chance to use everything he had learned, to be someone more than what he already was, and his only chance to prove himself. "Absolutely."

    Michael sighed and nodded, "Fine." He said as he walked towards the exit.

    As George followed, Michael turned, looking slightly annoyed, "What are you doing?"

    "What do you mean?" George asked, confused.

    "You are supposed to act like Oz, right? Then use the ring to look like him." Michael reminded.

    George nodded as he looked at the red ruby glowing before closing his eyes, "I am... The Great Wizard Of Oz."

 Chapter 5: Veridiana

    <h4>Chapter 5: Veridiana</h4>

    Veridiana was just like any other older kingdom from Earth, but thews and the system of governing that they implement could be considered out of the ordinary whenpared to the norm on the that George was currently in.

    Most other countries have potent wizards and witches to protect them, but Veridiana was a country that cultivated wizards to protect them instead of having wizards to protect them and having the citizens treat them like kings.

    And this has allowed them to be more economically powerful than the countries that are ruled by the wizards and witches since the wizards and witches ce a high tax on the citizen to protect them, limiting the growth and production of the citizens.

    "This ce is¡­ different", George whispered.

    Michael nodded as heid his back on the carriage seat. "It''s nice, right? Better than those Emerald designs¡­ I have no idea who decided to make the whole of Emerald City green."

    "It would''ve been better if we would get a better view, though," George said, peeking out of the window before Michael closed it.

    "Don''t even think about it. Oz doesn''t show his face in public, and that is how it has been for a decade. It has given him a more mysterious aura to his identity. And if you take that away, it will take away the fear that everyone has for Oz."

    George rubbed his chin where his beard would have been, but since he turned young, the beard was no longer there. "That makes sense¡­ So the only reason why no one has attacked him or Emerald City is because they have a fear of him. The more you talk about him, the more he reminds me of a godly figure."

    Michael nodded as he gestured his finger in agreement, "Exactly, in some miraculous way, even though he has not imed to be god, there are some uhm munchkins who have created some sort of cult that worships him."

    George felt slightly weirded out as he heard that; even though he wanted to be somebody and acting as someone powerful was something that he really wanted to do, pretending to be a benevolent god while taking advantage of the faith of innocent munchkin didn''t sit right with him even though what he was currently doing was very simr to what Oz did.

    "Alright, before we get there, you need to make sure that you maintained looking like The Great Wizard, make the king believe that you are someone that cannot be messed with, and if possible, take back what Oz said; you know about threatening to destroy the whole city?" Michael said.

    George nodded, "And I should take back a threat while still looking like a threat? That''s uhm, sounds like a challenge."

    "I know, I know, just try; I mean, what''s the worst that could happen if you fail? You die, and if you try running away, you will probably get killed by a bunch of bandits and the whole world gets destroyed."

    "You know that lying to me tofort me is an option, right?"

    "Would you like me to lie to you?"

    "No, I mean¡­"

    "Then shut up."

    George sighed as heid back in his seat.

    Even though he might be walking to his inevitable death, it made him feel alive, more alive than he ever felt; it was as if the possibility of death excited him, or maybe, it was his confidence in his skills.

    The bustling crowd around the carriage made it hard for him to think, "I think it''s time to close the window entirely. Hey guards! Move them away, will ya!?" The monkey shouted as he saw the citizens waking closer to the carriage to take a nce at Oz.

    "You have any idea about what you are going to do?" Michael asked.

    George sighed, "Yeah, maybe. But you will be heavily involved in this. But if this works, I bet the King will never be able to forget what I''m about to do."

    Michael got closer, waiting to hear George''s n, "Alright, tell me."

    George then spent about half an hour talking about the n, and even though it wasn''t really a good amount of time to create and discuss a n, it was the only time that they were going to have.

    Michael didn''t seem very confident in it, and neither did George, "This n sounds feasible if you have the luck of this n sounds feasible if you have the luck of a one-legged ck cat crossing a field of four-leaf clovers during a full moon while wearing a rabbit''s foot ne and carrying a horseshoe. "

    "Do you have any better idea?" George asked.

    Michael shook his head, he had tried thinking of a n, but he wasn''t the type of thinking about a n, he had always been the one to help execute it, and the mastermind behind all of the n was none other than Oz himself.

    "Then shut up." He replied, getting one back at Michael.

    The carriage came to a stop right in front of the steel castle gate, which opened as the castle guards saw the Emblem of Oz on top of the carriage, with the Emerald City Guards following from behind.

    As the carriage entered, the Veridiana castle guards waited while making sure that Oz didn''t take any advantage in attacking the castle.

    The door to the carriage opened, and every castle guard had their hands on the sheath, their wrists sore from maintaining an ufortable position holding onto the sheath.

    The Emerald City Guards, however, held onto their bows, prepared to shoot the arrows at the castle guards if Michael ordered them to.

    As it opened, Michael exited out of it first with a dignified expression which he had picked up from hanging around with Oz for a long time, while George followed Michael from behind, disguising himself as an Emerald City Guard.

    The leader of the castle guards, Captain Rnd, walked towards Michael as he bowed his head slightly, "Sir Michael, will The Great Wizard be here?"

    Michael nodded, "He is here; he will make himself visible only to those he deems worthy of meeting him."

    Upon hearing this, Captain Rnd nodded and sighed before looking around to detect any source of mana to see if he could just see a speck of Oz''s power.

    "Oz has ordered me to meet with King Adrian first. Would that be okay?"

    "Yes, sir." Captain Rnd replied. "He has actually prepared a grand feast for you and the Great Wizard¡­ wherever he is¡­."

    Michael smiled, "Great, let''s meet him then." He replied before ncing and nodding at George, signalling at him.

    George sneakily strolled back into the carriage again as the driver drove it to the parking area and parked it there, leaving George inside of it.

    He exited the carriage with a different look, he looked more simple, and his clothes were nothing out of the ordinary; he looked just like any other cleaner you could find in the castle.

 Chapter 6: Castle Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 6: Castle Part 1</h4>

    As Michael followed Captain Rnd into the castle, one of the guards couldn''t help but whisper, "Why do we have to treat this monkey-like royalty? He is just a monkey. Sure, he has some connections with Oz, but he couldn''t be that close, right?"

    "I mean, it''s weird, but it isn''t a good idea to question this kind of thing while doing our job."

    Michael couldn''t hear what they were saying and hummed while he walked through the hallway to the King''s throneroom. But Captain Rnd heard everything; he was one of the most skilled knights in the castle, and his hearing had been heightened to a level unachievable by themon man or even elite fighters in the kingdom.

    He stopped before kneeling in front of Michael, "Sir, the room is here."

    "Don''t you have to escort me in for the safety of your king?" Michael asked.

    "It''s fine, Sir Michael. The King thinks of you as an ally anyway." He said before opening the door for Michael to enter.

    "Okay," Michael replied before entering, not paying much attention to Rnd.

    As the door closed, Rnd looked at his two guards with a sharp eye and walked towards them slowly, "What were you thinking?!" He whispered while grabbing one of the guards by the cor.

    "Sir? I don''t know what you are talking about, sir¡­." The guard replied.

    "What were you thinking?! Talking behind Sir Michael''s back, didn''t you hear what he said? Oz is here! He could hear everything that you say, everything that you think. Don''t forget this, Sir Michael is not just close to the great Wizard¡­." He whispered before drawing closer to the guards, "He is the Great Wizard''s only friend. And we know how hotheaded he could be. So don''t push your luck. Both of you."

    "Yes, sir!" The both of them replied.

    They have been lectured on a lot of things by the Captain, but most of the things that they have been talked about were about small mistakes that they have made. But this sounded like a mistake that could end their life on the spot. And it would be if Oz was actually a wizard.

    "Good¡­ Now pray that the Great Wizard lets the both of you live." He shot back before entering the throne room.

    As he left both of the guards there, they stood still while their eyeballs moving everywhere to see if the Wizard was looking at them, and even though they couldn''t see him, it made it much scarier to think about.

    "Ah, Captain Rnd, you''re here!" King Adrian IV smiled as he saw his favorite Captain walking in.

    "Yes, my Liege." He said before standing beside him.

    The King then turned to Michael, "So, Uhm, where is the Great Wizard?"

    "The Great Wizard is here¡­" Michael replied as he looked around the windows.

    King Adrian looked around and tried to find the Great Wizard, but no matter how hard he tried, he could see him, "I don''t see anyone else in this room other than you and me."

    Captain Rnd then stepped closer to the King and whispered into his ears, "Sir, The Great Wizard Oztanfil is here¡­ It''s just that he only appears to those who seem worthy."

    As he heard this, the King nced toward Michael, who had his hands together, staring into the King''s eyes.

    The King gulped as he looked at the situation, ''So, he is testing me¡­.'' The King thought as he looked around and stayed silent.

    ''And he sent his friend to do it¡­ But what is the test?''

    Michael then stood up, not touching his food, "Uhm, I don''t really eat meat." He said as he looked at the food that was prepared for him."

    King Adrian looked at Michael''s te and immediately saw the mistake they made. The monkey race was vegetarian, and they would never even think of eating meat.

    "Oh, I guess the chef made a bit of a mistake then." The King chuckled before Captain Rnd picked up the te.

    "I will rece the food, Sir Michael; what would you like instead?"

    Michael thought about it as he kept looking at the window, waiting for George; all he had to do was stall for time till George climbed up the window.

    "Uhm, a dessert that has banana in it," Michael replied.

    "A banana. Of course!" King Adrian said before standing up and drawing closer to the Captain''s ears, "Tell the chefs to use the most expensive bananas that the kingdom has."

    The Captain nodded, "As you wish." He walked out as fast as he could.

    ''Come on, George, where are you¡­.'' Michael stared out the window.

    Meanwhile, George was on the ground floor, he could see the window, but the only way that he could get up there was by climbing the pipe.

    He then surveyed the area to see if he could do just that, but there were two guards standing there, and if they saw him climbing up to the window where the King was, they were definitely going to be suspicious of him.

    George thought about it and realized that to get the guards to get away, he must have the ability tomand them to move them out. And what better way to do that than to pretend to be the castle guard leader?

    He looked at his ring and turned himself to Captain Rnd before walking up to them.

    As they saw him walking towards them, they stood still.

    "Sir?" One of them asked.

    "I need you both to go out of the city and see if there is any suspicious activity¡­" he said.

    The guard nodded but realized that the Captain was supposed to be in the room with the King and not here, "Of course, sir, but aren''t you supposed to be in the room with the King? And aren''t we not permitted byw to do the job of the city guards?"

    George remained at a standstill as he heard this. Had he already messed up this early?

 Chapter 7: Castle Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 7: Castle Part 2</h4>

    George stood still for a while with his back still straight, looking down on both guards, his mind racing toe up with an exnation.

    "Excellent." He replied.

    The guards raised their eyebrows, confused by the one-word remark their ''Captain'' gave them, before looking at each other, not knowing how to respond.

    George sighed, "You passed; I was testing the both of you to see whether you were still focusing. If you had left outside, I would have fired both of you. And don''t worry about the King; he is in good hands." He said while looking up at the window, knowing full well that the real Captain was inside the room.

    If Captain Rnd were to show his face outside of the window, George''s whole act would have been ruined.

    "Ah, thank you, Captain!" The guards responded happily.

    "Now go to the basement; I heard some noise from under there; check on it." He continued.

    Both guards waited before one of them opened their mouths, "Is this a test?"

    "No, it''s not. Get your ass down there and get to work. NOW!" He snapped before the guards ran into the building, not questioning him anymore.

    "Whoo¡­ That''s close." He said as he looked up into the window and morphed into the janitor.

    As he started climbing, he could feel the cage hidden in his clothing heavy and disturbing him from climbing upfortably, ''Dang, why on earth did I think that bringing pigeons in my clothing was a good idea¡­.'' He thought before he climbed with his hands and his legs.

    If he were as old as his original age, he would have cracked his back, fallen, and died on impact.

    But here, he could climb up quickly, and since he had climbed the trees at the beaches of Florida when he was younger, climbing this pipe was not much of an issue either.

    The real issue was whether he could reach the top before the guards returned.

    Meanwhile, the King was looking at Michael sceptically, ''Would the great wizard really put a test on someone like me? And does he even put a test on anyone before meeting them?''

    The King had thought about this, and no matter how hard he tried reaching for the deepest part of his memory, he couldn''t think of an incident or a rumour that suggested that Oz ever did something like this.

    ''The first time I heard of the Great Wizard doing anything like this¡­ is from Sir Michael¡­'' he thought while he started to get more distrustful of the words that came out of Michael''s mouth.

    There were some cases of advisors and Prime Ministers that have misused the name of their King for their own benefit, and this recurring theme made him more distrustful Michael''Now the only question is., what does this monkey want from me?''

    The Captain walked into the room with the dessert in his hand before seeing the King with his eyes sharp on Michael.

    He has been by King Adrian''s side for far too long not to see what he was feeling. And even though no one else could see through the King''s expression, he could, but just like everyone else, Michael was oblivious to what the King had in his mind.

    The Captain halted his footsteps, ''What could the King be suspicious about?'' He thought before continuing towards Michael''s direction and handing him the dessert.

    "Thank you!" Michael said as he took the bowl of banana ice cream and started eating it slowly to dy the King''s questioning and buy some time for Geroge to climb, he could hear some sound from the pipe, and it was only a matter of time before George arrived.

    The King sighed, swallowing his saliva and preparing for the worst as he was about to do something that might potentially get him killed before he spoke, "Sir Michael, would you like me to tell you a story?"

    Michael''s eyes widened, ''More time? Sure!'' He thought merrily before nodding his furry head, "Sure."

    "There was once a King who had always trusted his Prime Minister to do his active duties, and one of his main jobs was to meet with the Kings and officials of other countries. The Prime Minister had always done his job well and had gained the trust of the King. He did it so well that the King trusted him like his own friend. But when the King became ill, the Prime Minister hid this fact and started to go around across the Kingdoms and started using the King''s power to do whatever he wanted¡­ You could say that he pretended to be a King; does this sound familiar to you?" The King asked, waiting for a reaction.

    As Michael heard this story, his heart stopped. But it wasn''t because of the story in its entirety; it was the sentence at the end about the Prime Minister pretending to be the King. ''How did he know? How did he know that Oz had gone missing? And is he suggesting that Oz might have gone sick? And how did he know that someone was pretending to be him?"

    Michael couldn''t hide his expression and looked anxious.

    ''I knew it!'' King Adrian thought before a grin appeared on his face, "As I thought, you came here to trick me", He said, controlling his anger and trying his very best to not punch the table.

    "Leave, or I will have your head severed for the lions in my den. Don''t you evere to this castle or this kingdom ever again?" He continued irritatedly as he stood up and turned to face the door.

    Now that Captain Rnd had heard the entire story, he looked at Michael differently before scoffing and opening the door for the King.

    Michael, however, was betting on George and the fact that King Adrian might be trying his luck just like them. "Wait!" he shouted daringly.

    The King, one step away from exiting the room, stopped before turning to Michael, "If I hear one more word from you, I will severe your head myself."

    Michael shook him, "No before you can do that, your entire kingdom will be destroyed, that I can swear upon. And if you leave, you will die, and you will see the true power of the Great Wizard."

    The King chuckled as he sat back in front of Michael, "Why should I listen to a fraud like you?" Both the King and the guard were looking at Michael, scoffing at him; he couldn''t believe that he even believed a word that came out of Michael''s mouth.

    "Because I said so." As everyone turned to see where the sound came from, a flock of pigeons flew towards them before revealing a man that stood stall with a powerful stance.

    "That blue rob, that blue eyes¡­ You''re... You''re Oz..."

 Chapter 8: Castle Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 8: Castle Part 3</h4>

    "And so what if it''s me?" George said as he walked towards King Adrian, "You disrespect my messenger, yet you are now lowering your head? Why does it matter that you are respecting me now?"

    King Adrian retreated before his back hit the table behind him.

    Captain Rnd was quick to action, pulling out his sword and pointing at George.

    George''s face turned sour as he saw the sword in front of his face, "You think, if I wanted your King dead or anyone of you to perish, I have to go through you? Move; I have no need to take away your pitiful lives anyways."

    "Put away your sword!" King Adrian whispered as he hid behind Rnd, fearing that the wizard may do something to harm him.

    George walked towards the chair beside Michael and sat there, "What are you waiting for? Sit."

    Both King Adrian and Captain Rnd sat on their chairs onmand.

    "I will ask you one more time, do you agree to add my name, my symbol, to your g¡­."

    King Adrian closed his eyes tight as his heart started racing upon hearing that question; he had declined the request previously for the honour of the country''s tradition; he would also be the enemy of the people if he bowed down to the request of Oz. But he also knew that if he followed Oz''s request, Oz would ask for more, and just like the other wizards and witches, to be able to tax the people of Veridiana.

    "This isn''t supposed to be a hard question, Adrian. You should be honoured that you have this opportunity. I don''t just allow everyone to put y name on their gs. You''re making a fool out of me; make up your mind." He continued.

    Michael closed his eyes as George was straying away from what he was supposed to say. ''What are you doing??'' Michael whispered into his ears which George ignored and continued staring the King down.

    King Adrian had always felt superior when confronted by other Kings, wizards, queens, and witches. A voice of his past came back towards him.

    "Father! Just listen to him! He will kill you! Just ept his condition this one time." Young Adrian shouted.

    His father, the King at that time, King Adrian III, stood tall and looked at him with a disappointed look stamped on his face. "No."

    Young Adrian burst into anger, "He will kill you!!! Just give him the wand¡­ Is that wand more precious than your life?"

    The King turned to look at his throne, "Son, do you know what this throne is? Do you know what it represents?"

    Adrian nodded, "It represents your absolute power over this country, but listen, you don''t have absolute power over that wizard!"

    The King shook his head, "You still don''t understand." He said before touching the throne.

    "This is not the time! Give the wand to him."

    "This throne does not represent power; the throne represents the people!" King Adrian III shouted as he turned to Adrian IV. "And when I sit on it, I am reminded that I am only here because I have the people to lean on! Without them, I am nothing! They expect more from the King they carry on their back! And I cannot! I cannot ept that I will be a pathetic King who would bow down to an unreasonable request from a stuck-up wizard! That is what a King is supposed to be!"

    He then sat on his throne, "If I were to die today, I would die as the King they love, as the King that they look up to. Remember this, son, when you take over, never forget this; as the King, you have a duty to listen to no one but the people." He muttered before extending his hand to the soldiers, "Take the Prince away! And bring that devil of a wizard here!"

    The soldiers ran to Adriann before picking him up and carrying him away despite his struggles and crying, "My King!! You cant do this!! Father!! Father!!!"

    King Adrian opened his eyes and stared at the Wizard of Oz, who was a stronger of more powerful wizard than the wizard his father faced and died to, but he knew that if he were his father, he would do the same thing, "Great Wizard, my answer to your proposal, is, no."

    "My King! You''ve got to think this through; at least speak with the advisors."

    "I know what they will say, and I know what I am supposed to say. But I can''t do it."

    The captain closed his eyes as he covered his face and used all the muscle in his face to stop himself from crying.

    George red at King Adrian before his lips twitched as if he was angry, "That answer, are you sure about it?"

    King Adrian hid his hands in his robe as it was shaking uncontrobly from just looking at George, "That is my final and only answer." He said before shutting his eyes. "If you are going to take my life, then so be it, but leave my people alone."

    But instead of feeling pain or having his life taken away, he heard the sounds of ps. As he opened his eyes, he could see the Great Wizard pping his hands, "Of all Kings that I have met, you are the only one worthy of seeing me."

    "So, do I get to live?"

    George nodded before standing up, "Adrian, do you know why Emerald City doesn''t have allies? It is because, in every other country I go to, I see their leaders too scared and too willing to bow their heads to a higher power. If there is another country more powerful than I am, would I be able to trust them? No, they would take the side of the higher power. But a King who is loyal to his people would be loyal to his allies. And you would make a perfect ally." He said before extending his hand toward the King.

    "So what do you say? Allies?"

    The King smiled and chuckled, "So this was a test all along!! Hahaha!" He said as he looked at the ceiling. ''Father, did I do well?''

 Chapter 9: Castle Part 4

    <h4>Chapter 9: Castle Part 4</h4>

    King Adrian shook George''s hand before sitting down, breathing a great sigh of relief, he was very close to bowing to the order Oz, but he was happy he didn''t, although, in actuality, it wouldn''t really make any difference since George would be happy as long he looked powerful in this situation.

    "King Adrian, I hope this friendship between my city and your kingdom will remain this way for a long time." He said before returning his hand to his pocket.

    Adrian nodded, "Of course." He replied before staring at the hand that had just shaken hands with who he thought to be Oz, ''Why does his hand feel so weak?'' He thought before brushing the thought away, knowing that it couldn''t be the case.

    The door was suddenly knocked, causing everyone to turn towards it; Captain Rnd quickly opened it only to see both of the guards that he gave lectures to holding a man with a mask. "Who is this?"

    "Captain, this is the person we found in the basement, they have been snooping around, and they have been armed with weapons. Your instinct is excellent, Captain; if you hadn''t told us not to go into the basement, this person would probably get away with it."

    "But I didn''t." the Captain replied as he looked at the guards with a puzzled look on his face. "I didn''t tell anyone of you to go to the basement."

    "But you gave us the order just now¡­."

    "How many minutes ago?"

    "About three?"

    "I was still in the room three minutes ago." Captain Rnd replied as he couldn''t think of this situation; who had they been talking to, and who was pretending to be him?

    George had his movement halted as he saw the guards holding the person that was in the basement, ''Come on, think!'' He thought, trying to think about how to fix this situation.

    "I did it," George said as he stood beside the window and looked outside.

    "Great Wizard¡­ you pretended to be me?"

    "I saw a threat, and I solved it; it might not be in a way that you may like, but you''re wee." He said before pointing past the man that the guards caught.

    Everyone in the room turned to find what he was pointing at, only to find nothing, but as they looked at the window that he was standing at, they could see that he had disappeared.

    "Well, that is my sign to leave as well," Michael said as he extended his hand to the King.

    The King shook Michael''s hand while bowing his head slightly, "I would like to apologize again for not trusting you and even threatening you; I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me."

    Michaelughed it off before patting Adrian''s leg as he was too short to pat his shoulders, "It''s fine. I would do the same thing if I was you." He said as he turned to the room''s exit.

    "Sir Michael, I heard that the Great Wizard has gotten more powerful. Is that true?"

    Michael nced back to King and nodded, "He has gone past the human limit. If I were to estimate his strength¡­ Well, I don''t think I can. Because there is no limit to his power."

    The King looked at the window where ''Oz'' had disappeared. "Did he really reach godhood?"

    Michael pointed up to the ceiling, "I am not a wizard, so I can''t be sure, but one of them said this. So, amidst the realm where demigods find their strength confined, a solitary wizard arises, his power eclipsing the very essence of their divine might. In this vast tapestry of existence, where boundaries are but feeble shackles, he stands as an embodiment of unparalleled transcendence."

    The Captain reasoned with this newfound information in his mind, he could ept the fact that the Great Wizard might be the most powerful wizard that has ever graced this, but to say that he was even more powerful than the demigods of the heavens was something that could be considered heretic to say.

    But as Michael left the room, the attention three turnedpletely to the man in the mask. The Captain bent in front of him and opened the mask to show a person who had his skin torn off. It was near impossible to tell who he was based on his face now; it could be said that not even his mother could have told that he was her son.

    A technique used by spy ves to prevent the identity of their owner from being spread.

    "My King. It is best you get to the safe house."

    King Adrian nodded as he left the room with his knights guarding him.

    "Put him in the chambers of the sinful." He said, following the guards to the other part of the basement where the castle had a temporary prison.

    As they threw the spy into the dark prison and locked him inside. The Captain sat in front of it, staring at the spy, "Why are you here?"

    The spy didn''t answer and sat down in silence.

    "Hmm, alright, who sent you?"

    And again, the spy didn''t answer; the Captain squinted as he noticed something strange with this spy; he wasn''t ignoring what the Captain was saying; it was as if he couldn''t listen at all.

    The Captain took out his key and opened the prison before holding the spy by the neck and checking the ear. The eardrums of the spy had been damaged beyond repair, and as he forcefully opened his mouth, he could see that the spy''s tongue had also been cut. ''What the heck¡­.''

    Suddenly the eyes of the spy darkened and took on a dark matt colour, something that the Captain had only seen once. And the eyes of the spy tear up as if they want the Captain''s help, "This is¡­ Dark witchcraft!!!" He screamed as he jumped out of the prison room.

    "Run!!" He shouted at the guards near the room before it exploded, causing him and the guards to fly away from it, their backs being pushed away and causing their bodies to forcefully collide with the brick walls of the basement.

 Chapter 10: The Letter

    <h4>Chapter 10: The Letter</h4>

    A dark, mysterious figure peered into a shimmering orb, her hands delicately cradling it. Within the orb''s depths, an image of a devastating explosion flickered before her. With a wave of her hand and murmured incantations from an ancient era, the enigmatguage resonated, even in this world.

    The image transformed, akin to a captivating video that reyed the events leading up to the explosion. Amidst the chaos, one face stood out, impossible for her to ignore. "Oztanfil..." she whispered the name, intrigue sparking in her eyes.

    ''Oztanfil'' pointed beyond the spy ve, who turned away, desperately attempting to catch a glimpse of what Oz had discovered. Yet, when the spy looked back, Oz had vanished without a trace. "What?" she murmured to herself, confusion tingling in her voice.

    Then, the conversation between Michael and the King reached her ears. "Did he truly ascend to godhood?"

    Intrigued, she drew nearer to the orb, capturing every word that followed. "Amidst the realm where demigods find their power confined, a solitary wizard arises, his might surpassing their divine essence. Within the tapestry of existence, where boundaries are but feeble restraints, he embodies unparalleled transcendence."

    Gripping the orb tightly, she felt a surge of power, humor bubbling within her. "Hahahah... Just as I attain the 8th circle of power, you be even more formidable."

    Rising to her feet, she inadvertently cut her hands on a shard of ss that had broken loose from the orb. "It''s time for a visit," she dered, leaving the shattered remnants behind in the dimly lit room. With a wave of her hand, she healed her wounds using magic, her hands bathed in a soothing green glow.

    As she departed, the room fell silent, broken ss shards trembling with every passing second, echoing the arrival of a colossal presence.

    Michael''s tiny hand sifted through a pile of letters, casually discarding those sent by unremarkable nobles seeking the attention of the esteemed ''Great Wizard.'' The discarded missives found their fiery fate in the throne room. However, as Michael reached the final letter of the day, his hand froze, captivated by the name inscribed upon it. "Captain Rnd of Veridiana," he read aloud.

    Seizing the letter opener from the nearby table, he carefully sliced open the envelope, unveiling its contents. His eyes widened as he perused the message, struck by its significance. It was amunication from Captain Rnd, intended for Oz.

    Meanwhile, George busied himself repairing an illusionist machine, which he had employed to perform his distracting flying pigeon tricks. A subtle shift in the atmosphere caught his attention,pelling him to turn toward Michael. "What''s going on?" he inquired, his curiosity piqued.

    "You won''t like it," Michael replied with a sigh, folding the letter.

    George approached, undeterred. "I don''t have to like it to hear it. We''re already knee-deep in this mess." He joined Michael and perused the letter''s contents.

    Both men''s expressions transformed as they digested the brief but weighty message. It left them reeling. The letter read:

    "Great Wizard, you are likely already aware, but the spy we apprehended possessed traces of dark witchcraft energy. As I attempted to extract information, he disintegrated into fragments before my eyes. I won''t borate on the gruesome details. However, I managed to examine his ears and tongue before his demise. They were deliberately rendered useless, impeding any identification of the culprit. The King expresses his gratitude for sparing him a messier situation. I, too, extend my gratitude.

    Sincerely,

    Rnd of Veridiana."

    George turned to Michael, his face mirroring the shock etched on Michael''s features. "Who have we just crossed?" he demanded, searching for answers.

    Michael shrugged, sharing the same sense of unease. "I don''t know, and I''m not fond of the situation either. But it seems we have no other choice but to face it."

    George shifted his gaze to the damaged machine he had been repairing, his resolve hardening. Walking toward it, he dered, "I must fix this immediately. If that... maniac dares to attack me, I don''t know if I could stand against them. All I can do is act..."

    Michael concurred, suggesting a contingency n. "We need a n B. If we encounter a threat beyond our control, it''s best to flee until Oz returns. He knows the locations of the other machines."

    "Machines? Are you telling me there are more magical devices like this?" George queried, raising the pigeon illusion machine.

    "He possesses a projector that allows him to appearrger and alter his appearance. But he concealed it once he discovered the Persona ring, which can also change his size and appearance at will."

    George''s gaze fixated on the ring, pondering the possibilities. "Are there more than one Persona ring?"

    Michael shrugged, acknowledging the uncertainty. "I believed there was only one in existence until you arrived. Now, I suppose there are two. One with him, and one with you"

    "Is it possible there could be one more?"

    Understanding George''s line of thinking, Michael scratched his furry chin. "Perhaps. There''s always a chance."

    "I can''t proceed if there''s even the slightest possibility. If I''m going to do this, I must truly grow stronger," George dered, determination glinting in his eyes.

    Michael shook his head, instantly opposing the idea. "Your survival thus far hinges on the absence of mana within your body. If even a trace of mana were to appear, the illusion of ''Oz''s'' godhood would crumble."

    Standing tall, George ran a hand through his hair. "Damn it..." he muttered before his eyes caught sight of something on the map of Emerald City.

    Approaching it, he pointed at a corner. "Hey, monkey."

    "It''s Michael, what is it?"

    "What''s this?"

    Michael walked over and squinted at the area George indicated. "That? That''s the Emerald City Academy."

    "I can read, Michael. But what exactly is this academy?"

    "It''s the institution Oz established to train a formidable force of wizards and non-magic users alike,prising soldiers. It''s one of the few things that makes sense about what he''s done."

    "So, you''re saying that if I go there, I can be stronger?"

    Michael raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but as I mentioned, if you possess any mana in your body, the entire illusion will crumble."

    George smiled mischievously, tapping the map. He turned to Michael. "Who says I''ll be learning magic?"

 Chapter 11: Academy Inquiry Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 11: Academy Inquiry Part 1</h4>

    The Emerald City Guards stood in a group, their numbers seeming smallpared to the grandeur of Emerald City''s military. With a measly count of 2051 by international standards, they were well aware of their limited manpower. But these guards were not ordinary recruits; they were the cream of the crop, chosen from the best students of the academy who weremitted to protecting the city.

    Among them was Mason Wolfe, an esteemed graduate ranked 10th in the academy. While hisrades worked on repairing the broken front wall breached by the notorious Wizard Lumindra, Mason stood guard on the city walls.

    "Why do these wizards have to give us crap? What did we do?"ined a guard, his hands busy fixing cracks in the wall with cement.

    "Shut up!" another guard whispered, cautioning everyone to keep their voices down in case Oz was listening.

    "I don''t care. Those wizards can kiss my-" The guard''s voice trailed off, interrupted by the arrival of the Chief Guard emerging from the wall rubble, demanding silence from the guards.

    "Donovan," the Chief Guard called out, and the guard known for his "heretical" opinions stepped forward, expecting punishment.

    "Yes, Chief?" Donovan replied nervously, bracing himself for reprimand.

    "Someone from the castle is waiting for you in the cafeteria. Just make sure anything you said doesn''t reach the Wizard''s ears," the Chief Guard continued, ncing at the other guards. "You guys can take a break too."

    #

    The Emerald City Guard cafeteria buzzed with activity during lunchtime. Guards filled the space, hungry and eager to devour the meal prepared for them. Amidst the familiar faces, Donovan sat alone at a separate table, apanied by an unfamiliar man.

    "Uhmm," Donovan tried to find words to break the silence, but his mind seemed to betray him, leaving him at a loss for what to say.

    "I''m Detective John Sterling," the man introduced himself, his middle-aged appearance adorned with a ck hat and a dark coat. He smiled and removed his hat, revealing neatlybed hair.

    "A detective?" Donovan, having never heard of such a title in his long career as an Emerald City Guard, was intrigued. "What does that mean?"

    George Sterling, disguising himself as John Sterling, shed a smile. "I''m d you asked. The Great Wizard has bestowed this title upon me. I investigate crimes and work towards improving the safety and quality of life for all citizens of Emerald City."

    George had taken the initiative to seek someone with firsthand experience in the non-magic sector of the academy. His n was simple: if this n seemed impossible, he would retreat; if there was even a glimmer of hope, the academy was where he would go.

    "I see... So, am I under investigation? Did I do something wrong?" Donovan''s anxiety heightened as he wiped away beads of sweat.

    George, having been awyer for half a decade, possessed an acute sense of detecting truth and falsehood. His experience of defending clients against AI prosecutors made him one of the best humanwyers to this day. As he observed Donovan, the guard appeared far more suspicious than the worst liars George had encountered.

    "Don''t worry, Donovan. You''re not in trouble. I just need you to answer a few questions about your time in the academy," George assured him, hoping to put the guard at ease.

    "Scared? Hahaha... That''s funny. It''s just hot in here, that''s all," Donovan replied, attempting to dismiss any notion of fear.

    "How?" George nced out the window, noticing a slight drizzle and a cool breeze wafting into the room. "Uh, sure, anyway, would you mind telling me about your experience in the academy?"

    Wiping his brow, Donovan chuckled, "Sure, man. I honestly thought you were going to kill me for talking bad about the Wizard, son of a..." He caught himself midsentence, locking eyes with George.

    George sat speechless, astounded by Donovan''sck of restraint with his words. "Don''t worry about it. I''ve heard that the Great Wizard is very forgiving."

    "Yes..." Donovan nodded, determined not to let another Freudian slip escape his lips.

    "So, Donovan, tell me, how was the academy?" George inquired.

    "It was okay. I managed to get by. I''ve always been skilled inbat and had a good physique, so nothing bad really happened to me," Donovan replied, his voiceced with a hint of pride.

    "What advice would you give to someone who is about to enter the academy and isn''t as naturally talented in fighting?" George asked, curious about how he would fare against the other students of the academy.

    Donovanughed, "Give up!"

    "Is it really that challenging?"

    "Yeah, for the untalented ones, I can guarantee you this: if an untalented kid tries to enter the non-magic sector, they won''t stand a chance to even qualify for the lowest ss."

    "Can you exin why?" George probed further, eager to understand the hurdles faced by those with limited aptitude.

    "Well, everyone has to go through a physical test to qualify for the non-magic sector. All I know is that it involves fighting against random students, and each semester, only 200 students are epted," Donovan exined.

    "And if, by some stroke of luck, the untalented kid manages to make it through, they''ll likely be ced in the lowest-ranking ss, ss D. As you can imagine, they won''t receive the same level of education and support as the higher-ranking sses," Donovan added, his tone tinged with disappointment.

    George contemted the information, realizing that even a small opportunity for growth would be better than merely pretending to be strong. "That doesn''t sound too bad..."

    "But it is. The ranking system ispletely messed up. You''d think the qualification test would be fair, right? But no... Some instructors rigged the test to ensure certain noble students easily defeated weaker opponents, boosting their records and cing them in higher sses," Donovan revealed.

    George nodded, absorbing the corruption within the system. "So, if someone were to address the corruption issue, would there be a chance for this hypothetical untalented kid?"

    "If, by some miracle, you could do that, they would still face one final challenge."

    "And what would that be?"

    "Everyone in the academy is talented, and the one that would make the talented ones cry is the Barbarians."

 Chapter 12: Academy Inquiry Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 12: Academy Inquiry Part 2</h4>

    "They conquered continents, defeated the First Council of Wizards, and held the power that shaped the oue of wars for centuries. While they might not have been known for their wit, their immense strength, capable of lifting the earth itself, more than made up for it.

    The Barbarians, renowned for their unrivaled might, surpassed every other race on the in terms of sheer power. Elves, Dwarves, and even the various human races couldn''te close to matching their strength.

    In the world of non-magic fighting sports, the Barbarians dominated as World Champions. Out of the 89 former World Champions, a mere two were Elves, five were Dwarves, thirteen were humans, and the rest were all proud Barbarians.

    And the reigning champion, Drothgar Angmar, remained undefeated in every fight. Having been a former academy student, he shattered every record set by the Barbarian champions before him."

    "All right, all right! Enough with the History Channel documentary!" George eximed, interrupting Michael.

    Michael coughed, regaining hisposure. "Sorry, I got carried away."

    "Let''s just skip over that stuff... Now, what were we talking about?" George asked, hoping to move on.

    "Uh, barbarians?" Michael ventured, trying to recollect the discussion.

    "No, not that! Before that!" George reminded him, growing impatient.

    "Right, right..." Michael scratched his head, struggling to remember. "Oh, you were asking if I could get you into one of the higher sses at the academy."

    "Yeah, can you do it?" George inquired eagerly.

    "Hmm, speaking of the higher sses, did you know that most of the top-ranking students in those sses are Barba-"

    "I don''t want to hear any more about barbarians," George cut him off, exasperated.

    "Oh, right, got it... Well, the answer is no," Michael responded, confusing George.

    "Why not? You''re like the second most powerful guy here, right after Ozzy?" George questioned, trying to understand.

    "Technically, yes," Michael confirmed.

    "And didn''t Oz start the academy?" George pointed out.

    "Yep," Michael acknowledged.

    "So why can''t you just convince the instructors to put me in ss A?" George pressed further.

    Michael shook his head. "It''s not that I can''t do it, it''s a matter of whether I should do it."

    "I don''t get what you''re saying," George admitted, growing frustrated.

    "Ozzy tried the same thing as you. He failed, and it made people suspicious of his other identity. He became a target for other students, seen as too weak. Trust me, you won''t survive if that happens to you," Michael exined, his tone serious.

    George sighed, deted. "Fine, then what do you suggest I do?"

    "Just enter the academy like everyone else does. I''ll do my best to prevent any unfair situations, but beyond that, if I intervene too much, it''ll only make you a bigger target," Michael advised cautiously.

    George nodded, epting the advice.

    "So, are you good at fighting?" Michael asked, trying to gauge George''s expertise.

    An awkward smile spread across Michael''s face. "Well, I''ve been in the military before..."

    George''s eyes widened, intrigued. "Wow, that''s impressive."

    "Yeah, no, I actually got kicked out. I ran away from my first mission," George confessed, the smile fading from his face.

    Michael chuckled, looking slightly worried. "Well, I guess we won''t know if you qualify for the lowest ss unless you try."

    "Hey, that''s not all... I did some wrestling in high school and college," George added, hoping to salvage his fighting credentials.

    Ignoring George''sment, Michael handed him a document. "Here''s your new identity."

    George nced at it skeptically. "Wait, are you seriously giving me a fake identity with my real name on it?"

    "Wouldn''t it be easier for you? Besides, Sterlinguard is one of the fallen noble families. You''ll be their supposedst son. Since there are no surviving members, I don''t think you''ll get caught," Michael assured him.

    #

    "Donovan!" the Chief Guard called out.

    "Yes, Chief?" Donovan responded, turning to face him and bowing his head slightly.

    "You spoke with Defective John Sterling?"

    "Don''t you mean ''Detective''?" Donovan asked, raising an eyebrow.

    "Bah! I couldn''t care less!" The Chief pped Donovan on the back. "I want to know what the Defective said."

    "He was just asking some questions about the academy... And I''m pretty sure he said ''Detective,''" Donovan replied.

    "Really? That''s it?" The Chief seemed suspicious.

    Why would a new title suddenly be created in the castle, and the first thing the person holding that title investigates is such a minor matter?

    Something didn''t add up.

    "Come on, you can tell me," the Chief pressed, his curiosity piqued.

    Donovan could sense that many eyes were on him, though he couldn''t see who. The guards had limited sources of entertainment, and idle gossip and rumors were their main source of diversion.

    And the information he possessed would surely be excellent fodder for their conversations.

    His hunch proved correct when guards emerged from their hiding spots, looking disappointed with the conclusion of the conversation.

    "Hey, I swear that was all we talked about!" Donovan shouted, feeling the weight of their disappointment.

    Mason Wolfe, the most aplished academy graduate turned Emerald City guard, approached Donovan causing him to smile. If there was someone who wouldn''t be entertained by rumors, it was Mason. Whatever he was about to say must be important.

    "So, what did that guy really ask you?" Mason inquired mischievously.

    "Holy crap! I told everyone already! He only asked me about the academy! If you don''t believe me, go ask Detective John yourself!" Donovan eximed, frustration evident in his voice.

    Mason took a step back, surprised by his colleague''s outburst. "I was just asking. Who knows, maybe the Great Wizard has gotten tired of your insults."

    Donovan took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself before feeling a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find the Chief standing there. "Uh, Chief, I..."

    "We''ll talkter. The Defective called for you," the Chief interrupted, his voice stern.

    "Yes, sir," Donovan replied, mentally correcting the Chief''s use of the word ''Defective.'' He made his way toward the cafeteria, his mind filled with a mix of frustration and curiosity.

 Chapter 13: Academy Inquiry Part 3 [Bonus chapter]

    <h4>Chapter 13: Academy Inquiry Part 3 [Bonus chapter]</h4>

    "Why would he call me again?" Donovan wondered, perplexed by the sudden summons. He wasn''t exactly the most skilled guard among the Emerald Guards, and even among the academy graduates, he ranked far from the top. Mason Wolfe, with his impressive abilities, would have been a more suitable candidate for such a meeting.

    As Donovan entered the bustling cafeteria, he spotted the ''Detective'' making his way towards him with an outstretched hand. "Donovan, it''s good to meet you again," the Detective greeted him warmly.

    Returning the gesture, Donovan took a seat with the Detective at the same spot they had upied during their previous encounter. "It''s good to meet you too, Detective," he replied, curious about the purpose of this second meeting. "Are you here to ask me more questions about the academy?"

    The ''Detective'' leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Well, it does involve the academy, but there isn''t much left for me to ask on that front. The real reason I sought you out is because the Wizard himself suspects there might be a spy within the academy," George lied.

    Donovan''s interest was instantly piqued. "A spy?" he repeated, his eyes widening. The notion of espionage within the esteemed academy was both thrilling and concerning.

    The Detective nodded gravely. "Indeed. Considering your extensive time in the academy, I believe you would be able to discern a true student from an impostor, am I right?"

    Donovan wasn''t entirely convinced about his ability in that regard, but it was customary to agree with one''s superiors. "If you say so, Detective," he replied, trying to sound confident.

    "Good. In that case, I am nning to assign two Emerald City guards, including yourself, to ensure the safety of ten specific students," He revealed, sliding a piece of paper across the table.

    Donovan picked up the paper and examined the ten pictures disyed on it. Most of them were well-known prospects with promising futures in the academy, but there was one face he couldn''t recognize. "Detective, um... who exactly is this?" he inquired, pointing to the unfamiliar individual.

    George nced at the picture and coughed, trying to divert Donovan''s attention. "Oh, that''s just George Sterlinguard. Don''t worry too much about it."

    Perplexed by the evasive response, Donovan persisted, "Hmm, and why do you want to ensure the safety of these students?"

    George grinned, sensing that he had sessfully shifted Donovan''s focus. "We have reason to believe that the spy might be targeting them. Our goal is to protect them from any harm, danger, or unfair treatment," the Detective exined, emphasizing the importance of fairness.

    This was all a ruse, of course, to ensure extra protection for himself. The notion of encountering more talented individuals in the academy meant the possibility of facing bullies who would exploit his weaknesses. Having more experienced guards looking out for him and ensuring fairness within the academy, especially for his benefit, wouldn''t hurt either.

    Donovan''s mind raced as he contemted the situation. Many pieces started falling into ce, and the idea of a spy within the academy became increasingly usible. He couldn''t help but wonder about the identity of the spy, who had sent them, and the potential consequences if their presence went unnoticed.

    Had spies already infiltrated both the academy and the Emerald City itself?

    Numerous questions flooded Donovan''s mind as he pondered the possibilities. None of them aligned with the truth, as they were all products of Donovan''s imagination fueled by George''s deceptive words.

    "So, Detective... who do you n to send on this mission?" Donovan finally inquired, eager to know more.

    "Well, as I said you are one of the candidates," the Detective replied, causing Donovan to nod in agreement. If Detective John himself had approached him with this information, it meant he was considered suitable for the task. "But don''t worry about the Chief Guard¡ªI''ve already spoken to him. And for the second position, call Mason Wolfe. If possible, you can begin your inspections or whatever else you need to do at the academy today. But remember, your primary objective is to protect these new students entering the new semester."

    "Yes, Detective," Donovan affirmed, standing up alongside the Detective as they shook hands before parting ways.

    Donovan let out a sigh as he gazed out of the cafeteria''s windows, noticing some of the other Emerald City guards peering through them. As soon as they witnessed the Detective''s departure, they hurried into the cafeteria, hungry for answers.

    "What''s going on, Donovan?"

    "Come on, spill it. There''s no way he was just talking about the academy."

    The cafeteria buzzed with anticipation, the guards pressuring Donovan for information. "Fine, I''ll tell you, but you have to keep it a secret, alright? I can''t disclose much, but I have some information that suggests the academy has been infiltrated by spies."

    The guards erupted into excited chatter, specting about the potential ramifications of this revtion for the entire Emerald City.

    Overwhelmed by the noise, Donovan hurriedly exited the cafeteria, his ears still ringing from the boisterous conversation. Stepping outside, he found Mason Wolfe leaning against the entrance wall, scanning his surroundings for eavesdroppers. "The Detective has assigned us to go to the academy..." Donovan whispered to his fellow guard, ensuring privacy.

    Handing Mason the paper he had received from the Detective, Mason asked, "What''s this?"

    "That, is our mission." Donovan replied.

    Mason looked slightly ufortable as he looked at the pictures but smiled anyways.

    "Are you okay?"

    Mason nodded, "Yeah, Im just fine..."

    "So should we leave for the academy now, or..."

    "Give me a minute. I''ll be back." He responded, pulling out his pen and walking away.

    "Okay..." Donovan waited at the front entrance f the cafeteria till his legs were left aching and the sky darkened.

    "Send this to the mail office tomorrow, okay?" Mason said as he handed a letter to one of the staff before walking towards Donovan.

    "Dude, that was more than a minute; that was like a full hour!" Donovan shouted, Mason had always been early for everything; what had suddenly changed for him to be thiste?

    "Sorry, I will make it up to you..." Mason replied as he wiped off the sweat.

    Donovan couldn''t help but stare at the letter that he handed to the staff, "So, who is that letter for?"

    "It''s for my family. Don''t worry about it."

 Chapter 14: First Step To Death?

    <h4>Chapter 14: First Step To Death?</h4>

    Therge poster, adorned with a cartoonish man tipping his hat and winking, caught George''s attention. "The Phoenix Embrace, Witness The Greatest Supernatural urrence By The Greatest Magician of another World!" the bold letters proimed. It was part of a promotion by one of thest remainingrge circuses in the 23rd century.

    London, still in the process of rebuilding since the fall of Ennd in 2121, sought support from around the world to symbolize the unity of the countries involved in the war. They constructed a colossal colosseum, fifty times the size of the original, and gathered the best talents from across the globe to represent each country. It was a fiercepetition to impress the world.

    Among these talents was George''s father, known as O.D. Sterling. He had gone through countless selection processes to determine who was the greatest and most capable of captivating the audience. Eventually, the United States government chose O.D. Sterling as their representative for the global government-funded circus. They poured an enormous amount of money into his act, promising a staggering thirty million dors¡ªa sum that in 2011 would be equivalent to three million dors. Yes, intion had gotten worse.

    George sat in the stadium among the buzzing crowd, enjoying popcorn with his older brother Lyle. They eagerly awaited their father''s turn to showcase the pinnacle of magic.

    Suddenly, a gust of wind blew the window open, jolting George from his dream. He groggily walked over to close it, realizing it was still dark outside. As he settled back into bed, he couldn''t ignore the fact that the mattress in this world was no better than the mid-tier ones avable across the street. What shocked him more was that it was considered the best money could buy here, whereas even the cheapest bed from his previous life would have been morefortable.

    "Shoot," George muttered. His mind was racing so much that his tiredness dissipated. He rose from his bed and made his way to a nearby table. Using a matchstick, he lit a candle, casting a dim glow over the room.

    He picked up the admission letter he had filled out. Seeing that all his information was already written, he folded it. The academy only cared about the contents of the letter, as sending it automatically made one eligible for the admission test.

    But as he prepared to address the letter, a skeletal finger appeared in the corner of his vision. The dark sleeve near the bony hand sent a shiver down his spine. "Here too?" George muttered, pointing at the letter.

    This figure had haunted him throughout his life, and he had no idea why. He had tried numerous medications, but no technological or medical advancements could make it disappear.

    George recalled the first time he encountered the figure. He was eight years old, visiting a popr theme park with his father and brother. As they strolled, his father habitually rubbed the ruby on his ring. But on that day, George noticed something peculiar.

    Lyle''s eyes widened as they spotted thergest roller coaster in the theme park. Excitedly, Lyle pointed at it, his legs bouncing with anticipation. "Dad! Roller coaster!! Please, please?"

    O.D. Sterling smiled and nodded. "Sure, buddy! But aren''t you scared?" He hoisted Lyle onto his shoulders and directed his attention to the roller coaster, where people were screaming andughing.

    Lyle shook his head, flexing his muscles. "No, I''m brave!"

    "Good! George, what about you?" Lyle waited for a response, but George stared at the roller coaster in disbelief.

    "Dad... why is that skeleton looking at me?" George pointed to an empty space.

    "A skeleton?" O.D. Sterling scanned the area but found nothing.

    "Yeah, he''s there," George insisted, continuing to point.

    His father turned to Lyle. "Lyle, do you see any skeleton?"

    Lyle shook his head. "No..."

    O.D. Sterling grew concerned for George but dismissed it as a misunderstanding. "What is the skeleton doing now?" he asked, lowering himself to George''s eye level.

    "He''s staring at me, and he''s pointing at the roller coaster..."

    "The roller coaster?" O.D. Sterling looked at the ride, puzzled.

    Suddenly, confusion washed over George''s face.

    "What happened?"

    "The skeleton... it disappeared..."

    "What?"

    The ground trembled, prompting O.D. Sterling to shield both George and Lyle with his body, protecting them from any potential harm.

    Metal screeched, filling the theme park, as dust and smoke enveloped the area. Laughter and joy turned to screams and panic, echoing throughout the park.

    When the dust settled, Sterling rose, cradling his sons. His eyes widened as he beheld the wreckage of the roller coaster, bodies broken and torn. He shielded his sons'' eyes from the horrifying sight.

    That incident was just one of many. Whenever Sterling avoided the Grim Reaper''s indicated direction, he managed to cheat death. However, the one time he didn''t heed its warning, he ended up in this world.

    "Yeah, there must be another way," George muttered, dropping the letter on the table and standing up. He walked toward the door but froze as he noticed the Grim Reaper pointing in that direction.

    "What?" He nced between the letter and the door, both indicated by the Grim Reaper.

    "So... you''re telling me that no matter what I do, I will die?" George posed the question to the Grim Reaper, receiving no response as usual.

    He stared at the letter, then turned back to the door. ''If I walk out, I''ll be running away from my destiny, but I''ll die either way. Perhaps submitting the letter would be a better way to meet my end.'' He folded the letter, and with itspletion, he felt the Grim Reaper''s presence dissipate.

 Chapter 15: Letters

    <h4>Chapter 15: Letters</h4>

    Michael swiftly scanned the letter''s contents before carefully inscribing the academy''s address on it. A flickering candle, on the verge of extinguishing, sat on the table beside him. In his hands, he held a brass seal, ready to be used.

    With deftness, he melted the crimson wax, watching it drip onto the letter. Pressing the seal firmly, he left behind an intricate insignia¡ªa symbol of the Emerald Castle. To ensure privacy, he applied another drop of wax, covering the address, and sealed it with another insignia, bearing the words, "Address sealed, open only when sending."

    Jumping out of his chair, Michael exited the throne room and made his way through the hallway.

    "Sir Michael, is there anything I can assist you with?" a courteous Emerald City Guard asked, bowing respectfully.

    Michael nodded, handing the letter to the guard. "You know what to do with this. Send it discreetly," he instructed before heading back into the throne room, leaving the guard alone with the letter.

    The guard patiently waited for Michael to return to the throne room, abiding by the etiquette of allowing his superior to leave first. He remembered the harsh punishment and humiliation he had endured from his Training Chief for breaking that rule.

    ncing at the letter and its seal, he pocketed it, walking out of the castle without exchanging greetings with the other guards.

    Outside the castle gate, he waited until a horse rider passed by. The horse carried numerous bags filled with letters. "I have 48 letters for Sir Michael," the mailman on the horse stated, handing the letters to the guard.

    "Yeah, and I have one special message," the guard replied.

    "Special message," a code used to request extra security for a letter. The mailman swiftly took the letter, wordlessly acknowledging the guard''s intent, and concealed it in his pocket.

    As he rode along the road, he noticed another mailman on horseback beside him. "Hey, I need to send a special message. Can you help me out?" the other mailman asked.

    The guard nodded. "Sure, I was on my way to deliver a special message too." He pulled out a letter disying the Emerald City Guard seal.

    Squinting to read the name on the letter, he asked, "Mason Wolfe?"

    "Yeah, I was surprised too when I read the name. Who knew I''d be delivering a letter for someone important? And what about your letter?" the other mailman replied, handing his letter to the guard while keeping an eye on the road.

    "I don''t know, but even the destination address is stamped. They really want to keep this letter under the radar," the guard replied, carefully pocketing both important letters. He urged his horse forward, delivering over a hundred letters throughout the day until the sky darkened.

    With only a couple of hours left before it grew too dark to roam the streets safely, he couldn''t risk holding onto the two significant letters. Racing his horse as fast as it could go, he made his way to the Emerald City Post Office.

    Exhausted, he entered the Post Office, wiping his face and dusting off the horse fur clinging to his pants. Sneaking past one of the offices, he discreetly slipped the two letters into a nearly invisible crack purposely created in the Post Office for secure letter storage.

    The letters dropped into a box located in an underground room. "Oh, two special messages!" an overweight elderlydy eximed to her co-worker. She carefully cut away the wax covering the letter''s address before passing them to her slender, elderly colleague. The colleague shaved off the seal insignia to maintain anonymity before cing the letters in a hole just above the ceiling of the room.

    The two letters waited hours until someone entered the room above, picked up the letters, and ced them in a bag before leaving. The letters, now considered normal, were mixed with the rest of the mail as the sun illuminated the Post Office.

    As the Post Office opened, mailmen entered and began collecting the letters. The two special messages, once distinct, were now indistinguishable from the others.

    #

    In the academy''s admission office, the staff worked tirelessly to handle the influx of letters. The sheer number of applications showcased the academy''s credibility and influence.

    With no real authority to ept or reject applicants, the admission office merely recorded the names of those seeking admission before returning to their record-keeping duties.

    "Hey, have you heard anything about the Sterlinguard family recently?" a young woman asked while reading George''s admission letter.

    "Isn''t that the fallen family from Stonespike?" an older man replied.

    "Yes... It seems that one of the remaining family members wants to join the academy," she mused, handing the letter to the older man.

    "Hmm, isn''t everyone in the family dea-" The older man paused as a woman in a white robe entered the room¡ªit was the academy headmaster herself. The room fell silent as everyone focused on their work, fearing her presence.

    Seraphina Starlight, a respected witch who still served Emerald City, she also lectured on magic within the academy. ncing at George''s admission letter, her interest was piqued, but she walked out without a word.

    Outside, the non-magic sect headmaster awaited her. His imposing figure towered over the others, akin to a bear. "So, how are the potential recruits shaping up?" he inquired.

    "There are some intriguing candidates... and a fair number of barbarians," she replied.

    Gideon, the non-magic sect headmaster grinned. "Good for me. It seems my side of the academy won''t be falling behind in the academy championship. By the way, have you heard the rumours circtingtely?"

    "What rumors?" she asked, curious.

    "The ones about spies infiltrating our academy. Look outside, they even sent two Emerald City Guards to investigate," he exined, pointing out the window with his muscr finger.

    The witch headmaster peeked outside, observing Donovan and Mason Wolfe walking through the academy gates.

    ''It seems that the rumour has some truth to it... Else why would they have sent two former academy students here?'' She thought, recognizing Donovan and Mason Wolfe, both who had been studying under the non-magic sect.

 Chapter 16: Testing The Waters

    <h4>Chapter 16: Testing The Waters</h4>

    "Please wait here," the staff instructed Donovan and Mason, gesturing for them to enter the room.

    As they stepped into the meeting, the door closed behind them, leaving them alone inside.

    "Quite a grand meeting room, isn''t it?" Donovan remarked, ncing at the intricate carvings on the walls.

    Mason raised an eyebrow. "Haven''t you been here before?" He had entered this room when he was a student in the academy and had the privilege of talking to the headmasters several times in this room, but little did he know only the highest-ranking student could do such a thing.

    Donovan sighed. "I''m not exactly the type of student who frequents rooms like this. To be honest, I joined the Emerald City Guards based on my strength alone. When ites to academics, I''m not the brightest."

    Mason nodded, trying to figure out a way to change the topic, pointing to a particr chair. "This room used to be a war room. I''ve heard that the Wizard himself sat in that chair."

    Taking Mason''s lead, they both made their way to the chairs and sat down. "Remember, let''s not reveal too much information," Mason reminded Donovan, aware of his tendency to share too freely, which had earned him a reputation among the guards.

    Donovan nodded. "Got it."

    "And be careful not to disclose anything to ''potential spies''," Mason added in a hushed tone.

    Donovan leaned closer, his eyebrow raised. "Wait, are you suggesting that the headmasters might be... spies?" he whispered, ncing at the door to ensure no one was listening.

    Mason shrugged. "They might be, or maybe just one of them, or perhaps neither. It''s hard to say."

    Donovan tried to rationalize the thought, finding it difficult to believe that Seraphina or Gideon could be spies, considering their esteemed positions in Emerald City. Nheless, he acknowledged the importance of being cautious, especially being with someone as great as Mason.

    Suddenly, both Donovan and Mason felt the hair on their arms stand on end, their instinctual reaction directing their gaze toward the door. Steps approached from the other side.

    As the door swung open, their bodies grew warmer, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, forcing them to wipe them away.

    Seraphina entered the room, her youthful appearance belying her age. Donovan and Mason, despite theirbined years, didn''t exhibit any undue reaction to her beauty, knowing her age to be twice theirs.

    The extreme amount of mana found in her body caused an anti-ageing effect, allowing her to age incredibly slowly.

    Gideon followed closely behind, exuding an air of confidence with his crossed arms and raised chin. His muscles could be considered weapons of mass destruction if the Barbarians had not existed, but his skill as a knight was something to behold, and the calluses on his fingers showed just that.

    Both guards were familiar with him, having received asional lessons from him despite being non-magic students. When he spoke, they listened, and his teachings allowed them to make remarkable progresspared to the mundane lessons they received throughout the year.

    However, his arrogant demeanour and choice of words made him one of the less likeable figures in the academy. No one dared confront him, of course; being a musclehead sure had its benefits.

    "Thank you for meeting with us," Mason said, standing up and extending his hand to Seraphina.

    Donovan, still seated, slowly rose to his feet, offering a polite smile and attempting to match the aura emanating from everyone in the room.

    "We''re quite busy here, awaiting the arrival of new students. Let''s get this over with," she replied, disregarding Mason''s extended hand.

    ''So this is how they want to y?'' Mason hid his frustration and sat back down. "Certainly. You must have heard the rumors circting about potential spies within the academy."

    The headmasters remained silent, neither confirming nor denying the rumors. Gideon questioned, "Where are you going with this?"

    "Just curious if either of you have any insight into the credibility of these rumors," Mason probed further.

    "Why would they be credible? We have strict regtions and thoroughly vet every student we admit to this academy," the witch replied. "Are you attempting to spread baseless rumors?"

    Mason retorted, "And why would I do that?"

    "I''ve heard that the Emerald City Guards, unlike their predecessors, have be corrupt. Perhaps you''re simply attempting to sow fear and disrupt the students'' efforts to excel and leave the academy," she used.

    Donovan mmed his hand on the table, barely restraining himself from hurling insults at Seraphina. Mason tried to hold him back, maintaining hisposure as he red at Seraphina. "I would appreciate it if you refrained from making false usations against the City Guards. We have a trusted source."

    Seraphina smiled. "I''m old enough to have heard that kind of argument. You might as well take that ''trusted source'' and throw it in the sewers." Her words, despite her ageless beauty, belied her actual years, harbouring bitterness and vulgarity.

    Donovan mmed the table once more, his anger getting the best of him. Mason''s attempts to hold him back proved futile. "That ''source'' is the Great Wizard, damn it!" he eximed.

    Mason covered his face, regretting the slip of information. Seraphina covered her mouth, exchanging a nce with Gideon that seemed to say, "Don''t look at me; you did this to yourself."

    Her heart racing, Seraphina looked around, waiting for the wizard to unleash his wrath upon her.

    "I''ve heard that the Great Wizard is quite forgiving..." Donovan interjected, realizing his own mistake, before turning to Mason, who stared at him with disappointment.

    Mason shook his head, then redirected his attention to the headmasters. ''Well, damn it, it''s toote to keep any secrets now,'' he thought, retrieving a copy of the paper that Donovan had handed to him. "This is a list of students we believe need special protection. We suspect the spy might be targeting them."

    Gideon regarded the list with little concern, but the witch''s eyes widened as she saw the name¡ªGeorge Sterlinguard.

 Chapter 17: Among The Very Best

    <h4>Chapter 17: Among The Very Best</h4>

    "George Sterlinguard!" One of the instructors shouted, rallying the prospects.

    Amidst the crowd of promising young talents, George stepped forward, joining the others who had been called by different instructors.

    The instructor stroked his beard, ncing at the picture and the name on the paper, ensuring that George was indeed the person he imed to be. "George Sterlinguard, head to the rightne," he directed, pointing to thene where many other prospects were gathered.

    George nodded and made his way toward the rightne, where those who had chosen the non-magic sect of the academy were stationed.

    The sight before him was diverse¡ªmany barbarians and humans, each vying for a chance. Among them, he noticed a few pointy-eared humanoids, elves, who stood tall at 6 feet, towering over most humans. And among every race that was present, in terms of looks, they would be considered on top of the list.

    On the left, George could see a slightly shorter line consisting of students from the magic sect. They adorned themselves in extravagant clothing that seemed impractical, representing the highest echelons of society. Most of them were royalty or nobles, while the rest hailed from wealthy merchant families.

    During his wait for admission day, George delved into books, discovering the reasons behind the exclusive ess to magic. Theck of innate mana reserves among the majority of individuals, mainly men, made it almost impossible formoners to pursue magic. Instead, they resorted to non-magic alternatives, which, even at the highest level, could rival the power of 8th-circle wizards and witches.

    A sudden glimmer of light caught his attention from behind, causing George to turn and shield his eyes. There stood a young man, bedecked in gold-adorned attire from head to toe. "Wow, this guy could be the next Ted Dibiase!" George thought to himself. The young man looked oddly familiar, though George couldn''t quite ce where he had seen him before.

    Oddly enough, he noticed that the following eight students also stood out from the crowd. Whispers and pointing fingers surrounded them. One held a sword of evident worth, followed by four imposing barbarians nked by two elves who kept their distance from the rest, maintaining an air of separation.

    "Alright!" the bearded instructor called out, approaching George''s direction. He singled out George, the elves, the five barbarians, and the swordsman. "All of you, follow me!"

    Without question, they trailed behind the instructor toward a vast open field situated behind the academy. Large tents had been set up, and they entered one of them as directed.

    Inside, a man of immense size sat with legs crossed, making a normal person look small inparison. Most recognized him from newspaper pictures¡ªthe renowned Knight Gideon Cross was hailed as the best Knight in all of Emerald City and ranked 13th in the World Fighting Championship contender list. But here, he is the non-magic sect headmaster.

    Some of the barbarians instinctively bowed as a show of respect, but the Knight raised his hand, indicating that it was unnecessary. "No need for formalities here. Act as if I''m not even present," he dered.

    With that, the nine prospects exchanged nces, recognizing one another from prior meetings. Among them was the Barbarian Princess, Stulgra Angmar, her muscr yet slender frame setting her apart from her male counterparts. Apanying her were two strongpanions, slightly less muscr than the princess but still capable of overpowering ordinary men.

    Stulgra was the daughter of the King of Angmar and a likely heir to the throne. With her formidable allies, her ascension seemed inevitable.

    On the opposite side stood the princess''s younger brother, Prince Heigdeirr Angmar. Though not in contention for the throne, his imposing physique made one reconsider his position.

    Next to him, sharing a simr impressive build, stood the younger brother of the World Fighting Champion, Madrath. While not bearing the Angmarst name due to hismoner status, his talent forbat rivalled that of his champion sibling. The Angmarst name was reserved as an honorary title for barbarianmoner champions but is also the title automatically given to royalties, and Madrath''s family history indicated that they preferred their Kingdom''s name rather than a family name.

    "I didn''t expect to find the Princess of Barbarians here!" thevishly dressed young man eximed with confidence.

    The Barbarian Princess turned and respectfully bowed her head upon seeing him. "I greet the Prince of the Empire."

    The other barbarians followed suit, capturing the attention of everyone in the room.

    "No need for formalities," the Prince assured them. "Here, we are equals. Let''s forget about my royal titles." He then shifted his attention to the young man holding the sword. "Bryne of the ymore Household, am I correct?"

    Bryne nodded. "Yes."

    Bryne ymore, the swordbearer, was the youngest son of the prestigious ymore Family, renowned as the world''s foremost swordsmanship lineage. However, even that distinction paled inparison to the Prince of the Empire.

    Prince Royce Isenwyn was a candidate for the throne, representing the Empire of Isenwyn. The Empire controlled and taxed kingdoms ruled by witches, wizards, and even kings, including the esteemed Emerald City and the Kingdom of Veridiana.

    "I almost missed greeting both of you since you''ve been so silent," the Prince remarked, turning to the two elves¡ªskilled archers in their own right¡ªwho stood with a hint of pride, offering a nod of acknowledgement rather than the borate respect disyed by others.

    Realizing further greetings were unlikely, the Prince scanned the remaining individuals in the tent until his gaze settled on George. "I haven''t seen you before. What''s your name?"

    George, drawing from his experience as awyer and actor, smiled and extended his hand, mirroring the Prince''s charismatic presence. "I am George Sterlinguard. It''s an honor to meet you."

    The Prince shook George''s hand, surprised by the fact that someone as young as him could match his aura. He clicked his tongue as he heard thest name. "Sterlinguard, Sterlinguard¡­ Oh, that family! The one that used to own Emerald Vale. How is your family?"

    The other prospects in the room took note of George''s presence, realizing he belonged to a fallen noble family. "They''re all gone," George replied solemnly.

    "I... I see," the Prince muttered, a mix of sympathy and curiosity in his expression.

    The instructor reentered the tent, ready to deliver instructions. However, Gideon Cross, the headmaster of the non-magic sect, raised his hand.

    "Sir?" the instructor inquired, puzzled by Gideon''s gesture.

    "We have the ten most promising prospects in this tent, and you expect me to subject them to boring tests? Nah, nah! All of you will be fighting each other," Gideon dered.

    As George heard this, his heart sank. He had spent the whole week researching the best way to get into the academy and even prepared himself for all of the tests and to be good enough to pass all of them, but now all of it has been thrown out of the window.

    Looking at the faces of the other students, his spirit sunken once more, seeing their expressions which showed that they couldn''t wait to fight each other.

 Chapter 18: [Bonus chapter]Body Language

    <h4>Chapter 18: [Bonus chapter]Body Language</h4>

    "Shoot¡­ I knew I shouldn''t have joined the academy! Maybe I should have just stayed in that damned room!" George''s mind raced with regret, stretching his hand, even as he maintained a confident exterior.

    While George''s inner panic unfolded, the others couldn''t help but be impressed, though they couldn''t quite pinpoint why. There was something about his bodynguage that resonated with them.

    "He seems like an experienced Empire Guard," the Prince mused, observing George''s stretches.

    The rest of the prospects shared the same sentiment, and the reason for this was pretty simple, even though hard to execute, his bodynguage.

    The concept is a big factor in the world that he was in, and being one of thest humanwyers out there, he needed to make his customers feel that he was the best, and one of the easiest ways that one could do that is by showing a confident and a bodynguage of what the everyday people would consider to be what the best would do.

    And so he would watch television and see howwyers in movies and tv shows would present themselves and even mimic their style, taking on a fictional personality of an unstoppablewyer even though thewyers in movies in tv shows would normally use it.

    If he were to use the bodynguage the real professionalwyers use, there would be no effect on clients as the real bestwyers would act normallypared to the professionalwyers in the movies.

    In his whole week of nning, he realized that if he used the same technique in this world, could it work?

    He read books about how the best fighters would fight and even their autobiography to know how they thought and how they spoke, but none of it helped since it wasn''t visual, and there was also the fact that a lot of the people on this are illiterate.

    Even among some nobles, reading would be just some extra ability.

    Considering this fact, he stood up from the library and walked out for a while, still in his Detective disguise; he could see the Emerald City guards walking around while themoner kids followed them as if they were looking at superheroes or pro-wrestling superstars.

    With this newfound insight, George adopted the habits of the Emerald City guards, stretching his hands in a way that mimicked their daily weapon handling. Standing in a stationary position for prolonged periods had ingrained a distinctive back stretch in them. Additionally, their martial arts training emphasized efficient footwork, enabling swift transitions intobat stances.

    Employing these adaptations, George exuded the aura of a seasoned member of the Emerald City Guards, even though he didn''t possess any of their actual fighting ability. As he looked around, he noticed that instead of scaring people away, his act piqued their interest, making them more eager to face him inbat.

    "I will now exin the rules of this fight," the instructor announced, capturing the attention of all the prospects in the tent. "To eliminate someone, you must either submit them until they give up or faint, or knock them out. No weapons are allowed. Given thepetition level, if you manage to avoid elimination for five minutes, you will pass automatically."

    Gideon interjected, "And thest prospect standing will receive personal training from me." He saw immense skill among the ten prospects, making it an opportune moment to choose a contender for the academy championship, where the non-magic sect could finally surpass the magic sect.

    The prospects, except for George, who was already excited to engage inbat for the sheer thrill, now had even more reason and motivation to battle each other. Training under Gideon Cross meant learning from a contender in the World Championship. Since Gideon boasted an undefeated record and an impressive resume, anyone under his tutge would gain invaluable experience.

    Madrath clenched his fist, determined to reach his brother''s level. "If I win, I''ll be one step closer to matching you, brother."

    George felt a shiver down his spine as he observed the glimmer in hispetitors'' eyes.

    Gideon nced back and noticed Donovan and Mason Wolfe standing outside, awaiting the spectacle. idents could ur, and they stood ready to intervene if needed.

    "I must say¡­ this n is absolutely genius. Putting all ten of this kids in the same group has made our lives easier," Donovan remarked as he looked at the list of the 10 students that must be protected, all of them in the tent.

    It was Mason''s idea, and its sess was evident from theck of suspicion among the prospects. However, Mason cast a pitied look at Donovan. Most people would have deduced the same n, as it was quite obvious. Donovan''s promation of its genius showcased hisck of intellect.

    Gideon rose to his feet, raising his right hand while holding a stopwatch in his left. The prospects assumed their stances, keeping their distance from one another, awaiting Gideon''s signal.

    George, still unsure of proper martial stances in this world, maintained the posture of the Emerald City Guards. His heart pounded as he contemted ways to survive even a minute, let alone the full five minutes. "Should I just give up now?"

    Before he could raise his hand to surrender, Gideon dropped his right hand, triggering a flurry of fights among the prospects. Caught off guard by the sudden onught, George froze in ce, still sporting the confident facade he had worn just moments before.

    As the fights unfolded, George realized they were more systematic than he had anticipated. He turned his back and witnessed the Barbarian Princess and her brother engaging inbat while her twopanions faced off against the elves, their shared animosity evident.

    Meanwhile, Madrath found himself confused amidst the chaos, unsure of whom to target.

    In front of George, the Prince of the Empire adopted an imperial stance, while Bryne,cking a sword, attempted an unfinished stance that required one. Nevertheless, it was better than no stance at all.

    George instinctively turned away, opting to flee the immediate chaos. The Prince and Bryne exchanged perplexed nces. "Did we misjudge him?"

    However, as they turned to the direction George had fled, their doubts were dispelled. George swiftly kicked the back of the knees of the barbarians and the elves, causing them to lose their bnce. "Ah! Why fight against your own kind when you can fight against others!" Bryne remarked, joining forces with the Prince.

    Unbeknownst to them, George''s actions stemmed from a desire to appear engaged while passing the work onto others.

 Chapter 19: Hit & Run

    <h4>Chapter 19: Hit & Run</h4>

    ''Interesting¡­'' Gideon thought as he analyzed George''s move, noting that his style of fighting differed from anything he had seen.

    There was no martial art in his movement, just the natural motion of him running and kicking the back of their legs with no particr technique, or at least any technique he knew of.

    It reminded him of when an animal fights or defends itself; they haven''t learned any martial arts, but through instinct alone, most of them have survived just from theirmon sense.

    In his mind, George was purposefully not using any martial arts for the sole purpose of not wasting any movement, although he couldn''t be further from the truth as George''s knowledge of fighting only derived from videos.

    ''Whoo! This hit and run move really works!'' George thought gleefully as he continued kicking and running away. A trick that he adapted from one of the most deadly crimes in his country; the only difference was that he used his legs while they used cars.

    "Tsk! He did it again!!" Rhelkas, the barbarian princess''s assistant, shouted at her sister while kneeling on the ground from being the victim of George''s weirdly efficient move.

    Shal responded, ring at George and seeing them running away towards the queen, "That coward!" She shouted before getting punched in the face by the agile elves.

    The male elf struggled against the hurt Rhelkas, and despite being hurt and female, Rhelkas was able to overpower the elf, throwing him away, only for the elf tond on his feet thanks to his light weight.

    The female elf, however, had to resort to a faster approach and run away from Shal, and seeing that Shal''s leg was hurt thanks to George, doing so was much easier.

    But as she distanced herself from the barbarian, she could see Shal''s eyes get slightly angrier and annoyed suddenly.

    And in a split second, she felt the back of her knee kicked, and fell while seeing George running towards her male partner.

    She quickly faced in front of her, bracing as she expected Shal to take advantage of this situation and beat her dow; instead, Shal wasn''t there but running towards George. "Sister!!"

    Rhelkas''s attention had been taken away as she turned to her sister''s cry and saw her pointing towards George, running towards the male elf.

    "I will kill you!!!" She screamed before her vocal cords broke, leaving her with no voice, her legs swinging towards George.

    "Mother of-" George nearly cussed before the elf kicked her right in the liver, causing her to lower her legs and grunt in pain, holding her stomach.

    The elf took the opportunity trying to finish off the job by swinging his legs to her head just like any elf would; the only reason why the elves and barbarians hadn''t waged war on each other was because of the peace treaty that the empire forced the both of the kingdoms to sign it.

    The previous time that the two kingdom race had gone to war with each other, many humans caught in the middle of the battle died a useless death, all for proving the superiority of one race.

    As the elf delivered a powerful ser kick to the barbarian, expecting her to fall finally, she spat out one of her front teeth, her remaining teeth bleeding from the kick, standing up as if the kick had not affected her one bit.

    "Oh spirits¡­" The elf took a step back, knowing that in this situation, he couldn''t do much in a proper hand-to-handbat situation against any barbarian.

    As he turned around to run away from the imminent threat, he could feel a step on the back of his knees, dropping to him to hit his jaw to the ground, as he saw George running away from him.

    But his back shivered; turning his back and, seeing that Shal was cracking her knuckles, and quickly ran where George headed to.

    "Amarille!" The elf, Ilimitar, shouted at his female elvenpanion, who turned to him while on the verge of running from Rhelkas, who was chasing after her, quickly changing the direction that she was running to after seeing Ilimitar gesturing to her toe towards him.

    As she arrived at where Ilimitar stood, he stood in front of her, blocking Rhelkas from getting to her with his hands extended to the barbarian.

    The barbarian stopped spitting in front of the ground where Ilimitar stood, "Why have you stopped?"

    "Wait, we have to stop fighting each other." He said.

    "And why is that?"

    Ilimitar pointed to where Shal was running to and saw that George had kicked her princess in the back of the knee, causing her to lose her footing against Heigdeirr.

    "That human dares!???" She screamed as she followed her sister chasing after George.

    Both of the elves looked at each other, disappointed that they had to use cowardly moves against barbarians to survive, and sighed before following the barbarians, knowing that George was making this test too hard for both barbarians and elves alike and removing him from the equation would be better.

    "This guy is good." The Prince whispered to Bryne beside him as the both of them ran after the elves.

    "You think so, your Highness?"

    "Well, in this situation, he is doing pretty well, he is not wasting his time and energy fighting."

    Bryne nodded as he saw George running away from the barbarians chasing after him, as he had also tumbled Heigderr, causing him to join therge group that was already against him.

    Gideon couldn''t help but notice that George was keeping an eye on him while running but couldn''t tell why, ''Is he trying to tell me to focus on him? How arrogant, he hasnt even fought properly against anyone of them.''

    George then ran towards both the Prince and the son, "You get behind us, we will buy you some time."

    "Thanks!" George said as he hid behind the both of them.

    The Prince punched the sr plexus of Shal, stopping her in her tracks and causing her to jump back and take a breath.

    The barbarians and elves stopped as they saw two of one of the arguably best fighters among them, blocking them from getting to George.

    "Eliminate him, and this will be easy." Princess Stulgra said as she breathed heavily from running after George for a long time.

    "No can do. Ah!" The Prince shouted as he felt the kick behind his knee and could see Bryne on the floor with him.

    And as the both of them looked behind them, they could see George behind them, "Why?" The Prince asked.

    "Because." George said before running away, not answering the question properly.

    The Prince and the son of the ymore family stood up as he looked at the barbarians and elves behind him, leading the way in catching amon enemy.

    As George reached the end of the tent, he stopped and turned to the crowd of prospects who were there for the sake of eliminating.

    As they stopped, George immediately rushed to the middle of the group, causing Gideon to stand up as not he nor the group couldn''t tell what was going on in George''s mind, but as he ran out of the group, he could see George carrying Shal by her legs before throwing her to the floor on her back, nearly causing her to pass out, but the barbarian blood in her wouldn''t let it happen.

    The group immediately ran after him, and the barbarians seeing what had just happened, were furious, leading the group.

    George then carried Shal by her back, shielding himself from the group and protecting his back with the tent behind him.

    The elves and the humans were prepared to beat him up with everything they could, but seeing that Shal was being carried in front of him, the barbarians wouldn''t let them do that.

    "Let me go!!" Shal screamed as she tried getting down, but since George was carrying her from the floor, she couldn''t do anything but swing her hands around, hoping she could hit George.

    Rhelkas then pulled Shal by her legs as the other barbarians followed her, which became a game of tug of war.

    But behind, outssed by strength, George let go of Shal, causing her to fling towards the barbarians.

    Everyone was prepared to deliver him holy punishment, cracking their knuckles, but George stood strong nheless.

    But as they got closer, George nced at Gideon once more, in which he smiled and dropped to the ground and raised his hands. "I concede!"

    Everyone held back their attacks as George wasn''t in the fight anymore; Gideon stood up disappointed, "Gideon, you''ve failed,e back next year."

    The rest of the students were slight since they couldn''t see why George would use such a foolish and risky way of fighting only to fail when the fight was about to start.

    George stood up, shaking his head, "No sir, I passed. Check you watch."

    Gideon took his stopwatch, and his eyebrow raised as he looked at how much time had passed, "5 minutes, and 50 seconds¡­ You passed¡­"

    "Unbelievable." The Prince said while wiping his sweat off, seeing George pass the test in a memorable way.

    And outside, some existing students have also peeked into the tent, speechless about what they just saw.

    Meanwhile, Georgey on the ground, catching his breath from running for a long time. "Gosh, finally¡­"

 Chapter 20: Hurt

    <h4>Chapter 20: Hurt</h4>

    The temporary alliance they formed to eliminate George disintegrated immediately, with the humans and elves eliminated a second after it happened.

    Against the united barbarians, they stood no chance.

    "Ah!" Heigderr shouted as he felt a kick on his back, jumping away and facing his sister, who was apanied by both her assistants.

    Madrath, beside him, kept quiet to avoid drawing any attention that the barbarian girls gave to Heigderr.

    "Maybe you should have brought your own assistance." Stulgra mocked Heigderr, knowing that none of his assistants would follow his orders but the Princess''s, following the royal hierarchy.

    "I¡­ concede." Heigderr said as he walked away with his fist tightened up, leaving Madrath alone with the girls.

    He took a deep breath before tearing his shirt and wrapping them around his hands as makeshift hand wraps to avoid his knuckles from taking maximum damage and getting crushed to pieces.

    Rhelkas ran towards him first, jumping into the air to deliver a flying kick, maximizing the weight delivered if she hit him sessfully.

    Pah!

    She smiled, feeling her legs connecting to the attack, but all of a sudden, her whole body spun.

    Madrath, with his inherited strength, swung her by the legs she kicked before throwing her down to the ground where shey, passed out, from hitting her back against the solid ground.

    "Rhelkas eliminated." The instructor said as he made sure that Rhelkas had been knocked out cold.

    Shal nearly jumped at him to deliver her revenge, but seeing how strong he was, doing so would be a foolish move.

    "You are a bad sister, you wont even take revenge for your own sister because you''re too scared." Madrathmented.

    Hearing this, Shal rushed towards Madrath with her arms swinging wide towards Madrath, ticked off by what Madrath had said.

    Pah!

    Madrath delivered a punch towards Shal''s face, driving it to the ground, nearly crushing her jaw.

    "Shal eliminated."

    Madrath was visibly tired to even lift both of his hands to guard his torso, but even so, the Princess walked towards Gideon Cross, "I give up."

    Hearing this, the instructor ran towards Madrath, lifting his hands, "Winner, Madrath!"

    Madrath smiled, and with his hands lifted up, he could see arge shadow cast upon him, "I guess you''re my student now." Gideon Cross said with his hands crossed, "Keep it up." He continued before walking out of the tent.

    The rest of the students rested as their body was so tired that they couldn''t move. But they couldn''t help but turn to George, who had been lying on the floor ever since he passed the test by a thin margin.

    ''Could it be¡­ the reason he did what he did, was to avoid showing what he was capable of?'' The Empire Prince thought.

    It wasn''t unusual for knights and other fighters to avoid fighting and running away from the majority of fights even though they could win it, and the reason why some of them did that was to avoid people learning too much about their style and finding the weakness in it.

    It was a simr method to how one of the world''s greatest chess grandmasters, Bobby Fischer, maintained his championship status. And that was he didn''t spend time ying chess against anyone who challenged him but only fought in bigpetitions to avoid too many of his tricks being exposed.

    The rest of the other students thought the same, misunderstanding everything George did.

    #

    "So what do you think?" Mason asked as he and Donovan strolled right behind Gideon.

    "I can see why they might be targets. Among them, you have the Prince of the Empire. And the rest of them are among nobleties and royals. And even the ones that are not are undoubtedly talented. Although I am not sure about the guy named George."

    Mason stopped to turn back and stare and the tent; even though George presented himself with a strong aura, his movements when fighting looked too in, as if he had never practiced a single martial art in his life.

    But when George was rxing, he suddenly turned from a person who didn''t know anything about martial art to a seasoned veteran.

    "Something is strange about him¡­" Mason whispered to himself as he raised his copy of the protected student''s list before marking George''s name with a red pencil,

    #

    Georgeid his head on the door in one of the ss-C Residence Halls while searching his pocket for the key given to him by the instructor.

    He took out the bronze key, which had the logo of the academy embedded in it, before putting it in the keyhole, turning it, and opening the door.

    As the door opened, he dropped on his shoulders,nding on the floor, and using his legs, he kicked the door close while holding his broken ribs.

    He might have looked fine from the outside, but underneath the illusion that the Persona Ring offered, his face was pale white, with his lips covered with blood.

    All of the injuries that he sustained were the result of slightly getting hit by the other students, even Bryne, who was supposed to be the weakest in the group, was far stronger than he was.

    If George were to receive even a punch from one of the Barbarians, he would have surely died.

    He took all theyers of his shirt while looking at the mirror, ''Oh God¡­.'' He saw purple bruises on his skin. ''Internal bleeding¡­'' He thought. He knew that this wasn''t something that could be healed with a bandage.

    If he rested, his body might heal itself¡­ In a few months. It was time that he didn''t have.

    He looked at the bed, it was thin, probably not the best for recovery, but it was still something, and a bed was certainly better than no bed.

    As soon as he neared it, his body was swallowed into it; the thin bed, thanks to his strained body, felt like the best bed in the world.

    And quickly, his mind drifted into a distant pass.

 Chapter 21: Potion

    <h4>Chapter 21: Potion</h4>

    A young Lyle shared with George popcorns while the crowd waited in anticipation for the performance of probably their lifetime.

    "Ladies and gentlemen." A professional and deep-sounding voice echoed throughout the stadium, "Wee to thest show of the night, presenting, the greatest magician of all time, the wizard from far far away, the Great Wizard, O.D Sterling!!!"

    A light was shined in the dark sky, projecting it right above the recently rebuilt Big Ben, aka Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster.

    The audience in the stadium had to squint if they wanted to have a good look at what the light was projecting, but the screen that was in the middle of the stadium presented it in a cinematic fashion, with pping their hands gently after seeing O.D Sterling levitating above the tower.

    O.D. Sterling lifted his face into the dark sky and closed his eyes before the screen zoomed in on one of his fingers, just like how he requested.

    He then took a breath before staring at his finger, taking a moment before snapping it; theBig Ben was then covered with me at a great speed.

    The fire then crawled up his pants before burning him.

    Among the audience, nobody was worried for him as he had done this trick many times, and so they pped, thinking that the trick was over. However, he raised his hands before the illusion of fire jumped out of his hands and reached for the sky.

    And as it touched the clouds, fire instantly filled the sky, burning all of the clouds that it came in contact with. In 1 minute, the entirety of London had been covered by the illusion of fire; in two, Europe, and in three, the entire world.

    At that moment in time, the world looked more like the sun, burning.

    Everyone on the, in all of the continents and in all of the world, could lift their heads and see the sky covered with fire; if they squinted, they might have also seen a Phoenix flying through it.

    Oddly enough, they could feel themself warmer from the heat, which made the trick slightly scary to some.

    The President of the United States sat right in front of the screen, with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Derek standing beside him.

    The President smiled, leaning into the General to whisper, "So, how much did it cost to do all of this trick?"

    The General shook his head, shrugging. "I don''t know, Mr. President.. I dont think he used any."

    The President turned in shock to the General, "Then¡­ How?" He asked; he couldn''t believe that one man was truly capable of such a trick if they didn''t use any of the money that was in the United States Reserve.

    "I don''t know. He told me this. No matter what, a great magician NEVER reveals his secret."

    The President slowly turned, facing the screen in the stadium, more shocked by that fact than by the trick alone.

    The screen zoomed back into his finger, which he snapped. The fire that had spread all across the sky in the globe looked as if it was being sucked back into a vortex in his finger; Sterling acted in pain as thest of the fire was sucked back into his finger.

    And the light that was projected on him was turned off.

    Knock. Knock. Knock.

    George woke up from his dream. His fever had worsened, and the pain that was present in his ribs was greater.

    As he forced himself back up from the bed, he could see that his skin was even more pale, ''I got to get myself tanned,'' He joked to himself, trying to keep himself in a light spirit.

    He walked slowly towards the door and could see a box-like shadow right under the line of the door.

    As he opened the door, he could see a box in front of it with his name on it.

    He quickly kicked it inside his room; he had not much energy left inside his body to bend down and pick it up.

    Closing the door, he sat down on the floor before opening the box, with his finger shaking as he was doing it.

    As he unwrapped the contents of the box, he saw only two items inside, a letter and a bottle.

    The letter read, "I''m writing this letter in a rush so I cant say a lot here, but, I know that you might have been hurt, the contents of the bottle will fix that. Now, for the important part, Oztanfil promised the Seraphina that he can do a speech in a few days time, and as far as everyone knows, the Great Wizard is a man of his word, so do that, okay?" Michael''s writing ended there.

    But George couldn''t wait and quickly drank the water in the bottle; as the liquid flowed through his throat, he could feel a sweet and cold sensation tingling it.

    And in a few seconds, the bottle was emptied.

    His pale skin returned to normal, his body had its normal energy levels back, and the pain that was lingering in his ribs turned warm and was no more.

    "What the heck is this thing?" George looked through the bottle. It reminded him of one of the drinks that was still in its research and development phase back on earth, it was a drink that apany imed would heal most illnesses, but this drink was greater than it!

    He stood up, opening his shirt before looking at himself in the mirror. Not even a bruise on his body; he waspletely healed.

    ''Now that this problem is over, what''s next?'' He read the letter once more, seeing that he has to pretend to be Oz inside of the academy.

    He then yawned once more; despite sleeping already, he felt tired, as if he had done days'' worth of work, and his body fell onto the bed once more.

 Chapter 22: Rumors Create Idiots

    <h4>Chapter 22: Rumors Create Idiots</h4>

    The academy is divided into two sectors.

    The magic sector.

    And the non-magic sector.

    And these sectors are divided into the student years depending on which semester they have taken.

    And each semester, these students are divided into three sses:

    ss C is the lowest ss in all of the academies and reserved for the least talented and for theziest. But, even they would far surpass the other sses in the other private academy.

    ss-B, it is a ss that has a lot of students who have strong potential, and they start receiving more opportunities like diluted strength elixir and others. Their instructors are also much more skilled and better at teaching than the ones in ss C.

    Now, ss-A is much more different than the students in B; they get better elixirs and the best instructor that money can buy.

    Nearly every graduate from ss-A has gotten into high positions, and the lowest among them end up as high-paying guards for nobles and royalties.

    George, having defended from the top ten students among the semester non-magic prospects, barely passed to stay in the academy, and even though he managed to pass in an impressive fashion, it wasn''t enough to make it to ss-A or even B, but C.

    "I heard that George Sterling will being to this ss."

    "You would think that someone who has done what he did would be epted in a higher ss."

    Many who were in ss-C''s newest semester couldn''t sit without hearing of the name "George Sterling," as the students who peaked into the tent had spread rumors about him.

    "Hey, Peyton! What do you think of this guy?" One of the students asked.

    Peyton ss looked annoyed, he had managed to pass the test, but it wasn''t in the way that he expected; due to a slight mistake in the test, he cedst, nearly failing. "The guy from the rumor? He''s probably nothing special, from what I''ve heard, the only thing that he did was run away from them. Sure he did it against those great guys, but anyone can run."

    Not expecting such a boring answer, they nodded and continued talking about the rumor.

    George had just entered the ss, but even from stepping one foot inside, he could already hear his name spread around.

    But none of them recognized him, even though they uttered his name; most of the people who were spreading the rumor were the senior students, and only the 9 students who he fought against knew what he looked like.

    Taking a seat at the only empty chair, he saw a scrawny kid squinting while his face was up close to his books.

    George didn''t have to get close to see his name on the book.

    The kid felt the stare and turned towards George, "Oh, I''m Jame."

    "James?"

    "No, it''s just Jame."

    "Okay¡­" George replied, finding it weird that someone would be named James but without the S.

    "I am writing a rumor report for the Rumor Club which I''m gonna request the academy to make the club official."

    "Ah¡­" George replied, not interested in what Jame was saying, but Jame continued.

    "I''ve heard that this new guy¡­ He purposefully avoided fighting them to not show how strong he really is¡­ He ran strategically attacking everyone with great precision they said."

    ''Huh?'' George thought; he couldn''t imagine that anyone would phrase what he did like that.

    "I''ve heard that he was using a martial art that no one has ever seen before."

    ''That''s because I didnt use any martial arts.''

    "And then after making enemies with everyone one of them. He gathered them together before attacking them, but he only got one. But it seems that he got tired, and to avoid straining himself he gave up, or so they said. I am still finding the truth. We dont know what he could be hiding. Although I hea-" Before Jame could continue talking about his rumors about George to the man himself, the instructor walked in.

    Her eye bags looked dark, and it was fairly obvious she wasn''t getting the sleep that she needed. "Please take a seat." She said, making it known to every student that she wasn''t very happy about being there to teach them.

    "I will be taking the attendance, please note that if you do not attend each and every ss without notifying us, you will be kicked out. Now let''s start with Adna." She then named every student, and if they were present, they would raise their hands.

    Every student in the ss was present; just getting into the academy was hard enough, and they weren''t going to ruin it by skipping a ss.

    "George Sterling." She said, waiting for someone to raise their hands.

    But many waited just like her wanting to know who this rumor student was.

    Jame waited in anticipation, rubbing his hands together, before he saw the instructor looking beside him and taking notes.

    As he turned to his side, he saw George putting down the hands that he had raised. "Cool!" Jame whispered to himself before he recorded the incident in his notebook.

    The rest of the students stared at him, not impressed with his look.

    From what the rumors said about him, they were expecting him to look stronger; some wanted him to look more menacing.

    But all they could see was a normal youth who looked weaker than everyone here.

    Peyton didn''t expect what he said to be true. While everyone was talking about how great George was, he was underestimating him from theck of evidence that the rumor provided.

    He crossed his hands, with a smug on his face, "I guess was right after all¡­ He isnt anything special."

    But his smug didn''tst as he could still hear some talking things like:

    "He is probably trying to hide the fact that he is strong."

    "He probably doesnt want any attention."

    "He might be the strongest in this ss."

    Peyton couldn''t help but scratch his head, ''How are everyone in this ss fools!??''

 Chapter 23: Basic Warfare

    <h4>Chapter 23: Basic Warfare</h4>

    Donovan stood in the hallway, hearing the lecturer of ss C teaching a chapter on the basics of warfare.

    Hearing all of those boring subject talks made him want to sleep as he had to work his head off just to learn a single page worth of the subject when he was a student in the academy.

    Him being naturally dumb didn''t help either.

    "Anything?" Mason Wolfe asked, walking from the side of the hallway where ss B and ss A were located; each of the sses was ced far away from each other, and it showed on Mason''s sweaty clothes.

    "No¡­ The kid is quiet, I mean look at him." Donovan pointed at George, who was focusing on every word the instructor was saying and taking notes without even leaving his attention for a second. "The kid would be considered a nerd by my calctions."

    Mason looked slightly confused, "I can see that he is a nerd, but I don''t know about you calcting anything."

    Slightly offended about the soft insult, Donovan replied, "Hey¡­ Sigh, anyways, what about you? What about those other kids?"

    "Nothing to worry about them, they are strong. I can''t really see anything suspicious, but we have a whole 4 years of making sure that they stay safe." Mason said.

    The both of them then walked back to the ss-B section of the hallway to make sure that the listed students in that ss were still safe.

    Little did they know, there was an eye that wasn''t paying attention to the instructor.

    Peyton had beenobserving the two Emerald City guards from a distance. Wondering why they have been pointing and staring at George Sterlinguard for a full minute.

    The other students couldn''t care less as they just thought that the Emerald City Guards were doing their random inspections on government property as they usually do.

    Although this was a known fact, Peyton couldn''t help but wonder why instead of doing their inspection, they would talk about George, ''Perhaps there is something that I am not getting¡­.'' He thought before focusing back on the ss.

    An hour of the lecture went by, and the students inside knew that they were not getting as great a lessonpared to ones in the higher ss, but the books that they were using were essentially the same.

    And so if they focused, they might be able to be better than the 10 worst students of ss B.

    "That''s it for today''s lecture on Basic Warfare. Pleaseplete all of the assignments given to you¡­ And prepare yourself because by the end of the month there will be the monthlypetition where all of you will be fighting each other to go up in ss¡­" She said before exiting the ssroom, looking as if she was about to pass out.

    The ears of the students tingled as they heard the opportunity to ce in a higher ss.

    It would, in fact, be a massive opportunity for all of them.

    Well, almost all of them.

    All of them, except George.

    The only reason why he was able to pass the test was that he was able to run for five minutes straight and buy time for himself.

    Thispetition will have the students in a ss Ranked Fight, where the top ten students in ss-C will be able to get swapped with 10 of the worst students in ss-B.

    This also means that George will have to fight against the best this ss has to offer to even get into ss B.

    ''Considering the attention I am getting¡­ I need this¡­'' He thought before looking beside him at Jame beside him, who was packing his bags to get back to his room.

    "Hey James."

    "It''s Jame." He said while still maintaining a smile. He had been used to people calling him James for a long time.

    "Yeah, does this academy have a gym?" He asked. He wondered if anyone knew anything about the academy. It would be someone addicted to information and rumors regarding the academy, like Jame himself.

    "I do, and I was actually going to go there to test some stuff before I get ready for the night lecture. Would you like to follow me?" He asked.

    "Lead the way then." George replied, ignoring the stares that were directed towards him.

    The amount of stares that he received decreased in half. However, he wasn''tining, as fewer eyes on him would be better for him anyways.

    #

    As the both of them entered the gym, George felt himself in a different gym environment than the one he expected.

    He wasn''t expecting any machines, but all the gym had was a few rice bags hanging from the ceiling, and some stones, carved smooth enough to be carried.

    He couldn''t believe what he was seeing and turned towards Jame, expecting to see a disappointed reaction from him, but Jame looked satisfied. "The best money can buy." Hemented.

    "The best money can buy??" George nearly shouted but controlled his voice seeing that he wasn''t the only one in the gym.

    "Uh, yeah?" Jame replied, confused about George''s strange reaction.

    "Hold on, you are serious? Like, what makes the gym equipment the best money can buy?"

    Jame pointed to the smooth stone. "Those stone are carved to perfectly fit our hands to carry and those sandbags have been woven with the best material to not cut our hands from punching the bag too much."

    George bit his lips in frustration.

    He had already written a whole workout n for himself in a notebook, using everything that he knew when he learned Advanced Athletic Bodybuilding from his P.E. lessons back in high school.

    "If only they had proper dumbbells, just a dumbbell would be enough¡­" He whispered to himself before scribbling his workout n and changing it to non-weighted calisthenics workouts.

    He then turned to the exit before Jame turned to him, "Wait are you leaving already?"

    "Yeah, I kinda need to get something to boost my energy before exercising."

    "And what''s that?"

    George turned, smiling, "Anabolic steroids."

 Chapter 24: Strategy

    <h4>Chapter 24: Strategy</h4>

    "Steroids¡­" George had been repeating himself for a full minute to the academy pharmacist.

    He thought if he could find the chemical which would give him the best muscle-building result, it would be here, but despite asking many times, they had yet to hear of steroids.

    "I''m sorry I dont really understand what you want¡­" The pharmacist replied, confused at what George was requesting.

    "Come on, steroids, steh-roids, STEROIDS." George said again before scratching his head, trying to think of something.

    ''Wait, maybe they do have it¡­ Maybe I have to specify which steroid,'' He thought before turning to the pharmacist. "Uhm what about Anadrol?"

    The pharmacist shook her head, "Never heard of it."

    "Oxandrin."

    "What''s that?"

    "Dianobol!"

    "Nope."

    "Winstrol."

    "No."

    "What about testosterone, you guys would have testosterone right?" George tried as it was thest steroid that he could think of. If he wanted to search for more, he had to use Google, something that he didn''t have currently.

    "I''m sorry, I have been a pharmacist for nearly 6 years, and I''ve never heard of anything that you have just said." She said, starting to think that George might be seeing thinks

    George shook his head before walking away from the academy pharmacy back into his room.

    He took out his notebook and started scribbling out the ns that would have only worked if he had used steroids.

    In a month of using steroids, he wouldn''t immediately be as strong as a barbarian, but it will definitely fix his fragile body to the point he wouldn''t break his ribs from a simple graze with the other students.

    But for now, he had to scrap all of that n.

    Taking out a pocket watch, he looked at the time, making sure that he had enough time to do what he wanted before the night lecture started. "Three hours left¡­ Perfect."

    He then ripped out a piece of paper from the notebook and ced it on his table before following the bodyweight workout n on the paper.

    Calisthenic Workout n:

    Pushups(Till Failure)

    Squats(Till Failure)

    Door Pullups(Till Failure)

    Leg Raises(Till Failure)

    His workouts were simple but were still the most effective way of building muscle. The PE lessons back on earth had evolved in ways that just transcended simple, fun sports but also applied the most effective way to build strength and muscles with its theories exined.

    He learned that while working out, you can''t build muscle if all you do is exercise with light weights and repeat it with small intensity.

    The human body relies on intensity to grow, which is part of the basic function of our body, and when it realizes it can''t do something as effectively as it should, it fixes itself to be better.

    And the only way that your body will realize this is when you fail at a certain activity, such as when you do a certain exercise like a pushup, but no matter how hard you try, you can''t get to the 20th pushup after you fail it, and with proper rest, your body will do anything it can using the protein in your body to repair itself, and it turns to make it stronger.

    And so George started exercising in his room with nothing but his own body weight till failure.

    For pushups, he managed to get to 32 before failing to get to 33. For squats, he managed to get to 108 before failing.

    For the door pull-ups, he had to open the door and use the top part of the door to hang on to do a pull-up which he only managed to do 5 before failing due to his weak back and the pain it was causing his fingers.

    And for leg raises 21 before failure.

    However, that was all the exercise he could do in a day; the most important aspect of training was not training too hard but resting.

    #

    ''I don''t know if the other students would even visit this ce¡­.'' The librarian thought as she looked at Georgeing back for the second time today.

    Normally students of the academy would only visit the library when they were assigned by their lecturers, but George had gone there two times on day one.

    George, reading one of the books on fighting, titled "How The Weak Win."

    He wasn''t really trying to diss himself there, but that was his only chance of winning.

    He didn''t have the strength to beat anyone really in hand-to-handbat, so he needed everything.

    As he reached the end of the book, the author wrote, "In a battlefield, individual strength is not a major factor of who is the winner, but the better strategist.".

    "Strategy¡­" George whispered to himself; he then listed down in his notebook all of his weaknesses first.

    Weakness:

    Strength

    Fragile

    Power

    He then thought of his strength and pondered on the test he had done with the other nine students.

    Strength:

    Fast

    Agile

    Explosive

    Stamina

    He realized that despite not being strong, the only reason why he was able tost that long was because he was visibly faster than everyone to the point he was able to outrun even the barbarians.

    And in terms of explosiveness, he was able to carry a barbarian while running. So even though his strength was limited, it was certainly enough for him to carry another person.

    ''I need to find a way to use all of the things that I have now into practice¡­.''

    He did try to think of something, but all of it came short as he realized it was already 7:50, which meant he had to get to his lecture.

    ''Guess I''ll have to do this tomorrow then.''

    He stood up before walking through the hallways and noticing there were some seniors carrying the boulders fast with explosiveness before throwing them behind their backs.

    It was a game for them that whoever could throw the boulder farthest won.

    But George saw something else. ''That''s it!''

 Chapter 25: Akshar

    <h4>Chapter 25: Akshar</h4>

    "Alright, that''s it in the first chapter of Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Theory, please make sure to finish all of the work I have assigned to you because next week there will be a practical sparring." Another instructor said.

    He looked slightly stronger than every student in the ss, but his build paled inparison to the other instructors in the higher ss.

    "Oh, and I almost forgot, in two days the Wizard of Oz will be giving a speech in the main hall."

    The entire ss erupted in chatter; most of them couldn''t believe that they would be so lucky to get to listen to a speech by the Wizard himself so early into their education in the academy.

    The average Joe on the streets would never get a chance to even see the ground he touches(or so they thought), and for them to see him is considered a great honor.

    "Would he be teaching us?"

    "Yeah, I think so. Why else would he be giving us a speech?"

    But not everyone was as optimistic as the others.

    "Peyton, what do you think?"

    Peyton opened his eyes, yawning, as he woke up from his sleep. "Oh, what''s that?"

    "We''ve just got news that the Great Wizard will be visiting. What do you think about that?"

    Peyton closed his eyes once more, lying on the chair, "He''d probably just give us some speech to remember and get out. I don''t rmend having too much hope."

    And once again, they didn''t get a satisfactory answer and left him alone, talking amongst themselves.

    "Oh, and please remember, everyone is required to go to the Main Hall and attend his speech, failure to do so will result in an expulsion. " The Instructor said before leaving the room.

    As George heard this, his jaw dropped. ''Wait.''

    Everyone else in the ss didn''t have to worry and were more than happy to leave whatever ns they had behind to attend this speech.

    George, however, sat in his chair, trying to process what he had just heard, ''How am I supposed to attend the speech¡­ WHEN I AM GIVING THE SPEECH!!???''

    ''No¡­ this won''t work, I have to find a way¡­''

    "HAHAHHAHA!" A weirdughter echoed in the ss from the back.

    The back of the ss hall was where most of the silent kids would be sitting, as they didn''t want the attention of the teachers and kept among themselves and their friends,so it was unusual for it to be loud.

    Everyone turned their heads to the back from how loud theughter was.

    The boy looked like a barbarian, but he dressed pretty badly; the barbarians that George encountered looked clean and even wore proper clothing.

    But this kid here looked like he came out right out of The Flintstones.

    "NOW, I FIGHT THE ONE WORTHY OF AKSHAR''S STRENGTH!!" He shouted, referring to Oz.

    "What the heck?" George asked; he didn''t expect that there would be this kind of weirdos in the ss.

    "Ah, it''s just a purist." Jame, beside him, said.

    "Purist?"

    "Yeah, they are barbarians who believe that every hint of modernization is uhh, a bad thing. So they go back to their roots, with how they are dressed, how they fight and how they talk?"

    "So him talking goofy is also a part of being a¡­ purist?"

    "I don''t really know what a goofy means¡­ But yes."

    George shook his head, realizing that a barbarian retard trying to fight him while he was on stage might also be a problem, especially if he lost.

    Gone will be his dream of being wealthy and putting on a facade of a being that is close to God.

    ''Crap, it''s my second day here, why can''t you just let me have a rxed time?''

    "YOU!" Ashkar shouted as he pointed at Peyton, who was still snoozing.

    "Huh?" Peyton woke up, trying to figure out what was happening before he heard steps rushing towards him.

    He jumped out of his seat and got into a fighting stance.

    The purist stopped in his tracks, keeping a smile on his face, "You''re ss number one?"

    Peyton nodded, "For now, before I leave your asses here while I get to the next ss next month."

    "I need a WARMUP before I fight HIM." Akshar said as his eyes turned sharper.

    Without any warning, the barbarian rushed forwards, trying to swing a wide uppercut.

    But with an uppercut like that, Peyton saw through the move and took a step back before responding to the move with a kick to the sr plexus.

    "OOOF!" He made a loud grunt as he felt the kick. But just like every barbarian, their pain resistance was high, allowing him to rush forward again before grabbing Peyton''s body.

    Peyton tried to break the grab by using two of his hands, but all of his efforts were void.

    The barbarian''s strength exceeded his strength by twofold.

    He was then thrown on a table which broke when his body touched it, "Ah!" He then got up while holding onto his back, trying to make sure that it was not broken.

    The barbarian rushed once more, but this time, he was met with a chair smashing his nose.

    His body stood still as his eyes looked up.

    Peyton walked towards the unmoving body and pushed the barbarian a little before the body fell down its back.

    Peyton then walked over to him. Seeing that he was still alive, there was no reason to call the medics.

    The barbarians had near superhuman regenerative ability; even if they had a bone broken in them, as long as they rested for a full week, they would be able to heal up nearly immediately.

    However, Peyton stopped and looked behind and saw Akshar standing up as if nothing ever happened to him.

    "You''re too STRONG to be WARM UP," He said to Peyton before turning to George, "YOU."

    George felt the stare from the barbarian stabbed through his soul, and with every step Akshar took towards him, it felt harder to pretend to be confident and maintain the facade.

    The barbarian smiled as he stood face to face with George, "You''re STRONG, I hear." Hemented before tightening his fist.

    George took a step preparing to sprint towards the door before Peyton shouted, "Hey! No warmup for you!!"

 Chapter 26: Donovan!

    <h4>Chapter 26: Donovan!</h4>

    Akshar turned, "WHAT?"

    "The heck are you staring at me? You got your ass beaten by me and now you''re going to try to get your ass beaten by him too? Get outta here!" Peyton shouted.

    Akshar chuckled before turning back to George.

    "Hey, I''m talking to you! Don''t think of us as warmups so you can go try your luck against Oz if you can''t even stand toe to toe against us. Freaking piece of crap." Peyton continued.

    The barbarian sighed and nodded slightly before drawing closer to George''s face, "I FIGHT YOU IN SPAR NEXT WEEK."

    "Sure." George replied and nodded with facade confidence.

    Seeing that the barbarian was done, Peyton exited the ss, followed by the purist, whose face turned sour from the loss.

    George sat back down, trying to regain the energy that he used from just standing in front of the barbarian.

    Being scared was enough to make one''s energy depleted, and George felt that. "Whoo¡­"

    He quickly started thinking of ways he could mitigate this situation before Jame tapped him, waking him up from his worry. "Yeah?"

    "Uh, would you be okay answering some questions regarding the rumors surrounding you?"

    George couldn''t hear the question correctly and still had a lot of thoughts in his mind, but he answered nheless, "Sure."

    ''No, I can''t think of those small problems now, I have bigger problems on hand¡­'' He thought while trying to figure out how he could do the speech while trying to remain in ss.

    Jame was still shuffling through his bags to find for his notebook to record the conversation that they were going to have.

    As he took it out and turned towards where George was, he became puzzled as he was nowhere to be seen. "George?"

    He quickly looked around the ss only to see some of the hardcore nerds studying too much.

    He quickly dashed out of the door while holding his notebook and pen, looking left and right in the hallway.

    He had to squint at the very left side of the hallway and could make out George''s back, ''I can''t dy this anymore,'' he thought before running towards George''s direction.

    George ran as fast as he could; his eyes sat on the instructor who was walking tiredly to his office.

    "Sir!" His voice echoed through the hallway.

    "Yes?" The instructor turned towards George, looking slightly annoyed.

    "Sir, I would like to be exempted from the speech."

    The instructor''s eyes widened as he heard those wordse out from a student that had just recently been epted to the academy, "Kid, do you know how big this opportunity is?"

    "Yes, I kno-" George was immediately interrupted by the instructor, whose face turned red in an instant.

    "No, I don''t think you know. Because if you did, you wouldn''t be uttering those words. Do you even know who Oz is? People would kill to meet him, and I am actually serious. So are you telling me, you are willing to let go of some small reason to see and hear from someone that people are willing to kill to meet?" The instructor said as his face got only redder.

    "I do, really! It''s just that-" George tried exining but got cut off once more.

    "If you do, then do me the favor and never speak to me about this matter again, because then, I will not only shout at you here, I will expel you from this school and you will never see the light of day again."

    George took a step back, as he wasn''t expecting that kind of response from him.

    "Uhm, the reason why I was asking, is because I know Sir Michael¡­" George said. He knew that the instructor wouldn''t let him respond with any other kind of exnation, so this was his only choice.

    "What?" The instructor asked, still couldn''t believe what George had just said, "Kid you must have a talent of shocking and pissing off people, because you have done that to me, twice, in a single conversation."

    "Sir, I''m not trying to." George replied, still not understanding why the instructor was talking in this way.

    "I''m going to pretend that I didn''t hear the second thing you said to me, because if I report this to the Emerald City guards, you would go to jail, immediately."

    "Sir, I assure you, that I have not utter a single lie yet."

    The instructor shook his head before pacing back and forth, "You brought this upon yourself, I am going to report this to an Emerald City guard right now¡­" He gritted his teeth.

    "Don''t need to, I heard everything¡­"

    Both George and the instructor turned to the voice.

    George recognized the face, "Ah, Ma-" He stopped himself from uttering the name, pretending that never happened.

    "So, you know Sir Michael?"

    George nodded, "Yes sir, I do." He sighed, annoyed that this situation had been worse than it should be.

    "If we find out that you are lying, you will have to spend a whole year in jail. Not because you im to know him, but because you im to know him in order to get what you want."

    "Yes sir¡­ I know that."

    "So, do you still know Sir Michael?" Mason asked once more.

    "Yes sir, and I would still like to be exempted from attending the speech, because Sir Michael told me not to."

    Mason tried to reason with the idea but couldn''t process in his mind why Michael would say that and so he asked, "And why is that?"

    "I plead the fifth."

    "Huh?"

    "No, uhh, I mean it is private information."

    Mason sighed and nodded before turning behind him, "Donovan!"

    He waited for Donovan to turn up, but even after half a minute of waiting, his partner had yet to arrive.

    He quickly turned to both of them, looking slightly ashamed, "I will get him, just wait here¡­"

    He then walked towards the left part of the hallway, where he could see Donovan looking at the ceiling.

    "Donovan¡­" He called but received no response.

    "Donovan¡­" And still no response.

    "DONOVAN!"

 Chapter 27: Donovan! Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 27: Donovan! Part 2</h4>

    "Oh, uh, what?" Donovan looked around, waking up from his deep daydream before staring at Mason''s angered face.

    "Come on¡­" Mason said, walking back to where the two were; he didn''t have the energy to shout at Donovan; he wasn''t the kind of guy to nag.

    "Where are you going?"

    "Sigh, just follow me."

    As they reached where the instructor and George were, Mason stopped turning to Donovan, "This kid here ims to know Michael personally, and he wants to get a leave from attending the Great Wizard''s speech. Confirm with Sir Michael if what this kid ims is true."

    Donovan turned, looking at George, a familiar face from the list, "Sure." He walked away, exiting the building, leaving the three men alone.

    "So, uhh, what are we going to do while he does that?" The instructor asked, breaking the short awkward silence from going any longer.

    "We''ll wait at your office. Is that fine with you?" Mason asked.

    The instructor nodded, "Uhm, it''s a bit messy but if it is fine with both of you then sure."

    "Yeah, that sounds good." George replied.

    #

    Donovan rode his horse as fast as he could toward the Emerald City Castle. The horse was going at a speed where he was starting to shake uncontrobly to the point that if he were to make one mistake, a big ident would ur.

    The horse stopped right in front of the big green gates of the castle, where two guards guarded, "Halt! Let us see some ID." They shouted; they couldn''t tell who was riding the horse, but as they got closer, they could see that it was Donovan, a known face among the Emerald City guards.

    "Ay, Donovan! What are you doing here?" One of them asked.

    "I can''t talk for too long, I need to meet Sir Michael."

    The both of them looked at each other before turning towards him, "Well, I''m sorry, but Sir Michael is not here currently¡­"

    "Then where is he?"

    "Sir Michael has gone to one of the nobles house, shouldn''t be far from here. Here I''ll write you the address." The guard said, writing the address on paper before handing it over.

    "Thanks." Donovan replied before he rode following the address.

    He stopped at one of the rich neighborhoods of the city, but unlike the castle, it wasn''t green but made of normal materials. The only thing that was green about the ce was the leaves and the green stone on the roads.

    He then got off his horse before tying it to the small gate protecting the house.

    The private guards that were guarding the house didn''t dare question an Emerald City guard like Donovan, but there was another Emerald City guard to do just that for them.

    He walked up to Donovan, "Donovan, why are you here."

    "Mason Wolfe ordered me to be here. He wants me to ask Sir Michael something very important."

    Hearing the name Mason Wolfe, the guard nodded, "I''ll have to ask Sir Michael before letting you in."

    "Sure." Donovan waited at the gate while the guard entered therge noble''s property.

    The ce wasn''t like how it was portrayed from the outside.

    While it may look neat and fabulous from the outside, the inside was messy.

    Michael stood up, standing on his chair, "I told you Senator, I can''t have you building a statue of a beaver made out of gold! I can''t even believe that I am having this conversation with you right now!"

    "Why not? The people love beavers." The Senator replied, his face looking disappointed at Michael''s answer.

    "So no beavers?"

    "NO!" Michael shouted as he got down.

    "Sir," The guard called Michael as he entered the room.

    "What is it now?" Michael responded before heading towards the door.

    "One of the Emerald City aguards wants to meet you. His name is Donovan."

    Michael stopped trying to remember the names and nodded, "Yeah I''ll meet him outside, I''m done here anyways."

    "And sir, the bank send you a letter, it seems important."

    Michael took the letter, "They didn''t even send it to the castle?"

    "Yes, sir."

    Michael then pocketed the letter, "I''ll read this letterter, lead the way."

    Michael then exited the building following the guard meeting Donovan, standing outside.

    "Sir Michael, I don''t want to waste your time; it''s just that there is a kid who ims to know you in the academy."

    "And who is this kid?" Michael asked with one brow raised.

    "He is one of the kids from the list, uhh George is his name."

    Michael sighed, "Yeah I know the kid, why?"

    "He wants a leave from attending the speech which the great wizard will be giving."

    Michael''s eyes widened, ''This n could have gone very badly!'' He thought, nodding at Donovan, "Yeah, dont worry, he is with me, give him a proper leave."

    Donovan was expecting Sir Michael to deny knowing George personally, but this changed a lot of things.

    ''Could everyone in the list know Sir Michael personally?'' He thought, "Thank you sir. I''ll have to get going."

    #

    George, Mason and the Instructor waited in the office for Donovan.

    Mason turned to look at both individuals; both o them looked confident. Although, if he were, to be honest, the argument against George seemed more likely.

    Why would a kid from a fallen noble family be in contact with the friend of the Great Wizard himself?

    ''This kid is definitely full of bull¡­'' The instructor thought. But as he looked at George''s confident sharp eyes, something in his heart changed for a split second.

    "I''m back!" Donovan said as he entered the room. "Seems Michael actually knows this kid."

    "No way." The instructor replied before turning to George.

    Mason sighed, "Well, guess I will have to request a leave of absence from the headmaster for you now¡­"

    "I guess."

    "But how? And why would he know Sir Michael?" The instructor asked.

    But his question was left ignored.

    Foo!

    They heard swift steps leaving the exit of the room, taking their attention from the conversation and turning toward it, "Must be some kid running through the hallways¡­" George replied.

    "Yes!" Jame whispered to himself as he stared at his notebook where he recorded the conversation, running away as fast as he could.

 Chapter 28: Quiet

    <h4>Chapter 28: Quiet</h4>

    The staff of the academy has been working day and night to prepare and polish the whole academy for the event.

    Every single hallway was filled with at least one of them trying to clean every single molecule of dust.

    The cleaners, the instructors and the second year and third year students were all getting ready for something that they could do.

    Every one of them, except for the new first year students who had just entered their semester, had something to do.

    All the first year students had to do was sit and listen.

    The students of ss-C stood in their ss quietly, as was instructed by Headmaster Gideon, for the instructor to make sure that everyone in the ss was trained the day before the speech was delivered to be quiet.

    Everyone had their eyes on Akshar since he had messed them up many times, causing them to have to repeat the practice of keeping their mouths shut.

    The worst part was they could get away with small whispers, but Akshar would justugh at random moments for no reason causing everyone to lose their focus.

    Everyone looked at the timer that the instructor had on his stopwatch and waited while keeping another eye on the purist barbarian.

    His eyes have been swollen from getting beaten up by Peyton, who wanted all of it to end, so he was forced to seal his mouth shut.

    3¡­

    2¡­

    1¡­

    Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Akshar finally ran around the ss screaming from holding it in for far too long.

    They didn''tin much as they knew that it would be eventually worth it.

    Most of them tried hard to contain their excitement in ss, but those who couldn''t start talking amongst themselves about it:

    "I hope tomorrow I will get a chance to talk to him."

    "No chance, you know the kind of people he talks to, right?"

    "I mean it''s still worth a try."

    "Don''t shame this ss please. The barbarian might do that for us tomorrow, we don''t need another clown."

    "Guess you''re right."

    One student raised his hands, looking around, before getting the attention of the instructor.

    "Sir! I''ve just realized that one guy is not present."

    The instructor nodded, "He got a leave so it''s all okay."

    They couldn''t process how George could have managed to get a leave from such an important event.

    As far as they knew, George didn''t have many connections as his ''parents'' had died.

    However, there were also a small minority of students who nodded as if they already knew what was going on.

    Jame had sold the information to a few students who he had contact with. It was a pretty decent business, although there is normally a lot of crime involved in it when the business got too big.

    "Hey, Peyton¡­" The kid who was beside him said. Peyton didn''t know who he was or what his name was. From day one, the kid acted as if both of them were friends.

    "You know, I heard some pretty interesting information¡­ I know why George is not here, I also know why George got the leave."

    Peyton raised his eyebrow, intrigued. It had only been a few days, but the name ''George Sterlinguard'' had be a very mysterious name.

    "So, what''s this information?"

    "I can''t tell you exactly what, because of a certain agreement, but, I can tell you where you could get this information." He replied.

    Peyton shook his head once more, "Sure, tell me."

    "Look at the seat beside where George is supposed to be sitting." He pointed.

    "Yeah?"

    "Right beside him there is this one guy, his name is Jame."

    "Jame? Not James?"

    "Yeah, it''s weird, but he is one of the guys that loves finding and researching rumors and would often sell rumors that they confirm to be true."

    "And¡­ how can you confirm that it is true?"

    "It''s a family thing¡­ His family is into selling information like him."

    "Alright¡­" Peyton stood up before heading towards where Jame was sitting, still writing notes on his rumor.

    As he got closer, he could see that the scribbles on the note were very messy, but the separate notes that he had prepared for his assignment were undeniably much more neat than the ones in which he wrote his rumors.

    ''He purposely makes it messy to avoid people from getting free information¡­ Interesting.''

    "Hey."

    "Yeah?" Jame asked, lifting his head.

    "I want to buy some information."

    "Sure. Which one?"

    "The one regarding the guy who is supposed to be sitting beside you."

    Jame took a piece of paper and neatly wrote the information on it before handing it to him. "That would be 1 silver shilling."

    "Yeah yeah¡­" Peyton produced a coin from his side pocket and threw it toward Jame.

    Jame''s eyes brightened, "This is a gold coin!"

    "Keep it, give me information in the future if you get any about him."

    "I''ll give you all the information I get for the next three months for sure!" Jame smiled as he kept the gold coins safe in a secret pocket.

    Peyton quickly looked at the contents of the paper, ''So he has some connections with the Emerald City castle, huh¡­ Interesting¡­''

    He quickly tore the paper to pieces before leaving the ss, satisfied with what he had just gotten, while Jame was smiling brighter than the sun from how much he had just earned in a day.

    "Hey!" A loud voice caused him to turn at the empty seat beside him.

    "Akshar?" Jame moved his chair backward, startled by how close the barbarian was seated near him.

    "I hear you have INFORMATION." The barbarian ced a silver coin and pushed it towards him, "Give me what you gave him."

    Jame quickly pocketed the silver shilling and kept it with his gold coin.

    "Here." He handed a piece of paper containing the same information that he handed to Peyton.

    "I can''t READ¡­ READ IT TO ME¡­"

    Jame sighed, "Fine, George has connections with Sir Michael and was seen¡­"

 Chapter 29: Stalk

    <h4>Chapter 29: Stalk</h4>

    Horses and carriages filled the outskirts of the academy, all of them carrying the heavy color green and the Emerald Castle emblem on everything that they had.

    The Emerald City guards started to exit out of their carriages and horses, immediately checking the gates for safety.

    Entering the parameters carefully, checking any possible threats.

    Their number of steps was enough to make the whole academy rumble, but due to their extensive training, their steps were as light as a feather, making only slight noises.

    "A full war-like search eh?" Gideon looked down from his window as he could see the Emerald City guards barging into buildings.

    They had been given all authority to do so by Sir Michael, and even if it might disturb someone, there was nothing they could do butply.

    Seraphina sighed, "They do that every year and yet you say the same thing when they search the academy."

    "Sorry for being repetitive but I only do it once every year."

    Knock¡­ Knock¡­ Knock¡­

    They heard a knock on the door, and before Gideon could walk towards to open it, Seraphina waved her hand, opening it with ease with her magic.

    "I hope you kept the academy clean, the guards aren''t really fond anything dirty." Mason said as he entered the room.

    "Oh don''t worry, I''ve sent all the staff we have to clean this ce up, it''s probably the cleanest ce in all of Emerald City."

    "Is that right?... Anyways, I''ve just gotta notify you but you will have to write a permit for this kid so he can skip attending the speech tomorrow."

    Gideon''s eyes widened, "What? Why? Why would anyone want to skip on that opportunity?"

    "The kid is supposed to help Sir Michael with something."

    Gideon nodded, shocked that there is a student in the academy who knew Sir Michael "So who is this kid? Is he a Third Year student? Second Year perhaps?"

    "No, it''s a first year student. His name is George Sterlinguard." Mason replied.

    "Oh that kid!" Gideon remembered. His performance, although on record was not great, had left asting impression on him.

    Seraphina turned, noticing that she had heard this name more than any other First Year Student.

    Gideon noticed Seraphina''s look, "You know this kid as well?"

    Seraphina shook her head, "No¡­ I''ve just heard the name before."

    "Ah." Gideon quickly took out his pen and wrote on a piece of paper a written permit before signing it and handing it towards Mason. "Here."

    Mason nodded, exiting the room, and walked across the hallway towards the dorm and towards George''s room, throwing the permit on the floor and sliding it under the door with his legs.

    George turned towards the permit that had juste into his room, quickly getting up from his chair and picking it up and keeping it inside of his pocket.

    He then sat back down on his chair, continuing to write his speech for tomorrow and refining it as best as he could.

    And beside him was his costume which took him the whole morning to prepare. The illusionist machinery inside has been fine-tuned to its best as if it went wrong for even a second; his whole facade could have been blown in a second.

    #

    The next day¡­

    Every other building in the academynd had been emptied with not one soul inside, except for the Emerald City Academy stadium where the students, third Year, second Year, 1st Year, were waiting for the arrival of the Great Wizard of Oz.

    Outside of the gates, the Emerald City guard waited for the green, golden carriage, whose tires were made out of the skin of alligators and snakes, getting driven towards the gate''s main entrance.

    And among the Emerald City guards, two of the Headmasters were there, waiting.

    Three carriages arrived.

    The one in the front waspletely green, and so was the one behind.

    The one in the middle, however, was the carriage that they all had been waiting for. Those carriages stopped before Michael stepped out of them.

    "Thanks for being here Sir Michael." Both Seraphina and Gideon Cross thanked Michael and bent their backs to reach his hands.

    "No problem." Michael relied.

    Both of the headmasters peeked into the carriage, trying to find where the Great Wizard was.

    The Great Wizard had alwayse out of his beloved luxurious carriage every time he arrived at the academy, but there were no signs of him inside today.

    "Uhm, Sir Michael, where is-"

    "The Great Wizard is inside." Michael responded confidently.

    "Yes sir." Gideon replied, not daring to question him.

    "And please tell George Sterlinguard to meet me backstage, it''s very important for one of the performances." Michael continued.

    Gideon nodded once more. "The staff will notify him right away." He said before turning to one of the instructors behind him, "Get George in the stadium, okay?"

    The instructor nodded before running and passing the job to another staff member.

    As the staff ran towards the room, she could see George in normal clothing but with a heavy suitcase in his hand in front of the door. "Please follow me." She ordered.

    George turned quickly behind him, feeling an intense stare behind him, but even with his eyes squinted, he couldn''t see anyone behind him.

    George looked back at the staff and quickly nodded and followed all towards the backstage of the stadium, where some of the other performers were preparing for their show.

    Most of them are performing as fighters or wizards and showcase skills that are rare and hard to find amongst even skilled individuals of the same sectors.

    And that was because the people of the academy found themselves only entertained by fighting and magic of how big the influence of fighting and magic is in their daily lives.

    As he followed her into the room, he could see Michael inside, pretending to tidy his suit, "You can leave us both alone, thank you."

    The staff nodded, not saying a word and left.

    "So, how was everything?"

    "I don''t know I just joined the academy, but it was pretty rough, for my first days¡­"

    Michael nodded, "Alright, you have about an hour to prepare yourself."

    "Great, I''ll get to the restroom. Try to flush everything out so I don''t do it on stage." George replied before walking out of the room.

 Chapter 30: Stalk Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 30: Stalk Part 2</h4>

    He turned once more, looking behind him as he felt a sharp stare behind his back, but once again, he could see no one in the hallway that he was walking in. "Must be the wind¡­"

    He entered the marble restroom; the floor was made out of green jade, and the top out of white marble.

    And although the technology was based on magic, it looked like the restroom of the 21st century. All of its technology was reced with magic, only the aesthetic remained.

    On one of the walls, he could see unfinished work. The piping that was inside the walls has not been covered by the marble tiles with all of the wrenches and equipment to fix it just beside the unfinished area.

    He quickly entered one of the toilets, and as he was finishing up, he could hear a sound from the door outside of the restroom.

    But considering that it could be one of the performers, he ignored it and exited the toilet that he was in.

    Washing his hands, he heard the sounding outside of the restroom again, "What the¡­"

    Pah!

    The door mmed open; George took a step back in shock with his hands still wet, "No¡­"

    Akshar stood outside of the restroom, blocking the only exit. "I change my MIND. We FIGHT now." He cracked his knuckles, walking towards George.

    George took a stance that the Emerald City guards used, causing Akshar to smile, "Good, I need you to be strong."

    George expected his stance to scare him off, but instead, the purist got more excited, "Akshar, do you really want to be humiliated like this? In a toilet?"

    Akshar stretched his neck, still maintaining the smile, "I don''t care about HUMILIATION."

    He, too, then got into his stance, which looked messy.

    ''Shoot, what now?'' George might have known the stance that the Emerald City guards used to fight in hand-to-handbat scenarios, but that was it; beyond that, he didn''t even know how he could throw a proper punch.

    Like lighting, he saw Akshar appear in front of him, punching through George''s stance, causing him to be pushed backwards towards the unfinished area.

    And although he managed to block the punch with his hand, he could still feel the attack affecting his chest, "Puh!" He spat out blood before his whole body copsed onto the unfinished area walls.

    Akshar raised a brow as he saw George on the floor; he looked at his hands before looking at George, "You WEAK¡­ Hahahaha! YOU WEAK!!!" He shouted while walking towards him.

    As he stood in front of George, he bent his legs before flicking George''s head, causing his head to fling backwards, even though the attack wasn''t supposed to do much damage to anyone.

    "Hahahaha!!! You not WEAK¡­ You PATHETIC!" Akshar smiled before standing up and going to the sink to wash his hands.

    George took this time to breathe as he looked at the barbarian''s back, ''I can''t let him tell anyone¡­'' His eyes filled with deep anger, trying to reach for something to hold.

    He then felt a hard metal object, and as he turned, he saw a wrench in his hand.

    He quickly jumped with the wrench, breaking the sink that was nearest to him.

    "Huh?" Akshar turned to the noise, but as he did, a sink flew right to his head. "Ah!!" He shouted as he dropped to the ground; part of his teeth had been shattered by the marble sink.

    His vision turned red as blood was flowing from his head to his eyes, "You DARE? COWARD!"

    He stood up, wiping the blood off his forehead before the same sink that nearly broke his head crashed into him once more.

    His eyes rolled back as his body folded in half, dropping on his back to the ground.

    George drew all the strength that he had and tried carrying the sink, but his hand wouldn''t allow him anymore.

    He quickly turned, picking up the wrench, before he felt a kick to his back, throwing him off bnce and throwing him down the floor once more; the wrench dropped far from his reach.

    "YOU COWARD!! Your TRICKS won''t work on ME!!" Akshar shouted as he stomped the ground George was on.

    George had barely moved to evade the attack, but the blood-filled in Akshar''s eyes managed to blur his vision to miss by that much.

    "Come on¡­ Come on¡­" George whispered as he crawled his way towards the wrench which was just in front of him.

    "I said, your TRICKS won''t work!!!" He shouted, carrying George by his shirt with one hand.

    George shook his own body in hopes that it would cause Akshar to drop him, but the barbarian carried George like a bag.

    With just one hand, George was like a cat trapped in a bag, and Akshar was the owner. No matter how George tried, he couldn''t escape the bag.

    Akshar started swinging George back and forth before,

    CRASH!

    George''s body crashed into the mirrors that were ced just above the sink. "Ahhh!!"

    His body dropped on the sink, and his weight, although light, managed to break the sink.

    Akshar looked above him; he could see the light that was powered by mana, brightening the entire restroom, "Whoo¡­" He breathed in and out before wiping off his bloodied eyes.

    Looking down at George still on top of the broken sink on the floor, he walked towards him, reaching for his shirt as he nned to do what he had done previously.

    TASH!

    "Ah!" Akshar felt pain from a blunt force crashing onto his face once more; as he looked forward, he could see George dropping the sink.

    George had used his body weight to get up and used the momentum he generated to crash the sink into the purist.

    His hand, however, was more strained; he picked up the wrench and rushed towards Akshar, who was still trying to get up and recover from the attack and swung it across his face.

    The barbarian faced up before lying on the ground.

    George continued smashing the wrench into the barbarian.

    He could feel the metal crashing into the flesh and breaking the bone, causing the barbarian''s skin to get blued, "You''re weak!!! Who is the pathetic one now??!!" He shouted.

    But no response came from the barbarian, who was only breathing slightly.

    He stood up, holding his ribs as he reached the door, curling his fist, causing the persona ring to immediately hide his broken self and made him look as if nothing had happened to him.

 Chapter 31: Speech Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 31: Speech Part 1</h4>

    Michael heard a weak and light knock from the door, and from the shadow cast from the thin line underneath it, he could see that George was standing on the other side.

    He walked towards it casually and opened it, seeing that George was standing still before suddenly the illusion created by the persona ring had been disabled. George dropped into the room with his hands holding onto his ribs.

    He felt his ribs might have fallen to the wrong ce in his stomach if he had not held onto it.

    "Oh gosh, what happened to you!" Michael shouted as he tried helping George to stand, but with his small and nimble body, there was nothing he could really do.

    He quickly ran towards his small bag and started searching it, pulling out a health potion bottle simr to the one that he had given to George a few days ago.

    George quickly snatched the potion and snapped the lid off the bottle, George chugged the bottle, and as he nearly drank more than half of the bottle, Michael pulled the bottle away, "What''s wrong with you! You''re only supposed to drink half of it!"

    He raised his brow, "Oh¡­" He remembered the moment when he drank the whole bottle of the health potion after the test. ''Guess I messed up.''

    "Anyways, what happened to you?" Michael asked, wondering how George got into such a situation.

    "There is this kid, in one of the sses¡­ He is targeting me for some reason¡­ The kid is a barbarian purist I heard."

    Michael nodded, "Ah those guys¡­ Sigh, I knew this was a bad idea¡­"

    "What is?"

    "Well, letting everyone know that you have connections with the Emerald City Castle. This was the very thing I tried to avoid¡­ I guess it is inevitable¡­ And you might get attacked for this reason¡­"

    George sighed, shaking his head, "Well, it''s not the end of the world yet¡­ I just need a good reason why I am rted to this whole thing, and if we have some thing that makes sense then, I might take some eyes away from me."

    Michael''s eyes brightened as he thought of an idea, "What if you disguise as Oz and try to pretend that you don''t know who George is?"

    "That would be the best way to make the public even more suspicious of me, and it would also spoil the, Oz knows all narrative, I''ll think of something."

    Michael nodded, "Sure, but are you sure that the barbarian won''t cause you anymore trouble?"

    George rubbed his chin, remembering how fast Akshar could heal himself, "He might be a problem¡­ But I have this just in case." George took a wrench from his pocket, "I''ll be keeping this just in case."

    "And, can I get the rest of the health potion? You know, just in case something like this happen?"

    "Sure¡­" Michael handed the bottle before going to his bag and throwing George another bottle, "Make sure to not use too much, this thing are expensive."

    "How expensive?"

    "5 gold coins is the market price I think?" Michael scratched his furry head, "I''ll make sure to send you a few afterwards."

    "I thought the potions are expensive?"

    Michael sighed, "I own a castle, George."

    "Right¡­"

    The door was knocked, "Sir, everything is prepared¡­"

    Michael nodded, "Well, that''s my cue. How will you be doing your entrance?"

    George took out his notebook and ripped a page from it before handing it to Michael, "That''s how. And when you are reading it, please make sure to make it¡­. Uh¡­"

    "Grandiose?" Michael suggested.

    "Yeah, grandiose."

    #

    Nearly a thousand students were waiting in the stadium, with the two of the headmasters waiting at the front.

    Michael sat right of the two headmasters, and on his left side was an empty chair reserved just for Oz.

    "Where is¡­ Oz?" Seraphina leaned towards Michael as she looked around for the great wizard.

    "He is here¡­" Michael lied while holding the paper in his pocket.

    Hearing this, the two headmasters nodded and waited.

    For an entire hour, the stadium had been filled with the sounds of the performers disying their magic and fighting skills on the stage and receiving ps.

    And although this wasn''t the main purpose why everyone in the stadium was there, it was still high-ss entertainment, as most people would consider, and not something that could be easily passed by.

    The magic and fighting skills had been mixed in withplicated acrobatics and music to enhance the performance, keeping everyone''s eyes glued to the performers.

    As they reached the end of the performance, Seraphina walked up on stage, standing in front of a podium that had a jade-looking tablet on it, "The academy has a great history with students graduating from this very building, bing leaders, professionals and even conquerors. But this very building and institution couldn''t have been made possible if it was not because of the foundation of Emerald City, The Great Wizard himself."

    She walked down, waiting for Oz to appear on stage, but instead, Michael walked up on stage.

    "I don''t remember Oz being a monkey¡­" One of the students whispered.

    "Shoosh! That''s Sir Michael!"

    Many of the students remained confused while the headmaster, that was seated in the front room, didn''t know what to do.

    Michael then took out the piece of paper from his pocket, his eyebrow-raising at the words written on it, but it was toote to think through all of this.

    "Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the Greatest Wizard the world has ever seen¡­ The Greatest Wizard this universe has ever had, the ONE and ONLY Great Wizard of Oz!" Michael screamed at the top of his lungs before the stadium was covered from the top, as requested by him.

    The whole stadium had been filled with darkness, with not one person able to see what was going on; a light, as requested by Michael before the performance started, shined on top of Michael, drawing everyone''s attention to the light.

    The light stopped shining for a second, and as the light shined once more, many of them stood up in shocked, baffled by what they had just witnessed.

    With no mana, the Great Wizard had appeared on the stage in a second.

 Chapter 32: Speech Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 32: Speech Part 2</h4>

    Seraphina stood up before her eyes emanated blue mist around them; this is called "Mana Eyes," a spell magicians used to detect any living being with traces of mana in their body.

    But as she tried detecting Oz, she couldn''t see a single thing; to her "Mana Eyes," nobody was there.

    In this world, every living creature has mana, but George, a being from another world, had none.

    "So, what spell did he use?" Gideon whispered, leaning towards Seraphina.

    Seraphina shook her head, "I am not sure¡­ He can''t be using teleportation since I couldn''t detect any mana¡­"

    ''Huh?'' The answer left Gideon stunned.

    He was expecting that kind of reply from a novice magician, not a high-level witch like Seraphina, who had spent her whole life studying and practicing magic.

    Hearing this kind of answer was the equivalent of a master martial artist being baffled at a martial art move.

    Seraphina was a 7-circle witch; only 1 more circle to reach the 8-circle, which until recently had been known as the highest level of magic before the rumor of Oz reaching godhood had spread.

    And being this powerful, she must have at least known how Oz could have done something like that.

    But she looked as confused as every other magic student from the 1st to the 3rd year students.

    George took slow steps toward the podium; the whole stadium could only hear his steps, making them even louder.

    "I stand here before you today, looking down upon each and everyone of you, those who have talked good to me, and those who curse me." He said before staring at Donovan, who was standing right beside Mason Wolfe.

    Donovan''s eyes open wide as he takes a few steps back; his clothes immediately drench with sweat as his worst fears havee true.

    The rest of the other Emerald City guards saw this as well and froze, knowing in this situation, there was not much they could do for him.

    Mason turned to Donovan, "Look, I will distract him for you for a bit, so while I distract him, you take a run for it."

    Donovan turned to ''Oz,'' who was still staring at him. "Ok." He replied.

    "I''ll distract him in three¡­ two¡­ on-"

    George smiled before continuing his speech, "But, I don''t mind it¡­ I value the opinion of the everyday man, whatever opinions you have about me,l I will dly take it, and try to improve myself¡­ So feel free to make your voices heard." He continued before giving a friendly nod to Donovan.

    Many of the students started whispering amongst themselves, expecting Oz to burn Donovan alive from all of the rumors.

    "I guess rumors are just rumors afterall." One of them said,

    "And now as I look at every single person in this stadium, I could see the next hope for the city, the kingdoms, and for the empire." He said while ncing at the Empire Prince. "But many of you don''t see hope in yourself, many of you see yourself as a ss C student forever, and some of you see yourself as someone who have just got into the academy by luck, but let me tell you, you might not see it, but I see unlimited potential in each and everyone of you."

    "All that it takes is effort and time, Emerald City wasn''t built in a day and the same goes to everyone of you, if you trust in yourselfmitting one hundred percent for every single second you live, I promise you, that you can surpass everything and anything that I have ever achieved."

    The students look at each other, ''Can we really achieve more than him?''

    "I won''t take much of your time, but I will let everyone of you ask me questions, if you think that you are worthy enough to ask me any question, feel free to step out, and ask me, if I do not answer your question, leave."

    George''s ''inspirational'' speech is something none of the students or the headmasters in the academy have ever heard of. And although back on earth, it would be considered mediocre at best, public speaking was something not known to many other than to the con man and the politicians.

    The level of speech that everyone delivered on this was straightforward and to the point, while George mimicked the politicians in the movies, albeit poorly.

    It started with Gideon, but Seraphina started pping, and slowly the whole stadium was filled with ps for the mediocre disy of public speaking.

    George smiled and nodded before gesturing for everyone to stop, "I am waiting for you to ask your questions."

    The students quickly queued up, waiting for their questions to be asked. However, the number of the queue didn''t even reach a hundred although the number of people in the stadium was 10 times that.

    "How do I get stronger?" That was the first question.

    George was mentally scratching his head for answers, but he couldn''t think of any practical answers that he could give the student, "Is that it?" George asked, still thinking of an answer.

    "Yes, Great Wizard."

    "Next." George replied, pretending not to care about his questions.

    The student looked around, as he couldn''t think of what he had done but walked away; the second student walked up, "Akshar wants to FIGHT!" The barbarian shouted as he jumped on top of the stage.

    PENG!

    He felt a hard piece of metal smashing through his face once more. George pulled out the wrench that he hid inside of his pocket and continued smashing the barbarian''s face till he became unconscious¡­ again.

    The Emerald City guards ran and quickly attempted to arrest the barbarian before George raised his hand, "Wait, this kid doesn''t need to go to jail, he needs to stay in the academy so he could learn not be this stupid¡­ and pathetic¡­"

    Akshar regained his consciousness nearly immediately, and the first thing he saw was the Great Wizard staring at him, "Right Akshar?"

 Chapter 33: Speech Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 33: Speech Part 3</h4>

    The Emerald City guards and the academy staff rushed the barbarian to the infirmary, but considering how fast his recovery was, he might not need to stay there for long.

    "NEXT!" George shouted as another student came forward, followed by another.

    There were some students who were asking questions that were beyond his means of answering, tobat this, he ignored their questions as if they weren''t even worth asking.

    George started to sweat as he had been rejecting question after question, but thanks to his ring, he managed to cover all of the sweat and made himself look dry.

    It was a girl''s turn, and looking at her face and her build, she looked like a 3rd-year student, and just from seeing her robe, she was a magician, "Since you are a magician, I think it is only appropriate that I ask you a question about magic, how did you reach godhood?"

    George covered his neck, pretending to massage it, but in reality, he was hiding that he was swallowing his saliva for fear of answering the questions wrongly.

    But through his experience as awyer, he knew how to do one thing and one thing only as best as he could, and that was lying proficiency, "You have to be very careful when asking that kind of question, would you like to know how I managed to get to godhood? Or would you like to know how you can reach godhood?"

    The girl raised her eyebrow, ''What is the difference?'' She thought, but before she could reply, George answered.

    "What''s the difference? That was what you were thinking right?" George asked.

    She quickly covered her head, ''He read my mind!''

    "And yes, I am reading your mind." George replied.

    It might look like he was reading the girl''s mind, but George was simply guessing what she was probably thinking in response to the answers that he gave, a trick that some pranksters use.

    And even if he failed, he could easily pass it off as a joke.

    But as he looked at the expression of the girl, it was clear that his act had been sessful, "It seems that you are not veryfortable that I am reading your mind, I''ll stop." Hemented.

    "Now, as I said, those two questions are very different, because what works for me, will not work for you. It might work for you in the beginning, but when you are getting to the highest level, you will not be able to replicate my sess. So, to answer the question, take your own path, do not follow mine, you might reach godhood if you are willing to put in 100% of effort, the same goes for everyone here."

    Before the girl could follow up on her questions, George blinked at Michael, signaling him before Michael nodded and quickly raised his hands.

    The light source of the stadium had been removed, causing the whole ce to be pitch ck once more, and as the light appeared, pigeons flew from where George was standing, but ''Oz'' was nowhere to be seen.

    When the light was turned off, what George did to mimic disappearing was using the persona ring to cover him in an illusion of a pitch-ck cloth around him, making him blend in with the darkness around him.

    And he quickly ran towards the crowd and hid there.

    The girl looked around, trying to find Oz, but couldn''t, "Great Wizard, I know you are listening to me! Remember my name! Azalea! I will be the first witch to reach godhood, and I will beat you one day!" She shouted.

    #

    Both Goerge and Michael went back into the changing room, "So¡­ anyone suspicious of anything?"

    "No¡­ It seems your mind reading¡­"

    "Tricks. Mind reading tricks."

    "Yeah how do you do that?" Michael asked.

    "Eh, it''s a long story, why don''t you continue what you were about to say."

    "Right¡­ Your trick really worked on them. Did you know it would work that well?"

    "50/50." George replied, still wiping his sweat off. "I need your help, I am seriously weak."

    Michael then looked at George from head to toe, "I can see that¡­"

    "Do you have any steroids?"

    "And is that like something from your world?" Michael questioned, as he hadn''t heard of the word steroids ever.

    "Yeah, it''s uhh, something that would increase my male hormones to speed up muscle recovery and to help me build strength and muscle." George exined.

    "And that means what exactly?"

    "It''s something that would make me stronger faster than just exercising naturally."

    "Ah! Why didn''t you say that? The Herculean elixir can increase your strength, the barbarian''s use it to increase their strength all the time!"

    Awesome, so, like a health potion? I chug it down; I don''t have to inject it in me?"

    Michael nodded, "I''ll give you an anonymous bank ount to buy some for yourself, Oztanfil isn''t using it anymore, so I guess you can have it." He continued before taking out the letter that the bank sent him while he was in the noble''s house.

    As he read it, he covered his face, sighing. "I am sorry, I don''t think I could give you any money."

    "What?" George asked.

    "Oztanfil has just used all of the funds¡­ How on earth did he even use up 10 thousand gold coins!!!" He shouted before throwing the letter down to the floor.

    George didn''t know how much that amount of gold coins was, but he knew that with 10 copper coins, he could buy a nice breakfast, now with the value that gold coin had, it meant that 10 thousand gold coins could far surpass the tens or maybe even a hundred million gold coins.

    "Shoot¡­" George followed Michael and sat down on the hari, trying to think of something.

    "I will try to find Oztanfil, probably send a few Emerald City guards to capture him, say that he is a criminal disguised as you."

    "And¡­ What should I do in the meantime? I am literally with kids who could kill me in a few punches if they wanted."

    "It''s not the end of the world yet. I believe that the academy haspetitions so you could win some of those Herculean elixirs."

 Chapter 34: Sumo?

    <h4>Chapter 34: Sumo?</h4>

    The weekend began, and George walked around the school to find the only ssmate he knew, ''Where the heck is that nerd?'' He thought.

    Every other student was outside the academy to rest or inside to continue their training.

    If he were to go into the gym now, there wouldn''t be enough equipment. The same thing applied even if he went to ss-C''s gym, which had already been packed.

    As he passed the cafeteria, his eyes automatically locked onto a familiar back.

    He walked towards him, and as he got closer, he could see Jame writing something on his note while eating.

    "Hey James!" George patted his back.

    "Jame¡­"

    "Yeah, whatever. I was just wondering if there are anypetitions that have the Herculean elixir as the prize¡­"

    Jame nodded. "Huh? Yeah, it''s thepetition at the end of the month, the number 1 ranking student would not only get to get to a higher ss but they will also be able to get a herculean elixir. But since we are ss-C the potion that we will be getting is a watered down version of it." He exined.

    "So, what about ss-B and A?"

    "ss-B gets a decent quality one, and A they get a high quality version of the elixir¡­"

    George rubbed his chin as he usually does, "And how effective is the watered down potion?"

    "It''s uhm¡­ Okay? You would be able to gain 5 pounds of muscle upon consuming it, while the high quality version will give you about 20¡­ But your body and bones will also be stronger than before so that''s that."

    "Immediately?" George didn''t think that the elixir would be this good, he was expecting something like a steroid to enhance his muscle while working out and make him stronger after a long period of time, but this was far more efficient.

    "Guess, I gotta get first ce then¡­" George quickly got up and left the cafeteria.

    Jame, who had been left alone once more inside the cafeteria, continued writing in his notebook with words that seemed to be gibberish.

    George quickly ran towards the library, whichpared to the other ces in the academy, was nearly empty, with only the librarian inside.

    As he took a step inside, the librarian opened her eyes, ''Huh, he''s here again¡­''

    He didn''t waste any time and quickly shuffled through the books in the library, but so far, he couldn''t find the book that he was finding for, and considering how big the library was, he might not be able to find the book that he is looking even if he were to spend a day here.

    "Are you looking for something?" The librarian asked, walking towards him.

    "Yeah, I was looking for a book which talks about events or activities that this academy might hold, a record book of sorts¡­ I was just trying to figure out what practical sparring really means¡­"

    The librarian nodded; less than a minuteter, she managed to take a book out of the shelf and handed it to him, "Here it is. If you have any books that you would like to search for, just ask. There was a kid who tried finding a book, but it turns out the book doesn''t even exist in the first ce, so please, ask."

    "Thanks." George thanked the librarian before sitting down and started scanning through the book.

    [1st-semester practical sparring, in a situation where the students are not yet in a condition that they are able to hold back their attacks, just like most of the 1st-semester students, the practical sparring will only involve pushing the opponent outside of the drawn circle. And the one that stays inside of the circle wins, while the opponent who is pushed out of the drawn circle is eliminated and loses the spar.]

    He continued reading the book and saw that most of the fights that ended up in the first ever semester of the academy were the first sparring session had been dominated by the heavier ones.

    ''Ah¡­ So like Sumo Wrestling¡­'' He thought. The concept was nearly simr, and considering the results, it was expected.

    However, as they did more sparring sessions, the students learned how to control their opponent''s weight to their own advantage and quickly eliminate them.

    It seems that the more the students practiced they were able to learn the basic concepts of Earth''s popr martial arts like Wrestling, Grappling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, both martial arts which were extremely effective in using the opponent''s weight to their advantage.

    Royce Gracie, one of the best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu martial artists, had faced martial artists stronger and faster than him from multiple martial arts backgrounds, but despite this, he managed to beat every one of them through his martial arts and be the first UFC champion.

    George pped his own face, regretting his decision not to practice any of those martial arts professionally.

    He had only joined the High School Wrestling tournament and didn''t even practice a single day. ''Dang it! I''m an idiot!''

    He quickly stood up from his seat and got to where the librarian was reading her book, "Uhm, I was wondering if there is any martial arts book here about wrestling¡­"

    He doubted that there were any books about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so he didn''t even ask.

    The librarian nodded and quickly strolled through the entire library beforeing back and handing George a stack full of books. "These are all the martial arts books about Wrestling¡­ But are you sure that you would like to learn such a low level martial technique? We do have mid tier sword technique, and even mid tier hand to hand technique."

    George couldn''t help but clean his ears after hearing that, ''Wrestling? Low-level technique?''

    He might not be a martial artist, but he knew that Wrestling and martial simr to it were the foundation of many martial arts, and considering how many world champions back on Earth that wrestling and BJJ practitioners have developed, he knew the decision he was going to take, "I will be taking all of this, thank you."

 Chapter 35: 10 Books

    <h4>Chapter 35: 10 Books</h4>

    He had stacked the books on the table beside his bed, and all 10 of them were regarding wrestling, something that really stood out though was the fact that book looked visibly cheaper than the other books in the library.

    Most of the books had leather covers or at the very least hard paper covers.

    But the books that George had received had a quality that couldn''t evenpare; it was just paper, and the quality of it also seemed to be very flimsy.

    But from how well the book was preserved, he could tell that the book had not been read a lot.

    ''Wrestling is not popr huh?'' He thought.

    The worst part was that the book was written by the three-time World Fighting Champion, Legar Augustus; he fought against other former champions and was regarded as the Greatest Champion to have ever existed by the opponents that he faced.

    But, to the public, his name was rtively unknown thanks to the media and news outlets in the empire controlled by nobles and martial art schools who had enough money to pay anybody.

    George read every single book by Legar Augustus, and he could see that although the quality was not as great, the content was incredibly detailed, with drawings of how you should execute moves.

    The techniques, although the name was different, were incredibly simr to the ones that he had witnessed in the NCAA wrestling championship.

    "Lucky¡­" George whispered to himself as he took his big pillow and started using it as a dummy to fight against, mimicking the movements that he saw in the book and following the instruction to a tee.

    He threw the pillow everywhere in the room with the techniques that he had learned. Although he was still not sure if he could use the same technique on a real person.

    But as he continued reading, he stumbled upon a workout routine to increase explosiveness to increase chances of winning in a fight.

    The more explosive one could be, the better one will be in wrestling, as seen by one of the Amateur Wrestling Champion Drock Reslear

    Looking at the workouts that he showed, it all involved the smooth round stones.

    He quickly changed his sweaty attire into fresh ones and walked towards the ss gym while carefully looking at his surroundings.

    He knew that the barbarian might not have forgotten what he had done to him, considering how much he had been humiliated in front of everyone by ''Oz.''

    Thest thing he wants is to be shown as weak in front of everyone because if he does, he will start bing a target by the bullies.

    As he stepped into the ss gym, he could see many of the students who had exercised from the morning, it was about to be 8:00 p.m., and they were still exercising.

    However, George gagged and, on impulse, jumped out of the ss gym, trying to control himself from vomiting.

    The floor had been drenched in sweat, and he wasn''t even sure if he wanted to exercise anymore.

    #

    Akshar opened his eyes, but his vision still remained dark. "Oz¡­ you trash!" He shouted while trying to get up.

    But no matter how he tried, he found himself tied to something.

    "This prick woke up? I thought he would be out for at least a week¡­" One of the doctors looked at Akshar, who was tied to the bed, bandaged.

    "The barbarians man, they are certainly something else." Another doctormented.

    "No, but even for a barbarian, isn''t this recovery too fast?"

    "Let me go!" Akshar shouted; he regained a bit of vision, although it was still blurry.

    "No can do kid, you stay here while we heal you up, and we don''t want you causing any trouble."

    Akshar grunted as he started moving, causing the whole bed to jump up.

    "Whoah!" The main doctor took a step back in response to the sudden movement before turning to his assistant, "Hey, call in some of the instructors, before he gets out and beat us both up."

    The assistant nodded before running out of the room, but the sound of the bed dropping and the rope tying the purist tearing caused him to turn back as he saw Akshar standing up and throwing the rope that had tied his body.

    Slowly, Akshar''s vision returned to normal, and he could see both of the doctors in the infirmary.

    The doctors didn''t wait and quickly ran as fast as they could, in which Akshar started chasing after them, only to drop right at the door.

    His head was still in pain from all of the blunt attacks he suffered. And so he slowly stood up before exiting the door where he could see the doctors running after him with an instructor following them from behind, "There he is!!!" They pointed towards him.

    Akshar ran as fast as he could, quickly turning, causing the doctor and the instructor to lose sight of him.

    And just in a few seconds, they turned to where he did, only to see that he was no longer there. "Damn it!" The doctor cursed before the three of them continued running.

    The rubbish bin that was right at the turn shook as they left the scene; Akshar crawled out of it with his whole body covered in trash and filth.

    He strolled as he wiped off the trash on his body, and even though he smelt bad, the students that were there decided to just ignore him; there was no reason to get into unnecessary trouble.

    "George FIRST¡­" He whispered as he walked towards the 1st year dorm.

    "Ah!" One of the students who was getting out of his room in his gym shirt got back into his room as he saw Akshar locking his door.

    Akshar had stalked George to his room, and so with the blurry memory of the incident that he had, he looked at the number that was stamped on the door. "77¡­" He whispered all over again.

    As he reached room 77, he raised his curled fist, getting ready to knock on the door, before suddenly punch right to his jaw dropped him to the ground.

 Chapter 36: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 1

    <h4>Chapter 36: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 1</h4>

    Usually, the students of ss C would talk to each other while seated in their assigned ces, but today the whole ss seemed more noisy.

    George entered the ss, he could see every student inside stretching their hands and running across the ss halls, trying to stretch every ligament in their body.

    He, unlike everyone, had a book about wrestling in his hand while walking up to his seat.

    Jame, however, was not studying, nor was he stretching. And as usual, he was writing on his note with words that looked like gibberish.

    As George sat right beside Jame and turned to his back, he could see that the seat where Akshar sat was empty.

    He smiled, ''Well, at least I don''t have to deal with that prick today.''

    As soon as he continued reading the book in a good mood, he could hear the whole ss silent. George took his attention away from the book and could see everyone staring at the door.

    And as his eyes followed everybody else, he closed his eyes, sighing, ''No¡­ Not today¡­''

    "The crap of the ss¡­" Was what everyone in the ss referred to Akshar.

    ss C had received a lot of criticism for what the barbarian did during the speech; never in the history of the academy has something like this ever happened, and somehow, the barbarian managed to set a record that only he might repeat.

    "He probably got dropped on the head as an infant¡­" Another student joked before he felt his cor being pulled with great force.

    And in front of him, Akshar stood, his face still filled with bruises from the wrench attack, "Say that¡­ to my FACE!" He screamed, his saliva rained upon the poor student.

    He quickly threw the kid to the ground with his one hand before walking up the stairs and reaching the level where George was sitting.

    He raised his hands, pointing at George while slowly nearing him.

    As Akshar arrived at where Jame was sitting, George got up from his seat, looking Akshar in his eyes, "Trust me, you don''t want to do this, I beat you up once, you were then humiliated, don''t make me humiliate you twice. You have ruined ny nine percent of your reputation and if you want to keep the rest of the one percent, I suggest you sit down."

    Akshar closed his distance, whispered, "You beat me with weapons, but I will beat you, with my HAND."

    George nearly shivered, but managed to stop it by holding on to his hands.

    "All righty, is everyone ready yet?" The Instructor entered the ss.

    Upon seeing the nods from the students, he continued, "You will be choosing three person that you will sparring against, it''s one by one of course-"

    "I will fight this RAT!" Akshar shouted, cutting off the Instructor while pointing to George.

    "Hey, retard, I know that you are on the spectrum, but can you let me finish?" The Instructor said, annoyed by the fact that the ss he was teaching was not only one that had the worst student but would forever be remembered as the ss that tried attacking the Wizard of Oz.

    The Instructor triedposing himself but sighed as he forgot what he was going to say, "Dang it¡­ Just follow me¡­" He ordered while walking out of the ss.

    As they walked in a line, George could feel the stare right behind his back, and he didn''t have to look back to know who had been staring at him; Akshar, like a predator eyeing their victim, had been staring at him for a very long time.

    The Instructor stopped in front of arge wooden door with a name etched on it, "Academy Martial Hall".

    "ss-A and ss-B are done with their sparring session, so I expect everyone of you to keep this ce clean, or else." The Instructor opened the door, introducing ss C to the Martial Hall.

    The entire martial hall was made out of wood, and from George''s past experience, it looked like mahogany.

    "Leave your shoes outside, onlye into the hall with your bare foot, and if any one of you has smelly feet, I suggest that you go back to your dorm and wash it till." He said before entering the hall.

    As the students entered the hall, their first reaction was a shocked look on their faces while staring at the floor.

    George did the same.

    The floor, although it looked like wood, was soft as a mat, but as he bent down to touch the ground, he could feel as if it was wood; the texture and how it looked was exactly like any other wood.

    "The academy bought a special wood from the East, I will repeat one more time, keep this ce clean, because if you don''t, not even the forces of heaven could save you from the headmasters, that, I can most certainly promise you." He repeated this, making sure that every student knew that no matter what they did, they could never dirty this ce.

    Alright, choose your first opponent." The Instructor continued before the students quickly paired up with each other.

    Most of the weaker students paired up with each other, as they knew that they could afford to even face the stronger students.

    "YOU!" Akshar shouted as he pointed at George. "I FIGHT YOU NOW!"

    George shook his head, "It''s sparring, okay? And no, I am not going to fight you now."

    "What are you a coward?" Akshar asked, which attracted the attention of the other students.

    George put on a smile, "Coward? No no¡­ You are misunderstanding something, I mean I am not going to fight you now, I will spar you as the third opponent."

    Akshar nodded before walking to one of the students who had no choice but to pair up with him.

    George, meanwhile, looked around before seeing Jame standing alone, with his notebook in one hand and a pen in the other, "Dude, do you ever part with that notebook?"

    Jame shook his head, "One day, I will be very rich because of this."

    "Yeah, whatever, look here is the deal, you have no other weak students for you to spar with, so I will spar you, and you will lose with little to no pain, how about it?"

 Chapter 37: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 2

    <h4>Chapter 37: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 2</h4>

    Jame immediately shook George''s hands, "Yes!"

    George sighed in relief and was probably much happier than Jame was. But as he shook Jame''s hand, he felt that his natural grip was about double as powerful as his own, ''Maybe this is still bad?''

    Many of the students quickly got in their circles, pushing their opponents out. And as more of them got eliminated by the second, all they could do was wait till the next round, where they could spar with another student.

    "YOU!" Akshar shouted as he pointed at Peyton.

    Peyton sighed, "Next round¡­ Don''t you see the guy beside me?"

    Akshar gritted his teeth as he turned to the student who had been sticking with Peyton, alone and without an opponent, "YOU!"

    The kid looked around, frantically searching for another student that he could match with to fight.

    But everyone else had been eliminated, "Crap!" He cursed at himself as he walked into the circle.

    Akshar followed before extending both his hands. It hadn''t even been a second before the spar had been started, and Akshar had closed his distance between him and the poor student, quickly pushing him out of the circle with nothing but raw strength.

    The kid fell on his back and had to take a second to breathe.

    From his point of view, he felt as if the barbarian was a creature other than human; his strength was something that he couldn''t even handle, not for even a second.

    Even when he tried applying his martial arts, with the overpowering strength that the barbarian disyed, his martial art just proved useless.

    Akshar walked out of the circle before Peyton and another student walked into it.

    However, this spar was far different than the previous one; both got into their stance. But quickly changed their curled fist into an open hand, considering that the martial art that they utilized used punches and kicks. And with those being illegal in this spar, there was no reason to maintain a curled fist.

    Both of them locked their hands together and pushed each other.

    Although the other student maintained a proper form, his face showed struggle. He tried pushing Peyton, but his muscle fibre started to burn from holding that stance against him.

    It was like trying to push against a wall; for him, it was impossible.

    Peyton, on the other hand, looked calm and rxed. Taking one step at a time before pushing the student out of the circle in 32 seconds.

    It was not as impressive as Akshar''s 1-second win. But winning the spar against a decent opponent in a minute was impressive nheless.

    George covered his neck before gulping in fear that he might lose to Jame; no student was considered the worst, but if anyone were to guess, Jame might be a great candidate to be considered the weakest.

    And it wouldn''t be good for him if he, who many of them have been specting to be a ss A student, lost to a student who is not known about fighting but is known for his nerdy hobby of recording rumours and dramas.

    ''Rx, those hard work are not for nothing.'' He told himself.

    Jame raised his hands and got into a stance simr to that of Peyton and his opponent.

    But George got into no stance and jumped lightly before circling around him slowly.

    Jame followed and maintained vision with George but, in turn, was turning around, making him slightly dizzy from doing so.

    Peyton raised his brows and couldn''t figure out what George was trying to do, ''Why is he not eliminating that guy yet?''

    All of a sudden, out of nowhere, George rushed towards Jame with his back bent, aiming for the legs, before grabbing hold of it.

    Jame quickly responded by hardening his muscle to prevent his leg from being bent.

    George felt just from holding him the difference of strength between the both of them.

    ''Wait, why does his grip feel so weak?'' For a split second, Jame thought, before he felt his body being lifted up in the air.

    George carried one of Jame''s legs and mmed his body on the floor before letting go of the legs and walking away.

    Jame stood up and got back in his stance before the instructor entered the circle, "Why are you still here? You have been eliminated."

    Jame looked at the ground where he was standing and sighed, ''So¡­ I''m outside of the circle.''

    In about 45 seconds, George had managed to secure a one-leg takedown and mmed Jame outside of the circle. Even though it might seem impressive, the others didn''t think so.

    They were expecting a one-second victory or at least something that matched the victory that Peyton had.

    There was also an argument to be made that his victory could be considered average at the very best, considering Jame was rtively unknown.

    ''Damn it¡­'' George was visibly frustrated due to the attention that he had gathered from not being able to perform at the level that the other students had expected.

    ''Making these guys happyis more harder than I expected.''

    "Alright! It''s time for the second round!" The instructor shouted, silencing the ss.

    The weaker students continued choosing the opponents among themselves to avoid fighting against the stronger students in the ss.

    Jame quickly rushed and chose his new opponents among the weaker students who were still stronger than the average person, but at the very least, now he didn''t have to have his back mmed, ''So much for making me lose without pain¡­''

    George avoided eye contact with Peyton; he saw how good Peyton was at fighting after he absolutely humiliated Akshar in ss and didn''t want to risk it all.

    "Would you like to spar with me?" The student who had sparred with Peyton approached him.

    George immediately responded without hesitation. "Sure."

    If he could choose without caring whether he would lose the respect of the ss, he would have rejected the request and gone for a weaker opponent, but this, was more than he could ask for.

 Chapter 38: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 3

    <h4>Chapter 38: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 3</h4>

    Akshar and Peyton stepped into the circle as they carefully eyed each other.

    Peyton got into his stance, but the muscle fiber in his arms was visibly tighter; it was as if, at any moment, his hands could go for the punch in a blink of an eye.

    Akshar, although crude, got into a primary stance, his legs slightly bent and his hands raised to protect his torso.

    Every student in ss-C waited for the two of them to fight since the previous time that the both of them fought, Peyton had managed to win fairly easily.

    But, winner of the spar was still unclear because from what they have learned from the first round, the stronger fighter had the advantage, not the more skilled one.

    Jame, at the back of the ss, was collecting coins from the students who wanted to bet. He kept an eye on the instructor to make sure he wasn''t looking.

    "2 silver on Peyton," One of them whispered.

    "2 on the barbarian."

    "Are you crazy? Didn''t you see how the barbarian got his ass kicked in ss?"

    "Uhm, well you never know¡­"

    "10 on the barbarian." A more mature voice spoke.

    "Sure." Jame replied before turning to where the voice came from, realizing that his fellow ssmates around him were silent for some reason.

    As he turned, he too fell silent, "Uhh¡­ Instructor?"

    "Here, 10 on the barbarian." The Instructor replied before giving Jame 10 silver on the barbarian.

    ''Ah, it seems that he isn''t getting paid enough.'' The students, observing that the Instructor had joined in, didn''t even bother hiding and started putting their bets.

    "Hup!!" Akshar breathed loudly. He dashed at Peyton with his hands extended to push him out of the circle.

    Peyton responded by taking a step to the left before rolling, dodging the barbarian by a small margin.

    He then ran towards the barbarian''s back, trying to push him towards the line.

    However, without even trying, the barbarian stood up, not moving an inch from Peyton''s weak attempt at moving him.

    "Shoot!" Peyton quickly distanced himself from the purist and got back to his stance.

    Akshar turned, his hands extended again.

    Peyton understood before slowly walking forward; the both of them locked their extended hands and started pushing each other with all they had.

    Akshar would have no problem pushing everyone out of the line in the position, but Peyton would take a step and change the direction of where Akshar was pushing him, making it impossible for Akshar to get Peyton out of the circle.

    "If I can''t push, I THROW!" Akshar shouted before he started spinning, causing Peyton to float above the ground while still holding onto the barbarian.

    "This monster!" Peyton tried nning, but the spinning had caused his thinking to be a bit blurry, stopping him from doing any proper n to recover from the current circumstance.

    Akshar smiled before letting go of Peyton.

    "Whaoh!" Peyton shouted as he tried to control where he was going tond, but the moment he tried to change the direction, he had alreadynded past the circle line.

    Peyton punched the floor as he stared at Akshar, who didn''t even bother staring him down but was staring at George instead.

    "YES! I KNEW IT!" The student who put their bet on Akshar shouted before making fun of the ones who ced it on Peyton.

    Jame started handing the winners their profit before George stepped into the circle with his opponent following.

    His opponent, Healend, was amoner, also simr to Peyton, but was skilled enough to be admitted into the academy.

    And by the way he stood and the way he got into his stance, he could tell that Healend had learned the same exact martial arts which Peyton used.

    The only thing that hecked was experience and strength.

    George started moving first by circling around Healend, repeating the same technique which he did in his previous spar.

    ''I knew you would do that¡­'' Healend thought, standing still and only turning his head to maintain eye contact on where George was at all times.

    Seeing that Healend was open from the back, he quickly rushed forward and attempted to do a single-leg takedown from that side.

    Quickly turning, Healend blocked the attempt. George quickly got out of his failed attempt before he continued circling him as he tried to think of something.

    George extended his hands before walking forward.

    Healend, by practice, did the same thing and was about to lock hands with George before suddenly George ducked under and grabbed one of Healend''s legs, ''These guys want a fast win. I will who them a fast win!'' He thought before trying to carry his legs, attempting a one-leg takedown.

    But Healend quickly bent the leg which George grabbed, increasing his stability and making it harder for George to even attempt to carry him.

    But unlike what Healend expected, George didn''t stop there and continued holding onto the legs.

    "Get off¡­" He tried pushing George away with his hands, but from close quarters his hands couldn''t extend fully to generate enough force to push George away.

    Tobat this, he quickly used his other leg to push George, before suddenly seeing a smile on his face, ''What?''

    George quickly grabbed his other legs, holding two of them, ''If I can''t do a one leg takedown, I will do a double leg takedown!'' He quickly jumped, keeping Healend up, and continued running before mming him on the floor.

    "Cough!" Healend felt his breath being taken away for a second and rested on the floor to regain hisposure.

    George stood up, massaging his back as he felt the pain caused by carrying Healend in such a vulnerable position that he could hurt his back.

    But as all of this was going on, Akshar kept on smiling at how weak George was since he had to use all his strength to run and carry Healend.

    Peyton, who thought decently of George, also changed his opinion quickly upon seeing the spar, ''So he doesn''t really have any strength¡­ But still, he seems to have a very good understanding at fighting.''

 Chapter 39: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 4

    <h4>Chapter 39: 1st Year Practical Sparring Part 4</h4>

    Puh!

    Peyton quickly pushed his opponent out, not even fully extending his arms before walking out of the circle.

    ''How the heck did I lose to that animal!'' He thought still staring at the barbarian''s back.

    He couldn''t help but grit his teeth before he felt a tap on his back.

    "Hey good job on that win." The ssmate who tried to seem close to him said.

    "Yeah¡­" Peyton replied as he breathed in and out slowly before turning and staring at Akshar.

    Jame was not in a very good mood either; although he had managed to gather a good profit previously, none of them were interested on betting on thest spar, Akshar vs George.

    And the reason was simple, and that was because the majority of them believed that, just like in the previous rounds, Akshar would overpower George.

    "I swear! You guys are really sleeping on this opportunity to get some good money!" Jame pressed them, trying to get them to even bet a single silver.

    "Who the heck is going to bet on George?" One of them asked, shaking their head, confused about if there was someone who was willing to take that kind of risk.

    Jame cursed before sitting down and continued counting his profits from the previous fight. "You guys are going to seem like big idiots afterwards¡­" He whispered.

    "Whoo!" George breathed out as he stared right into Akshar''s eyes.

    Akshar stood there, unmoving, like a boulder.

    Although George was hiding it inside, he still remembered how easily Akshar threw him in the toilet, carrying him as if he weighed nothing.

    Akshar dashed, in which George quickly mimicked Peyton''s move by rolling to the side and then running toward the other side of the circle.

    Akshar stood up and cracked his neck before turning to where George was standing, "You¡­ You are a shame to the entire academy¡­ You have no honor as a warrior. You think your win against me was fair? I''ll show you what HONOR is."

    "I don''t really care¡­" George replied before running to Akshar, ducking and reaching for the legs, and tried to bend and carry him, but the barbarian crossed his hands while waiting for something to happen.

    Akshar smiled, "I dont know how you did that to the others, but it wont work on me¡­" He then sat down,pletely breaking the takedown attempt.

    George ran back to his corner, still in his wrestling stance.

    ''Again!'' George ran towards Akshar when he wasn''t looking and ducked, trying to execute the same takedown.

    But, before he could even get to an arm''s reach, Akshar extended his arms lightly, pushing George back to the ground. "I told you, when ites to a fair match, you are nothing."

    Peyton shook his head, ''That trick wont work on him, he''s too strong.''

    George stood up, maintaining his distance from the barbarian.

    "What trick do you have?" The barbarian asked.

    George stretched his legs before hopping lightly and circling the barbarian.

    The students around the circles shook their heads, and if they were allowed to, they would leave from how ridiculous George looked right now.

    The barbarian nearly choked on his saliva fromughing too much, "FINE! I will y along!"

    He kept spinning while maintaining eye contact with George.

    And even though this trick might have worked on Jame, many of the other students doubt that it would work on Akshar.

    The levels between the both of them weren''t evenparable.

    Peyton shook his head, "What are you even doing?" He whispered. His first impression of George was that he was an above-average individual with above-average strength and above-average skill, and that was the only way that he was able to even pass among the top 10 students with luck.

    But then, after seeing him fight in the first and second rounds, that very opinion changed; he then looked at George in a very different light. To him at the time, he was an above-average individual with absolutely no strength, but he had the high skill topensate for it.

    But, right now, upon seeing the chicanery that George was presenting to the whole ss, he was not sure; maybe his only good quality is luck.

    And just like anything, luck runs out quickly.

    The instructor, tired of seeing George circling Akshar, started cleaning the ce up.

    But the students, who were still watching the spar, just wanted to see how Akshar would beat George up.

    "What are you DOING?" Akshar kept spinning, wondering when George was going to proceed beyond this.

    George then stopped, causing the barbarian to stop spinning as well. He extended his hand, waiting for the barbarian to lock hands with him.

    "I know this is a trick, but¡­" The barbarian walked closer and locked the hands together.

    George quickly ducked, and the barbarian quickly protected his legs, knowing that he would target for a takedown.

    But as he looked at his legs, George was not there.

    "I''m behind you." George whispered behind Akshar''s neck before grabbing the barbarian from the back and carrying him.

    "What are you DOING?" He shouted once more, trying to shake George off, but quickly Goerge jumped back while still carrying Akshar.

    "I will show you kid, what real honor is, Gurt Angle''s German Suplex!" He shouted before throwing Akshar back while still holding onto the stomach and crushing his neck onto the ground.

    "Ah!!" Akshar screamed before closing his eyes. He had already passed the line.

    "What?" Peyton stood up from the floor where he was sitting; he couldn''t believe what he had just witnessed.

    "I told you!!" Jame shouted before throwing his notebook on the floor, "I told you that you guys could make money!!"

    Peyton had to take a minute to process to think of what just happened, "He started circling and then locked hands to trick that he would once again attempt his trick¡­ Did he use those tricks in the first and second round to trick Akshar in this round?"

 Chapter 40: Impostor

    <h4>Chapter 40: Impostor</h4>

    Paying attention to the whiteboard, just like nearly every other student in the ss, George felt two stares. One from the back seat and another from the front seat.

    "What the¡­" He turned back, seeing the barbarian with a neck guard staring into his soul, "hell¡­"

    It turns out that George had performed a dangerous version of the popr pro wrestling move, the German suplex, and broke the neck of the barbarian. ''How the heck is he still here?''

    He took his eyes away from the barbarian and tried focusing on the ss again before identally locking eyes with Peyton staring back at him.

    "Not this kid too!" George turned away and kept focusing on the whiteboard.

    As he looked in front of him once more, Peyton had stopped staring at him and was listening to the lecture.

    "Seems that Peyton is butthurt." Jamemented as he saw this.

    "What do you mean?"

    "Well, Peyton is the kind of guy to avenge his lost. So if he lost to someone, he would be usually the first person to beat the person he lost. But you kinda ruined that¡­"

    George shook his head, "Why cant kids be kids here? Back in my days I remember ying with a PX69¡­"

    "What?"

    "Nothing¡­"

    "Impostor." Jame whispered as he continued writing on his note.

    George froze as he heard that worde out of Jame''s mouth. "What?"

    "Oz''s impostor¡­" Jame continued.

    George shook his head, "I don''t know what you''re talking about." He cleared his throat, pushing his chair back.

    "Oh? Well, I got a news source and they said that the Emerald City Special Force have found that there is a impostor of the Great Wizard who has been travelling a lot. Sir Michael is heavily involved in the search." Jame said, "This news havent gone public, but you will probably see it in the papers tomorrow."

    George took a moment to breathe a sigh of relief before nodding, "Ah¡­ So did they find him or catch him already?"

    "Nope."

    #

    A few days ago¡­

    Outside of the academy.

    "We have to get out of here fast!!" Michael shouted as he ran into the carriage.

    One of the Emerald City guards followed inside, confused about why Sir Michael looked so scared. "Sir, what is going on?"

    "Just follow my orders, we have to get to the Castle as fast as we can. And I want you to call for the Special Forces."

    The guard looked at Michael, unsure, "Are you sure sir?"

    "Yes, I''m sure!" The carriage started moving at such an incredible speed that the whole carriage started to shake to the point that cant be handled by the carriage.

    As they reached the Castle, Michael stormed out of the carriage, "Remember call the Special Forces, and bring the captain too!" He shouted at the guard.

    "Where to?"

    Michael stopped before turning, "War room."

    The guard nodded, "Yes sir!"

    The war room was made out nearly purely out of theyers of steel and tungsten covering it, and the door was the exact door that they would use to protect a safe.

    Michael arrived outside the door with his new suit, "Sir Michael, pleasee in." the guard outside opened the door for him.

    "Thanks¡­" Michael replied, still fixing his tie before walking in.

    "You''re here¡­ Finally. What took you so long?" A bearded man with a dark green uniform, nearly ck, said.

    "I changed, give me a break, you dont want this room to be smelling like the jungle dont you?" Michael replied.

    "I supposed not."

    Michael got onto the main seat, where he could manually raise the seat height while sitting on it. The chair had been brought everywhere that he traveled, and if not, they would make sure to bring the appropriate chair for the asion.

    "Alright, so why are we here?" The Captain of the Emerald City guard asked.

    The men in green uniforms nodded in agreement with the Captain.

    Michael breathed in carefully, careful with the words that he was about to use with these men. Although they didn''t really have any proper ranks as the Emerald City guards did, they were more powerful than them.

    The Special Force of Emerald City, all of them, trained to the highest level, only passing their knowledge and skill to one heir to take over them. And so there were only nine here that were left.

    The Oz that came before George has struggled to use them, as their intelligence could surpass his own.

    They woulde very close to finding the identity, and it had caused Oztanfil to change a lot of ns because of them.

    "I will tell you this only one time, there is a criminal pretending to be the Great Wizard."

    "And how do you know this?" One of them asked.

    Unlike everyone else in Emerald City, the Special Forces tend to be more casual and less respectful of Michael, and even at times curse in front of him, but it was a privilege that was given to the best like them.

    Michael raised the anonymous bank card, "This is a bank card which I used, the Empire Bank has found this card lying in the hills of Angmar, and it is all empty."

    "The bank has asked each vendor who have epted payment with this card and nearly everyone who met the fake have said that he is the exact copy of the great wizard." He added, throwing the letter on the table which they sent to him.

    The Captain of the Emerald City guards picked up the letter and read it; he started chuckling as he saw the number that was spent, "He spent the whole city''s budget!"

    "Yeah¡­" Michael replied, shaking his head.

    "Who on earth is going to pay out monthly sry then!?" One of the men on the table punched the table.

    The whole room suddenly filled with shouts, with everyone shouting at Michael.

    "Ya''ll dont have to worry!! I have some money in my private ount, I have enough to pay for the city for about three months, but within that period of time, we need to find this impostor."

 Chapter 41: More Problems

    <h4>Chapter 41: More Problems</h4>

    Unlike the rest of the day, where he kept a serious face, today, as he ate his sandwich, he couldn''t help but to smile and stare at Akshar, "3 and 0", He whispered before continuing munching on his bread.

    Akshar was on his seat, looking around as if waiting for someone or something as he ate his meat-based meal with mashed-up beef and chicken breast.

    "Akshar¡­" Princess Stulgra Angmar called as she walked towards him with two of her assistants walking behind her, "Mind telling me what happened?"

    Akshar couldn''t look her in the eye, swallowing his saliva, "Sorry¡­" He said.

    A stark difference between how he would respond to everyone else.

    "I don''t want an apology, I want you to exin what happened to you." She pressed on further before sitting in front of him.

    Akshar shook as she got closer, "I-I lost¡­"

    Stulgra nodded, her assistant looking at Akshar with disgust as if he wasn''t a barbarian. "Would you mind exining why you attacked the Great Wizard? I don''t think we can forget that¡­ Do you know how other people would think of us, because of you?"

    Akshar coughed, "Sorry¡­ I don''t know."

    Stulgra bit on her teeth, drawing closer to him, "If you don''t manage to clear your problem, I think you shouldn''t call yourself a barbarian anymore."

    Akshar lifted his head up, "No please¡­ I do anything¡­"

    "Then fix it."

    Akshar''s hands continued shaking even though she walked away.

    Everyone in the cafeteria was silent as they saw what had happened, they didn''t want to miss a single moment.

    Just one table away, Jame was sitting, recording the conversation on his note, "This Is going to sell very well¡­"

    "Hey tell me something¡­" George tapped on Jame.

    Jame smiled, flipping through his notes before he got to his chosen page"Akshar was a prospect chosen by the Kingdom of Angmar, they chose him because his strength is undeniable, but he is probably going to be kicked out of the academy by the barbarians if he doesn''t beat you."

    "Beat me? Why?!" George quickly looked worried.

    Suddenly Akshar being insulted publicly didn''t sound funny anymore.

    "It''s pretty obvious, you beat him pretty easily in the spar."

    "What about Peyton, he beat Akshar up too! Akshar got a worst beating from him than me!"

    "He avenged that loss, and now he will try to avenge this loss."

    "Shoot!"

    Akshar stood up; everyone didn''t dare mention a word about him near him; it was clear that he wasn''t in a good mood.

    He walked slowly out of the cafeteria, and before they knew it, the cafeteria got back to its noisy self.

    George, finishing his meal, stood up and ran out of the cafeteria, "This guy is gonna kill me! For sure!"

    Running into the dorm, he carefully inspected around, making sure that the barbarian wasn''t there. But as he got to his room, he could see a broad shoulder blocking it, "Akshar.. What are you doing here? This is my room."

    "I WARN YOU. End of the month, you will lose. You must¡­" He walked away.

    He would normally seem intimidating, but at this moment, George could see fear in the barbarian''s eyes; his posture also showed it.

    George walked into his room before locking it, just making sure that if the barbarian changed his mind, he wouldn''t be able to just walk in and kill him. "Crap, I gotta get stronger!"

    He might have learned wrestling, but with only a week of practice, he had only learnt the basics and was still rough on the edge.

    He also knew that wrestling wouldn''t work in real-lifebat like the one that they would be doing for the end of the month.

    If George tried wrestling the barbarian, a single punch from the barbarian would be enough to make it game over for him.

    And the same goes if he tried it on everyone else in the match. Wrestling certainly has its advantages, but in a real fight, wrestling was a tool to finish the fight or to control the situation; it was certainly not a great way to start the match.

    He carried the ten books in one hand before walking out of his room and inspecting the hallway, just making sure that the barbarian was nowhere near before he sprinted towards the library.

    "Here are the books!" He said, dropping them off in front of the librarian.

    "Already?"

    "I wille back for it, but I need some books on hand to handbat, the ones that only involve fist. And uhh, another book on kicking."

    "Why don''t you just learnplete martial arts?" She asked, normally if a student were to ask for a martial art book,plete martial art books were the one that they were gonna choose.

    "Complete martial arts? Sure, just add it to the other books that I asked for." George replied.

    She picked up the ten books and walked towards the bookshelf, putting them back from where she picked them up before she started taking out other books from the bookshelf.

    A few minutes passed, and she returned with more books in her hand, "We have three Mid-Tierplete martial arts, you might want to use this¡­ The ones that just use the fist and legs are notplete, nobody even uses them,they are on the level of the wrestling arts."

    George nodded as he took a stack of books and walked to one of the tables in the library.

    The first book was titled [IRON BODY].

    ''This sounds like a scam¡­'' He thought. The book reminded him of one of those fake arts back on earth.

    As he read the book, the more he started to get annoyed.

    The book was simply an exnation of how they should execute stiff and rigid movement, making them "IRON", even though it didn''t make sense.

    He moved onto the next book; which was covered in blue letters with a heat print on it which read, [FLOW].

    And just a few pages in, he immediately tossed the book aside.

    The martial art reminded him of popr and iconic martial art, which ims that they could stop an attack by letting the attack flow through them. And as the martial art was put against the other more practical martial arts, it failed.

    He could see why the martial art worked here, and that was because they were simply much stronger, and the stronger you got, the more things you could get away with, and that was getting away with using a bad martial art.

    Seeing how the first twoplete martial art books were, he quickly tossed the third one aside.

 Chapter 42: Who Can Talk?

    <h4>Chapter 42: Who Can Talk?</h4>

    Just like the ten wrestling books that he had read and learned from, it seems that the quality of these books was also made of very low-quality paper.

    There were three books about how to fight with fists and with legs, so six in total, and as he scanned through them, he couldn''t help but smile.

    The first martial arts from the three books were simr to boxing, a very respectable and practical self-defence art that many practices back on earth.

    It was far more practical than the martial arts that utilize kicks or wrestling because, for street fighting, the best thing to do is to punch where it hurts and run away.

    However, he still couldn''t figure out why they would suppress a martial art like this and implement more ineffective rather than bad ones that only strong people could use against opponents slightly weaker than them. What was the point of learning such martial arts?

    He quickly scanned through the other three martial arts that involved only kicking, and once more, he wasn''t disappointed; although one of the books looked slightly unrealistic to read, the other two seemed more grounded in truth and simr to the martial arts that boast in it''s undisputed kicking techniques.

    Two of the most popr ones are Tae Kwon Do, and Karate, both are considered the best martial arts to train in if you would like to improve in terms of kicks.

    He lifted the books and dropped them in front of the librarian with a satisfied smile, "I would like to borrow these six books.

    The librarian recorded six of the books before realizing three of them were missing, "Where is theplete martial arts?"

    "I ced them back¡­ It''s not for me."

    #

    [At the Emerald Castle¡­]

    "We just did a full fledged investigation in the whole city, with the budget that you gave us, I don''t think we can do a search for the whole empire!" Angus, the oldest of the Emerald City Special forces, said.

    "It''s only been a whole day, how can you blow all the money I gave you all away!" Michael shouted, confused about how much money they had spent.

    "Investigations take more money than you expect, especially investigations like this. We have already ordered the newsprintpanies to print us a wanted sign of the impostor, to save some money."

    "Ahh!!" Michael shouted as he threw his banana to the floor.

    "Unless of course we get the cooperation of the Empire Bank to find the impostor, if we can see what he used the money on, we probably would be able to get him." Angus suggested.

    "That''s it! Do that!" Michael shouted, excited that finally, after shouting back and forth, they had gotten a clear goal.

    "That''s just the problem, is that the card that the impostor was using is an anonymous card, as soon as he stole it from you, he probably used the card knowing that the bank would not allow you to see the history of the transaction¡­"

    Michael shook his head; his head was about to blow up, "I shouldn''t have gotten that card¡­" He lifted his head towards Angus, "Do we have any other options?" He asked.

    Angus and the other Special Forces shook their heads, "Well, no¡­ we dont¡­ We are stuck with this, unless of course you give us more budget to work with."

    Michael mmed the table, "Damn it! Find someone who is good at negotiating and get them to agree to cooperate!"

    "And who would that be?"

    "Just get some noble¡­ Say that we will owe them big time if they seed.

    Angus nodded before turning to one of the Emerald City guards that were near, "Hey, did you hear that, get out of there, find some nobles to convince them. Okay?"

    And so they did; the Emerald City guard went from house to house on who they recognized as the best noble negotiator in the city and took a few before travelling to the Emerald City Empire Bank branch.

    But almost immediately, the Emerald City guard that they sent came back, "Sir, they failed¡­"

    Michael nearly burst out in mes but held it in, "I''ll do it myself, bring me there."

    For 30 minutes, they spent driving him there in the carriage, and as soon as they arrived, he didn''t waste any time and immediately ran into the building.

    The building was ck, with a hint of gold, making the building just slightly more expensive to build.

    "Sir Michael, how can we help you?" one of the receptionists approached them.

    It was clear that they respected him, and it was also clear that they were trying to buy time and waste his time to avoid them trying so much.

    "Can you just get me the manager! I need to talk to him, this is a matter of national security!" Michael shouted.

    "I''m the manager, Sir¡­" The manager walked towards him, ady whose face showed experience in this kind of situation.

    "Good, now give me the records of the anonymous card!" He shouted.

    She kept on smiling, "Sir there is a reason why the card is called the anonymous card. We keep that information secret."

    "From who? Me and the Great Wizard are the owners of the card! Why should you withhold our information from us?"

    "Sir, I hope you understand, we appreciate our customers'' privacy and vow to give them the best protection we can."

    "Look! I don''t care about privacy, I want my information now!"

    Despite Michael''s screams, she kept on smiling, "It''s ourpany''s policy and handing that information will breach the policy."

    "Just give it to me! I told you it is a matter of national security!"

    She smiled once more. "Sir, I hope you understand, we appreciate our customers'' privacy and vow to give them the best protection we can."

    "Holy crap, am I talking to a parrot!???" He shouted before walking out, ''You guys want a guy who can talk? I''ll give you a guy who can talk.

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!