Truthfully, Alric personally did not wish to attend the Red Phoenix Magic Academy.

He thought that anything they had to teach him could be learnt from a book without the pestering students and constraints of the academy.

However his uncle Sigfreed had insisted that he attend the magic academy, according to Sigfreed

“Magic is vast and all encompassing, if you limit yourself to what you know you’ll never start expanding on what you don’t know that you don’t know.”

It’s halfway into the first day and Alric had a slight understanding of what he meant. Before today he had no idea of the existence of magic formations, with more research and study it could play a major role in his plans.

Alric sat at a bench by himself as he pondered the applications of magic formations while he ate lunch alone.

His thoughts were interrupted by a young female who bowed deeply before him.

Her uniform was unremarkable but the curves they followed would steal any adolescent’s gaze. Her dark hair with green threads running through complimented her eyes that had a slight green hue.

“I am Christina and Thank you Mr Alard. Lloyd and Phannor told me how you helped to protect me after I collapsed.”

Her bow was deep and sincere despite its lack of elegance and refinement. It was obvious this was not a well practiced action.

“Stand up straight already!”

Her bow was cut short by Alard’s sharp voice,

“If you really want to thank me, promise me you’ll never be that reckless again.

Get stronger and defend yourself next time.

It’s pitiful to see a lady on the floor more so to see a young lady lower her head to a peasant like me.”

Alric stood up and flicked her forehead with his fingers and left her confused.

She was dumbfounded, this was the first time anyone had called a peasant like her a ‘lady’, moreso the first person of the opposite sex who could simply brush her off as an annoyance after looking at her so closely.

Even more surprised were Lloyd and Phannor. To think someone who was so calm and collected during a fight would outburst like that at a girl. Christina was embarrassed but before her shock could wear off Alric had already disappeared.

The final class of the day was Polemology, the classroom unlike before, was at the combat hall.

The combat hall was a wide open space with a large white marble square that was divided in half by black chalk. around the marble stage was grass further surrounded by seats that elevated higher the further you looked. It gave off a gladiator arena kind of feel.

The teacher was a tall fellow. His tall flowing dark hair with his grayed facial hair and black eye patch covering his left eye gave a sinister aura as he addressed the class with a deep firm voice.

“I am Colonel Samuel Clover, and I will be your Polemology instructor.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The aim of this class is to ensure that all young mages and paladins are combat capable whether individually or in a team.

Majority of my classes will be physical and you will all be injured at some point.”

The class gulped as they looked at each other silently. Colonel Clover ignored the lul and continued.

“Some of you already have certain battle experiences, while some of you do not.

My job will be to even out that playing field and ensure every single one of you is combat capable.”

Colonel stopped his pacing around and stood beside Alric and glanced at him and continued,

“In order for our classes to truly move forward, I need to know where each of you are right now. so today's class ... .will be a battle royal!”

“All of you are against me! you have six minutes to prepare, all weapons at your disposal are fair game for you to use.”

While saying this, Colonel Clover jumped back off the marble stage and touched the walls surrounding it. A glimmer ran up as the invisible shields between the seating stands and the arena gained physical form and a hoard of senior students and professors came storming in.

“Has it started already?”

“hope i didn’t miss the annual ass whooping”

... as the crowd came flowing in the new students began to lose their bravado, it was obvious that they all came to watch the freshman get a beating.

“Don’t worry, your other friends are here to join you.”

The first years were split into six different groups, group A to F.

However, today all the classes had come together and were gathered on the stage. The moment the other first years stepped on the marble stage it was chaos.

Students started chatting with friends while some stood by themselves.

“The rules are simple.

Your job is only to survive as long as possible.

You will be automatically teleported to the stands the moment you lose consciousness.

The five students who manage to impress me will be given a golden library pass.”

It had to be noted that books on magic and its practices were extremely rare, moreso since the academy’s library also had books that were forbidden to the general public and would cost thousands of gold coins to borrow even for an hour within the library.

For a first year to have his pick of the library was like opening the gates of hell. So a prize like this would certainly give them an edge if they could get their hands on a golden library pass.

As quickly as it started the time was up.

“And with all that said, your planning time is up.”

Colonel Clover jumped back up to the stage. When he landed he took a deep breath, his breathing turned to steam and as his body grew hotter and hotter.

The students instead of rushing in recklessly all stood paralyzed by some unknown force. Colonel Clover smirked as he lifted his finger and pointed to the group of students.

With a flick of his finger a current of air rushed towards an entire line of students and sent them flying. Those that erected barriers quick enough did so, but the onslaught of air strikes did not end. They continued while more and more students found themselves teleported to the stands.

Three minutes had already passed and of the two hundred students more than half had already been eliminated.

“Dammit! How can he fire these things non-stop?!

Does he have infinite mana or something?”

One first year asked the other as they both hid behind a shield made of tree roots. Suddenly the bombardment on the roots subsided and a silence fell on the battlefield.

“Or maybe that was just a normal physical attack?”

“Naah, that’s ridiculous. The amount of raw strength it would take to do this much damage with just a flick of his fingers would be insane.” The student replied, still trying to see beyond the dust cloud in front.

The students who before were hiding behind a shield looked eerily at each other when they realized that neither of them had made that assumption.

When they looked behind themselves they saw the figure of Colonel Clover. By the time they blinked they had already been teleported to the stance both with faces swollen.

“The party is just starting. I just have to weed out the slackers first”

Colonel Clover thought as he skipped about slapping each student silly until they were teleported to the stance.