Chapter 2
“The Annual Tournament has ended. The top five out of a hundred will have a chance to participate in the upcoming awakening ceremony held in the capital.
Tomorrow morning I will be sharing who those top five are, but for now, rest, and I will see you, trainees, tomorrow.”
After listening to the instructor, deon couldn’t help but be excited about the coming days as the awakening ceremony will determine his future.
The awakening ceremony is a ceremony that allows a person to awaken the innate mana inside them, and every year the everwinter kingdom and the two major churches in the kingdom host it, but only the selected 13 to 15 years old teens are allowed to participate.
And this year, deon just turned 13 years old and was eligible to participate in the awakening ceremony, but only if he became part of the top five in the annual tournament.
Deon is confident about being part of the top five, with him being undefeated in the annual tournament.
The imperial knight institute has ten grades, each corresponding to the apprentice knights' age and skills.
Grade one apprentice knights are around Five years old, and Grade two are Six years old, and so on, with Grade ten being fourteen years old.
The top 5 of grade 9 and grade 10 annual tournaments get to participate in the awakening ceremony as part of the imperial knight.
Only the top 5 are allowed to participate in the awakening ceremony because every year, the awakening ceremony only has limited spots.
To be precise, there are only 1500 slots per year, with the kingdom receiving 750 slots, and the two churches will get the remaining 750 slots.
The kingdom slots are further divided between the factions within the kingdom.
Each noble house will receive one slot per year, and there are 166 noble houses in the kingdom.
The imperial knight institute receives 300 slots per year. However, the kingdom has 30 imperial knight institutes, each receiving ten slots.
And the remaining 284 slots will go to the royal family and royal guards.
…
After the tournament, all the youths went to the bathhouse to clean themselves before getting their dinner.
In the bathhouse locker room, deon and his friends are talking as they change their clothes.
“What do you think the capital is like?” Caleb said with curiosity
“I don’t know, but I heard that our capital is the biggest city in the southern continent,” Lucien said as he recalled some facts about the capital
“Really?... how big is it from the Whitehill town?” Caleb said with much more curiosity than before
“Of course, the Whitehill town cant compare. Besides, why are you talking about capital? There’s no guarantee yet that you are in the top five,” Lucien said
“Hmph, Of course, ill be in the top five, but I guess you are worried,” Caleb said with a jeering face
“Please, if you couldn’t even beat me, I doubt you’ll be a much higher rank than me,” Lucien replied
Hearing what Lucien said, Caleb couldn’t help but burst into anger: “Hmph, you only won because you got lucky. Next time I’ll defeat you in 10 seconds.”
“Next time, ill only snort, and you’ll be knocked out like last time,” Lucien replied, not willing to admit defeat in their argument
Deon ignored his two friends since he was already used to it. Lucien and Caleb have always been friends/rivals ever since their first spar
Deon didn’t bother to stop his friends from arguing and directly entered the bathhouse that was connected to the locker room
The bathhouse is the largest facility in the entire imperial knight institute, and it is built underground of the institute. The bathhouse is a shared bathhouse for all knight apprentices and all the faculty staff
There are countless pools in the bathhouse, and each pool is full of ice, making the temperature of the bathhouse cold
Lucien and Caleb followed deon but still kept arguing with each other. Deon found a pool that only has four people in it and put his towel on the bench near the pool
Caleb threw his towel to Lucien’s face when he saw Lucien about to argue back and immediately sprinted to the empty space in the pool and jumped while shouting:
“CANON BALL”
*Splash*
Caleb’s cannonball made the peaceful pool full of waves, making the four people in the pool frown, but when they saw the trio, they immediately quieted down.
Lucien shook his head when he saw Caleb jumping into the pool while mumbling to himself: “This brat needs to grow up.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Why is this pool so damn cold?” Caleb said as he burst out from the pool while ignoring the dissatisfied looks he received from the four people in the pool
Deon and Lucien didn’t bother replying since Caleb always complained whenever he jumped into the pool.
After putting his towel down, deon slowly descended the pool as he felt the cold water slowly touch his body, relieving all the tension he had.
“Ahhhh, This is Heaven,” Deon said while making his body float around the pool, only exposing his face as he closed his eyes.
The four people in the pool saw deon floating in the pool unreserved. One of them signaled his three friends to pick another pool.
His three friends immediately agreed and exited the pool. Lucien and Caleb saw the four people but ignored them. They were happier in an empty pool with just three of them.
The pool has enough space for ten people, but the four people felt uncomfortable in the pool since they didn’t want to have a conflict with deon and his friends that might lead to fighting.
Deon also heard the four people exiting the pool but didn’t bother opening his eyes. He had seen enough of this scenario to not care about it.
Deon grabbed an ice cube floating in the pool and put it on his forehead. The ice cube is purple, unlike a normal ice cube.
This purple ice cube is an alchemy medicine that helps the apprentice knights recover from their fatigue and enhances their physique.
With the help of the purple ice cubes, deon has increased his strength to the same level as an adult male even though he is only 13 years old, and it isn’t just him. Almost all grade 9 have the strength of an adult male.
Deon couldn't help but think of Rayner as he felt the coldness of the ice cube on his forehead.
Rayner comes from a noble family, and therefore the quality of the alchemy medicine he takes is superior to the purple ice cube that Deon has placed on his forehead.
That’s why Rayner has a stronger physique than deon, even though they are the same age.
Deon felt envious of the nobles due to their abundant resources, especially considering that Rayner is only from a branch family. And couldn’t help but wonder:
‘What about the main family? Are they much stronger than Rayner? Or is it the same?’
‘Probably stronger since Rayner is only from the branch family.’
But Deon also felt proud to defeat such an opponent despite being weaker.
As Deon’s thoughts began to wander, he felt a shadow above him, making deon open his eyes.
In front of him were Caleb and Lucien, looking at deon with a grin on their face
“Wha—”
But before deon could finish talking, Lucien and Caleb grabbed deon and submerged him in the water, making deon panic.
Deon burst out from the water and annoyedly shouted, "What are you two doing?” *Cough Cough* while pushing Lucien and Caleb.
“Haha, Stop daydreaming, and let’s start already,” Caleb said while he and Lucien laughed
“Start what?” Deon asked, still annoyed at the two. He swallowed some water earlier when he panicked
“The Training,” Lucien said while holding his laugh
*Cough* “Fine, but don’t do that again. I almost drowned,” Deon said, not finding his situation funny at all
“Yeah, yeah, but you daydream too much. Although it was quite funny to see you panic,” Lucien remarked with a smile on his face
Deon rolled his eyes at Lucien: “I’ll definitely pay you guys back,” Deon said while smiling, thinking of the revenge that he could pull, making Caleb and Lucien on guard
Deon laughed when he saw his friends on guard and splashed some water on their faces, to which Caleb instantly fought back, making the pool full of splash
“Stop. Stop, guys, stop messing around, or we’ll get in trouble,” Lucien said as he tried to distance himself from Deon and Caleb’s fight
“Haha, All right, Let’s start the game,” Deon said, stopping his fight against Caleb but still making a last splash to Lucien, who was quite far away
Lucien wanted to splash back but held himself back. He didn’t want to join the childish fight between Deon and Caleb
“Are you guys ready?” Deon asked with competitive eyes
Both Lucien and Caleb nodded and prepared themselves, their eyes burning with competitiveness
Deon raised his hand and raised his index finger and began counting down with his fingers
“One”
“Two”
“Three”
The moment deon raised his second finger, all of them inhaled a large amount of air, and when deon raised his third finger, the trio submerged themselves in the water.
At the bottom of the pool, the trio looked at each other as they held their breath and kept their guard from each other.
To achieve optimal physical enhancement, it is vital for apprentice knights to fully immerse themselves in the medicinal ice cube pool. This will provide them with the necessary enhancement benefits, so neglecting to do so would be detrimental.
With such a requirement, deon and his friends used that chance to make a game out of it. The game is quite simple; whoever holds their breath the longest wins.
Deon smiled at his friends, grabbed an ice cube near him, and started throwing them at Caleb and Lucien.
Caleb and Lucien protested with their faces, but deon didn’t care and continued to throw ice cubes at the two while smiling happily.
With Caleb and Lucien pulling a prank on him earlier, deon didn’t plan to play fair and began his revenge.
But Caleb and Lucien have no intention of just getting hit by deon and begin their counter-attack by also throwing ice cubes at deon, making deon in a bind with one versus two.
‘Wait…. I didn’t think this through,’ deon thought as he tried to dodge the ice cubes that Caleb and Lucien were throwing.
‘I have no choice, all in!’ Deon thought and swam beside Lucien and started tickling him
Lucien may seem like a serious guy, but he has a very low tolerance for tickling.
Lucien didn’t give up easily and started to kick and push deon away from him and even tried to swim away, but that only gave deon access to his feet with deon exploited such a mistake by fiercely tickling Lucien’s feet.
After a few struggles, Lucien couldn’t hold it anymore and swam up as he couldn’t hold it anymore.
‘Haha, One more,’ Deon thought and swam to Caleb, but Caleb swam away when he saw deon swim towards him. He didn’t plan to get entangled with deon as he saw Lucien’s miserable fate.
But before deon could approach Caleb, Lucien returned underwater, pursued deon, and tried to grab deon’s feet to get revenge.
‘Wait… You’re cheating. You’re eliminated,’ Deon thought as he tried to protest with his face to Lucien.
But Lucien didn’t care and gave deon a mocking smile: ‘You cheated first. I’m only here to exact my revenge.'
With Lucien in his tail, deon couldn’t swim properly, creating a large distance between him and Caleb, and with such an opportunity, Caleb started throwing more ice cubes in deon’s way.
After a while, deon couldn’t hold his breath any longer and swam up, making Caleb celebrate underwater while Lucien followed deon, still trying to catch deon to get his revenge.
Deon burst out from the water and saw Lucien following him up
“Lucien, you’re Cheating!” Deon shouted, full of grievance in his face
“You started it!” Lucien shouted back, his face full of righteousness
“Hahaha! I won!” Caleb shouted as he burst out from the water
“No, that doesn’t count!” Deon shouted at Caleb and splashed some water on him
“Shut up! I want one more round,” Lucien said, also denying Caleb’s win
The trio instantly began arguing the moment the game ended, with their loud voices attracting the other people from the other pools
After the first round, the trio played a few more rounds, but with the dirty play introduced at the beginning, the other rounds also became dirty with no fairness at all
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Thought for Thoughts:
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