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The next day at the Arena, we were once again in the stands, but something felt different, more… tense.

That is when I noticed that the instructors were no longer wearing the leather armor that they usually wear, no, today, all the instructors were decked out. The fighting instructors were in half-plate armor and even the mage instructors were wearing some sort of gambeson with metal plates sewn on critical parts.

When I looked around the Arena, I spotted no less than ten men in the stands with crossbows at the ready.

Soon, one of the portcullises in The Pit opens, and out walks Instructor Greyham wearing the kingdom’s standard full-plate armor, and from the look of it, this was not some highly polished ceremonial armor, no, this armor has what I like to call ‘character’.

There was very obvious battle damage that has repair overlaid over other repairs multiple times and signs of blunt damage that had been buffed out. But despite all its scars, it was well maintained and looked like it was ready for ten more battles.

This was the kind of armor I would like to have, no, EARN eventually as it goes through battles with me. Like the scars on a fighter, the battle scars on the armor are like marks of honor.

The only thing stopping me from getting armor now is me growing, as I keep getting taller, it is just not worth getting a suit until I stop getting taller… soon… with my accelerated growth, that means puberty is around the corner…

Crap, now that I think about it, it is not all good, I have to go through that all over again. Voice cracking, acne, unexplained boners, the whole deal, but I will fret over that later, it seems Instructor Greyham is about to talk.

“Good morning students.” his naturally booming voice rolls over the stands.

“Good morning Sir!” all of us reply in unison as those of us in Advanced Combat & Tactics had the reply drilled into us over the lessons, and the mage students just followed along.

“Today is a day many of you are going to remember for the rest of your lives. After all that team practice you did yesterday, it is time to put it to a real test. Today, you will be doing what the assistant instructors demonstrated on the first day in the Arena.”

The moment that last sentence left Instructor Greyham’s mouth, there were murmurs that slowly escalated into shouting, and they ran the gamut from excited to frightened, and even some angry, but before it got out of hand, Instructor Greyham shouted “Shut it!” and the stands quickly quietened down.

“Now, I understand that most of you have never killed anything bigger than an ant, let alone something humanoid-looking like a goblin, so it is not compulsory to take part in this last exercise. If you decide to not participate in this exercise, your grades will not be affected, but you will not get bonus grades. So I will ask now, is there anyone who does not want to take part in this exercise?”

Stolen novel; please report.

After the question was asked, there was complete silence in the stands, and as I looked around, I could clearly see some of the kids shaking, while some others were about to raise their hands, looked around and saw that no one was raising their hands and kept their hands down. Peer pressure is a hell of a thing.

After a minute of silence, Instructor Greyham nodded. “Right then, we will begin shortly, but before we do, I suppose it is best to brief you on the opponent you are facing today.”

He then went into a lecture on goblins, their weak points which are basically almost about the same as humans, and their social structure, basically everything Dad taught me when I joined him on a goblin hunt for the first time.

Once the lecture was done, Instructor Greyham started the briefing before the event started, “Since none of you dropped out, there is no need to reshuffle the teams, so you all will keep to yesterday’s teams. When you are in The Pit, you will face off against five goblins. You will be timed in this exercise, the faster you dispatch the goblins, the better, but that does not mean you should just charge them, despite their smaller size and your armor, they can still harm you. As for rules, they are simple, no usage of aura and no casting of spell above the second circle, other than that, anything goes.”

Instructor Greyham then pointed to the cardinal directions in the stands where Arena staff were, “You will be monitored by the Arena staff during this exercise, if you are hit by the goblins, there will be a minor penalty to your overall time. If one of your teammates goes down or the instructors deem it necessary to step in it will be a major time penalty, break the rules and the whole team gets disqualified. Any questions?”

It was pretty straightforward, come in, kill some gobos safely, and get out, but there were those who were nervous and had a bunch of questions.

After the Q&A section was done, Instructor Greyham ended off by throwing in an incentive to motivate the students, “By the way, the team with the best time will win a nice prize.”

That quickly caught the attention of the kids, “The winning team will get a Royal Academy Mana Steel weapon of their choice.”

This got the students rather excited and left me somewhat confused, it was just Mana Steel, the lowest of the weapons-grade mana conductive metals, it was not even a naturally created magic metal, it was just steel that had been artificially imbued with mana, it is the cheapest mana-conductive metal that is commonly used for weapons or for specialized industrial purposes, and while most mundane metals can be artificially imbued with mana, it is just not worth the cost artificially imbuing them with mana unless it is for a very specific purpose.

When I nudged Sam who was next to me to ask what the hubbub was about, he gave me a look like I was some ignorant bumpkin. I mean technically speaking I am a noble bumpkin, but after rolling his eyes, Sam explained to me that the Royal Academy rewards excellence with equipment bearing the Royal Academy’s heraldry in increasing metal rarity, depending on the task accomplished.

To the nobles, this was a prestigious thing that they and their parents could brag about. For commoners like Dave and Sam, it was something more practical. For people like them, an average Mana Steel sword could cost almost a year of their family’s income. If they could get their hands on a Royal Academy Mana Steel weapon, not only would it be a reliable weapon in case their future profession needed it, but if they ever needed money, they could sell it for a much higher price than the average Mana Steel weapon just because it was officially from the Royal Academy, it was truly the power of branding.

After Instructor Greyham got everyone to quiet down again, he continued, “But that is not all, for the team with the best time, there is an optional trial with more rewards, but I will leave the trial and rewards as a surprise. So, who wants to be first?!”