Chapter 023:

“What sorcery is this? Literally!” After the tragedy that was the maths section, Alexander decided to try his hand at the subject immediately following it, Spellcasting and general Magic theory.

Unfortunately, while Alexander was able to answer some questions, there were others that were completely unfamiliar. It seemed like instead of the main branch of spellcasting being barrier-related like his last world, it was much more focused on spell inscription, otherwise known as magical circles.

Spell inscription did exist in his previous world with Nammu being a notable user of it, but in general, spellcasting had been more geared toward the beginner-friendly barrier casting instead.

The ease of use inherent to barrier magic made it more accessible to the average person, explaining its popularity despite it being weaker.

Interestingly, it seemed this world had barrier casting only now it was seen more as an archaic casting method.

Alexander felt like he would barely pass the magic section. Not with a great score, not even good, just barely fine.

Moving along, it was best not to mention the disgrace that was the history section, nor the catastrophe that was the geography section; while at it, let’s also forget what happened with language.

In his mind, Alexander began cursing Timothy for his lack of diligence in these matters.

Many pages and hardships later, Alexander finally surrendered his exam sheet once the time limit was over.

Exiting the examination hall deflated and with a slightly bruised ego, Alexander ran into two familiar faces. Grim and Edward.

Edward, sporting the same pained expression as Alexander, gave him a sympathetic nod of his head.

Grim, who seemed unfazed by what had just taken place, looked toward his friends with genuine confusion.

Alexander suddenly developed the urge to break his new pacifism and smash his fist through Grim’s face, but he barely held back.

With that, the examination period was over and the students were told to move on to another room where yet another test would await.

When Alexander entered said room and saw the machine that tested a student’s strength, his spirits immediately lit aflame with competitiveness.

‘This is my chance to regain some face!’

Unfortunately, his newfound lust for competition could not immediately be sated as he had to wait his turn like a proper child.

“Hey, aren't there way too many people?” He asked Grim as Ed had yet to get over the beating he received from the written exam.

“Yes, there are, and these are merely a third of them,” Grim replied factually.

“A third?” Alexander was incredulous as he stared at the three hundred student wannabes before him. “Just how many classmates will we have?”

“There will be four classes ranked from A to D with an average of twenty-five students per class, meaning that an approximate total of one hundred students will be picked; ten of which will be from the financial aid division. Regardless, out of the thousand and change entering, only a hundred will be accepted, making the bar of admission decently high,”

His chances of entering seemed to become smaller by the second; Alexander began growing nervous.

It was as he was studying the group of people whom he now deemed as rivals that he noticed how some of them obviously looked to be from another kingdom. ‘Those must be the guys from Graveclaws,’

Overall, their complexion seemed to be of a darker shade which made sense since the climate of the Graveclaws kingdom was much hotter and plenty sandier.

“By the way…” Alexander addressed Grim once more.

“Yeah?”

“Aren’t the students in our group a little…”

“Odd?”

“No, fiendish,”

“...” Grim could not say anything as he agreed with Timothy’s observation; the fact that the observation was made by the most fiendish did not matter, it was still factually correct.

“Ah that’s my fault, my staff was a bit late with the enrollment papers,” Ed admitted easily as he slipped into the conversation.

“Mmm got it, I forgive you,” Alexander said haughtily.

Suppressing his rising blood pressure, Ed snapped back, “I don't want to hear that from you punk, you still owe me money!”

“I retract my forgiveness, you cheap bastard!”

………………………………………………..

Grim Alec’s Point Of View:

Grim turned away from the bickering of his henchmen and studied the punching machine before him. The mechanism was fairly simple, specialized crystals were stored inside the punchable lining; these crystals emitted light when placed under stress. Different colored lights flashed for differing intensities of stress placed upon it. Instructors would then place a numerical score representing the color given off by the crystal.

Unfortunately, due to how simple the process was, it was difficult to tamper with. Grim, whose raw strength was by far his most lackluster attribute, could now understand how Ed and Alexander felt.

Instead, his two mentally challenged friends now looked fired up.

“Edward Hert! Step forward!”

“Aight let’s do this!” Big Ed said as he rotated his shoulder before stepping onto one of the testing platforms and facing a machine.

Big Ed took a deep breath and the muscles of his arm and back suddenly seemed to expand to twice their size. With impeccable form, the now bulkier Ed swung fiercely and a loud sound spread out as his fist met the machine.

“180 points!” The instructor shouted out incredulously. It was the highest score of the day.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Big Ed seemed content with his result and left the platform with renewed vigor.

“Well done,” Grim admitted and Edward merely smiled back.

“Hmph nothing much,” Timothy challenged. Speaking of the newest addition to their friend group, Grim did not miss the strange reaction Timothy had when he heard Big Ed’s last name. Come to think of it, that may have been the first time Timothy had heard of Big Ed’s last name.

‘Interesting…’ Grim thought as he further studied the new sharpness in Timothy’s eyes when he spoke with Edward.

Of course, Grim’s father had already filled him in on the details concerning the strife between the Baek and Nox households.

“Yeah, well I’d like to see you do better,”

“Just you watch,”

Briefly, Grim compared the two in his head. Timothy showed great skill when dealing with the lecherous knight, Dirk, in the club when they first met, but Big Ed was trained by the captain commander of said knight everyday, and though he did not like to get into fights much, the big lug was no doubt a powerhouse.

‘Strength-wise, Ed probably has it, speed-wise too. However, Timothy is currently more skilled. They are both dumb as rocks though,’

“Grim Alec! Step forward!” Soon his name was called and Grim was forced to take a stand before the machine.

Using every technique in the book, Grim punched with everything he could muster, making sure to twist his hips and keep his fist close to his body as he turned.

“88 points,” The instructor announced with less zeal.

Stepping down from the platform, Grim heaved a sigh of relief.

‘I did better than I thought I would,’

By his side, the two meatheads were still quarreling, completely disregarding his results.

………………………………………………..

‘Edward Hert…’ Alexander rolled the name about in his mind. There could be no doubt that Edward was related to Nox, probably a son.

‘This, I don’t know how to feel about it…’

However, Alexander soon pushed the matter to the back of his mind after noticing Grim’s subtle gaze on him.

‘Well, whatever, It’s not like it’s my problem exactly…’ Though Alexander took his name, Timothy was in fact, dead, and thus so were his problems. ‘Come to think of it, this thing hasn’t been acting up either,’ He thought as he looked at the synchronization rate which had dropped to five percent and stayed there ever since the blue rock incident.

He could think of a couple of reasons as to why that was so, chief among them being that thug he nearly killed.

‘Perhaps it was too much for Timmy to see his body almost take the life of another person,’ even Alexander did not feel too good regarding the matter.

“Timothy Baek! Step forward!” The guard finally called his name and Alexander took his place before the strength tester.

‘Hmm.’ He thought of what the right thing to do was. Initially, he had intended on not standing out too much, but Grim’s words had him worried, also he did not do too well in the written exam…

‘Fuck it I’m going all out!’ Tossing rational thought out of the window, Alexander tensed his body and mustered up all of his strength.

Though he had been resting these past few weeks, he had also kept up with his diligent daily routine and his stats reflected that:

{System Initiated}

{- Innate skills: None.

- System skills: Communication (Common-Below average), Charismatic Leadership (Uncommon-Below Average)

- Skill List: Evasion (Common-Advanced), Hand to Hand Combat (Common-Intermediate), Eyes of Discernment (Uncommon-Advanced), Spear-Play (Common-Master), Swordsmanship (Common-Novice), Knife-Arts (Common-Intermediate)}

{User Status-Main Attributes:-Vitality: 15; -Strength: 22; -Durability: 12; -Agility: 28; -Stamina: 15;}

{Bonus Stat Points: 1}

{User Status-Sub Attributes: -Fire resistance: Unquantifiable, -Fire affinity: Unquantifiable }

{Synchronisation Rate: 5%}

‘One point is just not worth saving…’

{Bonus Stat Point usage registered: User Status-Main Attribute: -Strength: 22 + 1 = 23}

{Remaining Bonus Stat points: 0}

‘All right!’ After settling his stat points, Alexander took in a deep breath.

Around him, people started getting irritated over how long he was taking but he paid them no mind.

In fact, Alexander was slightly excited to see just how strong he was. Stat points were not everything, if one took two people with equal strength stats, their scores on this machine would still be bound to differ. It was only natural as everyone used their body differently depending on a lot of things, like training and disposition.

A trained fighter would be more deadly than someone who just worked out even if they ended up having identical builds and that difference simply came down to how effectively each individual used their body. It came down to skill.

Similarly, disposition played a big role, a softie would hold back no matter how much he tried, but someone who was a bit more callous…

Unfortunately for the other students, Alexander was someone who both knew how to effectively use his body and was a fiendish bastard.

Bam!

A loud sound suddenly brought everyone’s attention over to where Alexander stood.

The new center of attention acted calmly, retrieving his aching arm back from the now-damaged strength testing machine.

Everyone, including Alexander, waited with bated breaths to know what his score would turn out to be.

Feeling somewhat pressured, the instructor finally finished placing a score and announced with some trepidation: “T-three hundred and eleven points!” A loud ruckus immediately followed his announcement as the students began discussing among themselves.

“Holy fucking shit balls what the fuck!” A particularly rowdy student spoke, “That’s close to our scores from earlier!”

“Careful with your filthy mouth!” A girl standing behind him chastised him.

“Woah”

“T-that’s a bit…”

“Hey isn’t he a bit cute?”

Other people also expressed their opinions but the last line Alexander heard, uttered by an oddly mature-looking beauty, caught his attention the most. He looked her way and received a wink in return.

“Worth,” He muttered to himself.

“Ed…” Grim muttered.

“Yeah…That punch was scary,” Big Ed admitted with a complicated look on his face.

The rest of the test proceeded smoothly albeit with a little less excitement. Alexander was still far and away the highest scorer; that being said, it wasn’t as if he were paying attention to the rest as he was too busy chatting with the beauty from earlier.

“So yeah, I actually don’t work out that much,” Alexander said as his eyes stared into the beauty’s own pair. It wasn’t every day that you could see someone with golden pupils.

“And yet you are still so strong!” She replied back with a flirtatious giggle.

“Heh, It’s nothing much. In fact, I think I can actually be stronger if only I can find time away from my thriving business,”

“You have a business?” She asked in interest.

The two prattled on back and forth, but just as Alexander was about to close in, he felt a hostile gaze on him.

“Zackery Moore! Step forward!” Just then, the guard announced a name and Alexander now had a name attached to the gaze.

Unexpectedly, the one staring daggers into the back of his head was a kid. His tanned skin made it clear he came from Graveclaws, but aside from that he was pretty unremarkable. ‘He’s probably 15, Dark hair, dark eyes, short stature…no problem,’ He immediately assessed before casually ignoring him. He began to turn back toward the beauty, but then he noticed the kid gesturing something at him.

‘What? He wants me to watch?’ Then, before Alexander could reject and turn around, the kid punched out.

‘What shitty form, no way he was properly trained,’ He thought but still, he felt a slight sense of unease.

An unease that was confirmed when a loud bang, even comparable to that of Alexander’s, rang out.

Everyone’s attention immediately converged once more.

The instructor, having finished his grading, started to announce with a stutter “T-three hundred and t-ten points!”

Immediately, everyone started to discuss once more.

“Holy shit! Little Zack is way too fucking much!” A familiar filthy mouth spoke.

“Language!”

Even the beauty Alexander was wooing was too distracted by the kid’s performance to continue talking.

‘Son of a bitch!’ Alexander’s eyes blazed as he stared at the kid who stared back defiantly with a confident look in his eyes, still he seemed a bit downcast over the fact that he was a bit weaker.

It was at this moment that Alexander realized something.

‘Wait a second, an underdog proving his unusual strength to a seemingly perfect but arrogant peer…’ His heart sank all the way down to his stomach for the second time that day.

‘Is that bastard another hero?’