Finally, Ezekill had a relaxing downtime, for a moment he felt like an ordinary student who had a future. Lancelot dismissed the class after an hour, he was quite impressed with Ezekill and envisioned his future as a great mathematician.

Damn, I can’t believe I still remember everything. Thanks to Guide I guess. He thought.

[Notice: Analysis completed, Guide acquired the ability to: Mind Hijack]

[Acquired: Mental attack resistance.]

Mind Hijack? Oh that time, I’m not sure I can call this Guide an ability anymore. He thought.

[Notice: Guide is part of you, in short, a parallel mind like Führer, and Raphael.]

Raphael? Now I understand, but wow comparing yourself to Raphael you sure are full of yourself. He thought.

[Without me, you would be dead by now, and a Nightmare snack.]

Ezekill frowned, he ignored Guide and continued to pack up his things and move.

Ezekill left the classroom. Ezekill whistled in the hall leisurely, the melody of his whistle echoed throughout the hall. What was the next subject again? He thought.

Ezekill remembered the next subject he took was combat. He strolled downstairs, passing classrooms to classrooms, he continued walking until he arrived at the gym where they're supposed to take the class, but it was occupied with another class. They were blasting magic inside the gym, they stopped doing their training. They noticed Ezekill opened the door to the gym.

“Your Instructor said, to head towards the training grounds. If you don’t know where just head straight to the opposite direction of the library then you’ll see them.” The professor said.

Ezekill bowed his head to thank her, the professor smiled and told her class to continue. Ezekill left the gym as quietly as possible. Ezekill scanned the area, and using his cognitive map, continued his march.

Ezekill arrived at the grassy plain and saw the gang of hooligans but Rey was missing, he was probably skipping class again. He scanned the area, he saw no familiar faces other than those hooligans. The crowd standing was a bit disorderly, a buzz of people talking without trying to lower their voices. The Professors were passive, not even trying to shut the students out.

Ezekill gazed at the person in his fifties, who looked out of place. His brushed-up brown hair looked very neat, to match it he had a goatee. He had a black gambeson under his red brigandine. Ezekill peeked at his stats.

[Dylan Epochal]

[Age: 53]

[Disposition: 0]

[Stats]

Level: 69

EXP: 25000/120000

HP: 1520/1520

MP: 570/570

SP: 2500/2500

Sta: 1500/1520

[Job: S Rank Adventurer]

Affiliation: Adventurer’s Guild, Order of Magnus.

[Attribute Points: 0]

STR: 90

AGI: 120

Cons: 150

Endurance: 150

Wis: 40

Int: 35

[Magic]

7th Air Affinity: Wind shear, Blast shot, Wind Tempest, Wind Wall, Steel Wind Strike, Misty Step.

Magic Theory.

[Abilities]

High Appraisal.

Rapid Thought.

Aura mastery: Mirror Image, camouflage, silent step, foul sense.

[Skills]

Combat: level 21 sword proficiency, level 30 Ascion sword style, level 13 Flinch sword style, level 10 Wurd sword style.

Labor: level 15 Trainer, level 15 Survival, level 7 trap-making, level 8 Cooking, level 3 Alchemy.

[Passives]

Normal arcane core.

Orange Aura Mastery - First Level.

Lucky.

He looked around, Ezekill was wrong, he wasn't being passive but observing the behavior of his students. A disciplined warrior, Ezekill stood still; he knew this guy was like a military instructor. Ezekill behaved, he didn't want to be disciplined as he had his fair share in his past life.

Elizabeth tapped Ezekill's back, Ezekill stared at her.

“Yo, Ezekill.”

“Behave, Eli,” Ezekill whispered.

“What's wrong?” Elizabeth replied, a bit confused.

“The Instructor is inspecting our behavior. If you don't want to get his attention then shut it.”

Roy and Yvonne arrived at the training ground. Roy and Yvonne were told the same thing and complied.

A few moments later, the instructor shouted.

“Put hay in your hole! Attention you undisciplined bastards! You live like a maggot in bacon!” The instructor roared.

He walked in rows checking the students' postures. He slapped the students with even the slightest twitch. The hooligan that got slapped, glared at the instructor.

“You dare glare at me boy!” He slapped the hooligan again.

The hooligan tried to attack the instructor but he got punched on his gut and kneeled in pain. The instructor grabbed his hair, he lifted the hooligan.

“One hundred push-ups! Now you damn maggot!” He shouted into his ears.

The hooligan groaned in pain, he held his stomach, he then positioned himself. His arms were fully extended, with his hands, elbows, and shoulders all in line. He breathed in as he bent his elbows, keeping them tracking back alongside his body, lowering his chest to below the level of his bent elbow, and then breathed out as he pushed back up to the starting position for repetition.

Everyone went silent, the only noise came from the hooligan's labored breath, he gasped. After moments passed, he had his hundred push-ups.

“Now! Every one of you must call me Instructor, or Sir!”

“State your name starting from the right!”

“Yvonne!” the elf shouted.

Each student called out their names. Ezekill was next, then the gang followed.

“Ezekill!”

“Elizabeth!”

“Roy!”

Everyone was done with the roll call, the instructor introduced himself.

“I am Dylan Epochal, from now on I will be your Instructor.” He said.

He walked in front of the students. He moved his head as he looked at everyone’s stats. “Weak! Some of you have below ten endurance!? And below fifteen constitutions!? How do you expect to survive with the profession that you took!?”

“Are you sure with your careers!? You won’t be able to survive the wilderness! I saw the papers you signed, all of you wanted to be a soldier, adventurers! Some even had a blank slate, unsure of the path! But still dared to take this course!?” He howled.

“Is this some kind of joke to you maggots!?” Dylan shouted expecting a reply from the students but none answered.

“I said! Is this a joke to you! Are you not taking your future seriously!?”

“No, Sir!” The students replied in sync.

“Then why are all of your stats so pathetic!”

“You won’t be able to survive this kind of encounter! Watch!”

Dylan’s sapphire longsword flew towards his hands. He smashed it on Ezekill; meanwhile, Ezekill noticed, he blocked the sapphire blade with his Golden Gauntlet by raising it upward. It clanged, Ezekill shoved the longsword away and drew his Crystalis from his right.

“This is what a prepared soldier looks like, move forward boy, we don’t have enough room there.” He looked away and showed his back to Ezekill.

Everyone was dumbfounded who wasn’t familiar with Ezekill, while Roy’s mouth widened, then he sighed showing that he still didn’t know everything about Ezekill. And Eli’s smirked face showed, boasting in her mind. That’s my rival!

God, I was doing my best not to get his attention. Give me a break! He thought.

“Disciplined, well-prepared, and strong. He’s even younger than most of you!” He yelled.

“Raylight, I always wanted to fight a Raylight. Even a child, Raylights are always strong.” He drew his sapphire longsword similar to Crystalis towards Ezekill.

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“Already equipped to kill, now boy let's show them how warriors fight,” Dylan added.

Dylan raised his longsword above his head, a high roof. Ezekill sighed now he can't back down. Ezekill did a hanging right.

Dylan didn't underestimate Ezekill's swordsmanship even though he only had level five Ascion style, but he had a master level style that was unknown to him.

Ezekill felt that he should be on defense, and wait for counters. After all, this guy was a master swordsman. He had the same aura as that guy he faced at the final tournament, intimidating.

Dylan checked Ezekill's reaction, he did quick cuts in different directions but Ezekill was too observant, he kept reacting to it. Blocking each attempt.

Dylan felt a hesitation, this boy was too strong for his age. A freaking child was a master swordsman, how was this possible. The masters Dylan encountered were at his age or older; there was a grandmaster in his thirties but Ezekill was twenty-one years younger than him, which was terrifying.

He smirked, this would be insulting for the child if he hesitated much longer. He challenged him so he must commit, also this would slap reality for his students and make them inspired to work harder.

Dylan circled around trying to strike on his blindspot. He cut downward, Ezekill blocked lifting Crystalis up then transitioned to ox guard. Bound both edges to each other, Ezekill was winding and rotated Crystalis to his left. Dylan raised his longsword in an effort to parry Ezekill's counter, Dylan ducked but Crystalis's point was still able to reach his cheeks. Crystalis was stopped by Dylan's longsword and parried away to Ezekill's far left. Dylan thrust his dark blue longsword towards Ezekill's solar plexus, Ezekill tripled his speed to jump backward. If Ezekill didn't react on time he would have been stabbed and lost his neck.

Ezekill inhaled touching his neck, that was close, he thought.

The crowd gasped as they spectated the fight. They weren't sure if they were trying to kill each other or just a spar.

“You're scary, mister,” Ezekill said while rubbing his neck.

“Call me Instructor. But I'll get you away with that since you almost got my neck too.” Dylan wiped the blood on his cheeks.

Ezekill looked down, he saw a hole in his uniform.

This guy is crazy! Are all adventurers like this!? He thought.

“You have a beautiful sword, what's her name?”

“Crystalis, how about yours? It doesn't look ordinary.”

“Bathala,” Dylan said.

It had a majestic dark blue blade, the dark blue hilt was beautifully engraved. It made it unfitting for him to wield. It was a bit thinner than Crystalis but still wide enough to be called a broadsword.

[Bathala]

???

Attuned to: Dylan Epochal

100 - 125 Damage

Item Rarity: Artifact.

Abilities:

Connected: The attuned user can feel Bathala's location, distance doesn’t matter.

Recall: Returns at attuned user’s will.

Indestructible: Immune to any damage, or abuse from the user.

???

???

???

???

That's some sexy ass broadsword. He thought.

“Despite the big difference in our stats, he had his experience and training. He knew how to deal with stronger opponents.” He shouted.

“But don't worry, with me as your Instructor. Your growth will explode, I'll train your asses off until all of you can handle a dungeon!”

“Now, start running!”

Ezekill sheathed Crystalis back and ran.

The students ran with no questions asked, Dylan always knew that mortals either gave up or thrive to get better if they get slapped by reality. Based on his experience. He was glad everyone chose to improve, no one backed out, which also meant that they were ready for some harsh thrashing.

Ezekill looked back towards Dylan, he saw he called the other professors. Ezekill felt an ominous feeling.

“Roy, Elizabeth, Yvonne. Better prepare your ass.” Ezekill said.

They sprinted around the vast training ground. They weren't instructed which way to go, so instead, they followed the guy who was in front. Ezekill led the entire class with his instinct, Ezekill's immediately assumed the training he had. He ran in circular and lapped by reaching Dylan. Stamina was deducted by twenty, he and the gang started to sweat, meanwhile, Yvonne already huffed, and was drenched in her sweat. Yvonne's stamina wasn't great, she panted falling behind the gang as they passed Dylan.

Dylan was pleased to see his three students had better stamina than they looked since most of the students were neglecting their physical attributes.

They lapped another round and another, passing through Dylan. Yvonne was already kneeling on the ground halfway through the first lap, despite that she did better than her classmates. Who gave up earlier.

Dylan halted the class, Dylan made them run in their regular uniform, which was not suitable for physical exercise.

Dylan made them form in line, letting them rest in the ground.

“Next meeting you'll receive your training uniforms. So that's for today's training.”

“you guys really run in big loops.”

“You didn't tell us how many metres we would run, and where to. Instructor.” Elizabeth was labored for breath as she said while her hair was tied, making her sweaty neck visible.

“I just wanted to see how long you could run, quite impressive I say.”

Ezekill could smell Elizabeth's sweet aroma, it made him wonder what her sweat tastes like.

No, no, no. What the hell. I have Yui. Ezekill slapped himself for having that thought.

“What's wrong, Ez? Are you going crazy?”

“No, it's just- uh never mind.” Ezekill avoided eye contact.

Like hell, I would be able to say that! He thought.

“Alright, dismiss,” Dylan said.

“Finally! I could finally go back to my room!” Roy said while stretching.

“I still have one left before I can go.” Elizabeth sighed.

“I'm also done for today, the first day of school is already stressing me out.” Ezekill sighed.

“Yeah right, dealing with bullies is exhausting,” Roy said.

“Yeah,” Ezekill said reluctantly.

Plus more events that you have no clue about. He thought.

“Elizabeth, remember the bully we encountered at the entrance earlier in the morning?”

“Yes, I remember,” she replied.

“He was in our class! Then Ezekill kicked his ass!” He said.

“That guy? It was the entire gossip in my Practicals. Blonde vs blonde they said.” Elizabeth said.

“I let my anger control me. I almost killed someone for nothing.” Ezekill sighed.

“He was far from dead, in my perspective. If that guy died then serve him right!” Roy said.

“He's a human too, Roy. And he's young, we're not built to be perfect. We make mistakes, I also should have known better before acting out.” Ezekill sighed.

“He deserved it!”

“Then I should be deserving of some punishment too.”

“But instead, I got away with it.”

Even in my second life, I'm still like this. I don't want to lose what I have right now, I don't want to make the same mistake.

Yvonne just sat there, listening, and didn't know what to say.

“You know you're wrong right? Then that's something Ez.” Elizabeth tried to consult him.

“You're the youngest here, a lot of room to improve,” Elizabeth added.

“Anyways I got to go, bye Ez, bye Roy. Bye Elf, let's properly introduce next time.” She said as she stood up.

“Good luck, Eli.”

“Bye-bye, Elizabeth. My name is Yvonne!” Yvonne said.

The gang stood up next as Elizabeth stood. They went their separate ways.

Ezekill went on his way, going back to the main tower, he wanted to remove his clothes as he felt sticky and hot. Ezekill arrived in the main hall of the school, a humongous Magnus Eye Symbol was seen on the floor. It symbolized a circle and an eye at the center.

He went towards the giant two wooden doors and went outside the school. He saw the octagonal pool that surrounded the fountain at the center, a stereotypical wizard statue held its staff above, spraying water many metre high into the blazing summer air from the staff of the old wizard.

“Rey! Where are you going! You need more time to let your circuit adjust!” Yonnah screamed as she tried to catch Rey.

Rey on other hand quickly charged at Ezekill on sight, like some raging animal. He stopped after he faced Ezekill.

“Oh this guy,” Yonnah said.

Ezekill immediately bowed his head, apologizing to Rey. After he saw him.

“I'm sorry Rey, I overdid it,” Ezekill said.

“What? Why are you apologizing!?” Rey shouted.

“Because I broke-” Ezekill was cut off by Rey.

“You won that match fair and square, I want a rematch.” Rey pointed his finger forward to Ezekill.

“Wait, Rey, you’re being too hasty! You need time to adjust!” Yonnah said, trying to stop him.

The commotion outside made the crowd glimpse towards them, then continued forward as they didn't want to get caught. It also got the attention of one of the Security Council Committee. She wore the Security Council uniform, which consisted of a black tunic with intricate silver details, four silver button fronts to match the style, and lastly an armband with Magnus insignia. She wore black pants, and boots. She had lightish brown short hair, fierce blue eyes.

“Initiating a duel without Professor supervision or us is a violation of Security Act 1.” She said, while walking towards them the crowd dispersed as she walked.

“Wait, I know you.” She frowned.

“You again,” Rey said.

“I would say the same.” She sighed.

They met again, both Rey and Svetlana gazed at each other. Svetlana tried to catch Rey when a concerned student reported Rey to her when he beat up the poor dwarf. It was the dwarf’s friend, but one witness wasn’t enough to convict Rey of his crime. Svetlana called the other witness on the scene but they were too afraid of Rey. So in the end, he was released.

“Is he beating you up kid? Don’t be afraid to tell me. I’m here,” she smiled at Ezekill.

“It was actually the other way around,” Yonnah said.

“Wait really?” Svetlana doubted what Yonnah had said.

“And Rey wanted a rematch with him. Stubborn idiot won’t stop, just give him what he wants and be done with it.” Yonnah sighed.

“Alright I'm bored anyway, I was also curious about Rey's strength,” Svetlana said.

“Come, follow me,” she added.

The woman, Svetlana, had a thick eastern accent.

Rey told her, “Hey woman! Are you a Salvician?”

“Yes,” Svetlana replied in annoyance, she then turned her head towards Ezekill.

“What's your name?” Svetlana asked.

“Uh? Me? I'm Ezekill,” he replied.

“How old are you? Sorry if I'm being rude. You Schwarians dislike being asked personal questions.” Svetlana said.

“It's fine, it doesn’t bother me that much, I’m nine years old,” Ezekill replied.

“Also impressive, are you sure- uh never mind, I just realized I was about to be rude again,” Svetlana said.

“Arrived at the open ground, plenty of space to go wild. I'm doing this for my curiosity and I'm kinda bored, so as the rule of duel says, no fatal magic.”

“I forfeit, you win Rey.”

“What, we didn't even start!” Rey said.

I just want to get back to Yui. Ezekill thought, exhausted.

“What? I was curious about your strength, both of you. Two unusual bunch, one too young to be here, second a feared delinquent. I would say scum or low-life bully but it would hurt a Schwarian feeling.”

“You fucking Salv! Fucking drunktards,” Rey said.

“Heh, none was taken. Not offended even a tiny bit, you lose,” Svetlana giggled.

While the two of them were exchanging insults, Yonnah made a deal with Ezekill. She offered her modification technique and the new magic after Ezekill fought Rey. Ezekill was intrigued, he asked some questions before accepting her offer.

“Rey wanted to show off his new magic, if you accept I might also uh teach you.” Yonnah offered.

“I'm reluctant to use the word teach because I'm not really teaching.” She added.

“A new magic? What kind?” Ezekill asked.

“Mana skin, a modified defense field. Also I can modify magic circles. I can make it stronger but the downside is that you need readjustments. In other words, retrain.”

“I modified Rey’s and you will notice the modification. If you accept and take the duel seriously. Then I teach you, deal?” Yonnah answered.

Ezekill distanced himself and raised his arms forward. Indicating he accepted the offer.

“Will both of you stop?” She sighed.

“Alright then, I Svetlana will sanction and witness this duel. Both parties already agreed and fought until one of their shields broke or was unwilling to fight. Activate the shield!”

[You had been buffed gain Shield 500/500]

I need to end this quickly, I want to hug Yui. He thought.

As soon as both of their shields operated, Ezekill flashed at sonic speed. He used every speed buff he had on his kit, double speed, and aura buff. Rey burst into flame, a fire swirled in his body mimicking his movements. Rey used fire breath, ferocity within spreads as eddying swirls of fire released towards Ezekill.

Ezekill was surprised and redirected himself away from his magic, by erecting an Earth Spike on his left, slamming his Golden Gauntlet to fling him to the side. Ezekill cast another magic, Earthen Grasp. The solid hand caught Ezekill's momentum and reshaped into stone armor.

Ezekill repositioned himself, doing tail guard. And rushed again towards Rey. Rey also didn't hold back, he used the signature move that was passed to him. Hell-fire barrage. A blue-colored flame emerged from his cubic staff, shooting off towards Ezekill. Ezekill was blasted by blue flames, the first one he was able to tank it, the second one managed to stagger him, and the third one made the stone armor too hot to wear, and made Ezekill discard it.

Ezekill was surprised, he was a lot stronger than before. It made him rethink.

“Wow, these guys are stronger than most of the mages here. In terms of power.” Svetlana said.

“So this is the power of Rey's rival,” Yonnah said.

Rey distanced himself while Ezekill was stunned, he needed thirty seconds to make his strongest magic available again.

He blasted Ezekill with fire bolts every two seconds while he ran away from him. Ezekill slashed off the fire bolts, keeping him occupied. But Rey can't waste his mana on weak magic, as soon as the blasting stopped. Ezekill did his counterattack, firing off Glass Spikes. Rey moved his shoulders away when the Glass Spikes erected from the ground, he dodge backward, and kept evading until the casting was over.

Rey was dumbfounded, how the hell he kept firing the same magic, again and again. The recoil would have stopped him from doing that even if he ignored the cooldowns.

While he was in thought a beam of light bounced off into the erected Glass Spikes and unable to react hitting square on his heart. Shield cracked, deducting one hundred fifty points of HP.

Rey moaned in agony. He rebalanced himself. He felt a warm feeling indicating the cooldown was done and blasted hellfire on him. Motivated to win, he shot another magic fire bolt. And to his surprise, he managed to duplicate five magic circles of fire bolts.

Ezekill braced himself for the impact, as Rey's magic came after him like a cluster bomb. Ezekill sheltered himself by constructing Earth Spikes around him, covered himself with dirt hands, and armor himself in stone armor. Despite the effort, the sound of an explosion could be heard like a barrage of artillery. Bombarding his makeshift bomb shelter. It penetrated, blasting him off, deducting three hundred points of shield.

[Shield 200/500]

He coughed, he would be meeting Herana now if he didn't have his shelter and shield from the pendant.

“Yikes, my brother is really stupid at holding back.”

Rey was dazed by the power he just demonstrated. He looked at his hand while the swirling flaming cloak slowed and vanished. Forty-five seconds had passed, it was the limit of his new magic. But the hellfire barrage was a lot stronger, thirty percent stronger than before. Additionally, he was ten percent sturdier.

Chance! He thought.

Rey let his guard down and Ezekill took the opportunity. Ezekill used a charge from his gauntlet and let out a blue orb of mana hitting Rey, he groaned in pain. Rey buffed himself with Fire Rebuke, meanwhile, Ezekill dashed towards him. Thrusting Crystalis towards his chest hitting Rey. Deducting a hundred points to Rey, Fire Rebuke activated and exploded into Ezekill’s face, reducing Ezekill’s shield to zero. Shield shattered like broken glass.

[Shield 0/500]

“Match!” Svetlana shouted.

Rey won.