Elius woke up due to the constant noises coming from outside.

“Ughh. Why is it so noisy today?”

He asked while rubbing his eyes.

“Today, everyone finally will form a team.”

“Oh, I completely forgot about that.”

“You spent so many times in the library these days. What are you up to?”

Ian squinted his eyes and asked suspiciously.

“Nothing, just learning new stuff, you know. Whooooah, what are you wearing?”

Ian was in black from head to toe. He had a long, black trenchcoat that reached his knees, black trousers, and a black t-shirt.

“Our clothes that reinforced with mana have finally arrived.”

Ian said while pointing out Elius’ clothes.

“Your creativeness has mesmerized me as always.”

Ian shook his head.

“Why? What is wrong with it.”

Elius was pretty satisfied with his clothes.

“Simplicity is the best.”

“But, isn’t a white t-shirt and black shorts too simple?”

“It is the best!”

Elius quickly changed and prepared for the tournament.

“Well, at least you put some effort into your shoes.”

Elius had dark red shoes that looked comfortable.

“Of course, it is the most important factor to move around for me.”

When they arrived at the training ground in the backyard of the academy, they saw it was split in two. There were two arenas now and something like a balcony for adventurers to observe the fights. Most of the students were already there, waiting. Elius searched the area and approached a group.

“Ah, I told you to leave us alone.”

“Hm? Why? Aren’t we friends? We spend a whole day together in the city.”

Liam said to the irritated Neil.

“Liam! Stop bothering people.”

Ruvyn looked troubled, but on the other hand, Nora was finding this situation amusing. Neil saw her smile.

“You like to see me suffer, don’t you?”

Nora smiled instead of answering. Pissing off people for no reason was something like a hobby for Liam. Of course, it was weird for other people, but he was having quite fun.

“Hello.”

Neil rolled his eyes as soon as Elius arrived.

“Elius!”

“Nora!”

They did a little high five.

“What the… When did you two become this close?”

Neil was surprised. Her sister wasn’t someone like this. She usually was proud and acted high and mighty wherever she went, she was acting like a real noble, but that changed after they came to the academy. On the other hand, Neil has been that way since childhood. He didn’t care about being a prince, didn’t act like a noble, or had any interest in the throne.

‘Maybe she is just beginning to think like me?’

“Hi.”

Nora said to Ian while playing with her hair.

“Hello.”

Ian simply nodded. But Ruvyn, who was watching them from the corner, smiled maliciously.

“Huhuhu.”

Ian felt something creepy and flinched.

“W-what?”

“Nothing.”

Ruvyn kept smiling.

Everyone was wearing eyeful clothes. Elius quickly examined every one of them, and then his eyes began to sparkle. He realized that Liam’s clothes were almost identical to his.

“Oooh, simple and nice.”

Liam eyed Elius from head to toe.

“I was expecting you to wear something more flashy.”

“I would prefer to walk around half-naked.”

Then they both began to smile and did a weird handshake.

“I’m scared.”

Ian said to Ruvyn while watching them with a concerned look. Then the air around became heavy suddenly, and adventurers stepped on the training grounds following Idarin. There was someone next to Idarin they had never seen before. He was Aaron, and the dignified presence he had made everyone shut. Elius kept looking between Aaron and Neil. Then he gasped in realization. He was just about to say something, but Neil stopped him.

“Ah, shut up, yes, he is my father.”

Elius’ eyes widened in excitement, and he stared at Aaron in admiration.

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‘Wow, can I be like him someday? He looks strong.’

Not just Elius, every student stared at him.

“I forgot to tell. Emperor Aaron will accompany us today.”

Idarin casually said to the students, and they kept walking. Aaron quickly searched the crowd and spotted his children, then he smiled and waved at them. Neil was moody as always, so he rolled his eyes instead of waving back like Nora. Finally, everyone was in place, and Idarin began to talk.

“Dear students, as I said a week ago, today we will hold a little tournament to place you on teams. So please take out your ID and check if your rank raised to the E.”

Everyone did as they told, and indeed some of the students had E-rank now instead of F. But nobody knew why did it go up.

“If your rank is still F, please stand on the right side of the line. If not, move on to the left side. And of course, the non-combat types, please step back and enjoy the show.”

Students began to follow his instructions, and Aaron turned towards him.

“What is this?”

“Students on the left side are with the highest potential, and the ones on the right are the ones like the last year.”

“You know, this is straight-up discrimination.”

“Pfft. They should be grateful to get into this academy without an exam.”

Aaron sighed. Cassandra was watching them from behind, she looked thoughtful.

‘Isn’t emperor very understanding towards Idarin? Hmm… He always does what Idarin says… Weird indeed. Very weird.

“I still can’t believe you transferred all of the students from last year.”

“They didn’t have what it takes to become an adventurer. Plus, I have changed a lot of things since last year. For example, they don’t know yet, but three years was too long for graduation, so I’ve dropped it to one.”

When the students finished getting into position, Idarin spoke again.

“There is only one rule. If an outsider interferes, the person that the outsider helped will be disqualified. Since we have one of the best healers.”

He pointed out to Sharon, who was standing in the middle of two arenas.

“You can go all out. Now, step up to the arena if your ID begins to glow. The fight continues until someone admits defeat or lose consciousness.”

Everyone impatiently checked their IDs.

“Tsk. No luck on the first round.”

Elius clicked his tongue while two other students were stepping into the arena. Most of the students were on the right side of the line. There were only around 30 students on the left side. Without a doubt, they were going to create the teams of the SS-rank adventurers.

‘Hmm, I’ve never seen them.’

Elius checked the two guys who were stepping into the arena. Both of them had swords hanging around their waists. They both unsheathed their swords when the fight began, and Elius realized. One of them had a sword with sides like a saw. It wasn’t like that to cut things, it was to lacerate.

He was Nelson, a son of two retired adventurers. He was well trained, and his viciousness is what made him dangerous. No matter who he was fighting, he was dead serious, and he had no hesitation. As soon as the fight started, he viciously unleashed nonstop attacks on his opponent. It was pretty much a one-sided fight. After exchanging blows, Nelson finally landed one hit to his opponent’s side of the abdomen and tore out his flesh. The guy screamed in pain and fell onto his back. Before getting back up, Nelson was already pointing his sword at the guy’s face. The fight ended with Nelson’s victory. Thus, Nelson tuırned back to his spot. In contrast, after getting healed, the guy sent to the students who decided to watch instead of fighting. It went on like this for a while, and finally, Nora’s ID began to glow.

“Finally.”

She quickly went to the arena. Her opponent was Cathy. She was training with Eldron for two days but still wasn’t sure if she could perform the style she created in her mind. They gave each other a slight nod, and Cathy began to run towards Nora. Nora stood where she was and called her sword. She had a transparent light blue sword that looked like it was created from ice. She drew an arc in the air with her sword, and icicles flew towards Cathy. With every swing of Nora’s sword, icicles appeared like her sword was a machine that generates ice. She knew that wouldn’t do anything, she just wanted to slow Cathy down, but unlike her expectations, Cathy was fast. She dodged most of the icicles with nimble movements and deflected the rest with her spear without losing momentum. She had an aptitude for air, so she was using it to make herself faster.

“Ohh, she is fast, isn’t she? What do you think, Ian? Is she faster than you?”

Elius asked with a surprised expression.

“Hmm, she is currently faster than me, but I can’t quite tell.”

Cathy was about to close the distance, but the ground began to freeze from where Nora stood, starting from her feet. She aimed to take Cathy’s ability to move around freely. Still, before the freezing reached Cathy, she put the tip of her spear to the ground and pushed herself in the air. The ice crumbled when she was about to fall to the frozen ground, and a little stepping stone emerged. Thus she continued running again. With her every step, another stone appeared and created a path for her.

‘Oho, she can use two elements?’

Elius thought to himself, but then he flinched with the sudden answer.

“No, she is using mana to create them.”

Elly was busy analyzing the books she recorded yesterday, and there were many of them, so Elius forgot her existence for a second.

‘Damn, you scared me. What do you mean by that?’

“You know, you can move the little objects around using mana to some extent. She is just too good at that.”

‘Of course, I knew that but wasn’t expecting an inner fighter to be this fast since they need to channel mana throughout their body and scatter around.’

Elly was already back to her job, so she didn’t answer.

‘I guess trying to slow her down is futile.’

Nora thought to herself and took a step forward. Now, she was also running towards Cathy. Then suddenly, the ice on the ground turned into countless tiny pieces and began to fly around. They were harmless but blocking Cathy’s vision. But of course, Cathy reacted to it quickly. A strong wind current formed around her and didn’t let any ice particles get close to her.

‘Damn, her adaptation of any situation is too quick. Now I want both.’

Cassandra was watching them with a smile on her face. Nora was desperately trying to throw her off balance because Cathy’s range with the spear was almost twice Nora’s, so she could attack Nora from a safe distance while avoiding her. Nora decided to fight head-on when she understood that she couldn’t throw her off balance. She closed the distance and quickly swung her sword to Cathy. She was clearly able to see the direction of the attack and easily deflected it.

“Tsk.”

Nora clicked her tongue because the wind current around Cathy didn’t just block the ice particles. It also slowed down Nora’s sword. That caught Nora off guard, and now it was time for Cathy to attack. She tightly held her spear and entered a stabbing motion. Her attacks were fast but not that powerful. Nora survived the rain of attacks with minor scratches. Cathy wanted to attack again before Nora gained her balance back and was about to. But then some of the particles flying around gathered and merged into one, creating another icicle that was about to hit Cathy. She quickly took a step back and tried to deflect it with the tip of her spear. As soon as her spear got into contact with it, the icicle melted and turned into a mass of water that splashed to Cathy’s face. It didn’t end there. Cathy wanted to create a distance to recover, but when she lifted her feet off the ground, the particles created another icicle behind her and stabbed her leg.

“Ahh!”

She couldn’t react to that and fell off after losing her balance.

“Can you continue?”

Nora asked with a soft voice.

“I-its my defeat.”

Cathy shook her head in pain. After hearing that, Nora quickly helped her get up.

“Man, what an intense fight.”

Elius said and took out his ID again.

“Glow, glow, glow, glow, glow.”

He held his breath.

“Fuck yeah!”

It was Liam.

“Noo, I want to fight too.”

Elius began to pout while Liam was smiling.

“See you after winning, suckers.”

He quickly went up to the arena and saw a guy waiting for him. The guy was just like Liam, almost as tall as him and full of muscles. It was another berserker. They recognized each other with a glance. Like Liam, the other berserker also had a big weapon. A two-handed battle axe. Liam called his greatsword and did something unexpected. He stabbed his sword to the ground and began to walk towards his opponent. The other berserker smiled after seeing him doing that.

“Old fashion, I see.”

Then he did the same thing, and they both began to run towards each other barehanded.