Back at Aligning, a student was lying in bed still in awe of what he had heard earlier in the day.

He was a student of the blacksmithing class and some other friends in the class were gossiping in the back while their newly made pieces were cooling.

They were in a heated debate about who the strongest student could be.

While the school had student rankings, all the students in the top 10 were kept secret leaving those who were curious about the topic to judge based on feats.

“I’m telling you, it has to be the genius twins Koa and Kori. Not only did they pave their way into the school themselves on a scholarship but they also have been one of the only ones to skip a full year of school.”

“To do that you need the recommendation of 5 recognized teachers you know!”

By recognized teachers, students just meant teachers of B-rank or higher.

Hearing this point, the student thought the girl who was advocating for Koa and Kori might just be right.

Until a muscular man with a bandanna interjected.

“Those two sure are strong but not the strongest. You lot look pretty young so as a third-year senior I’ll straighten out your worries.”

“The strongest student is undoubtedly, Buggi Farrel.”

Hearing the name, a good portion of the group had an idea who he was talking about but not much.”

“The guy who likes battling and loves to pick fights, right?”

Hearing this, the muscular man with the bandana nodded.

“It’s only because you lot are new, let me break him down for you.”

“As a first-year student, not only did Buggi dominate the entrance exam but he also decimated those in the merit pathway ranking battle as well.”

“Then just some weeks into even starting school, he was recommended to skip a year with one of the teachers being Mae!”

Hearing this, the crowd turned silent.

Even those who had barely just started at Aligning knew who Mae was.

Some even made jokes that if Mae vouched for someone, they wouldn’t need any more teachers for you to skip a semester.

“Not only that, the undisputed strongest student in the academy at the time, Marlene went to challenge him.”

“After the teachers decided to take him down a notch.”

“Her strength was confirmed to be bordering D- rank at the time too!”

“Imagine the surprise on everyone’s faces when Buggi not only beat her but with one combat skill, it was a a spectacle to behold!”

After hearing an account of the past from their senior.

Everyone had to agree that Buggi seemed to be the strongest.

Most students graduated at the level of F+ - E+ rank at Aligning Academy.

A few geniuses might be able to reach D- as well and be crowned the valedictorian of their year.

Being able to completely beat someone at D- rank with one combat skill meant that Buggi had to be higher while just having been at the school for some weeks.

Any graduating student at the level of E+ or even D- might feel ashamed after hearing this.

The loud racket in the blacksmithing classroom had drawn out the blacksmithing teacher, Emaline from what she was doing.

“You lot need to quiet down!”

“Also, the strongest student is neither of the two.”

“The strongest student is without a doubt, Trista Ace”

The group rolled their eyes at the statement.

To them, there was no way Trista was the strongest.

The main reason they thought this was that Trista was a blacksmith.

Where would she even get the time to train while having to study something as complex as blacksmithing?

Along with the fact that Trista seemed deeply invested in blacksmithing and it alone.

Upon hearing what teacher Emaline said next, however, they had no other choice than to believe it.

The reason that the student hadn’t gone to sleep was also due to what he had heard.

“Trista Ace has already graduated you know? She only comes in to use the classroom and gyms.”

“She graduated within a week of even starting the school.”

All of those present were shocked.

To graduate early was not just getting a recommendation, it was where one had to spar with a teacher of C rank or higher and get a hit in.

It was designed in this way so that anyone who was a bit too full of themselves could get dragged back down to earth.

The best comparison would be that it was a boss at the start of a game where you died on purpose.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It was not something anyone was supposed to be able to do.

The student rolled over in bed.

‘Trista Ace huh… There’s no way she’s that strong.’

Trista unmasked some of her energy causing her body to become chiseled.

She then brushed off the dirt that had gotten on her uniform from the giant spirit falling.

When she did this action, the pressure of the wind caused all the wreckage around her to fly away.

As well as blowing four of the druids that had landed safely a few inches back.

Before Trista could do anything, the druid leader issued orders to all of his squad.

“Two of you guys go and eliminate her teammates and then fulfill what we came here to do.”

“Don’t go until I give you guys an opportune moment. If not, then I can’t guarantee your lives.”

“The other two will help me keep this girl busy for as long as possible until they’re back.”

“Am I understood?”

The squad of druids nodded, not daring to disobey their leader.

The druid leader then cleared his throat.

“I heard that it’s impolite for people to show up unannounced in human culture so I apologize if I seemed rude.”

Trista put her hand on her chin as if thinking.

“I’m pretty sure destroying property in any culture is considered rude though. Or are druids just morons I wonder?”

Some veins on the head of the druid leader had gotten enlarged but he still did his best to smile and laugh off what he had heard.

“Humans sure love to joke, don’t they?”

Trista shook her head.

“Who the fuck said I’m joking with you weedy. I’m just telling the truth.”

“Or have your brains not finished growing yet?”

“I’ll give you a minute if that’s the case.”

The druid leader got pissed.

“You know what, fuck this!”

The druid then waved the staff he had.

[Soul Magic: Disruption Bind]

Trying to move her legs, Trista realized something was wrong.

‘He did something to my legs. All the energy that was circulating in them till now seemed to have vanished or blocked off somehow.’

He then waved his staff in the air, signaling two of the druids to leave and accomplish what he had asked for.

Two druids, one with multiple white flowers on her head and another with a light blue vine ran past Trista at top speed.

Not daring to slow down for even a second under their leader’s eyes.

Looking at them run into the distance, Trista smiled.

‘Kenric should be fine. I’m more worried about Reno but if he can’t survive this then he should drop out.’

‘I think that would be for the best but I’m not his mother, it’s up to him.’

Trista’s silence was bugging the leader of the druids.

‘The soul magic I just used should be nothing to someone on her level. What is she up to?’

‘All it can do is stop a part of someone’s body for a brief time’

‘No matter. I take advantage of this.’

The druid leader turned to the two druids that stayed behind with him.

“Attack now.”

[Enter, Viking Warrior, Gueanor]

[Destroy who dare block our way]

A druid with two yellow flowers on her forehead which sprouted up like a rocket taking off had summoned a 20-meter-tall giant woman next to her.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

She was lightly clothed in leather Armour with her brown hair in a braid style.

The air that she was giving off emitting a yellow color.

The other druid who had a whole stalk of blue flowers on her forehead didn’t slouch either.

[Enter, Maid of Nobles, Imeyna]

[Rid my way of any enemies]

A young girl who seemed to be around the age of 15 to 16 was summoned. She had no facial features and her hair was royal blue and tied in twin-tails.

She was dressed in Victorian maid attire.

“As you wish my contractor.”

The air that this maid gave off was emitting a blue color.

The large Viking warrior, Gueanor charged at Trista and hit her with her giant axe sending her flying into the air.

As soon as Trista was airborne.

The maid of nobles, Imeyna disappeared from where she initially was and then stood in the air some seconds away from Trista.

She then made a rapier out of the blue air that surrounded her and then attacked Trista.

Cutting her as fast as she could within a split second she moved past Trista.

Totaling, 100 cuts within less than a second.

She then appeared right beside the druid who had a stalk of blue flowers on her head while kneeling.

“I’m sorry to inform you contractor but I’ve failed you.”

The druid was confused.

“What do you mean?”

Imenya continued.

“I normally would have been able to do 150 cuts within the time I attacked.”

“The thing was that as I was about to continue, I noticed the eyes of that lady saw every movement of mine.”

“Nay, it felt as if she knew where I was going to cut and then she guarded before I could deal any real damage.”

“I was barely able to make a scratch on her. That human is not like most of the ones we’ve fought before.”

“I’m ashamed to say it but I think we should retreat.”

The druid got worried.

Imenya had been her strongest spirit at the level of three leaves.

If Imenya said retreating was the best bet then under normal circumstances she would have done so but it seemed like their leader had something planned.

As such, she would do her best to at least stall for time.

“Imenya, we won’t be killing this one, all we have to do is stall u-”

Trista’s voice interjected what the druid was about to say.

“Stall for what I wonder…”

Looking around, the group noticed that Trista was seated on the head of the Viking Warrior, Gueanor.

Trista then opened her palm.

Having an idea of what Trista wanted to do, the druid leader wanted to put a stop to it.

[Soul Magic: Disruption Bind]

Even after activating his soul magic, Trista didn’t stop for a moment.

[Persephone’s Enchanting Technique: Combustion]

Trista then slammed her fist into Gueanor’s head.

When the impact hit Gueanor.

The force of Trista’s initial punch had launched her into the pavement.

The minute the force of Trista’s initial punch dissipated.

Trista’s technique activated, causing an explosion twice the strength of Trista’s initial punch to land right where she had gotten attacked.

The original punch had caused her to start bleeding out of all her orifices but the minute that combustion happened.

All her brain matter exploded all around where the three stood.

The druid with two yellow flowers on her head fell onto her knees holding herself back from crying.

“Gueanor! How… Why… This! I’m dreaming… I have to be.”

The two druids didn’t want to be the ones to break the news to their teammates.

This was real life, no dream. Gueanor was gone from her arsenal for good.

Normally when spirits died, all that would happen is that after some time, they would revive in their world in an amnesia-like state.

For a druid summoner, this meant that the spirit they painstakingly cultivated would be lost and re-summoned and then retrained from scratch.

This would not only take up resources but also massive amounts of time.

The druid with two yellow flowers then got up and summoned whatever she had.

Causing her to bleed out profusely.

The two other druids tried to stop her.

“Stop! All you’ll end up doing is killing yourself!”

As if not hearing the two of her teammates the druid continued.

Not even looking at the druid, Trista waved her hand at her.

[Winza’s Mystic Technique: Cyclone Slice] x 5

[Winza’s Mystic Technique: Cyclone Shield]

The next thing, the druids knew, their teammate’s head was in the air along with all the spirits dead.

If anything, the one most surprised was Imenya.

‘She was a mage all along!? Along with that application of magic, I’ve never seen it before.’

Trista launched five blades of wind with only a split second of delay for each one.

Causing the first wind blade to speed up to the level it didn’t make a single sound.

Sometime before this blade of wind had halfway reached its mark, a barrier was placed before it.

This caused the barrier to gain all the momentum and the wind blade to dissipate.

The barrier then eviscerated the neck of the druid and burned both ends of the body that had separated.

The thing that scared Imenya the most though was the fact that Trista did this without even trying.

It was a wave of her hand that did this.

Imenya turned to her summoner with an expression that screamed extreme worry.

“Both of you! We have to leave! Now! If you don’t want to, then unsummon me and summon someone else!”

Imenya’s eyes could barely keep up and it was her vast experience that told her that she was in great danger.

Imenya knew that the chances of the druids being able to see what had happened were nonexistent.

As Trista was about to start walking forward, she jumped a meter back.

In the space that she was about to walk into, she felt something wrong with the energy in that space.