With Fi riding on his shoulders Kyle walked out of the inn, he glared out over the crowd that had gathered in the street, noting that at least there were still some villagers who weren’t interested in listening to Denzel. In fact, he could see Bernard arguing with Denzel right now and decided to head over there before ta fight began.

“Well this is a big mess; the old man didn’t expect things to turn out like this.”

Kyle glanced sideways at Yuliah, the tall woman had covered her face with her hand and looked rather irritated.

“So, what’s the plan here?”

“People are going to challenge you to a fight of course,” she replied turning to frown at Kyle through the gaps in her fingers.

“That’s fine for those with fighting Classes, but what about those with support Classes?” Fi asked.

“I’ll be watching all the matches, I know what to look for, besides a supporter who can’t hold their own even a little bit shouldn’t be trying to become an Adventurer anyway. But right now, we’ve got to deal with this idiot,” Yuliah sighed, gesturing at Denzel, who was currently in the middle of a quickly growing argument with Bernard and Madeleine.

As they walked closer Denzel noticed them a sneer passing over his face briefly before he managed to control it and change it back to an irritated frown.

“So, you’ve finally decided to show your faces, have you? It’s hardly fair that you get all the advantages because of your parents don’t you think Kyle?”

“I think it’s ridiculous that you think you have the right to decide who gets to become a student at my school, but I’ll let it go just this once,” replied Yuliah.

Denzel smirked, “But shouldn’t you be trying to get as many students as possible? Don’t you think the rest of us are good enough to go to your school?” he asked causing a dark grumbling to come from the crowd of onlookers.

The misgivings of the crowd grew when Yuliah didn’t immediately reply to Denzel’s question but stopped when the voice of an old man rang out.

“Oh please, she never planned on not giving other people a chance to become students, you’re just using that as an excuse to make them look bad!”

The crowd slowly parted revealing the owner of the voice to be none other than Thomas who stormed to the front of the crowd to confront Denzel.

“Yes, Yuliah did come here specifically to invite Kyle to be a student, but I was the one who suggested she come here instead of just sending Kyle to the school, so why don’t you just listen to what she has to say.”

The crowd upon hearing the priests word started muttering amongst themselves again many of the people who had previously been glaring at Kyle and Yuliah turning their irritation on Denzel who seemed to deflate slightly under the pressure of their gazes.

Yuliah raised a hand, turning towards the crowd, her long braid swinging out behind her. She stared out over the crowd, her cold green gaze slowly silencing the unruly villagers.

“I have been sent here to offer a chance to any of you who recently received their Class, to come and take the entrance exam for the Adventuring School in Grenfeld. Due to Kyle’s parents both being students there when they were young, he has received a specific invitation, however he still must pass the entrance exam to become a student. As a priestess of Divine Asteria I give my word!”

Once again, the villagers in the crowd started to talk amongst themselves, that Yuliah was a priestess of Asteria the goddess of light was something that Denzel hadn’t told them and many of the villagers were believers in Asteria themselves and knew that those in her priesthood took a Divine Oath to not conceal the truth from people and as such often acted as go-betweens for disputes.

“I will now explain the system we will be using to decide who gets to face off against Kyle.”

Despite this not originally being part of the plan when she had arrived, Yuliah had decided to go along with Denzel’s request that people be able to challenge Kyle simply because trying to argue that there was no need for this would cause more problems for her. While she did feel sorry for forcing Kyle to go along with this she guessed that he wouldn’t mind seeing as he probably had his own issues with the man that he would want to deal with before leaving Farholt.

Yuliah went on to explain that they would be using similar rules to the tournaments held in the larger cities where the winners of each fight would be going on to the next round until there were left. While it was still possible for those who fell in earlier rounds to receive an invitation to the school all the remaining five would receive an invitation. The only real difference was that the guards would be supplying old gear to those whose families couldn’t afford armour if they wished to participate as they were using live weapons and even the protection provided by armour someone wasn’t used to using would make the whole endeavour that much safer. This was one of the things that Yuliah had insisted on much to Denzel’s annoyance but he had eventually agreed to supply some simple gear.

Yuliah then went on to announce that there would also be a competition that those with Crafting Skills could participate in, Yuliah would be staying in the inn for a few days and the day before she left the would-be crafters could bring her examples of the work that they had done over the last few days and be considered for slots at the schools Crafting division.

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“However, I would like all those who wish to be considered to be aware that this school doesn’t discriminate between Races, so I would like to request that anyone who doesn’t agree with this to not participate.”

Many of the people in the crowd already knew this and while some left, most ended up staying proving that Denzel’s influence was far weaker than it had been in the past.

As the competitions began Yuliah handed out a magic item to each of the competitors, they were enchanted with a protective spell that activated when the target reached twenty percent HP and protected them damage for a short period of time.

“As soon your opponent’s protective item activates, or they admit defeat you must immediately cease your attack, anyone who ignores these rules will be dealt with severely,” Yuliah warned the twelve teens who had decided to take part.

While all these teens had some equipment, usually a weapon and a couple of pieces of armour, some had considerably more equipment than others. These were Denzel’s students and had been given some of the older gear that the guards had in storage, one of them wore a set of nearly pristine leather armour and a sturdy looking spear in his hand.

Kyle barely spared this group a glance even as they glared daggers at him, he was instead looking at a different group of teens.

 He had been friends with this group of four since before receiving their Companions and he was looking forward to seeing if any made it through to the final round and be able to join him at the School.

His eyes passed over the group and they grinned back at him excited to be given the chance to become Adventurers alongside their friend. One was a tall powerfully built red head that leaned casually on a long-handled hammer. His name was Hal and he was Bernard’s son and Kyle’s oldest friend who had introduced him to most of the others.

The other boy in the group was named Ryan and was currently bouncing up and down on the spot causing his dark hair to flutter and those watching him to shake their heads at his boundless energy, Ryan may have seemed like a fool to most of the onlookers, but Kyle knew that there was none better among his friends at playing others at their own game.

His twin sister Jess glared at her brother tapping a long wand against her side as she struggled to stop herself from telling him off causing Kyle to shake his head once more, those two were always arguing which usually ended up with Kyle and Hal having to hold them both back while dodging flying blades and spells.

Kyle’s eyes finally came to rest on the final member of their little group, a small girl who clutched a small stringed instrument to her chest, an orphan that had been looked after by Thomas for the past three years and given the name Sonia, she didn’t really want to be an Adventurer and had likely been talked into participating by the others, not that Kyle was worried about her, he still had the scars on his back from their first meeting.

The first round began with Russel, one of Denzel’s students facing off against one of the normal village kids, a young man who fought with a pair of knives who was looking rather uncomfortable in the stiff leather armour that he had been given. Very quickly it became obvious to the onlookers that Russel was both better trained and better equipped and the bout was soon decided by a slash from Russel’s sword which caused an orb of light to appear around the knife-wielder.

Kyle shook his head as both competitors were healed, it seemed that things were starting to go Denzel’s way again. While Denzel’s student was certainly more skilled than his opponent, it was obvious that the other boy had been struggling partially due to the restrictive nature of the old leather armour that he had been wearing, if he had been given some time to get used to wearing it the fight would’ve been more even.

Yuliah’s eyebrow rose as Denzel looked around with a haughty expression on his face, but Kyle’s expression was anything but dark as Hal and yet another of Denzel’s students took to the stage. Hal himself had a feral grin on his face as he examined his opponent, a boy of similar size to himself known as Kerrel who had received a plate mail breastplate and a battle axe from Denzel.

“Don’t look away Yuliah,” Kyle said. “This is where it gets interesting.”

Yuliah smiled as she signalled the beginning of the match with a bright flare of light.

At this signal Kerrel leapt forward trusting that his armour would protect him from Hal’s menacing hammer. He raised his axe over his head as he sped closer towards the other boy who watched him with that same grin on his face.

Suddenly Kerrel was sent flying backwards his prized breastplate ringing like a bell, causing the onlookers to cringe as they wondered what had just happened. As Kerrel staggered to his feet he couldn’t help but wonder the same thing one minute he had been about to bring his axe down on Hal’s head a move that would have almost certainly caused the other boys’ protective item to instantly activate and the next thing he knew he was flying backwards through the air.

Hal now casually had his hammer slung over both of his shoulders as he watched Kerrel stagger slightly as he came to his feet, he was mildly surprised that the other boy could already stand and guessed that he had been looking down on his opponent too much.

Kerrel grimaced in pain as he breathed in causing him to look downwards his eyes widening in shock as he saw the reason for his pain. His breastplate now had a dent in it big enough that his outstretched hand wouldn’t be able to cover it.

Figuring that it was time to finish things Hal decided to get a little bit serious, his legs glowed blue briefly as he shot across the field towards Kerrel who looked up with a look of horror on his face as the head of Hal’s hammer came around with supernatural speed slamming into the same spot it had before causing the protective item he was wearing to blaze with a white light as it absorbed what remained of the damage.

Denzel watched with an enraged look on his face as one of his prized students flopped to the floor, but even as Kerrel’s parents rushed onto the field bright light flared around him once again as Yuliah quickly cast a healing spell over the severely wounded boy.

Kerrel’s father glared at Hal as he slowly wandered back over to his friends, but he knew that he couldn’t do anything to the boy, Kerrel had known that this could happen and had still begged his parents to let him take part in the competition.

Yuliah having finished healing Kerrel turned and threw a curious glance at Hal before walking back over towards Kyle.

“I wasn’t expecting the child of a village blacksmith to have unlocked Mana Manipulation, let alone have unlocked such a high levelled version of the Mana Enhancement spell.”

Kyle blinked before deciding to explain, “I helped teach all my friends how to unlock Mana Manipulation, Hal’s the best of all of us with Mana Enhancement though, he says it helps him with his blacksmithing as well.”

It was Yuliah’s turn to blink, Mana Manipulation was both a difficult Skill to unlock and one that cost a lot of Skill Points making it unusual for those who hadn’t started to Level Up to have, she looked once again at Kyle’s small group of friends and wondered just what sort of monsters she was dealing with.