Chapter 16: Challenged To A Duel
"Big brother...? Don't you have a class today?"
Maia lightly nudged Shye who was still out like a log. The fierce battle yesterday against the fierce leopard took too much out of him.
Due to being continuously nudged by Maia, he finally woke up. Shye rubbed his eyes while yawning as he looked at Maia groggily.
"Hmmm? Maia? Why are you up early today?" Shye asked with a morning voice.
"Big brother...It's already 8:45 am..."
Shye's eyes opened wide after hearing what time it was already.
"Damn! Today's class is combat class! Instructor Fienna will kill me!" Shye hurriedly got out of bed and prepared himself for class.
He only had 15 minutes to prepare so he only took a not-so-thorough bath and ate bread for breakfast.
Fortunately for him, Maia was a sensible little sister so she ironed his clothes for him in advance. Shye was already prepared to go to school with wrinkled clothes, Maia really saved him this time.
With 5 minutes left, he dashed towards their classroom.
...
"Shye Crowley!... Is Crowley here?" Instructor Fienna asked the class.
"Reporting to the instructor! Captain Crowley is not h–"
"I'm here! Haaah...Haaah...Sorry...for...being...late!"
Shye panted hard to catch his breath. Fortunately, he arrived just before Instructor Fienna marked him as absent.
"No need to tell me the reason, the two guards at the entrance of the beginner adventurer zone reported to us what happened. I shall excuse you from a "late" mark this time..."
"Thank you, Instructor!"
Shye bowed to Instructor Fienna gratefully. He didn't want to be late but unfortunately, he was too tired and wounded.
He couldn't even move his left arm properly yet but he didn't have any money to purchase potions so he had no choice.
He wanted to sell his loot early in the morning but he wasn't able to wake up early so he couldn't buy a potion for his wounds.
Fortunately, the healing salve provided by the two guards helped in healing his wounds by a fair bit.
"Crowley, go to the infirmary for now and give them this small card. They should give you a regular health potion in exchange for this, then once you're done, meet us at the training fields."
"Thank you for this customized training regimen, instructor!"
Shye bowed gratefully towards Instructor Fienna after reading the contents of the training regimen.
Instructor Fienna simply waved her hands and said
"No problem, you may go now and start training!"
Shye bowed one more time and left. He chose an empty corner and finished every single workout in the training regimen.
"One!...Two!...Three!...Four!..."
...
After three hours, Shye finished everything in his training regimen. He was then shocked after suddenly receiving a notification from the system.
[Congratulations! Your stamina attribute went up from 5 >> 6!]
"Oh? So training hard in a specific attribute will actually make it improve huh..." Shye thought to himself.
His thoughts were cut short after hearing lots of footsteps behind him.
Shye turned to look and saw that another class was walking toward the training fields.
"Yo! Fienna, you're still going to teach this year? Why don't you just continue adventuring? You have no talent in teaching students anyway!"
The instructor of the other class walked towards Instructor Fienna and said such rude words.
"Hmmph! Brodley! If even the likes of you are still here, then how am I not qualified to teach? A combat instructor must be strong. How is a weak fly like you qualified to teach here?"
"K...Kuhhh...Watch your words Fienna! I'm with my class!"
"HA! If you didn't go out of your way to taunt me, then why would I care about a prancing clown like you?"
Brodley's students managed to connect the dots and they were a bit disappointed after learning that their instructor is weaker than another class' instructor.
However, the instructors' banter was cut short when a student from another class walked towards Shye's direction.
The student stared daggers at Shye and said
"Ash colored hair...You must be Shye Crowley. I've been hearing things about how you're making some small pitiful waves in the academy and I'm getting a bit annoyed."
"How about a duel with me? I, Cleo Pollard, shall expose to everyone how much of a fraud you are!"