Chapter 509 A Marathon



Without a shred of hesitation, Satoshi swiveled while planting his right foot down on the ground. If he was going to throw someone, he needed the foothold so he could activate his core strength without much effort.

morote seoi nage~!

Whenever Satoshi encountered an enemy who would lose his composure in front of him, his body always defaulted to a judo throw since enemies who weren't thinking were the most susceptible to the technique.

That's why the moment he saw the group's leader outstretching his hand towards him, he immediately activated a combination move imprinted in his instincts for the longest time.

In fact, it was one of the most used techniques he defaulted to, and he had used it many times on his peers during tournaments. Back when he was as powerless as a newborn deer, his martial arts and techniques were the only ones he relied on in order to win.

And he wanted to win no matter what back then, that was why he resolved to learn the most effective techniques to get an edge over students with superpowers.

Today was no different. Well, there was a huge difference with the fact that the leader was a bully, but that was beside the point.

Satoshi's body moved like a machine, grabbing onto the leader's hand and pulling it towards him. Since his momentum carried him forward, Satoshi didn't have a difficult time leading him closer before he put his leg in front.

"Urk!" The leader exclaimed as Satoshi grabbed both his shoulders and flung him to the ground. It was a clear smackdown, and he didn't even see it coming.

By the time his senses returned to him, he was already lying down on the ground, staring directly into the sky which shone a nice hue of bluish-yellow. The surreal sight of the sky made him pause for a moment and at that point, he was completely devoid of hostility and rage.

Well, it only took a couple of moments for him to get back on track though, and he was already seething with rage by the time he tried to get up.

Just when he was about to continue throwing hands, however, he felt a pressuring gaze on his back, causing goosebumps to run all over his body as he slowly turned around. It's as if everything went by in slow motion as the surroundings got quieter and quieter.

It was obvious that the pressure coming from someone had already overwhelmed the entire place, and everyone felt that affection which caused them to shut their mouths.

The moment he completely turned around, he noticed a familiar face standing in front of him. It was none other than... Magnus Carter himself!

Apparently, the moment Satoshi engaged the leader of the group in a fight, Magnus Carter had already arrived and he saw the commotion transpiring from afar. Of course, since he was a bit curious as to how Satoshi would react, he decided to just observe until Satoshi dealt with everyone else.

But now that he was caught in the background, he had no other choice but to come clean and clear his throat. Walking forward, he didn't even bother looking through the eyes of the group's leader.

"All of you should be preparing right now, the test that I'd be giving you this time around is twice as difficult. With that out of the way, I hope that you can put your differences aside and just continue this altercation later on." Magnus Carter advised.

While he was displeased with his Disciple's actions, he didn't want to ruin the mood by kicking them out as his Disciples. Besides, there may be a better way of dealing with this situation so he decided to use the test as an excuse to buy himself some time.

On the off-chance that he couldn't think up anything, he began to wonder if Satoshi would just teach them a lesson in his stead. So far, that was the most sensible idea he'd cooked up in order to deal with what just happened.

Everyone present nodded their heads as Magnus Carter gracefully turned around and excused himself. He still needed to do a couple of tweaks to his next test and he was running out of time. In less than an hour, he was going to commence the test, and he didn't want any imbalances to that test, just like what happened during the three-day survival test.

Then again, Magnus Carter subconsciously decided to use Satoshi as his standard when it came to his test. Although all of his Disciples couldn't even finish his three-day test, he was still going to push through the idea of increasing the difficulty to Satoshi's level.

He figured that if he were to push his Disciples to the possible limits, they might get better results— not that they weren't getting any results either. After all, they were the best Disciples to ever grace the dimensions.

Back to the present, as soon as Magnus Carter turned around, Satoshi didn't bother bullying the bully. He didn't even bother asking him for his name even though an introduction was due in order. Instead, he also turned around and helped the guy who was still kneeling on the ground.

"You all right?" He asked, offering his hand to the guy as he picked himself up.

With a nod, the guy muttered a soft thanks. "You shouldn't have done that. Now you're going to..." His voice trailed off as he walked away.

From the looks of it, he was unhurt, so Satoshi was relieved that the encounter didn't escalate any further. Then again, they have another problem right in front of them, and that's the test that was bound to happen in a couple of minutes.

"Come on, Satoshi," Horatius stepped forward, patting Satoshi's shoulders while he directed him in a different direction. Finana and Lucy also walked up to them. "I was about to step in, but you handled that pretty well."

A smile appeared on Horatius's face as the four of them walked forward. Now that Satoshi noticed it, everyone was actually walking in the same direction. Even though Magnus Carter told them where the test was being held.

"Where are we going?" Since everyone seemed to know what was going on and no one was asking any questions, Satoshi just had to ask.

"It's the usual test of the first day. A marathon." Horatius explained. "This is the usual first test every day and this is also how we get our necessary funds."

"Under Magnus Carter, it is very different. We get to have different training but nothing too out of the ordinary, and we also have our own currency in order to motivate us to be financially capable. Also, the currency is an obvious motivation for everyone aiming beyond their limits." FInana added, twirling her finger around as she and Horatius explained.

As the four of them continued walking, Horatius continued speaking. "In every test we have, we earn a minimum amount of mints that could get us through a normal day. Completing all the tests would get you enough mints to have three meals a day and rent a space."

"We have three currencies: copper mint, silver mint, and gold mint. And completing a test earns you about twenty silver mints. However, you can earn more if you go through certain challenges... well, I prefer calling it debuffs since you're basically giving yourself a disadvantage... although these debuffs are high-risk high-reward."

Finana nudged Satoshi to the side, grabbing onto his hand as if they were close friends. "Yeah, the tests are pretty hard, to begin with, and putting debuffs on yourselves might make it so that you won't be able to complete the test. You don't earn any mint if you can't complete the test, after all."

"I see. And right now we're going to run a marathon? I'm guessing we're not allowed to use our superpowers, right? And we have to finish the marathon in one hour or something?" Satoshi asked.

"Whoa, that's pretty spartan. No, we can still use our superpower, it's just that there's a time limit of thirty minutes if we do that. If not, then we have an additional one hour to complete it. Also, you can equip weights on yourself before running, and that would add to how much mints you can earn. You can't add weights if you're using your superpower though, so that's the neat part of it."

"Don't worry, running while using your superpower would take you twenty minutes maximum to clear it. This is your first time going through a marathon so don't push yourself too hard, Satoshi." Finana advised. Well, since Satoshi was pretty powerful in terms of physical strength and superpower, she figured that Satoshi might be bad at one thing... and that one thing is stamina.

If she said that outright in front of Satoshi, he'd have flipped off.

"This is not my first time though, I've run plenty of marathons in the past." Satoshi said, but he took a mental note to himself since the challenge might be harder than he initially assumed.