Chapter 29 Duel [1]

"Why did you interfere in their fight?"

A gruff voice echoed in the empty hallway along with the sounds of footsteps.

"If I didn't both of them would have gotten hurt. That cadet was ready to counterattack the moment Ken's attack landed."

James' brows furrowed when he heard Tia's answer. It didn't explain why she only attacked Ken.

Tia knew what James was wondering, so she answered before he could ask.

"Ken's stigma is dangerous. Solely based on his stigma's ability, he could have been ranked among the top 5. I had to suppress him before he lost control and did something."

Many cadets register their stigma to get extra benefits provided by Ward. So, James didn't ask why she knew about Ken's stigma and instead asked another question.

"What do you think about them?"

The reason Tia provided to the class for them coming there was a lie. Informing cadets about the open seats wasn't something the student council had to do themselves.

The real reason for them personally going was to gauge the abilities of the cadets with their own eyes.

"Yes, they are diamonds in rough. A few of them were ready to counterattack had I targeted them. And the Rank 1 was even able to sense my presence when I was waiting for the perfect time to intervene."

Tia wanted to know how Susan found her. Susan was one of the few cadets who hadn't disclosed their skills and stigma, so Tia could only make a rough estimate.

"What do you think of that boy whom Isabell was looking for?"

James didn't understand why Tia suddenly asked such a question, but he didn't even take a moment to think.

"Worthless. He is just a power-hungry awakener who will die without achieving anything worthwhile."

Isabell hadn't told them much about Nathan other than he was a diligent person. But what they saw was not a good type of diligence.

Nathan had bloodshot eyes, the skin of his fingertips was cracked and his breathing was heavy. These signs weren't very visible, but they were clear if someone examined him closely.

All these signs indicated that he had been using his core energy to the limit for a prolonged time.

"He is probably training until aura exhaustion for some revenge. At the rate he is going, he will break before anything else."

Tia understood what James meant.

She had also seen many people who solely pursued strength and lost their lives because they couldn't see the bigger picture.

Such cases weren't uncommon after the Third Great Disaster, when many people lost someone close to them. Both James and her were also someone like that.

***

BANG-!

Ken punched the vase, shattering it in one go.

"How dare they?!"

His hair started turning into shades of white as he growled. The cadets in the room flinched as they saw that.

"Boss, you shouldn't get angry over the likes of them. That bastard must have used some underhand method to take you by surprise."

? "That bitch was acting so haughty just because she was born a few years before you. But with your talent, you will easily surpass her soon, boss."

The cadets in the room, panicking, tried to comfort Ken. Ken was susceptible to losing control due to intense emotions.

They were inside one of the penthouses provided for the top 25 cadets. And inside this wide living room, none of them were strong enough to stop Ken should he go on a rampage.

Ken stopped and glared at his minions. Someone gulped as Ken walked towards them when suddenly someone stepped forth among the cadets.

"Boss, please give me a chance. I will make sure to put that trash in his place."

Ken was the son of a board director of Nova corps, the largest company on Earth. It dealt with potions, dungeon exploration, magic engineering, and many more things. Getting in Ken's good grace was bound to set their future.

Ken stopped and looked toward the person who spoke, someone who was petite and appeared weak, but Ken ignored his appearance as he was a mage.

Squinting his eyes, Ken questioned his minion, who stepped forth.

"How?"

"I will make him challenge me to a duel."

A twisted smile emerged on Ken's face as he heard the answer.

The duels in Ward were normal duels except for one fact. The person who gave the challenge can't surrender. A duel only ends if one of the duelists is knocked out or the referee has to interfere.

Ken didn't want to know how he will make that trash challenge him. It was his job.

***

"Shit! How does it even work?"

I slammed the thick book to the ground.

My mood was quite bad as of right now. After coming back, I searched the internet again to find any clue regarding Nathan's background but found nothing.

The complete absence of information was too suspicious. Searching more, I found that it was done by Ward.

In their own words, 'This was a policy to protect the privacy of the future pillars of humanity.'

There would still be info about cadets on the internet, but it was only some noticeable achievements, which were purposely left to act as a beacon of hope for humanity. To show them that the new generation was strong and capable.

Anyway, I found nothing about Nathan. Now I could only wait for Nathan's things to arrive or try to get information out of Isabell.

Going to Isabell would only be counterproductive. She might get suspicious if I acted too differently from what she knew.

"No, she will get suspicious. Even if she was a comic relief in the novel, now she is a real person. Considering her special identity, it wouldn't be difficult for her to notice the dissimilarities."

I picked up the thick book again and sat down.

This was the grimoire Lark 'lent' me when we parted. Among the things I took from the duo were a sword, a mid-tier healing potion, a grimoire, a wand, a cape that had defensive property, and boar meat. Lark was stuffed with helpful things.

"How did he make it sound so simple?"

In the novel, Leon had easily learned to channel ether for spells. Ether was different from mana and aura, so way to channel it for the spells and body augmentation.

This was also why I wasn't going to aura or mana usage classes.

These classes were not compulsory because some cadets might have learned to use them from their families or they wanted to learn how other kinds of energy worked to learn its weakness. Ward left it to the cadets to choose between these classes.

So, I chose neither as I would only be wasting my time. Before anything else, I needed to learn how to channel ether for magic spells.

The spells in this world can be used either by channeling mana while speaking the chant, using system-skill, or using a grimoire.

When somebody reads the chants in the grimoire, it forcefully channels the mana inside them to complete the spell.

I was reading the chants but not calling its name so that the spell wouldn't complete. In this way, I was trying to see if I could learn how ether flows during a particular spell to learn it.

This was how Leon learned to cast spells in the novel after becoming an ether user.

But I was completely unsuccessful.

I could feel ether moving inside my body, but it was too complicated. It was like thousands of fishes were swimming inside water and you had to observe and learn every single fish's movement.

Too fricking impossible!

"Is this the difference between a protagonist and an extra?"

I knew I shouldn't complain, but I felt like doing it nonetheless. In a few days, the first group activity was going to take place when the dungeon of trails will open for the first years and I was nowhere near proficient-mastery in 'Art of Eridu'.

At the rate I was progressing, I will only be able to construct three, at best, four weapons.

VUPP-!

I kept the grimoire back and took out the weapons I was given today.

Today, during the class combat class, we were given the weapons we ordered for.

It wasn't weird for cadets to ask for different kinds of weapons. So I had chosen 4 'weapons'.

I ordered the number of weapons in moderation because I wouldn't be able to learn many weapons during the short amount of time I had, and I would stick out like a sore thumb by taking a dozen different weapons.

The main cast also chose the same weapons as in the novel.

Anna took a wand, Cadmus took a spear, Lilith took a pair of shotguns, Susan took a sword and scythe, and the focus of the entire class, due to the morning incident, Leon took a katana.

I stretched before placing the spear, hammer, and dagger in front of me.

"Should I go watch Leon's and Lark's duel?"

As I had expected, Lark and Ryan had passed the exam. Since both of them were in our class, like in the novel, Lark would challenge Leon this week.