POW!

  Rowland’s fist came in like a bullet, striking Lucian directly in the chest — sending him stumbling a few steps backwards, and taking all of the wind out of his lungs.

  Lucian coughed violently, barely able to even take in a few breaths after that terrifying punch by a Grand Knight. It was by far the most painful thing he had experienced since coming to this world — not even his spar against Sofia had been as painful as that one single punch.

  However, thanks to the fact that his vitality was higher than the average of the students there, his ribs were still intact, though still on the verge of breaking. If he were to take another punch just like that one… forget breaking his ribs; Lucian doubted that he would even survive it.

  But despite all the pain, Lucian focused his gaze and locked eyes with Teacher Rowland, hardening his resolve as he awaited his results. Lucian couldn’t tell, but Rowland was internally surprised at his ability to tank that punch. Because of his courage of not only choosing to be the first student of his batch to be tested, but also speaking up against Rowland’s inaction of testing his vitality, he decided to punish him a little bit by using the strength of a newbie Official Knight.

  He suppressed his strength to just 2.0, and sent his fist flying towards Lucian’s chest. This wouldn’t be enough to kill him, even if he had a below 1.0 vitality, but Rowland felt it might be enough to teach him a lesson for acting out against superiors.

  Sure, he liked the fact that he had a little bit more courage than the cowardly students he called classmates, but that didn’t mean he wanted a student who defied the authority in charge. Courage for such things was both a double edged sword, in the battlefield he could be the difference between winning and losing, but he could also be the very reason they would lose a winning fight if he decided to go against his superior’s wishes.

  Rowland knew such students had to be honed well and be taught discipline early, so he decided on this in-the-moment punishment for Lucian. However, defying his expectations not only was Lucian able to keep himself upright, but he also didn’t even have any breakages of bones!

  Keep in mind that while it was Official Knight level power in that punch, it still carried the experience of a Grand Knight who could make use of that strength much better than most Grand Knights could.

  “You pass, but only barely. Don’t think you can get so lucky next time kid. You might not get someone as open minded as I am to test you.” Rowland announced and spoke to Lucian as soon as he saw that he’d regained his bearings.

  The moment Rowland spoke these words, the entire assembly hall descended into silence. None of the students below could believe what they had just heard come out of Teacher Rowland’s mouth.

  ‘That sucker Lucian actually passed??’

  ‘The fuck? Since when did that idiot get so strong!?’

  Many incredulous faces of those were almost second guessing what they were hearing spread across the crowd. Every single one of had expected and were revelling in the fact that Lucian would be kicked out of the preparatory academy after failing this assessment, and would have to face the wrath of his family’s anger for doing so.

  But against all odds, he had defeated their expectations.

  Teacher Rowland’s sharp gaze swept across the crowd of shocked students and furrowed his brows in dissatisfaction. He spoke, with his voice cutting across the silence like a scythe effortlessly culling a field of grass.

  “Let this be a lesson for you all! Being a Knight isn’t just about talent or gifts — it’s about resolve. If you want to survive and accomplish great feats on the battlefield, you’d better start cultivating more than just your abilities. Cultivate your will! All of you are just babies still getting your grips with the world. As soon as you step outside in the real world, you’ll be unable to survive even your first year as a Knight.”

  Rowland chastised each and every student below the stage, and directed his gaze to the other 19 students standing on there as well, making sure that nobody was left out of his scolding — Lucian included as well.

  His advice was good though, and if any of the students were smart enough to humble themselves and listen carefully to what he had to say, they would find that they’d gain quite a bit of wisdom.

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  Most of them were still messing around in their younger years, slacking off from their training and cultivation and instead going out to drink and party at night. If any one of them, save for the rare few who actually had some discipline and real life experience, were thrown out into the wild — the chances were that they would be dead within the week.

  To them, life was the academy, messing around with friends and goofing off during class. But the real world was gruesome — full of death and battle. None of the students in their current state would be able to handle that.

  “Alright, who’s next?” Rowland’s pressuring voice jolted everyone from their shocked states. His eyes roamed the students on stage, daring anyone to step forward. Instead of choosing the next student in line like he usually would, he decided to switch things up after seeing Lucian’s performance.

  “Or are you all cowards?”

  For a long, agonising moment, no one moved. They all looked at each other, ashamed of themselves as the reality dawned upon them. Indeed — they were cowards.

  Then, a figure emerged from the back of the line — a short girl with shoulder height hair. She looked older than her real age and gave off the air of confidence that not even Lucian showed in front of Teacher Rowland. Lucian recognised her the instant he saw her — Sofia.

  ‘I see, so she was in my batch as well?’ Lucian noted, though it wasn’t that significant.

  “I’ll go next, Teacher Rowland.” Sofia announced, with a tone dripping with arrogance. She wasn’t like the other students — a coward. Even Rowland’s gaze softened when he saw Sofia; she was clearly a character that not even he could take lightly. Or rather it was better to say he couldn’t take her father lightly, considering he was the count that ruled over him and everyone else in the academy.

  Rowland didn’t even test her, and directly let her pass. In fact, he offered her to directly enter the Official Knight academy considering, well, the fact that she was an Official Knight already…

  She naturally accepted this with a smile on her face.

  Strangely though, Lucian noticed that she didn’t even send a glance in his direction the entire time he was standing there — like she was purposely ignoring him for some reason.

  However, she did let out a rather daring remark.

  “Looks like the weaklings are getting bolder these days.” Her words were clearly targeted at Lucian, though he could understand why she felt this way.

  She had been a pampered youth all her life by her father, her servants and now even Teacher Rowland — it was clear that she had rarely, if ever, suffered any setbacks. It appeared that her ‘loss’ to Lucian during their spar was quite a blow to her pride, and she couldn’t let herself lose to someone like him.

  Lucian didn’t mind such a thing anyways. He had his own things to focus on, and if this young girl wanted to focus her anger on him, then so be it. How was he going to stop her? She was stronger than him and had the backing of a Count and probably most of the teachers in the entire academy. All he could do was sit back and stay under the radar until the Mages came to select some new students.

  Shortly after Teacher Rowland sent Sofia on her way to the Official academy, Lucian descended the stage after he noticed that Teacher Rowland had finished his scolding and moved on from him. He kept a respectful posture towards him the whole time and made sure not to disturb him, before he left his sight and the assembly hall soon after, making his way back to his dorm.

  He’d lost a good half an hour out of his precious meditation time, so he had to make up for it by skipping breakfast.

  ***

  Half a day later, night soon engulfed the academy and the students were all either heading to bed, or continuing their training. Normally around half of them would be heading out to drink or party at this time, but Rowland’s surprise assessment for them had been a wake up call.

  Many students were expelled from the academy this time for lack of progress in their training, around 4/10 students were kicked out. It couldn’t be said how depressed those students who were unfortunate enough to be in that 4/10 were, as their families soon learned of their fates and delivered their appropriate punishments in their rage and anger.

  Considering they had spent a lot of money to send their sons and daughters to this place, it was rather justified. Some of them sighed with indignation as their child simply had a lack of talent for becoming a Knight, but for those who’s children were simply expelled due to slacking off in their training — it was only natural that they were far angrier. Who wouldn’t be if they found out their child had not only wasted a big portion of their money, but also thrown away their future just like that?

  As for Lucian, he lay down on his bed and let his mind slowly enter a deep sleep, completely oblivious to what had been going on in the background. The fates of these students didn’t matter to him at all, and he couldn’t care less how they ended up. All he cared about was that he had managed to just barely scrape through this trial.

  In his mind he was rather disappointed with himself — he needed to perform better and increase his stats. Just barely making it through was not enough for him. He couldn’t keep relying on luck like he did with today’s assessment.

  [Name: Lucian Verdan. Age: 12. Sex: Male. Vitality: 1.83, Agility: 1.44, Strength: 1.35, Mind: 0.1. Status: Exhausted, tired. Body is in need of rest.]

  Lucian took one last look at his stats, noting the increases in his stats from that day’s training, before falling into a slumber. The only stat he was satisfied with was his vitality — other than that he felt like he needed to work on his other two some more.

  ‘Let’s see what tomorrow can bring me… perhaps I can fine tune the training methods some more to bring out better benefits for myself. If not, then at least I’ll still hit my target a few days before the Mages come, that’ll give me a few days to be tested and sent to the Official Academy — if all things go according to plan.’