Fight Among Kids

Who was this idiot? Did Adrian look like he was lacking money or something? He might not be from the royal family, but his family was quite well to do as well! He might be interested if the other party put his whole family's wealth on the line, but who cared about all the money that belonged to a mere kid?

Adrian took a side glance at the senior apprentice, then turned back to face his friends, not interested in replying him at all.

Adrian might be interested in building good relations with people, but with how aggressive this stranger was to him, Adrian didn't see the need to bother acting nice this time. You can't please everyone after all.

"Hey kid, I'm talking to you! Do you have problems with your ears as well?" the senior apprentice stood up and walked over aggressively, accompanied by two others from his table.

"Sorry if we offended you, seniors. Please just let it slide this time," Sam quickly stood up in front of Adrian in a bid to mediate the situation.

"Screw off Sam, I'm talking to the kid."

Apparently the senior apprentice knew who Sam was, but still took no heed of his words.

Even Sam had a temper, and he was about to speak up again when Adrian stood up abruptly behind him.

All eyes fell on him as Adrian reached into the inner pocket of his apprentice robe and took out a silver badge, confidently flashing it right towards the senior apprentice.

"That is…?" Sam squinted as he tried to make out the words engraved on the badge.

"That is a military badge! Did he really join the military?"

"Joining officially at the age of 10? That is impossible!"

"Whether it is impossible or not is not decided by you! That is definitely the military badge!"

The moment the military badge made its appearance, astonished murmurs broke out among the students who were watching the show from the side.

The senior apprentice from before wasn't deaf. Even though he had never seen a military badge himself, he knew that some of the students who were speaking out from the side had far wider horizons than he did. This shook his confidence a little, but he had already thrown out so many arrogant words that it was too late for him to back down.

"S-So what if you have a military badge? You were probably just hired by some random knight as a squire! Trying to say that Sir Raymond Nyx wanted to bring you under his wing is ridiculous!"

"Wait! That badge, it's for the rank of Captain!" Sam exclaimed out in shock. "You were made a Captain in the military?"

"Yeah, Sir Raymond Nyx said he would make an exception for my case," Adrian put away his badge after shooting the senior apprentice a look of disdain. "Let's go, I'm tired of arguing with idiots."

The senior apprentice simply stood there speechless as Adrian left the canteen along with Sam, Elise, and Daemon.

When Sam mentioned the rank of Captain, the senior apprentice had immediately focused on the engraving of the badge. He was already an apprentice with a spiritual sense, so he was able to easily make out the engravings. Upon seeing that it was indeed a badge for the rank of Captain, the senior apprentice was finally stumped speechless.

Apart from him, the other students who were at the canteen had eyes that shone with strange light within, each having their own thoughts about this genius junior of theirs.

"You are incredible, Adrian! Wasn't that the first time you met Sir Raymond Nyx? You were made a Captain immediately?" Sam smacked the back of his young friend in excitement as they made their way back to their dormitory.

"How could it be this fast? I'm sure Adrian already had some contact with Sir Raymond Nyx before this!" Elise cut in.

"I really have never met him before today," Adrian explained. "He mentioned something about investing in the future. But even though I'm made Captain, it's not like I have any real power in the military at the moment."

"It really was the first time?" even Daemon was surprised.

"That Sir Raymond Nyx has awesome foresight! I would want to bring you under my wing early too if I were him!" Sam laughed.

"I bet Adrian won't want to join anymore if you were the one who wanted to bring him on board!" Elise stuck her tongue out at Sam.

"Woah, Elise! Ouch! That hurt!" Sam complained.

The group joked around in laughter before returning to their dorms for the day. They had varying schedules every day, and their only lesson today was over. So they had the rest of the day to themselves, free to spend it however they wanted. After all, the professors had things of their own to tend to as well so they could not always be looking after the apprentices. There are often days when there were no official classes at all.

On these days, different apprentices would choose to spend it differently. Some would hang out with others to build up their connections, some would prefer to take the chance to rest, and some would even visit the professors to clarify on matters that they were unclear on.

Adrian sat quietly on the wooden floor of his room with his eyes closed. He was deep in meditation, regulating his breathing. He was by far the most diligent of the freshmen, and had already done this so many times that he could now replicate it in perfect textbook style. The drop of mana he condensed was being circulated around within his body, slowly but steadily growing larger.

Previously when he finally managed to condense this drop of mana, Adrian felt a qualitative change occur within him. He developed a spiritual sense with which he could now use to sense everything around him. With his mana reserve currently at such a low level, he still couldn't stretch his spiritual sense out far enough, but the potential it could reach in the future excited Adrian to no end.

It even allowed him to see through his peers, revealing that none of them had condensed any bit of mana yet, thus helping with his confidence level.

For the rest of the day, Adrian sat there in meditation, focused solely on slowly accumulating energy to increase his mana reserve.

Sitting still in meditation for an entire day was not something that someone with weak willpower could have done, and Adrian was not originally one with an exceptionally strong will either. However, he knew that this was the only way possible for him to reach his goal of being the strongest magic user.

So no matter how difficult or boring it was, Adrian still forced himself to go through with it.

The days passed uneventfully with the magic apprentices focused on condensing mana within their body. This was the first hurdle that every magic user had to cross, since mana was the basis of all spells after all.

That was also why the magic apprentices were given months to do just that. After spending six months in the academy, every last freshman finally managed to condense at least a single drop of mana in their body.

With the arrival of the second half of the year, the practical classes also officially started for the freshmen. This was also where the magic apprentices start to show signs of embarking towards their goal of being a full-fledged magic user.

There were classes on enchantments, offense, defense, sensory, etc.

As freshmen, it was mandatory for them to attend every single class so as to fully expose themselves to the world of magic. In fact, even if it weren't mandatory, no freshmen would want to restrict themselves to a prior decision without first checking out the other fields of study.

But although everyone was attending the same classes, they definitely differed in focus, mostly due to their magic class affinity which they got to know through the Affinity Orb during the enrolment ceremony.

Adrian didn't take long to decide on his own focus either. Now armed with a spiritual sense, he was able to sense the existence of the card in his inner soul which resulted in him being labelled as having affinity with the Lightning magic class.

He instinctively felt that this card which depicted a lightning bolt would be the key to success in this life of his, and quickly focused on learning spells affiliated to the Lightning element.

---

"Shock Imbue! Claw!"

Adrian swung his right hand forward while electric sparks were being continuously emitted from it.

Sam leapt back warily as the attack came, managing to dodge it cleanly, but Adrian's right hand continued to emit electrical sparks menacingly.

"Good decision, Sam. You have superior physical abilities, so use that to your advantage," the professor overseeing the sparring match commented with praise.

Sam did not allow himself to be distracted by that compliment though, focusing hard on his opponent. He was 15 years old while Adrian was 10, so he naturally had superior physical capabilities. However, Adrian actually had a mana reserve that was larger than his. This forced Sam to conserve his mana in his fight against Adrian, reducing the advantage he had.

"You can do it, Adrian!" Elise shouted out in encouragement from below the fighting platform.

Adrian swung his right hand forward again and again in pursuit, but Sam was fully prepared as he dodged repeatedly. Finally, Sam managed to take full advantage of his superior physical capability and directly grabbed him by the wrist to stop his attack.

"Fire punch!"

Sam's right fist burst into flames as he brought it down towards Adrian.

This was when Adrian swung out with his left hand as well, matching his palm against Sam's fist before it could land.

"You imbued both hands?" Sam cried out in shock as he felt his entire body growing numb. Electric charges rapidly entered his body, forcing his knees to buckle and fall to the ground.

However, Adrian was in no state to feel good about the exchange of blows. The flaming fist from Sam sent him tumbling backwards in pain, his left palm clearly scorched.

"All right, stop!" the professor directly stepped in after seeing that. "Light Cure!"

A warm light covered both of them instantly, healing them of their injuries. The char marks on Adrian's left palm disappeared quickly as the pain eased. At the same time, Sam regained control over his body which had fallen helplessly to the ground.

"Damn you little monster, how do you have such a large mana reserve!" Sam sulked as he picked himself up from the ground.

"I'm almost out mana as well! But next time I will definitely win!" Adrian gave a cheeky grin as they walked down from the fighting platform.

"Well done, both of you. You played to each of your own strengths in that fight, but neither was able to triumph over the other. I'm sure you can see exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie now. From now, you have to decide if you want to continue strengthening what you are good at or to cover up your weaknesses," the professor commented casually before calling the next pair up for a sparring fight.

"Yes, Professor!" the duo answered loudly in appreciation for the advice.

Adrian might not have won, but everyone could tell that he was far more talented than his opponent. After all, the age difference was far too large! If he was able to fight evenly with Sam even with such a huge age difference, then what would he be capable of if they were of the same age?

"What do you think?" the Headmaster smiled as he dispelled the image that was showing on a magical screen that he conjured beforehand. "Is he worth your Vice General's investment?"

The man beside him snorted in response, "he couldn't even beat a 15 year old kid. What sort of shameful result is that?"

The Headmaster simply smiled. He knew full well that this man understood just how different the body of a 10 year old was from that of a 15 year old.

"The ranking tournament is in just a few months, isn't it? Do you think there will be enough time for him to grow strong to stand a chance?" the man finally turned his face away from the faded image and asked the Headmaster.

"Is there any real hurry for him to show his strength this year?" the Headmaster frowned at that question, apparently not too optimistic.

"The Vice General's actions are always being scrutinised in the military, and making such an unprecedented move of promoting a 10 year old to the rank of Captain has already placed him under huge pressure from all the officers in the military. If the one he chose were to fail miserably even in a tournament among kids, how would the Vice General be able to answer to the questioning of the other officers?" the man's expression had been serious from the beginning.

"So that's the reason why you have that grim face," the Headmaster's smile faded as well. He had a good relationship with Sir Raymond Nyx, and hearing about his current situation, the Headmaster could not remain indifferent.

"Did you think I'm here because I had nothing better to do otherwise?" the man snorted in response once again.

"Are you going to do anything to help him out then?"

"Don't worry. I know that the academy is not in a position to give preferential treatment to any one student. I will think of something to help him myself!"

With that, the man bid the Headmaster farewell and left the room, heading straight towards where Adrian was.