Chapter 21- Character Change

It was already nighttime but the whole capital city was in a busy mood. You could see swarms of people especially the shopkeepers rushing from one end to another. Sometimes checking on the decorations they did to their shops. While other times talking to others about how they were going to be so busy the next couple of days. However, you could see that even in such a hectic schedule, everyone had a big smile on their faces.

While the whole city was bustling in excitement Oliver was lying on his bed in silence. Keeping his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling, he was deep in thoughts.

"Sigh, so tomorrow is the day huh. Last day of the year, the day when the infamous Rifwore- Institute of Arcane takes its entrance examination. When all those geniuses from all around the kingdom come to participate in hopes to be selected and pave the way to a bright future."

"Aspirations of becoming a great mage is too tempting after all. But the reality is cruel. Out of all those who came, barely 1% will get selected."

"I really am lucky that I was able to practice the Supreme way of Shiv. According to master when I broke through the first stage my bones were ground to dust but due to the Supreme way of Shiv, not only were they healed to new, but they even because much stronger than my original skeleton due to all the many stored inside them. This resulted in me finally reaching tier 1 of body cultivation."

"Not only the Supreme way of Shiv nourishes the whole body with mana, including my blood vessels and meridians. It makes my body more compatible with mana, making it easier to control and manipulate it. At least this gives me a surety that even if I didn't have a talent for being a mage earlier. Now I am confident that I will be able to become one."

"Though I am still not certain just how much talent I have, at least it's better than nothing. Though more talent would help a lot more but at least now I have a certain chance."

{Yeah}

"..."

[Sigh]

Oliver knew that the last 2 years, had brought big changes to Arthur. Arthur wasn't a machine, he had a soul. And this soul gave him his own thought process, nature, and even emotions. Arthur used to be a bit of sarcastic chatterbox. But slowly and slowly he started to become quieter and quieter.

Oliver knew all of this but decided not to ask. He was sure that when Arthur finally decides to tell him what was going on, he would give him an ear.

"Hey, Arthur can you show me my status?"

After a couple of seconds of silence, his status was in front of him.

{Status}

{Strength- 13.9/16}--> 22.5/16

{Agility- 12.5/16}--> 20.1/16

{Intelligence- 18.1/15}--> 18.7/15

{Awarness- 13.2/15}--> 18.5/15

{Vitality- 12/16}--> 25/16

{Soul- 1.97/1}--> 1.97/1

"Breaking through the tier 1 of body cultivation as well as the first stage of the Supreme way of Shiv really did give me a big boost in my overall status."

"The normal arm strength of a tier 1 body cultivator is 400kgs while those of tier 2 have is 10000kgs. While the arm strength that the Supreme way of shive gave me when I reached the 1st tier was 750 kgs, almost double than other cultivating arts. No wonder I could barely wield Adamantite earlier, which itself was almost 700 kgs."

"Sigh either way I should sleep now. Tomorrow is a big day. Good night Arthur."

{Good Night Oliver}

.........................................

When sun rose early in the morning, people were already on the streets. Everyone was dressed in new clothes enjoying the joyous environment. Many families and kids were visiting the recently decorated shops. Some were there to buy new clothes while some were there just to see the bright decorations. The laughter of kids was filled on the roads as they were running around catching each other.

On a similar road going towards the institute, two males were walking next to each other. One of them was around 6 feet in height, buff with slightly tanned skin and a rugged faced. He was wearing complete black from head to toe, which matched quite well with his tan. While the other male was 6 feet 2 inches in height, a lean but ripped white-toned person. He had dark black, recently cut medium-long hair which were dripping till his neck. He was wearing a white upper with coffee brown lower. But the thing that immediately caught the attention of anyone looking at this person was a trident on his forehead. The trident was like an inscription. Its teeth pointed upwards and gave a different elegance to the already handsome face of the male.

This was Oliver and next to him was surprisingly Polo. Both of them were going to the institute's entrance examination. You could see that Arthur wasn't the only one who had a change in their attitude in the past 2 years. There wasn't any early arrogance and smugness on Polo's face as it was when Oliver met him the first time. He was a changed man, he wasn't a showoff anymore. And all this could be traced back to the incidence a couple of months ago.

One day Olson had sent Polo to buy some materials from their usual seller in the morning. But when he didn't come back even after a couple of hours. Olson got a bit worried and asked Oliver to go look for him.

Oliver spent the next half an hour trying to look for Polo. What he found was Polo lying in an alleyway bleeding all over his body while grasping a money pouch in his hand so tightly as if his life depended on it. 6 Guys had surrounded Polo and were continuously kicking the already half-dead Polo.

Seeing this Oliver ran to the rescue. He beat up all the thugs single-handedly while rushed and picked up the bleeding Polo and carried him back to the shop. When Olson saw Oliver and bleeding Polo coming through the door, he immediately called Marco and asked him to go and purchase a healing elixir for the alchemist shop. While he himself started pouring his mana steadily into Polo's body trying to at least stop the bleeding. In the meantime, Marco came with the elixir and carefully made Polo drink it.

A healing elixir that costed around 8 crystals really showed it magic.

Polo's wounds started healing at a visible rate.

Only when he was in a stable condition did Olson ask Oliver and Marco to take Polo to his room in rest.

Later the same night Olson went out and only came back after 2-3 hours. When he came back, Oliver saw his bloody hands and a serious expression. But before he could even ask anything Olson went back to his room.

The next day when Polo woke up his wounds were already healed. Oliver was going to ask about what happened last night but seeing the tension in the shop he decided not to. Only the day after that did Polo came to Oliver to thank him for saving him. He knew this was the right time so he asked Polo what happened.

After a couple of seconds of silence, Polo told the whole story. He told that before he came to Olsons Blacksmiths he just another street rat under immense dept. His parents who had taken a loan from some small-time moneylender died without paying the debt which then fell on Polo's shoulders. He had to sell his house and come on the streets just to survive. But one day when he tried his first time to pickpocket, he got caught. And low and behold that person was Olson.

At this point, Oliver was genuinely surprised that where did Polo get the balls from to try to steal from Olson. But in his defence, he didn't know who Olson was at that time.

When he got caught Olson just picked him up and brought him back to the shop. He started staying here and helping the shop here and there. It was only by coincidence that Olson found out that he had a talent for blacksmithing so he started teaching him.

What happened yesterday was when he was going to buy materials for the shop with the money bag that Olson had given him. He got caught in between thugs of the same money-lender.

The rest was obvious, they took him in an alley and beat the crap out of him for not giving them the money pouch. He resister for some time but he wasn't proficient in fighting like Oliver so he became the Yamcha meme. It was then that Oliver came and saved him and the rest Oliver already knew.

Only after telling Oliver his life history did he open his mouth and said in the most sincere tone, "Thank you Oliver, if not for you, I would have been dead."

Oliver got stunned but then he smiled and replied, "Don't worry too much about it. However, tell me what are you gonna do about the debt and the moneylender. I mean the thugs can come back again and this time you might not be lucky. Do you have enough money to repay the debt?"

Polo just shook his head and replied, "Boss came to me in the morning and said that I don't have to worry about anything and everything has been settled."

Oliver immediately understood that what had happened when Olson went out last night, but he decided to not tell Polo about it.

Polo took a deep breath and looked straight into Oliver's eyes, "Oliver I don't think that I will ever be able to repay boss. But the only way I can think of is by inheriting his mantle and become a great blacksmith whose name will be known throughout the empire. So I have decided that I will join you and give the entrance examination of Rifwore Institute and become an elemental blacksmith. Only then can I make him proud of myself."

It was then that Oliver came to know that Polo was the same age as him even though he looked buffed af. And the reason for that was both Marco and Polo practised body cultivation that was provided by Olson. Even though it was not the Supreme art of Shiv, it provided enough strength to them that was needed while making mana weapons.

So from that day onwards, Polo was a changed man. His showoff attitude changed into his determination and he worked hard to achieve his new dream.

..........................(Flashback over)......................

Both Oliver and Polo had finally reached the grounds on which the institute conducts their yearly examinations. The ground was inside the Institute boundaries but was big enough to hold more than a 1000 people.

When they entered the lush green ground which had evenly short cut grass grew over it, they saw already more than 700 participants were already present. With only one look they saw that more than 90% of them were the proud nobles standing next to their butlers and guards that their prominent families had sent with them.

They saw that a middle-aged man was sitting alone on the platform, situated in the north of the ground. He had his eyes closed and had a tranquil face even in between all the murmur. It was not hard to guess that he was their examiner and representative from the institute.

Only after half an hour did he open his eyes and stood up. Suddenly the murmur that was going on in the entire ground stopped.

"Greeting aspiring mages. I would request all of the examinees come forwards and their guardians please stand at the end of the ground."

Listening to the middle-aged man, all the examinees instantly came near the stage while their butlers and guards quietly went and stood at the end of the ground.

Seeing this the middle-aged man smiled and said, "Best of luck to all as the Rifwore- Institute of Arcane's Entrance examination is about to begin.....