Chapter - 1: Prologue

Starlight Academy is a gathering place for youngsters from all over the continent with dreams, hopes, and ambitions. The place where people who did not reach certain grades were mercilessly overthrown by the perfect meritocracy. Grey Eckert joined the Starlight Academy because of his lover, Iris Crimson. They were from the same town.

Two years ago, before he joined the Starlight Academy, he confessed his feelings for her. She was shocked to hear that but later accepted her feelings for her. At that time he decided to go to the Starlight Academy with her to support her dreams. Her dream was to become the strongest knight and save the continent from demons. She had a deep-seated hatred towards the demons because her father died during a demon attack.

He knew that she missed her father a lot and wanted to grow stronger. So he agreed to support her dreams. He still remembered how happy she was to hear that.

Unfortunately, he didn't develop any powers over time. His magical powers also didn't increase after a point in time Which put him in a spot where he was already behind all the students of his year. But after a point of time, he couldn't improve anymore. Due to this he failed the first year and had to repeat the year again.

Iris was the top student in the first year followed by his best friend Ken. He was proud of them. So that he doesn't disappoint Iris, he decides to work harder.

But this all changed three months ago when Iris decided to break up. She soon started to date Ken.

At the same time, rumors started to roam around the school that he cheated on Iris. His classmates started abusing him during practices. Even the teachers ignored him. There was never a day when he didn't return to the school dormitory without broken bones. Sometimes he had to stay in the infirmary since he was too injured to go to the dormitory.

As he was thinking all this he suddenly heard the bell that indicated the end of the lunch break ring. As he got up he loosened his body and headed to the classroom for the afternoon class. his class is the 5th class and the lowest class in the 1st year. Among them, he is at the very bottom, the so-called dropout. When he entered the classroom, contempt, and ridicule from the surroundings greeted him.

"He's here again. The lowest"

"What a pathetic sight to see"

" Just die already, you fucking dropout."

He was afraid of those heartless voices, but he tried to ignore them and sit in his own seat. When he got to his seat, three schoolboys gathered around his seat.

" Hey, dropout why do you always come and ruin the mood of the classroom"

Said the boy in the middle.

"I wish you could give up on this futile thing."

"It's annoying because they will see me at the same level as you."

The other two who were beside the big guy also joined in swearing.

The boy in the middle was the leader of this group. And the other two were his followers. They are the useless sons of noble families. But noble families nonetheless. That's why no one in his class messed with them even though they were not that strong. 

The leader, Walter Blaze has red hair and red eyes which is a common trait of the Blaze family, one of the upper-middle-ranked noble families. His older brother Drake Blaze was among the top 10 strongest students in 2nd year. That's why he acted so arrogant. His magical power is 86 which is at the high end of E - Rank. He was also the strongest student of 5th Class. 

The other two big guys were twins belonging to the noble family of Ivar. They are Agnar and Olav. They had a magical power of 60 and 64 respectively.

Grey didn't reply to their question because he knew no matter what he said he was going to get beaten up. In fact, if he does reply something will be used against him and he will be beaten up more. And the teachers won't take any action. 

When Walter didn't hear any reply from Grey, he grabbed him by his collar lifted him up, and shouted angrily " You dare ignore me ". Saying that he threw him towards the back of the classroom. 

THUD

With a crashing sound, Grey's back hit against the wall. Walter started walking towards him and said "How dare a weak lowly peasant such as yourself even dare join the Starlight Academy, no you are even worse than the weakest lowly peasant out there. On top of that You are a fucking cheater. Huh, no wonder your parents threw you out when you were a baby."

Hearing this, Grey for the first time started showing an expression on his face. This was an extremely sore spot for him. He was abandoned by his parents when he was just a baby and he didn't even know the reason behind it. All kinds of thoughts were spinning inside his head, but that was soon interrupted by loud laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHA looks at that face of yours, you look angry and here I thought you were totally expressionless. Saying that he lifted his feet to stomp on his face when he was suddenly stopped by a loud voice.

"ENOUGH"

"Everyone go back to your places " It was their homeroom teacher Peter Valain.

"And Grey stop disturbing the class and return back to your seat."

Everyone knew what happened to Grey but no one said anything, in this world being weak was a sin. Weak were ignored and strong were praised. Even though Grey was bullied, no one protested against it. Grey was so used to this treatment that he was not even shocked anymore. 

Grey got up and went towards his desk and sat down. 

Ugh, he groaned in his mind.

'it seemed my back took more damage than I thought' He thought to himself.

Since, Grey had very low magical power, to at least survive in the school, he developed other talents like he improved his swordsmanship and increasing his physical abilities. In fact, when compared with pure skills for swordsmanship, not even third years could beat him. That's why everyone hated him more. To them, he was a failure and how dare a failure be better than them in something.

But, alas he was still at the lowest of the food chain, after all, knights could augment their physical abilities through magical power, and after a certain point, swordsmanship alone cannot breach the difference between physical abilities and abilities. 

Their homeroom teacher Peter was looking at them quietly before he finally opened his mouth "Listen, everyone, this is a very important announcement, the headmaster has decided that it is important for the students of the Starlight Academy to gain practical experience. Since we instructors also agree with that, we have decided that the first years and the second years will raid the Dunkelheit dungeon in Dukeward.

Suddenly, all the students had their mouths shut. Nervousness was in everyone's faces, especially Grey's since dungeons are supposed to be extremely dangerous. And to make it worse, he was going to be in the same group as his Ex-Girlfriend.