Bullying

"That's why you should keep your eyes opened, Ares. People are already aiming to go against you. They don't want to lose points to someone who isn't very strong. Actually, their goal is always to let the best ones to the real deal, to compete against themselves without the need to worry with some rats that could lurk around."

Ares lowered his head for a moment. In the last few hours, his will and determination had been getting shattered and burnt into ashes. A lot was going on and he couldn't figure out how to solve many of the problems that were happening in his life at that point.

'I need to find a way to get stronger and in condition to go to the final exam, but I also need to keep alive and pull through this experience in the dormitories until the day of the real exam... Man, that's a hassle! I am willing to punch these trainees in the face so much... However, there is still the fact that they can use their authority and Mana against me...'

Ares was getting very frustrated. Those feelings were accumulating and he was ready to explode out of anger.

'I need to work out, otherwise, today I will kill a human being for the first time," he thought while gritting his teeth to hold the wrath within him.

Xavier was now eating quietly and didn't say anything for the time being. He was waiting for Ares to absorb all that information before explaining the rest. Also, he could notice that Ares was a smart boy, just like him, so he would wonder and figure out about a lot of things all by himself.

"Hey, Xavier," the boy smiled upon hearing his own name. It meant that his plan to approach Ares a bit more was going smoothly.

"What's it, Ares?" He had his two eyes closed while savoring the not-so-tasty food of the canteen. Xavier opened one of them to pay attention to Ares.

"I am wondering... How could he measure how great is my power just by shaking hands? And for what purpose is that discharge of Mana for?

Xavier finished swallowing the food and answered him right away.

"That's because it is the most standard method to measure someone else's power! Didn't you know about it? That's something they teach in school, you know?"

Ares scratched his neck while frowning hard.

"No, I am sure they didn't teach it at my school. I came from a small village, so..."

Xavier nodded in understanding.

'Well, at least he is smarter than most of the peasants that come here to earn some money. I can see that he is taking it seriously, so it will be worth it to say some things to him.'

"Well, when you take two different concentrations of Mana and make them collide, the denser part will cancel the other. That is, if you were stronger than him, once your hands touched, he would have his flow of Mana canceled for a while until it recovered again.

"That's also what he meant by saying that anybody else would have shaken his hands. That's because most of the trainees coming here have minimal control over their Mana, so they wouldn't back away. It would be a blow to their honor, after all. Furthermore, most of them know about this kind of thing that happens between the trainees, so they worry about how they will spend their days during this whole year here."

Ares was concerned about that matter. It would be difficult to live his life with lots of people who could control Mana going after him searching for battles and this kind of stuff. He knew that the bullying would be rough.

"Well, I am not worried about it at all. Most of them surely can't beat me in a battle using swords, and none of them has the same physical condition as me, even though I am still recovering from my journey by now. If I can turn my battles into something more physical than based on Mana and Mystical Arts, everything will be fine."

Xavier sighed, shaking his head. He was even losing his appetite with that conversation. Surely, Ares didn't know a thing about human beings and how extreme they could be. Also, he probably never fought against people who could use Mystical Arts.

"You are being equivocated now, you know? How many days will it take until the day of the exam?"

"More one week and a half, as far as I know," Ares replied, counting on his fingers each day.

"Yes. You are by far the trainee that came most late in the game. These people don't want one more person that they don't know much about participating in the exam. It would be bad for them. And the lesser people, the better. They want to monopolize the exam. With just one week and a half to test and eliminate you, do you think that they will go in the usual pace? Of course not! They will slaughter you and go beyond any limits just to make you suffer and quit as fast as possible!"

Ares couldn't help but agree with that boy.

'If I was in the place of those trainees and had these objectives, I would do the same. It isn't moral but surely helps to increase the chances of being a Novice right off the bat. Particularly if...'

"The number of trainees that will become Novices is limited, right? How many?" Ares asked.

Xavier looked at him with a grim expression. Probably, that was the point that he was aiming to touch soon.

"The number of trainees that are allowed to become novices is... eighteen. The number of trainees currently, including you, is twenty."

Ares, then, discovered the reason why Xavier came to talk with him about that matter. His intentions were quite explicit.

"You are trying to save yourself, right? You are the weakest among the others, after all. They must be pressing you a lot these days, and suddenly appears someone in the same level as you, so you finally find some hope to team up and win against the bullies..."

Xavier nodded his head, giving a timid smile. Ares could completely read through his facade of good guy.