Training

During the seven days 'break' the students from both the First Dawn Academy and the Second Dawn Academy busied themselves with their various training and education. Although the main tournament was going to be a practical one, or in simpler terms, a fight, education, and book knowledge were still valued since both sides were academy students. Hence, it was necessary for the students to prepare themselves both physically, mentally, and academically.

Noah and James knew the importance of this event so they didn't bother Asher to supervise their training and carried it out themselves. They weren't as smart as Melissa and Asher, neither were they as strong as Owen and Asher, but what the duo had were an indomitable will and great determination. Once they set themselves to achieve a goal they would push their bodies to the limit just to reach it. This was something Asher noticed about them which was why he had bothered to keep helping them in their training.

Before he left for seclusion, Asher gave them some new drills to carry out daily and although these drills took at least ten hours of their daytime, the duo didn't complain. In fact, they practised them for one and a half times, using fifteen hours a day on physical training, and spent the remaining nine hours as thus; five hours in the library, two hours mana training, and two hours of sleep.

The reason why their mana training time was so short was that with the limited resources, time, and talent they had, their mana would not improve by a reasonable amount in this one week. Hence, it was best that they focused on their skills and other abilities that could be improved in the short term.

Melissa, on the other hand, was cooped up in the school's library, updating her knowledge during the daytime and engaging in spars and training during the afternoon time. At night, she would cultivate her mana for the majority of the darkness before taking a four-hour break sleeping, following which the new day would begin and her activities would enter a repeat.

Despite being a girl, Melissa didn't go easy on herself and wanted to become stronger and surpass her father. Bringing her family to new heights had always been her dream and the academy was the first step towards that. Failing the first step was pretty much disastrous to her goal so Melissa refused to slack even for a second.

As for Owen, no one knew what he was doing or where he would go in the daytime, but once it was noon, Owen would appear on the training grounds to spar with Melissa, James, Noah, or any student who was free at the moment. This would go on until 3 pm, after which Owen would depart again and return by 10 pm to go to bed.

Between the four of them, Owen was the one who spent the most time sleeping, but he was also the strongest and his spot among the top three hundred and sixty was pretty much assured. In fact, one could even say the same for Melissa, but she aimed higher and didn't want to lose her guard.

This was because a day ago, right after Dean Alfos' announcement, Asher had called Melissa, Noah, and James out. Usually, it was difficult for second years and above to leave the campus, but not impossible. After they had left, Asher led them to the Arnhaunt mansion in the capital where they faced a certain student from the Second Dawn Academy whom he had invited. The end result was that all three of them lost to the student.

This dealt a huge blow to their pride and made them not underestimate the students from the Second Dawn Academy any longer.

While the rest trained, Asher didn't slack off either.

Although it was true that he was unrivalled among his current generation, Asher aimed higher than that. As such, he spent most of the time in isolation in a hilly region within the academy.

Similar to the Second Dawn Academy, the First Dawn Academy had an open region that could count as a 'Wild' of its own. But unlike that of the Second Dawn Academy, the former's wasn't as dangerous and had only second-stage Guardian monsters and below. Apart from that, it was only open to students in the third year, who had already gained prior battle experience with their test.

For Asher's division, their test was interrupted, but considering it had still held on for more than half of the allotted time, they were considered experienced and so could utilize the First Dawn Academy's Wild. Even so, not many students did as their focus was on the forthcoming tournament which was a battle against humans and not monsters. For such, practical combat against mages like spars and such was considered more valuable than facing off against monsters.

As for the reason why Asher appeared here, it was because he needed a quiet spot to stay and train. He couldn't be out long from the academy so the mansion in the city was out of the option. In that case, the only option Asher had was to find a secluded spot in the academy, and the best option was the Wild.

Asher went to one of the hills in the Wild and dug a cave which he stayed within and trained. With his knowledge of magic array and formation, Asher set up a simple anti-spy formation, an isolation formation, and an invisibility formation to prevent his hideout from being spotted by anyone, staff or student.

Once he was done, Asher began using some of the magic crystals he got from his trip back home as well as a few potions to improve his mana strength. His training schedule was such that the first half of the day was spent on mana training while the latter half was spent going through his memories and recovering some of his 'lost' knowledge. As for nature's calls and bodily needs, Asher set aside two hours each evening for that.

At nighttimes, he would venture into the Wild and face the monsters with his suppressed strength while trying out skills and spell from his past life to get familiar with them in combat. Of course, Asher only used spells aligned with his element to prevent any sort of suspicion from the hidden protectors who watched over the Wild. As for the spells that weren't of his element or beyond the level of knowledge of the Great Dawn kingdom, Asher only used them in secrecy in his hideout or when he was sure that there was no protector watching him.

'Luckily, there's no protector mage following me every single step.' Asher thought.

'The royal family really 'cares' for me.' Asher grinned.

How could he not know that the reason for the lack of a protector mage guiding him, the only son of the renowned Duke Arnhaunt, was that the royal family had ordered such?

They probably hoped that he would somehow die to one or two of the beasts in the Wild, that way a 'threat' would be eliminated without them having to get their hands stained.

'Not like that would work out.' Asher smiled as he glanced at the sky.

'Two more days left…'