18

The two made their way through the myriad amounts of buildings and found themselves standing in front of a brown wooden door that was nicely polished. Ruo Chen knocked on the door twice before making his way in and kicking off his shoes at the door.

Ye Ran copied Ruo Chen's actions and they both took a look at their dorm where they will be staying at until the final trial. Participants where not told of what the final trial would be but Ruo Chen thought it was obvious enough that it was going to involve everyone at once, something like a hunt.

"I think the final trial would be a hunt and the more you hunt, the higher your chances of being accepted." Ruo Chen said in an attempt to start a discussion but Ye Ran seemed to be lost in his own thoughts as he stared emptily out the window.

Ruo Chen was used to this by now and sighed before walking around the dorm. This dorm had two rooms with their own separate beds and a living room and kitchen combined with a toilet next to the left room. The living room acted as a connector of the two rooms which faced each other.

Not bad...

Ruo Chen thought as he went into the left room, it was spacious for one person and the bed has a twin XL mattress and was enough for him. He did not move much while sleeping anyway. There was a simple oak wood study desk parallel to the bed with a small oak wood chair.

After taking a few looks around the corners to check for any damages, he went back out to the living room to see Ye Ran still spacing out. Ruo Chen then remembered that during the trial days, you can get to visit the booths where the teachers were to get to know more about the school and the teachers themselves. 

He found himself excited about it as he had always wondered how the teachers at the others school would compare to the number one instructor Feng Hao Yu. 

"Ye Ran, I'm going to see the teacher booths." Ruo Chen told Ye Ran before quickly making his way to the booths which were located near the front of the school where they came in from.

Ye Ran only moved after he confirmed that Ruo Chen had left and he was once again conflicted. He never thought he would find himself attending the same school that his rival, Xiao Yuwei, had once attended. 

"Xiao Yuwei, last time I failed to finish you off easily, this time I will make sure that I can kill you with a wave of my hand!" Ye Ran gritted out as his eyes flickered with a dangerous light.

***

Ruo Chen almost instantly saw the booths when he walked out of the dorm building and he felt as if he had returned back to his schooling days. Back then, he would visit different schools to see which one he was interested and he would go to the booths to learn more about how the school was like. 

He went to queue at the shortest line as he did not want to wait for a long time, just one visit to a booth was enough, judging by how long each group of students stayed at each booth.

After a few minutes of waiting, Ruo Chen was already starting to feel bored and he contemplated whether to have small talk with the person in front of him. 

Before he could make up his mind, the girl in front of his had already turned around and she initiated the conversation first.

"I'm Sage and you are?" The girl asked as she extended out a slender hand. Her appearance was stunning and with long brown hair braided neatly and a small face with gentle features. She had sweet honey coloured eyes that added on to her charm. 

Sage was an English name and Ruo Chen figured she was from another area. Ruo Chen did write this world with the geography somewhat like the original earth so obviously there were people from other countries but luckily he wrote that the main language in this world was English as it was easier than other languages and also so that there were little language barriers.

His village spoke Chinese as a second language and even though this school was in the same country as his village, the main language spoken was English like the rest of the world.

"I'm Ruo Chen." Ruo Chen replied as he returned the handshake.

As Ruo Chen was now about 172cm tall, Sage had to slightly tilt her head up to look at him in the eyes. At this moment, Ruo Chen was sifting through his memories if he ever wrote of a girl named Sage but he was met with blank.

So she's not too important.

He thought as they chatted about where they came from and what their hobbies were, just the stuff you would talk about when meeting someone your age.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look handsome?" Sage complimented with a small blush on her face.

Ruo Chen was caught off guard by the sudden compliment and he felt a bit flustered. He was considered to be quite good looking when he was Ming Ze but since he had only ever attended all boys school and only ever went on a handful of dates forced by him mother, he never got called handsome outright.

His friends might say that he was better looking than them but never the word handsome. There was once were Ruo Chen had to dress up as a girl and he got called pretty boy for a year straight before everyone finally toned down. He was sure it was all a joke, but was it really? That year on valentines day, Ruo Chen's locker was so stuffed with chocolates and love letters that he almost wanted to faint.

Was everyone that deprived?

Ruo Chen felt that it was all too cringe and never read a single letter while he kept all the chocolates to give them to his family. So till this day, he never knew if any of the letters were genuine or just a joke.

"Uhm, No?" Ruo Chen replied with an awkward cough. He had only ever been with Ye Ran, his parents and his maids in this world and he rarely interacted with the other village kids since he was busy training with Ye Ran everyday. His parents called him handsome but that was because they are family.

Ye Ran was already a man of few words and getting a compliment out of him was neigh impossible.

So he never was called handsome, though he did find himself quite pleasant looking with his charming features and height.

"No way, you're really good looking you know?" Sage exclaimed in disbelief. 

Ruo Chen brushed it off and said his thanks before they realized that they were next in line.

The instructor that sat at the booth had a unique look. Most people here had brown or black hair but the instructor had soft blond hair with a two block hair cut. The soft hair fell nicely over his forehead while he stared at the newcomers with his golden eyes through his thick eyelashes. 

He was ethereal beyond words and Ruo Chen felt a bit confused as to why the line to this booth was so short. He hastily looked at the other booths and to see if he could see the other instructors but unfortunately he could not see through the crowd.

"Don't bother, our appearances are hidden outside the range of this tiny booth." The instructor seemed used to this type of reaction and said this out as if it was recited.

Ruo Chen formed an O shape with his mouth at this. It made sense as this booth was also quite hidden behind the many other booths and if one did not actively try to search for it, it would be camouflaged into the surroundings.

Sage also nodded in understanding as she too tried to look at the other booths.

"I'm Aleksandr and the head instructor of the healing department. Instructor or instructor Aleks will do." Aleksandr introduced himself with a deadpanned look as he assessed them both with his own methods.

Ruo Chen did not bother hiding anything this time as his skills are not good enough to hide from a head of a department, even if that department is healing. 

"Pardon my rudeness, but if you are a head, should you not be in the trial room assessing the youths?" Sage questioned with a light bow.

"I'm only there for the final trial, those other teachers can sift through the mediocre ones." Aleksandr replied with a slight hint of contempt as he stared at Sage.

"Judging by my assessment, you're only slightly better than average and the boy over there...is tragic." Aleksandr commented as he turned his gaze to Ruo Chen, with amusement in his golden eyes.

Ruo Chen seemed to hear none of it as Xiao Pang now in the form of a hamster in his pocket let out a few squeaks which translated to, "Boss man told me that you have just gained some protection from the higher powers that makes people think you are average."

He was pleasantly surprised by this fact that he could act weak in this world. Average was at the bottom of the this world and the weak were not even considered. 

Good, I can work with this.

Ruo Chen thought cheerily as a smile slowly formed on his face.

Just that it was probably not a normal reaction to being called tragically weak and Aleksandr and sage only looked at him with a weird look.