Chapter-6

The next day, inside the exam room after finding his role number, Theron sat down and waited for the time to reach for the papers to be given.

After a while, the papers were given, he looked at the paper first.

'Hmm, the questions are easy'

He answered all of them before intentionally making a few mistakes to avoid attracting too much attention.

'That should be good enough to make it rank 2'

He handed in his paper and left the room without much concern.

Unbeknownst to him, inside the classroom, the scene was different. Some were pulling their hair, some were biting their nails and some were even biting the end of their pencils and all of them were taking their time to answer the questions. The one who was having the most trouble seemed a girl in red hair who had an ashen face as she looked at the paper as if looking at a complete stranger which she had never met before.

After leaving the classroom, Theron checked the time and realized it was still early. He decided to proceed with his daily training routine.

At midday, the classroom bell rang and the students one by one came out. One of the last to come out was Seraphina, sighing as she came out, looking disheartened. Elysia approached her, and they left the classroom together.

"The questions this time were very hard"

"How did you do, Elie"

"I am not quite sure about my score this time but I don't want to underestimate anyone"

"What about you, Sephi"

"Let's just say, I didn't do well"

She said as she had a teary face. 

"Hang in there, hang in there"

"I will help convince aunty"

"Really" Seraphina said as she looked at Elysia, 

"Yes" Elysia replied in affirmation

"That's why you are my best friend"

Seraphina said as she hugged her best friend. 

"Don't get too happy yet, we still have 5 more exams"

Elysia reminded her lest the girl thought everything would be fine afterwards.

"Let's go to the restaurant again, I still want to eat at it"

Elysia said as she licked her lips.

As they were going towards the restaurant, Seraphina saw a figure coming out from the park drenched like he went for a shower. She blinked her eyes looking at this figure moving away.

This routine continued for five days, with Seraphina witnessing the same sight each time. On the last day, after the exams were over…

— — —

"Sigh"

'Why did the training became harder' 

'What the hell'

[Quest: Training(2.0)]

[Description: Push your limits]

[Requirements:

200 x push-ups

40 km Jog

100 x Squats

12 minutes plank

20 x pull-ups

75 x handstand push-ups

50 x burpees

5 km sprint]

After waking up, he could see this quest and he looked at the quest board to see that the previous version of the quest was not there anymore, replaced by this training 2.0.

His training was becoming faster because of his martial bone and physique getting stronger as well as the purple patches being removed making the exercises easier but this new exercise. He was thinking whether or not his core would work after seeing the dim light of the core and whether the parasitic purple things affected it.

'I will find out when all of it is burned off'

"The last exam day, let's go"

"Finally finished"

Seraphina said as she and Elysia walked out of the academy.

"Want to celebrate?"

"You just want to try to the sweets there again don't you"

"You don't have to say it like that, it's just one of the best ones I have tried"

"Before that, come with me, I want to find out something"

They went towards the park and Seraphina tried looking for the person but didn't find him. A figure in tank tops and a hoodie passed by her but she didn't notice. She sighed and looked at Elysia behind her who was eating a bag of chips.

Seraphina looked at her friend with a disappointed face.

"What, I am hungry, you just dragged me here"

"Want a bite"

As she was looking, Seraphina saw a clothed figured behind her friend who was moving away,

'His back looks familiar'

Then realization hit her as she dragged Elysia who was still enjoying her chips, and followed the person who was running. They discreetly trailed him. The person went jogging for a while.

He then started running, which alerted Seraphina, and they went into hiding, thinking that he might have noticed them. However, he seemed oblivious as he completed a loop, rested on a bench, and then headed to a quiet and secluded spot.

At a space quite difficult to find due to the surrounding trees, there was an opening and in that opening, a boy stopped, removed his hoodie and hung it on a nearby branch. At a nearby spot, hiding were two girls who were looking at him, one still eating chips while the other one was looking carefully.

"Why are we stalking someone" Elysia asked in a low voice,

"You don't recognize the person" 

"Crunch….. No…..Crunch"

Seraphina looked at her best friend with a 'really' face.

"He is Theron Silvercrest" Seraphina explained

 "Ohh" 

Elysia said as she wiped the chip crumbs on her mouth.

"What is he doing though, wasn't it said that he didn't have a martial bone also"

"Yes, maybe it's for health"

"Maybe"

They look at the person who started to stand on his hands and his tank top fell to reveal his defined six packs and started doing handstand push ups. The two who were watching had crimson flashes on their faces as they looked at the person. Seraphina saw a drop of water fall in front of her and looked up to see Elysia who had stopped her hand in the middle of eating chips, was stunned and drooled. 

"Elie, stop drooling" 

Elysia seemed to snap out from her fantasies. They had never seen the naked body of an opposite gender but it was not that this that surprised them but that the person who didn't have martial bone nor core had this kind of body really surprised them. It seemed that he was not only good at academics but also hard working in combat but alas he didn't have a martial bone nor mana core.

They thought and sighed at the same time. The heavens were really unfair at times. As he reached 50 push-ups, he started to slow down, and each push-up became a struggle. The two girls watched as if it were a TV show. He slowly reached 75 and lied down on the grass.

"Ok, you are satisfied right, let's go"

As they were about to go, they managed to catch a glimpse of the person they had saw just now lying on the ground stood up and in his hand, there was a wooden sword. They thought the unimaginable. 

"Isn't he from a family of magicians?"

"And he is trying to train the sword"

"Even if he doesn't have a mana core, wouldn't it make him an outcast"

"I heard that the Silvercrest family was known for their strictness"

In history of course there was similar cases such as this but it was their first time encountering such and they didn't know what to feel about it. Should they be proud of such a person or worry that such a person might die due to the wrath of his family. Both of them fell into their fantasies and didn't react till a whishing sound of the sword reached their ears.

They looked at the person and saw that he had started to train with a sword. They could see that though he seemed like a beginner, his strikes were precise. This was more apparent to Seraphina who was a sword master. As he practiced, they could observe that he was improving at a rate that was visible to the naked eye. Each repetition showed improvement They were surprised.

"Isn't this too monstrous" Elysia said, even though she didn't know how to use a sword, she could still see the improvement

"His insight, yes, its monstrous"

"This is a kind of genius which comes once in a century, alas it was a loss that he didn't have a martial bone"

"Sigh" 

Both of them sighed but as he started to continue, Elysia started to turn back as she said

"Let's go, let's don't disturb him"

But as she walked, she couldn't feel the presence of her friend beside as she tried to grab her and looked back to see that she was walking towards the boy.

"Eikk" 

"What is she doing"