Chapter 1

3rd April, 396

Today was the first day of a new academic year in Zastra National Academy. Students could be seen coming towards the school. There were around 24000 students studying in this school.This was one of the top 4 National Level Academy. The admission criteria to enter the school was considered to be one of the hardest. The good thing was that there was no sort of discrimination or favoritism present in this school. Everyone was given equal opportunities.

Among the thousands of students making their way towards the school, there was a group of 5 students who were walking towards the school. The tallest one among them was named Grav, who seemed to be a kind person. He had a darkish skin toned face with a little broad than usual forehead. He had black colored hair with brown colored eyes.

In the group of 5, 4 of them seemed to be more close to each other and Grav was one of them.Others were named Asch, Prud, Ardi and Harzane.

All of them were in same class. While Asch,Prudi,Ardi and Grav used to go to school together always, today while on their way to school they stumbled across Harzane who was also on his way to school and thus they all decided to walk together to school. Although the four showed respect and courtesy to Harzane, there still was this invisible wall present between them.

Finally they were infront of the academy's gate, ready to enter. The process of entering the gates of the academy was in itself a small test which only allowed those who are qualified to enter.

Without any sort of hesitation or fear, grav's group proceeded to enter the academy through one of the gates out off the 3 gates. Grav chose the physical test related gate. There were 3 kind of gates present in the test to enter the academy, one being a gate related to physical tests, second being a gate related to creative tests, third being a gate related to intelligence tests.

Grav being physically one of the fittest students in the academy chose the physical gate and entered through it. Prud chose the creative gate. Asch, Ardi and Harzane chose the Intelligence gate.

Even if the gates were divided, they still tested other aspects within it although at a much smaller scale compared to its main aspect. Like, in physical gate, while the major part of it was to test the physical limits of individuals who chose this test, it also contained mini tests about intelligence and creativity, offcourse they held less weightage and were easier than their main counterpart tests. Similarly other gates has mini tests too.

All five of them stood infront of their respective gates and went in it one by one. This was the start of their 8th year in the Academy.

Above in the sky, an eagle was circling over the academy watching all the students enter the academy through the gate. After sometime it flew back to a room and spoke : "Master Verz, the perimeter is safe and secure, students have started entering the academy through the gates. Everything seems to be working fine."

Master Verz who was standing by the door of his room nodded and began to leave the room after saying : "Good work rez, now I gotta go and check if everything is ready to welcome our students."

Guides, teachers and students, all were ready for the first day of their new year classes. Some students were nervous while some of them were execited. Teachers on the other hand were preparing themselves to greet the students in the academy. Guides were in their way to check if everything was working fine and to guide the students towards the correct location.

Guides were required in the academy because of the complexity present in the academy. The academy being one of the top 4 National academies, only further made the interior of the academy more complex.

The signal giving out the start of the first gate test rang throughout the academy. Grav and friends were among the first batch of students who went inside the gates to take the test.

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Grav's POV:

Huh! Another year? The school doesn't stop testing us, like they are even testing us on the first day of our new class again, somehow, it's like they aren't satisfied with our final exam results of last year. Anyway feigning my disapproval to go through the test again on the first day of school, I looked towards my best friends Asch, Adri, Prud. They were not showing any signs of annoyance although I knew they also didn't like this.

Then there was Harzane who was one of the kindest person I have ever met albeit also one of the most mysterious one. He always talked to everyone with a smile, was polite enough to make one respect him. He was also the top student of our class, giving extra shine to his character and to add cherry to it, here had no sign of arrogance in him. He was friendly whenever someone talked to him but most of the times he preferred to remain silent.

Anyway, before going off to the physical gate to go through the test, I spoke" Asch, Adri, Prud and Harzane, wish you all the very best. Let's meet on the opposite of the gate and let's top our respective categories."

Asch replied " Huh! Me and Adri can always try but no matter how much we try, we are never able to win against Harzane so that's that for us, You and Prud might have a chance to top in your respective categories in this batch but yes let's all do our best!!"

Adri, nodding his head showing that he agree with what Asch said also added, "I hope Harzane gives us some special tips or atleast goes easy on us".

Prud listening to all this looked towards Harzane and said, "Guys don't make him feel bad for always winning, it's not like he is arrogant about all of this. He never even shows off his wins. Everyone just do your best and I for sure am gonna come on top this time in my criteria".Prud added his overwhelming confidence in the last statement.

While Asch and Adri quickly understanding that what they said might have sounded bad, tried to apologise to Harzane by telling him that they didn't mean it in that way but before they could have said anything, Harzane spoke: " Prud, thanks for the concern but I didn't felt bad or anything. I know they didn't mean it in that way and instead I am very thankful that you all think so highly of me. I just, like everyone else, try to do my best and by chance end up winning. My goal is never to defeat anyone but to just win. Like I don't mind sharing the winning place with 1,2 or even 10 other people, all I strive for is to do my best and try to win. I would like to wish everyone all the best, let's hope the best one tops!"

Listening to Harzane talk so kindly always felt super nice, some might think of him being just a sweet person outside and about his words not having any meanings to it but I would disagree with them. At first I also thought that this is all a facade that he is portraying to maintain his image but as I spent time around him and got to know more about him, I realised that it wasn't a facade and he was actually one of the kindest person who was kind even to his haters.

Well after we all wished each other some good luck, we all started heading towards our respective gates. I being good at using brute force was going towards the physical test gate. I was confident in my skills, I was confident in my control over zhi. While I wasn't the best in using my intelligence or creativity, i had enough confidence to clear the mini tests related to them and to clear the physical related test with flying colors. Confident enough to top the first batch rankings I stepped towards the gate.