Academy

William reached the town closest to the Academy at noon. This town was a stop and meeting point for students entering the Academy.

The town was already filled with people. Some came with their bodyguards, while others were alone.

Normally, the town had never been flooded with people like this, as it was a farming town.

People who came to the academy for just a week or two a year would fill the whole town and leave a good income behind.

William walked into an inn, wanting to eat and stay. Since it was the only inn in town, it was very crowded inside.

The only empty place he could find was a four-person table with three seats.

He approached the table and asked. "With your permission, may I sit down?"

The handsome young man with blond hair and green eyes who was sitting alone in the corner looked at him and said, "Sure, you can sit."

As William sat down, he saw the two teenagers across from him looking at him strangely and frowning slightly. He didn't care and ordered food and beer from the waiter who looked very tired. He had learned that taverns only allowed beer.

While ordering, he asked the three young people next to him. "Would you like something to drink? It is on me," he said.

But the three teenagers pretended not to care.

Except for the handsome young man next to him, the others were also good-looking. One of them had light blue hair and blue eyes. The other was much more handsome than him, although he had black hair and a normal appearance.

After a while, his food and drink arrived, and he began to eat in a hurry. He ate so fast that he choked.

"Can't you eat a little slower?"

The blue-haired young man in front of him asked.

"I've been on the road for a few days, I'm very hungry."

"Are you a bard? What are you doing here?" He looked suspiciously at the box on his back.

William answered as he ate.

"Yes, I am a bard, I heard that the academy accepts students. That's why I wanted to try my luck."

"Are you noble?"

"Sort of, you?"

The looks of the trio changed when William asked his question. They now thought he was a complete idiot. Wasn't it obvious from the clothes they were wearing?

"Yes, we are noble too. What family are you from?"

"You first." He said as he put the last bite of food into his mouth.

"I am Merlon Esse, from the Esse family". The blue-haired youth said. Then he looked beside him.

"I am from the Gizmo family, Dullan Gizmo," the black-haired youth said with a smile.

Turning to the blonde-haired youth, William noticed that he didn't seem to want to say anything.

Merlon Esse spoke with a slightly sarcastic look. "He is from the Mill family, Leslie Mill. Our esteemed prince still can't stand that status is meaningless after now. Hehe." He said.

Then he looked at William and said, "And who are you?" he asked.

William replied with a smile. "I am William Aureus of the Aureus family." He said.

The blue-haired boy was surprised. He knew all the nobles, as their knowledge network was extensive and their training extremely serious. That included William. But this young man before him looked like he was twenty years old. At first, he could not reconcile the two in his mind.

He seemed a little depressed. He said sadly, "Brother, I don't know what you've been through, but I hope everything will be as you wish from now on." He said. He thought it must have caused him a lot of pain to look so tall at that age.

On the one hand, he was right, but William had chosen it himself. And 'Damn, they call it training. They call it getting stronger,' he cursed in his mind.

He didn't speak. He just watched the town streets and sipped his beer.

But the blue-haired young man was very talkative. He kept forcing the quartet to talk. After a while, the ice around them melted because everyone had to answer. They kept ordering beer and having fun. William's alcohol resistance was extremely good, as he was an Iron Level warrior.

Others began to get slightly drunk. William, the only sober person, asked the innkeeper for a room, but only a few rooms were available. All the single rooms were taken. So he took a room for four and put the other three to bed. Then he slept too.

A few days later, a teacher from the academy came to pick them up.

The teacher was middle-aged, very quiet, dressed in wide robes.

He led them out of the town and showed them the way. All of them followed him with different mounts. From here on, all the candidates were alone. Like any bodyguard, sidekicks could not enter the academy.

The Teacher took them to a place the size of a city. This place was indeed comparable to the capital. Its massive walls, nearly a hundred meters high, emitted a black metallic light. The whole academy had two huge gates. One was on the west side, opening to the capital, and the other was on the east side, opening to the Black Forest.

The crowd entered through the capital gate. Next to the gate was a huge barn. Everyone left their mounts there.

After following the Teacher for another hundred meters, they came to a large building. They entered it under the Teacher's guidance. This place was like a warehouse. It was considered empty. Only a table was placed in the farthest corner of the building with someone sitting at its head.

When the Teacher saw that everyone had entered, he began to speak.

"Here you will take the talent test. Those who pass will stay, those who fail will return." He said cruelly. "Now take out your letters of recommendation."

Everyone took out the letter of recommendation and handed it in.

The teacher took it while looking at everyone's face and checking their seals.

Then he told everyone to stand in a line in front of the table.

William was in the middle.

The test was very simple. You had to place your hand on the magic ball and then hit the stone in the corner. Most likely, these stone pillars were measuring the strength of the punch, because he could see numbers magically appearing on them.

Leslie, whom they called the Prince, was at the forefront. He was one of the first to take the test.

With the sign of the man sitting at the table, he placed his hand on the magic ball.

After a few seconds, the ball began to emit light.

"Gold level talent, light affinity. He opened the healing meridian. Beautiful. Now hit that pillar over there." The man gave him a few words of praise, then gestured for him to hit.

Prince Leslie stepped in front of the pillar, stretched with all his might, and hit. After a while, the numbers became visible to everyone. The number '321' appeared on the pillar.

"Not bad for a beginner." He pointed to the left corner and said, "Passed!"

"Next!"

Merlon was right in front of William. Except for the prince, the three of them were lined up front to back. He turned to William and spoke. "This is the privilege of being royal." He said. Then he continued.

"The element of light is very rare. So don't be discouraged. Is your affinity like your father's?"

Although William was a little surprised, "Yes, I am his son after all." He said.

The cause of William's surprise was the man he had killed on his journey. Since light and dark abilities were very rare, the mage he encountered must have been very powerful as well.

William had easily defeated him and sent him to Donkey Heaven.

'I hope there is no strong man behind him,' he thought.

In these few days, he had received some news from Merlon. For the relationship between Count Seymour and his father was not bad. Count Seymour had left the city with his father, the big Seymour(Father of Count Seymour), to take his son to the capital. Therefore, the city they left behind was left alone with almost no defense.

The mage, on the other hand, took advantage of the situation and sacrificed people's lives with the extremely rare technique.

Count Seymour returned as soon as he heard the news, but found the city empty. He even received a letter of condemnation from the king!

While human life was not very important to some mages, it was important to warriors. Some mages valued individuality, while warriors valued military majority and unity.

While he was thinking, it was Merlon's turn.

Merlon placed his hand on the magic ball. The ball began to glow.

"Gold-level talent. Affinity with water. He opened the pain meridian. Beautiful. Now hit." The man praised him as he spoke against Leslie.

Merlon stepped in front of the pillar and threw a weak-looking punch. The number '399' appeared on the pillar.

Even if it was a meridian, the difference was obvious.

"Passed!"

"Next!"

It was William's turn. No one had failed yet. He thought he would pass easily.

They wouldn't give the letter of recommendation to people like that anyway. After all, they were only allowed one every year.

William put his hand on the ball and waited. He didn't even need to channel the qi within him. The ball didn't shine as brightly as Leslie's and Merlon's, but it wasn't far behind either.

"Gold level talent, Fire and Metal affinity, Iro..." the man stopped speaking as if he had seen something.

He looked into William's face and spoke. "Son, how old are you?" he said.

William could feel the pressure emanating from the man. Fear and respect felt an emotion against him.

He responded quickly to avoid further pressure.

"Sir! I turned fourteen a few weeks ago!" he said.

The man pretended to be a little surprised. He called to the teacher who had brought them here. "Bring this boy's letter of recommendation!"

The teacher immediately found William's letter of recommendation and handed it to him.

After a quick read. "Okay, good, well done. You are ambitious. I love it. Now hit the pillar." Said the man.

At the man's words, William immediately stepped in front of the pillar and punched it with all his might.

"BOOOM!!" It was like someone hitting the castle gate with a ram's head.

William knew that the iron body could not help him. It was only for defense. It didn't add much to his personal strength.

The number '1.5' appeared on his pillar. William was surprised, but the man who took the test was happy.

"Passed!"

"Next!" he said.

At that moment, the crowd in line was surprised and began to whisper. Finally, a weak-looking boy from the end of the line shouted. "How can't his score be more than one and a half? This is unfair!" he shouted.

This young man was the head of the idiot. Even the teacher didn't speak up, how could he dare?

The man who took the test frowned and scolded the boy. "Damn it! If you don't like it, get out! If I say passed, it's passed! If you don't like it, there's the door!" he pointed.

The boy stared, stunned, blank. No one made a sound, not just him.

Merlon asked him curiously as William moved to the man's left and stood next to Merlon.

"How did you pass?" he said.

William raised his right arm and planted a kiss on his bicep. "Heheh! Because I am strong!" he said.

Everyone who passed by, including Merlon and Prince Leslie, reacted with disgust to his gesture and speech.

Prince Leslie even said, "Peh! Strong, my ass!".

William didn't care. He was happy that the man doing the test hadn't revealed his level. For now, there was a gap between him and those who entered the Academy with him.

And this gap would only be closed if William spent a few years in bed.

Since William would not stop, they would always fall behind.

William didn't care about their childish behavior. He watched patiently as the test continued.

Dullan also had a Gold Rank ability. He also opened to the Strength Meridian. When he hit the pillar, the shocking number '631' came out. Everyone was shocked and began to whisper. Many wanted to be friends with Dullan.

These numbers and pillars made William feel like a boxing machine in his former life.

It probably calculated kilograms of punching power in the numbers that appeared. Since his fist strength was definitely over a ton, and since he thought the pillar could only show three digits, he thought it had a strength of about one and a half tons.

He also realized that each meridian provided about one hundred kilograms of strength. In this case, he thought, his own strength was quite right and sufficient.

Soon everyone's test was over. No one failed, and no nobleman wasted his letters of recommendation.

The teacher took them to a large building in the east of the city. This would be their future home.

William was in room 28 on the 1st floor. He thought that there must be at least 1000 rooms in this building.

Because when he looked from the side of his room, he couldn't see the farthest room.

The size of the room was not bad. There was a bed, a desk, an empty bookcase, and a small bathroom.

According to what the teacher told them, the rooms even had a magic circle for gathering spiritual energy. Of course, this was a low-level version and not specific to certain elements.

However, there were also special places where certain elements, the Spiritual Energy Gathering Circle, existed. But he wanted them to find out for themselves and see for themselves how useful wisdom can be.

Finally, the teacher left, adding: "Each student can get one free meditation technique and one regular technique from the academy because he or she has just joined. You have to go to the Technique Building.

As much as William wanted to rush his meditation technique, he still didn't know if they would give him an iron-level meditation technique.

So it was in his plans to stay quiet for a few days and explore the academy.

After all, he would most likely go to the Black Forest to hunt. He had heard that different creatures lived in different parts of the Black Forest.

He had seen almost every creature of his level in his area. He was curious to see new creatures.

Perhaps he could tame one himself. Although his current horse had helped him a lot in the past, it was no different from an ordinary horse.

He wanted to ride tigers, even birds, like some of the young masters he had seen. Flying was still one of mankind's greatest pleasures.

He took his guitar out of its case and began to play to pass the time.

"My sweet tongue,

My smiling face

Ah, my gazelle eyed."

...