Chapter 22: The Humiliated Person (1)

It had been almost a month since Cale started at the academy. Contrary to his expectations, there had been no incidents. All he had been doing for a month was attending classes, creating monsters from chaos energy and doing his research from the books Hope had given him.

Even Amaris and Dante weren't around as much as they had been on the first day. Maybe it was because Cale ignored them. The only bad thing was that the stares from the class did not lessen.

That was because even though he had been injured by his training on the first day, all he did was sit. Cale was training his mind, even if others thought he was just sitting down and sleeping.

Even now he knew that all eyes were on him. He was sitting in a corner, purifying his mind and strengthening his perception.

He could feel everyone. Their every movement, their every conversation... Every single one of them.

When he opened him eyes after finishing him training, he looked at a few people and gave them a blank stare as they looked away. He could hear Jessica, their personal training coach, giving Damien and the others an evaluation of their training.

He found out that Damien was already at D level. Sylvie had an E grade, Veronica an E- grade, Amy an E+ grade and Elliot an E+ grade.

When Jessica left them and went to Dante and the others, he kept listening to find out their grades. He didn't have to wait long. Jessica had told them their grades too.

Dante was already a D+. Amaris was not far behind him and had a D grade. Hope and Felix were E+.

Jessica started to give them some advice about their training. Cale didn't listen any more as he had gotten the information he wanted. When he stood up to go to a room with dummys for his training, he saw Jessica clapping her hands together to get everyone's attention.

"Attention please!" Jessica said after she had everyone's attention. "I've been observing each and every one of you today, I'm happy with most of you, of course, but some of you still seem to be busy playing games," she said and looked at Cale. At his look, a few people looked at him and laughed mockingly.

"If you want to improve, stop being lazy and work hard," she said and left the class.

As everyone slowly left the training area, he went to the room with the training dummys.

Cale was practicing his own techniques to strengthen his body. It was a technique that allowed the mind and body to work simultaneously. Feeling and intuition were very important in this technique.

He was working on speed, agility and the ability to neutralize the opponent as quickly as possible. As long as he used Unlimited Void, ranged attacks would not work on him.

The opponent had to get closer to hurt him.

In close-range combat, even if the opponent's attacks were more effective, they would still not be able to harm him. That's why Cale had adapted the martial arts of close combat and organized them in the most appropriate way.

That's why he went into the room with the training dummys for practice. There would be ten training dummys attacking him with different weapons in their hands.

When he took a deep breath, he started the training. When the first dummy swung its sword at him, Cale took a step back, turned his body and punched the dummy under the chin with his fist.

The next attack came with a dagger. Cale reached out his hand and pushed back the dagger that had been lying untouched in his hand and it plunged into the dummy's throat.

Ten arrows came at him at the same time from above, and Cale used his eyes to determine which way the arrows would fall and moved through the gaps he found. When he used his gap step and leapt into the air, he kicked the dummy in the neck, disabling it.

When the other three dummys attacked at the same time, Cale moved between them and neutralized them with quick and sharp movements. When a whip was wrapped around his arm, he pulled it out and punched the seventh dummy in the face as it came towards him.

When another attacked with a sledgehammer, he twisted his body and dodged the incoming attack. He ducked and kicked the dummy in the chest, causing it to take a few steps backwards. When he leapt into the air and delivered a second kick to its jaw, the dummy's neck was broken. When the other two dummies attacked him, he dodged their attacks, decapitating one and incapacitating the other by punching a hole in its chest with his fist.

Cale stood panting in the center of the room, surrounded by the motionless bodies of the training dummys. When he looked up at the clock, it had taken him forty-seven minutes to disarm the ten training dummys.

He went to where his things were, opened a bottle and drank all the water in it, panting. He pushed back the wet hair that fell in front of his eyes with his hand. When he gathered his things and left, he saw that only Dante and Jessica were left in the training area.

Even though they were far away from him, his hearing had improved with his heightened senses since he had trained his mind. So he could hear what they were saying. Jessica was showing him Dante's training data and giving him advice.

When Jessica finished speaking and looked up, she locked eyes with Cale. Cale immediately averted his eyes and took a step to leave, grimacing as Jessica called out to him. Luckily Jessica didn't see his expression.

"Yes, Ms. Hill," Jessica looked at him with displeased eyes.

"I've been watching you for a month and all you do is sleep. You have to work hard if you want to be a good hunter, Cale," she said, both angry with him and wanting an answer as to what he was doing.

"I understand, Mrs. Hill."

"Is that all you have to say?" she asked with a frown.

"Thank you for your concern, Mrs. Hill." Cale gave her no more than that. Even if Jessica was his personal education coach, it was up to the students themselves which path to follow.

And since Cale didn't want any more questions to arise over what he had revealed, he felt it was best to avoid it.

Jessica sighed at his reticence. 'I hope he knows what he's doing. Jessica was a teacher who wanted every student to succeed. She valued successful students. She guided those who couldn't find their way, but there was nothing she could do for stubborn students like Cale.

'In the future, when he doesn't get something, he will realize what he did was wrong. Well, I can't help a stubborn student any more than that.'

"I hope you won't be too late," she said and turned to leave.

Cale understood her, but there was nothing he could do. So he sighed and left for his room.

***

Out of the corner of his eye, Dante saw Cale enter the room with the training dummys when he saw everyone leaving after Jessica finished today's training. He frowned when he realized that this was the first time Cale had stayed in the training area after class was over.

It had been a month since the academy had started and Dante was very focused on his training. Every day after classes were over, he stayed in the training area and practiced some more.

Like everyone else, he could see that the only thing Cale had been doing for a month was sitting around. At first he was as surprised as everyone else, but as time passed he realized that his training was different from the others.

Dante already knew he was very strong. He had once found out that he was level E, but Dante didn't believe it. He thought he was hiding his power.

Dante was also surprised by Cale's patience and composure. Cale was constantly mocked and humiliated for his training, but Cale ignored it all.

If Dante had been in his place, he would have beaten them up at least once to get back at them, but Cale had a bored air about him, as if it was all so unnecessary.

Ever since he had met him, he had been intrigued by his strength and personality.

Dante heard footsteps as he swung his great sword and he stopped and looked back, wondering who it was. Jessica came up to him with a satisfied smile on her face, holding her tablet in her hand.

"How's the work going?"

"Good."

"Good, but you seem to be missing a few things," she said, showing him the data.

"Ah!"

"The equipment you work with collects your data and gathers information on how to proceed. Now, according to the data, your strikes are pretty good, but you seem to have some difficulty in hitting your targets. Although I like your swordsmanship, I believe you need to work on the basics a bit more."

Dante listened to everything Jessica said with a serious look. Jessica was pleased with his eager and serious demeanor and gave him some advice he could use. When her eyes fell on a young man with red hair, she frowned as he quickly averted his eyes and ran away.

"Cale!" Jessica turned to Dante as Cale stopped. "Go back to your training, I'll be with you in a minute," she said as she hurried to Cale's side.

"Yes, Ms. Hill," Jessica gave him a disapproving look.

"I've been watching you for a month and all you do is sleep. You have to work hard if you want to be a good hunter, Cale," she said, both angry with him and wanting an answer as to what he was doing.

"I understand, Mrs. Hill."

"Is that all you have to say?" she asked with a frown.

"Thank you for your concern, Mrs. Hill."

Jessica sighed at his attitude. It was the first time she had ever met such a student. Everyone who came here was aware of the responsibility they carried and tried to do their best. But this young man in front of her was just being lazy and Jessica had no tolerance for such people.

'In the future, when he doesn't achieve anything, he will realize that what he did was wrong. Well, I can't help a stubborn student any more than that.'

"I hope you won't be too late," she said and turned to go to Dante.