Chapter 22: Rejection

Until the cult was completely annihilated, Oswald could see that the number of secrets would only increase from here on out. So, after a slightly awkward goodbye to his father, Oswald headed into his room.

After changing into his night clothes, Oswald didn't last long before he started dozing off.

The mental exhaustion of receiving a chunk of new memories and fretting over the Blood Cult left him tired, allowing him to easily drift off into sleep.

…..

The rest of the weekend passed in a flash and before Oswald even realised it, it was already time to start school all over again.

Right now, Oswald was sitting in the back of a luxurious carriage whilst Mr Edgar drove him on the way to the Transcendent Academy.

After arriving at the academy, Oswald quickly got off, staring at the academy sign for a brief moment.

'For my next plan, this stage is crucial. Hopefully things go to plan'

With a hopeful look, Oswald walked into the academy, desperately hoping for hints to turn out well.

...

An hour later,

A handsome figure could be seen walking out of the academy.

It was Oswald. It's just that contrary to the hopeful look he had earlier, his face was now twisted into an ugly grimace.

"Those Damn heartless bastards!" cursed Oswald.

"The previous owner was truly blind! To think that he actually had a good opinion of those damned teachers!"

The reason for Oswald's ugly appearance was simple.

Oswald knew that he was completely finished as Mage. He had already started training as a Knight apprentice, so he went to the school in hopes of switching departments to the Knight department but was completely and utterly rejected!

For Oswald, this was truly devastating!

The school would have access to all sorts of restricted and limited potions that Oswald's father, with the status of a Baron, couldn't hope to acquire.

And it was not just potions, in addition to that, the school would have access to all sorts of battle techniques that Oswald could never hope to see in his life.

Battle techniques were as important to a warrior as spells were to a Mage.

Without battle techniques, a warrior could only use his physical strength and would never be able to fully use his Battle Aura to its full capacity.

Except for some basic things, like coating weapons or parts of your body in battle aura, without battle techniques, the battle aura of a warrior would become completely useless!

With all this, it would be understandable as to why Oswald was so frustrated.

It was not just that the school decided to reject Oswald's appeal for no reason.

Their reasoning was that it would be a complete waste of resources to develop Oswald.

Oswald's year group would be graduating in three months, so this was a major factor in determining how to address Oswald's situation.

The aim of the Transcendent Academy was to train true Transcendents, not apprentices

No matter how talented a warrior apprentice was, there'd never been an example of someone being able to advance to the peak of the apprentice knight realm in under a year and then Oswald would have already graduated so what was the point in allowing him to suck up resources for no actual benefit.

If Oswald was following the path of a much more rare and more powerful spell casting Transcendent, there may have been room for negotiation.

But instead, Oswald was just a mere warrior Transcendent, which were as common as grass in the Transcendent academy.

There was nothing special about Warrior Transcendents, especially Oswald's Transcendent Path of the Steel Knight, which was known to have extremely mediocre strength.

Unless Oswald could advance to Transcendent Rank within 3 months, something not seen outside of myths and legends, there was absolutely no point in allowing him to switch departments.

The school had already paid a lot for Oswald by protecting him and his family from the greedy nobles that wanted him dead before.

Now that he had become completely useless to them, it was impossible to expect them to burn some more money for him again.

Since that was the case, Oswald, furious at this treatment, decided to leave.

Instead of sitting around and learning about magic theories that he could never hope to use, his time would be much better spent practising and trying to increase his strength.

But despite leaving, Oswald hadn't given up on the school completely.

Before the graduation of the students, a few weeks before that there would be a graduation test.

The test entailed practical hands-on experience in the Vanderian Mountains.

To the south of Riverglen city was filled with large amounts of woodlands and forest and spanning through this forest was the vast Vanderian Mountains.

The Mountain range was huge and to this day nobody had accurately mapped its distance with the mountain range spanning tens of thousands of miles.

The Mountain range was filled with countless ferocious and wild beasts with some easily reaching the Transcendent ranks, whilst also housing many different treasures and ruins.

To the south of the Vanderian Mountains was the Tenedrak Empire, a place that worshipped the God of Undeath.

The relationship between the Thourian and Tenedrak Empires can be said to be unpleasant at best, with a history of war spanning between the two for countless years, even going back to the very founding of the Thourian empire.

Right now, although things had not reached the point of a deadly feud, there was definitely bad blood between them.

So with all these things considered, the Vanderian Mountains were truly a dangerous place. But fortunately, the graduation tests would usually be exempt from a lot of these dangers and situated in much safer regions. It was because of this that they even dared to let the children walk there.

The graduation test was supposed to be able to properly simulate battle conditions and survival aspects in the time there.

The students would be split into groups with a senior member of the Academy guarding them.

And based on their performance, the seniors from both the spell casting and warrior departments would be able to exchange various resources and treasures needed for their Transcendent ritual, the ritual needed to break free of your mortal shackles and become a true Transcendent.

Although Oswald knew that he wouldn't be able to reach the peak of the apprentice realm before the Graduation test.

But regardless, he still had to join and take part in it,

Who knows how long it will take to gather the necessary resources for his Transcendent ritual if he couldn't exchange for the resources through normal routes?

.....

After a long and unhappy walk back home, Oswald finally entered his house.

As Oswald entered, he managed to see the head butler walking in at the same time.

Mr Edgar greeted Oswald

"Oh, greetings young master," replied Mr Edgar

"It's a good thing that you came back at this time as o just came back from getting something the Old Master said you wanted some potion brewing equipment, so after running around for a few hours I finally managed to buy a set.

"Thank you, Mr Edgar." Replied Oswald.

Just get someone to place it in my room for now. I'll have a proper look at it later.

Oswald may be interested in brewing some potions, but right now after that brutal rejection from school, a burning fire had been lit in his heart.

Even if no one else believed him, Oswald was determined to get stronger!

He walked into the humongous Courtyard and instantly started practising the Steel Knight Breathing technique along with the swordsmanship.

After practising the sword routine countless times, Oswald didn't know how long had passed.

Sweat was starting to form on his forehead and his breaths were starting to get a little heavy.

Realising this, Oswald took a break and wiped off his sweat when he saw two people in the courtyard.

One was a person who he was familiar with, his father.

The other was a strange warrior.

The warrior was huge. Oswald was no midget standing at 6ft 2, but this man completely dwarfed him, he was no shorter than 6' 10 and had a frame packed to the max with muscle.

The man wasn't some hulking mass of muscle but instead, each set of muscles seemed to be streamlined and organised for a balance of maximum speed and strength.

The man was still rather handsome, with a messy head of brown hair and a faint beard on his face, whilst a bright, confident smile remained on his face. A confidence that could only be gained from possessing true strength.

While Oswald was assessing the man, his father walked over with a smile and introduced the man.

Mr Fenon, meet Oswald, my son I was telling you about before and Oswald, meet Mr Fenon a rank 3 Transcendent Warrior.

As Oswald heard this, he stretched out his hand

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr Fenon."

Mr Fenon stretched out his huge arm and shook Oswald's arm

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Oswald."

But as Oswald and Fenon shook hands, Fenon internally frowned

'Trash!'

A faint sneer appeared on his lips as he looked at Oswald.

Fenon as a Rank 3 Transcendent was starting to enter the ranks of the true powerhouses, so he had already begun looking down on Noble families like the Blakewell family.

Nobles with channels and wealth to countless Transcendent paths and resources, yet they couldn't even produce a rank 1 Transcendent. If that wasn't a group of trash, then what was?

Besides, Oswald looked to be in his later teenage years, yet from the handshake he was only at the beginner Knight apprentice realm.

He came up from a small peasant family, fighting and struggling with his life on the line to advance every step of the way but here was a child of a noble family with all resources and treasures available but he was still stuck only at the beginner Knight apprentice ranks.

In Fenon's eyes, such a situation could only be a result of laziness and zero effort. In his eyes, Oswald was a complete pile of trash!

Oswald obviously couldn't read Mr Fenon's thoughts, so as he looked at the man, a thought was starting to form in his mind.

'Forget about going to that stupid academy anyway! I have a rank 3 Transcendent in front of me. He can teach me anything I need!'

Looking at Mr Fenon, Oswald smiled as he spoke.

"Mr Fenon, I've recently been looking for a transcendent to teach me a few things in the ways of combat and general workings of breathing techniques. I'm hoping that it would be okay with you to teach me these things. Don't worry, the price will never be a problem."

The moment that Mr Fenon heard this, a frown appeared on his face as he looked at Oswald with a hint of disgust.

'Pathetic' thought Fenon

'These trash young nobles always just think they can throw money at their problems and solve them.'

Fenon was about to reject out of disgust, but when he remembered that he was still under the employment of the boy's father, a helpless smile appeared on his face.

Money was what truly made the world go round.

Even with his strength that could crush this entire family, his wealth would never be able to compare.

Nobility.

The One thing making it hard to acquire wealth and also the one Fenon had fought so hard to acquire.

Fenon looked at the weakling who would normally be worth him even speaking to and smiled.

"Alright boy, I'll teach you, but only under the condition that you pass my test first."

As Fenon spoke, a vicious smile appeared on his face.

"Of course," replied Oswald humbly

"If I want to be taught it's only natural, I meet a few requirements first."

Hearing this, Fenon lightly chuckled