Chapter 24

-Two and a half years later-

"Did you see that super muscular kid? I heard that he takes his training so seriously that in order to feel fulfilled he decided to become a dual expert!"

"Hey, did you know that a thirteen year old student in our academy is able to bench an entire boulder on his chest like it is nothing? Apparently every girl has fallen for him but rumor has it that he is just a commoner so the nobles are torn between asking him for marriage or to take it as a loss!"

For over a year now, rumors of a dual expert in the academy had circulated because everyone on campus was pursuing the path of a mage and not a warrior so a muscular teenager was a very hot topic in the female circles which of course meant that all the male circles would be spreading crazy rumors about that person.

"That is at least the one hundredth group of fellow students of mine that I caught talking about me since coming here. Master, maybe I should figure out a way to hide my muscles since they are not very big, but compared to a mage who does not train their physical bodies almost at all, I am appearing to look like a jacked teenager!" the muscular student that everyone was talking about all of this time was indeed Timothy.

He was pleased that he was able to finally make his way into the second year class and even the middle class due to him almost officially becoming a dual expert. The only thing stopping him, was that although he had reached rank two as a mage, he was not quite at the second rank as a warrior. Even the artifact estimated that it would take at least one more month, but results like his was shocking!

If the artifact had done something when Timothy was eight in order to give him the same exact boost in strength including all of the training methods and teachings, Timothy felt that by now he would pushing rank three as a mage at the very least and already at rank two as a warrior which technically would still have made him a dual expert, just a very weak one. However, he was not too upset because he was already considered average when it came to the entire population of Grey Imperial Academy students.

Unfortunately, his two roommates just two months earlier broke into the second rank while it took him until the day prior to breakthrough. The only reason why this was somewhat depressing to him, was because Andrew did not spend a lot of his time training while Ian was more of a bookworm compared to being as serious as he was in training. It was to the point where Timothy at times thought that Ian must have been adopted by a military family.

"Oh my disciple, bask in this glory you have brought me but be sure to make it temporary. You are one step closer to becoming an immortal and I could not be happier as your master! Before you do anything, you should head over to the building to get a nice wardrobe change to make it official, only then could you feel empowered to continue working hard since you will receive even more attention from others!"

The artifact had doubts when it gave Timothy the secret art, because the body refinement art was top class while Timothy had no understanding or background training as a warrior. At times, if a cultivator was too inexperienced, they would find it nearly impossible to train using certain methods. Even though the artifact took this into account, it was still gambling to an extent on Timothy but seeing these results gave it a sense of rest on the issue.

Listening to the artifact, Timothy went and got three robes that were white and had golden streaks on them. To his fellow students, they would realize that he was now in either the second or third year class which was a big difference compared to first year students. One of the major differences, was that once a year, all of the names and backgrounds of students who were in the second year class or above would have it all sent out to every force in the empire who were interested for no cost.

Of course, this meant very little to Timothy since he was not very interested in pursuing any forces at the moment, and it would be hard to find a solid one just by being a second year student. Most forces that were considered second rate or above in the empire as a whole, were more interested in third year and above students and still classified first and second year students in the same batch.

It would be different if he had no real connections or network, but over this past two and a half years, Timothy continued to gain popularity especially because he stuck up for a commoner girl who was being harassed on campus by a noble. At the time, several third and fourth year students were present and those with commoner backgrounds openly spread the news that they would stick up in the future for Timothy if the noble were to try and cause him any trouble.

Nobles were normally very well composed and had a high level of integrity, but there were still those who thought that they owned the ground they stood on and that everyone who was lower than them should feel blessed by the heavens just to witness their existence in person. And so, since the noble's reputation was as low as it could get, even some younger nobles approached Timothy to make proper contact with him since such people would continue to flourish if they had a personality such as his.