Apex Academy of Sorcery

3 weeks had passed since the incident and the two step brothers didn't touch Peter once in the time period.

If Peter wasn't there who would've known what could have happened to their little sister. Out of mercy, they allowed him to live in peace for a couple weeks till they'd strike again.

Peter capitalized on this once in a lifetime opportunity and continued to cultivate everyday and carry on studying. He gave up on learning the martial arts forms as he was hopeless in combat; he made sure to keep his body in shape though, so he could always run away if the time came.

For some reason, Peter's mana core rank hadn't increased more than the first stage. It seemed like he was going to be stuck at the First Novice stage forever at this rate. He still couldn't figure out where all the mana he was absorbing was going…

The familiar ring of Peter's alarm went off signalling the first day of School had commenced.

With a loud yawn and whole body stretch, Peter got out of bed with vigor. He headed straight for the bathroom and took care of his hygiene.

He then headed downstairs and had his breakfast that was already prepared by the maids.

He didn't know how he looked in his uniform but his looks could be compared to a young model's. His wavy black hair just went below his eyebrows, falling over the bandages that covered his eyes.

He plugged in his black wireless headphones and walked down the stairs.

It was already 7:50 and he had to be in school by 8:25, otherwise he'd be marked as late on the first day.

"Friday. Call a taxi."

"Yes, sir."

It seemed, Marcus and Alex had already left for school and only Emma was at the house still sleeping, along with his father and Sabrina.

Peter sighed, closing the house door behind him and exiting the large mansion. He strolled outside the gates and entered the vehicle that was waiting for him.

"We meet again, young boy. Where to this time?" The taxi driver from last time recognised Peter immediately and smiled.

"Apex Academy please."

"Sure. It must be your first day right. I'll take you there in a jiffy!" He switched the vehicle into life and drove off.

The journey wasn't that long, it took only 15 minutes to arrive at the grandiose school. The school had many different facilities which all combined to form the school campus.

Peter wired the driver 10 credits and exited the vehicle. extending his walking stick.

'Now how am I meant to get to class?' Peter sighed. It was unlikely anyone would help him get to his classroom.

Peter sensed around and found hundreds of students walking towards the large building. He decided to follow them and also enter the building.

A couple seconds passed and he was inside the building but he still seemed to be lost. He scanned around again using his senses.

'So there are two stairs on my left and right. And 3 different corridors. The people going up the right one are definitely older and so are the people going up the left one. Should I just ask someone for help?'

Peter walked up to a girl hoping to speak to her but she looked at him weirdly, walking away from him, leaving him without even conversing.

'Great.' Peter shook his head and sighed. He was gonna be late to his classroom on his first day of school.

Peter took a gamble and just went down the right corridor. He walked on wards down the large corridor and stopped momentarily when he could hear a familiar person's voice - Mark. He was being mocked by some other kids.

Mark looked at Peter, who ignored his presence walking past him nonchalantly without saying a single word.

He walked up to a tall figure, who stood outside a room.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Class 49's form room. Could you please help me out?" Peter asked the tall figure.

The man scanned Peter's handsome face, paired with his dark brown hair and peculiar bandage around his eyes, then looked at his walking stick and scoffed.

"It's the 3rd room on your left, just keep going down the corridor." He said quickly, uninterested in conversing any more with the boy.

"Thank you." Peter smiled, before heading down the corridor.

'The third room… It should be this one.' He entered the large room and scanned around for the number of people inside the room. His form room seemed to be a large lecture hall. Rows ascended upwards with stairs leading up to the back of the hall. A platform stood at the front of the room along with a large projecting white board.

'45 distinct heartbeats. I should probably sit at the back.' Peter used his stick to navigate around until he made it to the stairs. The people talked amongst themselves, ignoring his presence; it seemed that friend circles were already forming.

He finally took a seat at the back of the room and closed his walking stick. A slight breeze brushed past him from the open windows near the top of the rooms, making him sneeze.

"Bless you." A young boy's voice resounded next to Peter.

"Thanks." Peter replied.

"I'm Garry Moseley, I hope we become good friends in the near future. If you ever need anything I'll be happy to help." The boy smiled.

'How did I not notice his presence?'

"I'm Peter Magtris." Peter introduced himself briefly, not trying to pursue any more talking.

He couldn't trust this guy, at least not so early. No person in this day and age would be nice to someone like him unless they were genuinely good hearted or just plotting to exploit him somehow; Peter still needed time to judge this boy's intentions.

A couple minutes passed and the class had finally filled up with students. Counting the different people he could sense around the hall, there seemed to be around 200+ students in the large room.

"Silence." A stern man's voice echoed bouncing off the walls. A man in his mid 30's stood in front of the room. He had short brown hair and a well built physique. A powerful presence emitted from him, which made all the students look at him in fear.

"My name is Allen Blackwell; I will be your form room teacher for your first year at the academy. Firstly, I welcome you all to one of the best academies in the continent. You all should be proud to be studying at such a school as this. I just want to say that I'm a very strict and unforgiving teacher so you all better work your asses off. I don't want anyone slacking off ..." He began his speech, looking around fiercely.

His eye caught the blind boy sitting at the back, which piqued his interest but he switched his gaze to another student as he spoke.

"...There will be rankings within the class, ranking you all from rank 1 all the way to 275. The higher your rank, the better the resources and help you will receive. You can challenge someone once a day and your challenges will be capped at 3 times per week, so use them wisely.

"Now I will explain some rules about the ranking battles. Once a high ranking student has successfully defended their spot against a challenge, they can't be challenged again for the rest of the day.

"Challenges can only be sent during the school day, as it would be unfair to challenge someone in the middle of the night, when they're unprepared. Every victory will grant you 10 Merits. Merits are a part of the school reward system. At the end of the year, Merits can be traded in for skill books or even high grade training equipment that can aid your cultivation, or weapons etc.

"If a high ranking student challenges someone lower than them and loses, their rankings will automatically switch, so be wary of who you challenge.

"Threatening someone for their rank is disallowed and so is bribing someone for their rank. Since the battles will take place using the Virtual reality system, you won't need to hold back so fight to your heart's content. However, you will still feel the pain but only 20% of the real pain.

"Once a month there will also be class battles. At the moment you guys are class 49 out of 50; you'll need to beat the higher ranking classes to receive better resources. You all better be prepared as I will be your combat teacher twice a week.

"Please check your bracelets; I have sent you your rankings amongst your peers. We will hold the first rank change battle today to kick start things off. You may challenge any one, Choose wisely. Are there any questions?"

Peter raised his hand, making all the students look at him weirdly.

"Yes. State your name and your question, boy at the back." The professor demanded.

"My name is Peter Magtris. My question is if a high ranking student targets a low ranking student, are they allowed to refuse the offer? I doubt anyone would want to get smacked around unnecessarily, especially if the rank difference is too high."

'Peter magtris huh. Wasn't there an unusual Prodigy monster born from that family that died like a year ago? That must be his brother.' Allen thought, eyeing the blind boy.

"Good Question. You're right, it would just be bullying and would discourage the low ranking students so yes, you are allowed to refuse if you are being challenged by someone of a higher ranking than you. Are there any more questions?" The Professor looked around but there didn't seem to be any questions.

"Check your rankings, a menu will open up with everyone's ranks in front of you. You can begin challenging whoever you want. First come, first serve. A helmet will appear on your tables once you accept the duel, I want all of you to wear it and you will be transported into the VR." Mr Blackwell explained.

All the kids, except Peter, were experienced with using VR, as it was popular in the gaming industry but Peter of course didn't care about all that. His blindness wouldn't cure with the VR as he was born blind, so to Peter, there was no point for him to play games.

Immediately, all of the students opened up their menus and began challenging whoever they thought looked the weakest.

"Friday. Open up the menu. What rank am I and have I received a challenge?" Peter asked.

"Your ranking in the class is 275/275. Yes, you have received a challenge from Evan Hodge, Rank 89, 39 seconds ago. Do you wish to accept?" Friday asked with his monotonous voice.

"That's not bad for now I guess. No. Friday, Refuse the request."

Friday did As Peter told it to and denied the request. 6 rows in front of Peter, an angry boy looked up towards him.

'How dare that peasant refuse my request? Just watch what I do to you!' The blonde haired boy thought, shooting daggers at the nonchalant, blind boy with his gaze.