"Come on, dear Evan... don't disappoint me." Victor taunted.
Evan rushed at the boy, throwing kicks, elbow strikes, and fast punches... but Victor kept dodging effortlessly, wearing a look of complete dissatisfaction on his face.
'How can this brat be so strong?...At this point in the story, his rank shouldn't be higher than F-...' Evan thought.
Even though his own rank didn't help him either, being only G-, Evan could easily be considered the weakest student in the class at that moment.
"Well... now it's my turn!!" Victor announced, launching himself like a bullet toward Evan.
"GHUALL!!" Evan screamed after taking a flying kick straight to the chest, getting brutally thrown against the concrete floor of the arena.
Meanwhile, Darius watched the students dueling each other with full attention.
"Looks like some very interesting kids enrolled this year..."
But in particular, the man's attention was focused on two names: Mikael and Erick.
Even though it was only a practical test, both Mikael and Erick were completely dominating their partners.
Erick delivered extremely calculated strikes, capable of overwhelming a troglodyte twice his size, like Christian...
Meanwhile, Mikael was facing one of the greatest prodigies of the continent, Rose. And even without noble blood, the boy executed strikes that were both clean and aggressive at the same time, completely cornering the girl.
Leaving those monsters aside, Darius paid attention to two other problematic confrontations.
While most of the students treated the class as nothing more than a simple test, Karin and Alexia looked like they were fighting to the death.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BITCH?!" Alexia screamed, brutally punching Karin's torso.
But instead of being shaken by those blows, Karin remained silent. Then, with a movement of extreme speed, she regained her balance and delivered a kick straight to Alexia's neck, sending the flame-haired girl crashing to the ground.
'Those two are seriously troublesome...' Darius sighed.
But just when he thought things couldn't get worse... there was Victor, the only son of the great mage Cynthia, brutally beating down a poor student.
Yet something caught Darius's attention even more. While Victor completely dominated the boy, that blond-haired student kept getting back up... no matter how many times he fell.
"Let's see... Evan Thompson..."
"Overall Ranking... 2812."
"Fate is truly cruel to those without talent..." Darius muttered bitterly.
...
Meanwhile, Evan was breathing heavily, his body covered in bruises, barely able to remain standing.
Clap! Clap!
Victor looked as if he were watching a true spectacle.
"THAT'S IT! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, DEAR EVAN!!"
The more Victor watched the boy in front of him keep resisting and standing back up after every hit, the more admiration he felt.
"I'LL REWARD YOU WITH ALL MY STRENGTH!!"
But before Victor could strike Evan again, a voice echoed through the entire arena.
"We'll end it here!!" Darius announced, his eyes sharp.
"I was able to observe that most of you barely know what you're doing."
"In the next classes, we'll practice the true fundamentals of hand-to-hand combat."
The man concluded.
Most of the students were completely exhausted, while some stared at themselves with disappointment.
Including Evan, who was utterly beaten up after hours of being brutally battered by Victor.
'Is this really the difference between someone with talent... and a mere extra like me?' Evan muttered.
A mere extra... that was the reality Evan didn't want to face.
But at that moment, for his own survival in the academy and in this world, he knew he would have to surpass the monsters around him.
...
After combat class, Evan was already training fiercely inside the gravity chamber at the training center.
"102, 103... 108."
Now with gravity increased to 10x, the boy already showed small improvements compared to the first time he entered that place.
'Willpower... was that what I lacked in my past life?'
Evan kept doing push-ups. Every time he failed, he forced his body to keep fighting.
After that, he continued swinging his sword around, with more ease than before.
He glanced once again at his Status Window.
-- Art --
Swordsmanship (G)
The most basic level of swordsmanship, lacking any personal style or patterns.
"I think I really need to learn from the basics..."
Evan knew the only true way to develop a skill to its maximum potential was to master it from the ground up.
For swordsmanship, the same concept applied.
Evan spent the remaining time trying to learn the basic principles of sword handling. Of course, it was an extremely difficult task, since he had to learn everything by himself.
"T-that's enough for today..."
After leaving the gravity chamber, Evan saw the same scene as the previous day: Mikael and Erick training nonstop. But this time, there was one more figure.
Alexia, after being dominated by Karin during practical class, was venting all her rage on the training robots.
"I just hope my presence doesn't end up changing the course of the story..."
As he walked through the academy, Evan couldn't help but notice the kind of life most of those students lived inside that environment.
Most of them had no idea about the dangers awaiting them in the future. Evan could hear pointless conversations about the future, class gossip, relationships...
Having lived a completely lonely life in Tokyo, Evan didn't really know how to react to that kind of atmosphere.
Then, suddenly, Evan bumped into a young man in front of him.
"Aag... I'm sorry." Evan apologized awkwardly.
But when he lifted his gaze, all he heard was a cold and harsh reply.
"Watch where you're going, inferior creature."
The owner of that voice kept walking down the hallway.
Staring at the silhouette, Evan recognized him immediately. Short black hair and crimson eyes... Florian Blakes.
One of the worst people Evan could have interacted with at that point.
Florian was the main threat to the core group during their time at the academy. He could be considered the peak of everything the bourgeoisie represented.
A completely arrogant and sovereign posture... that was how Florian acted.
"U-uh... I hope I won't have to deal with that guy again..." Evan sighed.
Luckily for Evan, Florian wasn't part of his class, which made it harder for them to cross paths. However, considering Florian's influence inside the academy, Evan could only fear the worst.
When Evan arrived at his room, the first thing he did was check the schedule for the rest of the week through the crystal embedded in his forearm.
"Let's see..."
{Wednesday}
{Survival Guide – Instructor (Gregore Fry)}
-------
{Thursday}
{Mana Manipulation – Instructor (Rebeca Soul)}
-------
{Friday}
{Combat Principles – Instructor (Darius BrokeSharp)}
As Evan examined his schedule for the rest of the week, he knew it would be one hell of a first week.
'If I can even call that a good thing... at least tomorrow's class is a little calmer.' Evan thought.
The Survival Guide subject focused on teaching some of Etherea's history, covering the intense conflict between the human race and the demonic side.
Besides that, we also learned the universal language shared among the races. Since Etherea was a place where other conscious races existed, like elves and trolls, a single common language was created to establish communication between them.
All things considered, it was a pretty useful subject, combined with the fact that Gregore was one of the few non-problematic teachers in the academy.
On the other hand, when Evan read the name of the teacher for Mana Manipulation, a horrible grimace appeared on his face.
'I'm completely screwed...'