A brazen student was trying to jump the gun. In the situation they were currently in, it would either work out really well for them or really badly. Successfully beating another would somewhat signify that they were in the upper half.
The student was trying to play mind games with the other.
‘While the rest of you are playing with sticks, I’ll be playing with trees!’ the student smugly said to himself.
His target was none other than the new student who had just arrived. Being new, wearing the Blue headband, and the fact that he was launching a surprise attack, he knew he had the upper hand in this situation. In fact, the student was confident that anyone with a Blue headband in this situation right now would suffer a defeat.
Getting close, he leapt into the air, his body tilted, and all of his Qi focused on his leg for a head kick.
‘I’ll knock him out in a single hit!’
Dame was shocked. He was incredibly surprised because something like this had never happened to him before. Everyone in the Demonic Faction knew who he was, even when he was at the academy himself before, due to him being a young master, no one would even dare lay a finger on him.
Closing in, Dame moved his head to the side, causing the kick to completely miss his head. Then, with an open palm, he swung his own hand. It landed right on the side of the student’s face, making a loud bang noise.
It was a slap, a slap that echoed throughout the entire area. It was one of those moments where everyone watching felt like they could feel the sting through the student.
Immediately, he fell to the side, his head hitting the ground with the rest of his body. His eyes had rolled back in his head as he passed out, lying there on the ground.
Dame stood there, looking at his own hand.
‘Crap, did I just hit him too hard?’ Dame thought.
“Did he just slap that student and make him pass out?”
“I guess we can’t just judge people’s strength. This fighting is going to be hard.”
Rather than being shocked by Dame’s strength, nearly all of the students were more concerned about what they should do next. What was the best choice in terms of determining the order of strength among them?
If anything, nearly all of the students were disheartened after seeing one of them get knocked out so easily. It was embarrassing, and the last thing they wanted was to be embarrassed in front of the others.
“I guess we’ll just find other ways to challenge each other, or we’ll challenge each other in secret or something.”
Many thought that this was the best choice, and they began to head back to their rooms. Just before they did, though, Liam, the boy with the eyepatch, approached the group.
“You should be careful of this one; he’ll betray you all in a heartbeat,” Liam claimed. “If you stick with him, you’ll make enemies with the whole academy, for sure.”
Liam walked off, leaving Simyon with nothing to say in response. He wanted to argue and say it wasn’t true, but right now, it did feel like that. Due to his association with him, everyone in the Blue headband group would hate him, while the others would be at risk.
“Don’t worry about him,” Raze said. “Remember what I said: you are part of the Cromwell family now. I trust you, for now, at least.”
Raze walked and headed inside the building along with the rest, with Dame at the back of the group.
“Wait a moment, does that mean you do trust him or you don’t? Don’t confuse the poor kid,” Dame shouted.
Entering the inside of the academy, rooms had been sorted out for both Raze and Dame already. It seemed like they wanted to keep the no-names close as two people were moved into different rooms, allowing the two to be next to Simyon and Safa.
Some of the students headed straight into their rooms, either resting up for the night, continuing their studies, or even absorbing the Qi pills that they still had. Simyon hadn’t gotten the chance to collect the Qi pills from the rest of the class.
Meanwhile, their group had decided to stay in the lobby, as there was a lot of talking and catching up for them to do. While in there, the other students passing by would glare.
They would look at Raze and Dame for a few seconds, but most of the stares were directed at Simyon, as if they were trying to pierce him with their eyes.
There were also some rumors being spread around as well.
“I wonder what clan that guy is from?”
“Can you stop making a big deal? That kick was telegraphed so much I think a sloth would have been able to avoid it.”
“Really, you really think you could?”
“Really.”
“Alright, but surely he has to be from a clan, right? Unless you’re saying he’s a no-name. That would be four no-names, and he didn’t even get through the assessment.”
A lot of the students had the same question on their minds. Just from one display, it was hard to tell how skilled Dame was. Yet, all of them were too scared to ask, and he seemed to be sticking to the White-Haired no-name quite a bit.
“So what happened back in the assessment? Was it the main clans’ disciples?” Simyon whispered.
Raze nodded. “You should have guessed. All of them had played a part in trying to take me out, but the main one causing trouble among them all was Mada. I managed to find Pink here and got out of the situation alright, but don’t worry; I plan to sort the situation out myself.”
Simyon wanted to ask more, but gathered that if Raze had decided to give that much information, then for now, that was all he was going to get.
“What about you? Why is everyone trying to kill you with their stares? What happened?”
Simyon was still debating whether to say something or not. He looked at Safa, who didn’t quite understand what had happened either. She looked almost disconnected from him, with her eyes drooping slightly.
In the end, he held out his hand and dropped around eight qi pills onto the table. 𝑜𝓥𝓵xt.𝒞𝗈𝓂
“All of the Blue headband students received two ten-year Qi pills each in order to help them catch up in terms of Qi compared to the others. Ricktor, one of the main disciples, met with me and asked me to gather the pills on his behalf.
“I didn’t want to, but at the same time, I had no clue what to do. If I turned him down, I feel like he would have continued to target me, and after he had already gotten rid of you, I didn’t want him to do the same to Safa.
“I promised not just to protect you and give you my life, but Safa as well.”
What they needed to do, though, was figure out what to do from here.
“Hey, this is perfect, right?” Dame said with a smile. “Why don’t you just continue collecting pills on behalf of that Ricktor guy and take them for yourself? The fact that they gave you pills means that they believe what you said and are scared of you!”
“What? Then I’m worse than him, and even if I did do that, Ricktor would find out and attack us!” Simyon replied back.
“I thought you said you knew the Da— I mean, Raze, very well,” Dame corrected himself. “Do you think he’d give any of those crystals to Ricktor? When those disciples find out he’s alive, will they just idly let him stand by?”
“Right now, you have a great opportunity for all of you to grow. The world of Pagna is unfair. Surely you should have seen that by now. It’s your job to do what you can to make it fair.”
Simyon knew Dame was right. With Raze’s return, he most likely would become the main disciples’ target again, and he wouldn’t do the others’ bidding. So what would they do now?
The pills taken from the other students were handed to Raze, four of them in total. Dame didn’t need them; they wouldn’t do anything for him, so all the pills he would receive from then on he would just hand to Raze.
With the day coming to an end and not really knowing what to expect for tomorrow, they had all decided to head to their rooms.
‘I wonder if the same enchantment that works on Power Stones would work on Qi pills as well?’ Raze thought. ‘If I were to take two ten-year pills and use the power of another pill, would I be able to create a twenty-year pill?’
‘It could be what I need to break through to become a second-stage warrior. The chances are low, but with a surplus of Qi pills, I might as well give it a go, especially if ten-year Qi pills aren’t going to do anything for me.’
Raze didn’t feel bad in the slightest that he was using the Qi pills from others. It was clearly a system that the academy allowed, and in this world, everyone played by the same rules.
If they were strong or cunning enough, they would do the same thing. He needed to play the cards he had.
Heading into the room, Raze noticed that something had been left on his bed. Picking it up, he saw it was a piece of paper with a message written on it.
‘Come to the back of the sleeping quarters today. This is in your best interest.’
At the bottom of the letter, there was one more thing that was signed off.
[Alter]