Chapter 12:

Hey guys, I'm back… Lost my muse for a while, lost my interest in writing for a bit, but I'm back now! Happy New Year!

Review response:

Guest: Now that you pointed that out… huh. I didn't think of that. It doesn't really affect the story, though, so I think I'll just leave it.

That's it, and now, on to the next chapter!

It has been three weeks since the last of the Black Wing's attack. During that time, the three had started hanging out together more often. Or rather, Akio had joined his two new friends in everything to the exclusion of everyone else.

He no longer spends lunchtime alone or taking on challenges to a game of chess. Instead, he goes along with whatever Ascion and Kaede were doing with an almost childlike curiosity. He was so surprised and intrigued the first time Ascion had pulled out a portable gaming console, that they ended up spending the rest of lunch teaching him how to use it.

He almost broke a few of the buttons when he partially transformed due to a sudden sound from the game, but other than that he picked it up surprisingly fast. It didn't take long for him to get one of his own, having nothing better to do with the money he stockpiled from his quests.

Akio was the most self sufficient of the three, and that did not change even after becoming friends with Ascion and Kaede. No matter what quest they took, as long as it involves hunting in one way or another, most of the time he would return from the quest with a large portion of food, to be consumed that night and the following day.

Sap from Stumps, caps from Mushrooms, meat from Boars or Drakes, even the jelly from Slimes or the moss and rocks from Golems.

Apparently, boiling Golem Stones make for a good soup of sorts. However that worked.

Unsurprisingly, Akio had a lot of money saved up. He didn't need to pay for food, rent, or even weapon repairs, considering the fact that he uses his sword more like a club and thus doesn't really bother to sharpen it beyond running a whet stone over it once in a while.

His knowledge of swordplay only extended as far as "swing the sharp edge at the enemy". Most of the time, he just depended on his natural strength as a werewolf, honed by his survival in the wild.

Currently, Ascion and Kaede were watching rather bemusedly as Akio savagely beat his enemy, this time a Crocodile in the swamps of Kerning City, with the blunted edge of his sword.

"I will need to, sharpen edge again." Akio mused as his target finally died, holding up his sword to inspect it.

"Sharpen the edge." Ascion corrected automatically, a new habit he had developed after Akio revealed his problems with speech. "And you wouldn't have to sharpen your sword so often if you had agreed to Mr. Balrog's offer to train you much earlier."

As it turned out, Dances with Balrog had offered to train Akio in the way of the sword years ago, when it was evident that Akio preferred an Adventurer's lifestyle. Due to his distrust of humans back then, Akio had refused. Every subsequent offer thereafter - and the chieftain brought up his offer almost every month - was met with the same refusal.

After having witnessed how the man had cut his way through a literal horde of Black Wing grunts to save him, however, Akio had ended up accepting Dances with Balrog's customary offer a week later.

While taken aback at first, since he had made the offer more out of habit than any anything else, the chieftain had nonetheless began teaching Akio how to properly wield a sword. It was slow going, but the werewolf was undoubtedly getting better.

He only needed to sharpen his sword once every two days now.

… At least he wasn't using his sword like a lumberjack's axe anymore.

"I know." Akio chuckled, sheathing his sword as he got to work hacking the Crocodile into pieces with his hunting knife. "Distrust, lessened now, but had more back then. Much, much more."

"Maybe I should start doing what Akio does." Kaede mused. "It'll save my family some money. Though I wonder how parents will react to me bringing back crocodile meat..."

"I'm sure they'll be fine with it." Ascion replied with a straight face.

That earned him a dope slap. "Ascion, you know as well as I do that the most likely reaction would be a freak out or a lecture. Then they'll throw the meat out. Are you trying to get me in trouble?"

"Yes." Slap.

"Don't admit it so casually!"

"Sorry, how casually do you want me to admit it-" Thunk! "Ow! Not the rocks!"

"Don't admit it at all, dammit!"

Akio chuckled fondly, watching the two friends snipe at each other as he wrapped up his work with the crocodile's own skin. "I'm done. Let's turn in, the quest."

As the three friends made their way back to Kerning City, Ascion spoke up. "So, have either of you thought about participating in the student exchange program?"

Two weeks ago, their teacher had informed them about a student exchange program, to happen in a month's time. The host school would be the Pantheon School of Knights, the only school still operational on Grandis, homeworld of the Nova race, that combines elementary, middle and high schools.

Considering how the Novas had once lived in a massive empire, the city of Pantheon was rather small. However, the Novan population was small even before the fall of Heliseum, so while it was a bit of a squeeze, they managed. With their small population size and limited space, building a separate school for different levels of education would be a wasteful idea. Instead, three massive buildings were built side by side under the same name.

One aspect that made the school special would be their mandatory combat training. The Novas were a warrior race, and they considered themselves as such. Thus, it was expected for every child to possess some form of experience in martial combat, even if they didn't want to be a knight in the army. Hence, a School of Knights.

"Unsure. I will, most likely follow you." Akio immediately replied.

Ascion and Kaede just traded knowing looks. Ever since they had officially became friends, Akio had taken to following either one of them around. He didn't follow them home or to the bathroom (thankfully), but otherwise he was almost always there. It seems that he would even travel to another world just to be with his friends.

"I'm not very sure either." Kaede mused. "I mean, it's not exactly expensive, my family can afford it. And it'll be interesting to go to Grandis. But would we fit in there? Our situation here is bad enough. What if it's worse over there?"

"I don't think it can be worse." Ascion remarked dryly. "There's literally no student in our school that'll take our side in any argument that might happen. The only reason we don't get bullied more is that the teachers care and we're all good students."

"You mean Akio and I are the good students. You're the insufferable jackass genius." Kaede sniped, her grin taking the edge off her words.

"Aww, you flatter me. Anyway, I don't see our situation getting any worse, unless we somehow turn the teachers against us as well. I think I'll go." Ascion said.

"Eh, if you're going, I guess I will, too." Kaede agreed. "Who knows, we might actually end up with nicer classmates!"

"If both of you, go, then I go, as well." Akio immediately said.

"It's decided, then! We're going to Pantheon!" Ascion cheered. "This is gonna be exciting!"

'This is so fucking boring…' Ascion sighed, doodling aimlessly on one of the spare pieces of paper handed out to the students for the exam. Of course, only the best students got to go on the exchange program, especially since this was just the second time something like this had been organised.

As such, a few conditions had to be fulfilled before a student could go. First, the student must have met at least 90% attendance last year. Second, the student must be in the top 20% of their grade last year in combat. Last but not least, all applicants are required to sit for a written exam to determine if they meet the academic conditions of going on the exchange.

'My attendance is great. I report to school on time even when I didn't feel like it, so it's a full 100%. All my classmates love to brag but don't actually put in any effort, no surprise I'm rank number 6 in combat. Some of them don't even train apart from our combat classes. Exam's so easy I'm drawing a fancy staff with all the spare time I have left. I've even checked through my answers three times over already. Good grief, this is boring.'

"Time's up! Pens down!" The teacher at the front ordered. Ascion would have cheered in relief if it wouldn't have gotten him disqualified. After everyone had handed in their papers and were dismissed by the teacher, Ascion immediately got up and left.

To discourage cheating, students participating in the exam were separated randomly to ensure that those from the same class did not all end up together. Which meant that Kaede and Akio were in separate rooms. Which also meant that he now had to go look for them, not an easy feat when there's more than a hundred people exiting their classrooms all at the same time.

In the end, he resolved to climbing a tree and waiting for his friends to go to him instead. Within a minute, Kaede had slipped out of the crowd, scaling the tree to sit beside him. Akio appeared a few minutes later, fighting through the crush of bodies and silently brushing aside his well wishers with practised ease.

"Hey Akio." Ascion called. "How did the exam go?"

Akio looked up at them, then sat down at the base of the tree. "Not very, well." He admitted. "My academics are, not very good."

"You'll be fine, you certainly worked hard enough for this." Kaede reassured him. "And why don't you come up here and join us?"

Akio glanced up at them, then, amazingly, gained an embarrassed blush. "I don't, know how to, climb trees."

"I can teach you." Kaede offered.

"Thank you, but no. Feels, unsafe." Akio refuted. "How were, your tests?"

"It's kinda challenging." Kaede admitted. "But I think I did well."

"I had time to doodle." Ascion admitted, grinning. "It wasn't that hard."

"I still can't believe you somehow managed to segment your mind into two so you could focus on two things at once." Kaede muttered. "And I watched you do it before."

"Unfair." Akio sighed ruefully. "So much, time."

Ascion shrugged, still grinning. "So, how's attendance? I have a hundred percent, and I know Kaede has the same, bar that one time she was sick."

"Full attendance, as well." Akio replied. "Combat?"

"I'm number 6 in the grade." Ascion said.

"And I'm ranked 3." Kaede said. "What about you, Akio?"

"Ah." His blush returned. "I was, rank 1."

Both Ascion and Kaede stared at him. "Number one?!" Kaede blurted out.

"Yes."

"Well." Ascion finally found his voice after a short pause. "I'm guessing even if you didn't do very well for the academics part, you'll be given a pass, what with that rank and all."

"Truly?" Akio asked.

"I can't guarantee for sure." Ascion admitted. "But I certainly do think so." He hopped off his perch, dropping down beside Akio with a solid thump. Kaede followed, landing lightly with barely a sound. "Well, let's go. Where should we go questing today?"

"Well." Ascion blinked, reading through the handout again. "That's unexpected."

"Yeah. Since when did we have this many people wanting to go on the exchange program?" Kaede asked. "Our classmates are usually lazier than a Snail."

"Most likely, believe, going overseas, for… entertainment?" Akio hesitated on the last word, unsure if it was right.

"You mean they think going on an exchange program is going to be easy? Like a holiday?" Ascion asked incredulously.

"Yes."

There was a pause, before Ascion spoke. "Well… guess that explains this, then." He shook the piece of paper in his hand, disgruntled.

The handout the three of them were holding basically explained that they had met the requirements for the exchange program. However, as there were an excessively large number of applicants who had managed to meet the requirements, students would have to participate in a school sanctioned fighting tournament to earn a spot in the program.

The competition will be held after school hours, starting at three in the afternoon and ending around six in the evening, and will be held over the course of a few days. Each student will take part in three matches, and those who win at least two matches will be allowed to go.

Their opponents will be, of course, other students of the same year, although a few students might have to go up against their teachers. Obviously, the teachers will be holding back, and they will decide whether a student has performed adequately against them, rewarding a win or a loss depending on the student's performance.

"A fighting tournament, huh." Ascion sighed. "Well, it makes sense. The Pantheon School of Knights is a combat school, and the Nova are notoriously good warriors. Besides, a tournament is better than letting the teachers draw lots and pray that they managed to pick you, anyway."

"True. Our bracket is supposed to take place tomorrow, right?" Kaede asked, reading the paper again.

"Yep, it is." Ascion confirmed. "Let's see if anybody has gotten better after the Winter break, shall we?"

As it turned out, only a few had. Some even seemed to have deteriorated in their combat skills. In his first matchup, Ascion fought a Page that was three ranks below him, and beat him with a homing [Energy Bolt] that circled around and struck the Page in the back.

His next opponent was a Gunslinger in the fourth rank. Again, the fight ended with Ascion pummeling the guy in the back.

Embarrassingly enough, the hit the enemy in the back strategy was the exact same strategy Ascion had used in every single match the year before, just so to see if he could. The Gunslinger had actually countered Ascion in one of the last matches of that year because Ascion kept using the same strategy, thus taking the fourth rank.

Unfortunately for the Gunslinger, the holidays seems to have scrubbed his memory clean. He really should not have been so surprised to have been struck in the back that he loosened his grip on his gun. Ascion had capitalized on the opening to shoot the weapon out of the Pirate's hand with a well placed [Energy Bolt].

His last match was basically a joke. Ascion was matched up against the rank 17 Bandit, who had grand delusions of his strength and a lofty goal of becoming the strongest Adventurer in the school, and then the world. This was information that Ascion normally wouldn't know of nor care about, but the guy just would not. Shut. Up!

"I may not be great now, but one day, I shall be the strongest! The greatest! The-"

"Match, start!"

Ascion wordlessly blasted the annoyance with a barrage of five [Energy Bolts]. The Bandit immediately dodged, weaving his way between the five bolts with frankly unnecessary acrobatics. "Ha! You cannot touch me, Mage!"

A thought, and the [Energy Bolts] reversed course, slamming into the Bandit's back and sending him sprawling onto the ground in a heap.

"You coward!" He shouted as he struggled to his feet.

"You're a bandit, and you talk about fair?" Ascion sighed. "What's Dark Lord Jin teaching you idiots these days?" Before the Bandit could reply, Ascion blasted him with a second barrage of [Energy Bolts], winning the match.

Kaede had an even easier time than Ascion did, considering that she was much more balanced in her fighting skills. In her first match against the rank 14 Assassin, Kaede won by closing the distance and, taking advantage of the Assassin's shock, kicked him in the head before shooting an [Arrow Blow] point blank, knocking him out.

Her next matchup was a joke, considering that somehow, the school had matched her against the rank 34 Hunter. However, considering that said Hunter was one of her old bullies, Kaede decided that she didn't care as she slugged her opponent in the face.

Her final match, however, was against the first ranked Warrior. Not a Fighter, a Spearman nor a Page. A Warrior.

"Now this is surprising." Kaede commented as they took their positions on the arena. "I didn't expect to be fighting you, Akio."

"Un." Akio nodded as he readied his sword. "Let us do, our best, yes?"

"Yep. Don't hold back." Kaede nocked an arrow, a smile on her face.

"Begin!"

Akio immediately charged, sword held at the ready. Kaede fired three [Arrow Blow] in quick succession. Akio deflected the first and blocked the second, then simply took the third head on and powered through it.

When the Warrior was in range, he swung his sword in a proper, two handed grip. Kaede ducked back, avoiding the swing, then retreated again when Akio rapidly switched directions, flicking his sword out one handedly. Kaede dodged that as well, but Akio followed through with a kick, catching her square in the abdomen.

The archer stumbled back, dropped into a backwards roll to avoid the next slash from Akio's sword and came up firing a point blank [Bomb Arrow]. Akio blocked, the bomb exploding on his sword, but he managed to stand his ground and continued to charge through the resulting smoke.

He was surprised to find Kaede right in his face, and was unable to react before Kaede planted her knee in his abdomen. Kaede was nowhere as strong as Akio was, however, and only caused him to stumble. She was unfazed, having expected the outcome, and followed up with a sweeping kick to Akio's shins.

Akio lost his balance and fell, but he managed to ward Kaede off with a well placed swing of his sword. He hit the ground, rolled to his feet, and deflected the arrow heading for his shoulder. He dodged the next [Arrow Blow] and charged, jumping over the [Arrow Bomb] that went off near his feet. He landed without a problem, his superior werewolf reflexes saving him from losing balanced, and threw himself forward in a straight thrust.

Kaede sidestepped the lunge, kicking off the ground hard and raining arrows down with [Covering Fire]. Akio slashed the barrage of arrows out of the air, closing the distance as Kaede started to fall. The archer pushed herself forward with [Double Jump], turning her fall into a mid air lunge and sailing over Akio's head. She landed, rolled to her feet and spun around, arrow nocked and ready to fire.

.. Or at least, that's what would have happened had Kaede not flubbed her landing. Her ankle twisted, throwing her balance off in addition to twisting her muscles rather painfully, throwing her onto the ground.

Akio capitalized on it immediately, sword swinging down on Kaede's prone form. Kaede rolled again, this time a touch more desperately. She sprung onto her hands, holding herself upside down as she used her good leg to kick at Akio's face.

Surprised, the warrior stepped back, which was fortunate for the archer since she almost lost her balance kicking in her position, her bow still in her left hand unbalancing her further. She quickly steadied herself, then threw herself up and back when Akio attacked again. Flipping in mid-air, she twisted around and fired another barrage of [Covering Fire].

Akio parried them away as he steadily closed the distance. Kaede landed, careful to put her weight on her good leg, then jumped back again, firing a trio of [Arrow Bombs] this time. Akio parried the first two, the arrows exploding beside him only buffeting him slightly, dodged the last arrow, then threw his sword.

In mid-air with no way to maneuver in any meaningful manner, Kaede frantically twisted her body, trying to dodge the heavy projectile. She needn't have bothered: the shape of the sword made it wobble off course, but the damage was done. Now unstable, Kaede landed badly, stumbling on her twisted ankle. Akio was in her face in an instance, fists raised.

A single, solid punch to the gut made Kaede collapse onto the floor, wheezing. Akio drew back his other fist, staring down at Kaede silently.

Recognizing the silent tilt of his head for what it was, Kaede raised her hand. "I yield!" She gasped out. Akio nodded, lowering his fists. He hesitated for a moment, before he held out his hand. Kaede took it, and Akio pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks." Kaede smiled. "Good match."

Akio paused. "You are welcome." He replied before helping Kaede hobble off the arena.

Now safely in the stands, Kaede sighed in relief as Ascion cast [Heal] over her ankle, repairing the damage. "How did you even twist your ankle?" Ascion asked, equally exasperated and amused.

"The teachers were protecting us, so I decided not to reinforce myself." Kaede muttered, blushing in embarrassment. "You know I'm kinda bad with the whole 'reinforce yourself with mana' thing, so I decided to skimp on it. Bad idea, I know. Wouldn't have twisted my ankle otherwise."

"You'll have to learn to do it unconsciously eventually." Ascion reminded her. "They won't let you have an official Adventurer license without it."

"I know." Kaede grumbled. "Another thing to train, I guess. I was getting a little slack…"

"Oh don't be so down." Ascion said cheerfully, giving Kaede a one-armed hug. "I'll help. I'm still pretty shit at it myself, anyway."

"That's because you try to control it too much. It's supposed to be instinctive." Kaede retorted, her blush intensifying just the tiniest bit, very much enjoying the hug.

In the next round, Akio was matched up against the ranked 23 Ice/Lightning Wizard. Akio had uncaringly charged straight through the [Cold Beams] and [Lightning Bolts] thrown at him. When the Wizard had tried to [Teleport] away, Akio had slammed on the brakes, whirled around, and smashed his sword into the side of the Wizard's head moments after he reappeared.

If the combatants weren't being protected by the personal barriers projected by the teachers, it would have gotten messy, fast.

For his final match, Akio had the dubious honor of being the only the only seventh grader to face off against a teacher. It was a brutal, drawn out fight, with Akio trying to close the distance against the teacher, a Fire/Lightning Archmage. The teacher kept [Teleporting] around, leaving trails of fire in his wake to discourage pursuit.

Eventually, Akio managed to score a single hit by propelling himself forward by expelling mana from beneath his feet. The teacher called the match afterwards, giving Akio a pass.

"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Ascion asked.

"Do, what?" Akio replied, confused.

"The [Flash Jump]."

"[Flash Jump]?"

"Well, to you it should be called [War Leap], I think, but the skill originally belonged to the Rogues, so some people still refer to similar abilities [Flash Jump]." Ascion explained.

Akio cocked his head to the side. "I do not understand."

Ascion frowned, trying to figure out what's wrong with his explanation, when Kaede figured it out. "Akio, do you not know what a [War Leap] is?" She asked.

"I do not." Was the prompt reply.

"Didn't Dances with Balrog teach you those things?" Ascion asked.

"No. He said, weapon training, comes first."

"Well, what you did, pushing yourself forward by eject- err, pushing out mana from your feet, that's a [Flash Jump]." Ascion quickly summarized. Akio nodded to show he understood.

"Common skill?" He asked.

"Yeah. Everybody has the one taught to them by their instructors, except for Magicians cause we use [Teleport] instead. The more powerful adventurers have [Flash Jumps] modified to suit themselves, like some push mana out of their feet to move while others prefer ejecting mana from their back instead, things like that."

Akio paused for a while as he parsed the information, before he nodded. "I see."

"Akio, what skills have you formally learned from Dances with Balrog or watching the other Warriors?" Kaede asked.

Akio thought about it for a moment. "Dances with Balrog said my, [Iron Body] and, [Warrior Mastery]? He said they are, very good. He also said he will teach me, another skill, after basic weapon training."

"Probably [Power Blow], then." Ascion mused. "And [War Leap] after that, although you already technically have your own version. You made that move up on the spot, didn't you?"

Akio cocked his head to the side, confused, before he realized what Ascion was talking about. "Yes. I saw what, Kaede did. Somehow, changing directions, mid-air. So I tried, copy."

"To copy." Ascion corrected absently. "And good job at it. You managed to invent your own version of [Flash Jump] just by seeing it once. That's pretty good."

Akio just nodded. "Thank you."

"Well, we all passed." Ascion cheered as he stretched his arms over his head. "Which means we all get to go to Pantheon together! On another planet! Isn't that great!"

Kaede grinned. "Yeah! Maybe we can even see Kaiser or Angelic Buster!"

Ascion raised an eyebrow. "That's not why we're going, though."

Kaede stuck her tongue out "A girl can dream. Besides, only you would be excited to go to school."

"Well, that, and maybe I could visit their doctors and see if they have any way to help me." Ascion laughed and messed with Kaede's hair when he saw her frown. "Hey now, don't worry about it! I feel like I can use a lot more mana than I usually can. Maybe I won't even need any help!"

"Don't do that!" Kaede scowled, running a hand through her hair. "And your mana pool is increasing? How much is it at?"

"Double the previous amount." Ascion confessed. Kaede looked impressed while Akio just looked politely confused. "Right. Akio, I forgot you didn't know. Basically, even thought I started practicing magic since I was very young, the pool of mana I could draw on was always very small. After our fight against Yuko, the amount of mana I have has doubled."

Akio took some time to digest the information then nodded. "Double your previous, mana pool is very, good."

Ascion sighed. "Not as much as you would think. I had as much mana as a level fifteen mage. Doubling it still isn't very impressive considering I'm supposed to be level 54. Well, enough about that. What about you, Akio? Excited about going to Pantheon?"

Akio thought about it, then shrugged.

"Eh, good enough." Ascion commented as they neared the school's Dimensional Mirror exit. "C'mon, one last mission before we leave?"

"Sure!" Kaede agreed. Akio nodded, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Let's go, then!"

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