The Old Man backed away and looked into the horizon. The twins were finally setting, as the sky turned a soft purple, with red and yellow sprinkled throughout the sky.
"Daniel, Adora. You are part of the Sixty-ninth Class. The number is used to identify every new group of Myriad candidates which join the academy every year."
The Old Man began to walk away from the stall as he spoke.
"Their will be class activities throughout the year, but most of the time you'll be left to do your own trainings. That is why we assign two man teams, accountability. Aft-"
"Yo, where is the little boy? Are we gonna leave him alone?" Daniel asked our of concern.
The Old Man turned to look at Daniel as he continued walking. "He's not alone, I sent him home to his parents when he came to announce your arrival."
"You killed him?" Daniel's eyes went wide.
*Smack*
The Old Man smacked Daniel on the back of the head.
"How the hell did you conclude that you little basta-"
Unfortunately, the old man's hand was heavy, so Daniel was sent flying like a missile.
"AHHHHHH!"
"Oh Shit!" The Old Man ran after him, quickly disappearing from where he stood.
The Old Man caught Daniel mid flight and brought him back to where Adora was standing.
The Old Man dusted Daniel off and then pretended nothing happened.
Adora was rooted as he witnessed these shenanigans.
"Who ever said The Architect Of Hearthlight is a solomn and just man... Your mom's a hoe!" Adora thought to himself. Of all the stories he's heard about Mr. Hearthlight, none mention him being a shameless goofball.
"After the assessment, students are assigned a room within the Hall Of Hearth Light. Your room numbers will be A3608, D3609."
Daniel followed absent-mindedly, the earlier shabackle rattled him hard.
"Tomorrow there will be a welcome ceremony, where all of your fellow peers will attend. During the ceremony there will be a small contest, the awards are better resources, better living quarters and better instructors." The Old Man continues without giving a hoot about the traumatized Daniel behind him.
"Since you are a direct diciple of the Myriad Specter, you'll have to perform within the top five at the minimum, young Daniel."
"Mm."
"Mr. Hearthfire, what kind of competition will it be? and will everyone have no cultivation?" Adora raised the two questions he thought were most important to know.
"No one will have a cultivation, as it's a requirement in order to be considered for recruitment. Secondly, it's a tiered dueling system, meaning one versus one for all fifty participants until there's only one winner." The Old Man answered.
"As you already know, every batch of Myriad candidates that we accept is only ever fifty people strong. This is because anything more than that and the quality of education decreases by a significant margin." The Old Man expanded on his previous answer in order to provide context.
As the Old Man finished his explanation. they arrived at the entrance of The Hall Of Hearthlight.
"Get some rest you two, tomorrow someone will come to retrieve you. Also, Daniel, could I have a private chat with you before you go?"
"I'll take my leave, see you tomorrow Mr. Hearthlight, Mr. Daniel." Adora entered the Hall of Hearthlight, where he went space rippled, his silhouette disappearing soon after.
"What it is Old Man, as you can see I'm quite tired." Daniel yawned with bright open eyes.
The Old Man chuckled.
"You may be wondering why I'm asking you to perform well during the competition. After all, you already have my son as your teacher and me as your future teacher, right?" The Old Man spoke softly.
"That's right." Daniel nodded.
"It's because you said you'd be the best, hehe." He decided to take a jab at Daniel
"No but really, as the Personal Disciple of my son, you must bring honor to his name and future teachings. He, is a busy man, as am I. Create for yourself a network that will support you in our absence. That way, you remain the best. What do you think of this, young Daniel?" The Old Man rested his hand upon Daniel's shoulder in a form of endearment.
'My gamer sense is tingling, looks like there's something going on in the background that I'm unaware of.'
"Sounds reasonable."
"Good, good. Are you confident?" The Old Man inquired out of goodwill.
"I don't know, I've never fought before, humans anyway. I've only fought those beasts, and that was to the death." Daniel spoke as he looked down at the ground.
"Yes, I see. Not to worry, there won't be any weapons allowed, it'll be with your fists."
"I don't know if that'll be any better, I've used my bare hands to fight my way through a gorilla encirclement before."
The Old Man was speechless. "I need to look into your journey here, looks like there's a lot I don't know. Is this also how you acquired your Ancient Armor?"
"Yes, after being chased by a huge fiery lizard into a jungle I had to fight through them to escape its pursuit. Of course that was during a confrontation between that fiery lizard and a huge lightning bird. After that, I arrived at those ruins."
The Old Man was shocked. 'Could he have encountered the Storm Shrike and the Wingless Dragon?' The Old Man pondered of Daniel's words as he remembered receiving a report similar to his story. A cataclysmic battle between those two beasts.
"I'll have to sit down and have a talk with you at some point, but that will be for another time. Go rest, tomorrow you'll need all your strength.
Daniel nodded before turning around and walking towards the Hall Of Hearthlight.