"Good morning, class. My name is Norman. And I will be your main instructor. Although I will only be teaching you combat, you are free to discuss anything with me. Now, let's begin your first class.
"As most of you know, the rankings are re-evaluated at the end of every semester. You can get positive evaluations from winning duels, competitions, class wars and other subject-specific evaluations.
"For that, you need to quickly identify your strengths and weaknesses. Always remember to never get conceited after a victory. Now, let's go to the training arena. We'll start with what you can do in 1v1 combat."
As Norman completed his opening statement, he started leading the class to the training arena, located a floor above them.
The training area covered essentially two floors worth of space. The training area included ten private training rooms, an equipment room and one open arena.
For safety reasons, students weren't allowed to use personal weapons during regular training sessions. Instead, they were allowed to select from a large collection of standard equipment.
As the collection included almost all types of weapons and equipment available on the continent, students rarely felt handicapped.
"As this is your first day, I want to see what you can do at your best today. If you have a piece of personal equipment or weapon you wish to use, you may collect it and use it during your spar. When you are ready, you can nominate who you want to fight. Also, you can nominate only a person who has either won their previous spar or hasn't been challenged yet."
As he spoke, nearly half the students left to get their personal equipment.
Looking around the half-empty room, Noah felt that he and Atlanna were the only nobles remaining in the room.
As personal equipment and weapons were expensive, only a few students had the privilege of owning them.
While Atlanna definitely had a personal weapon in her possession, it looked like she was confident in winning without it.
As Noah started browsing through the equipment and weapons in the common equipment room, one of the students raised their hand.
"I would like to challenge Noah Wyte."
At his announcement, most students started to look around the room to identify him. Although not much was known about him, there wasn't anyone in the class who wasn't aware that Noah was their classmate. But for some reason, no one among them had the iconic light blue hair that the Wyte duke and princess had.
Confident of his absence, the students announced, hoping to get free points. When the others realised his ingenuity, they could only curse at themselves for not thinking about it sooner.
When they were about to lose all excitement, some noticed Atlanna observing the boy with dark blue hair walking into the arena.
"I accept," Noah spoke in a calm tone.
Mouth agape, no one could believe that he was really Noah.
"Hey, weren't the Wyte house heirs supposed to have light blue hair."
"Is he a fake?"
As the chatter continued, the instructor made a large sound catching the attention of everyone.
"Student Asher, if you continue to remain outside the arena, you will be disqualified," Norman called out to the student who raised his hand.
"Tsk." Clicking his tongue, he took a long sword from the common equipment room and entered the arena.
"Student Noah, are you not taking any weapons?"
"I am good." Noah nonchalantly answered.
"Catch." Throwing a pendant to each of them, he continued, "what you are holding is a modified low-grade defensive artifact. If it detects the wearer is weak physically, it will shine red and create a protective barrier around them. The objective of this challenge is to make your opponent's pendent shine red."
As he finished his explanation, the floor of the arena started changing. The once flat circular floor started to turn muddy. Shrubs and muddy soil soon started to cover the floor, roughly imitating the terrain of a swamp.
'Interesting… I need to find out what type of magic this is.'
Once Norman confirmed all the students to have returned, he signalled the start of the duel.
Noah quickly shifted his focus to the environment and his opponent, looking for a weakness.
The circular arena nearly stretched 50 meters in radius. Although out-of-bounds was considered a loss, it looked like a hassle.
"Knock out is the only way huh…," Noah softly muttered.
"Who does this fake think he is? I am ranked 1150! You should show some respect to a person of higher rank. Or does the fake feel conceited?"
As nobility and commoners were treated alike within the campus, it wasn't uncommon for misdemeanours while inside the campus. And if the noble party took revenge when he was outside, they would be seen as pitiful and without honour.
'Skadi, you there?'
'Yes, master.'
'any thoughts?'
'Knocking him out in a single hit sounds like a good way to fix his arrogance.'
'Sounds good.' Noah let out a smirk.
Getting annoyed, the student raised his long sword approaching Noah at full force.
Although the swamp was only half feet deep, it was enough to reduce mobility significantly.
The moment the sword neared him, Noah shifted sideways narrowly avoiding it before crouching and landing an uppercut to the stomach.
As the punch connected perfectly, the student fell to the muddy swamp holding his stomach, unable to speak anything legible.
As the pendant shined red, it marked the end of the duel.
Opponent Asher has been defeated. Gained 100,000 exp.
'Ah, the sweet scent of exp at long last. Hmm... Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone.'
Even after the student was carried out of the arena, Noah remained.
"Sir Norman, if I understand correctly, the winner can compete in duels until he loses, correct?" Noah spoke audibly for everyone to hear.
"Yes…"
"I was late to the entrance ceremony, so I missed a few introductions. Instead of me nominating someone, would anyone like to fight me?" Noah requested politely with grace standing in the middle of the swamp.
Although Wilhelmina wasn't willing to teach Noah her swordsmanship, fearing the toll it would take on his weakened body, she insisted on correcting Noah's speech and manners after witnessing him saying a cuss word.
After hours of practice, Noah finally managed to attain a level of proficiency that it was recognised as a skill in his skill list.
=Skills=
— Goddess Aditi's Blessing
— {7}
— Ice Temple Self Defense Sword Style (F Rank)
— {5}
— Skadi Ice Spirit
— {0}
— Basic Ice Elemental Series
— {15}
— Intermediate Ice Elemental Series
— {15}
— Ice Temple Self Defense Spear Style (F Rank)
— {5}
— Ice Temple Self Defense Bow Style (F Rank)
— {5}
— Azeas fire Spirit
— {0}
— Surtr fire Spirit
— {0}
— Noble Etiquette (B Rank)
— Graceful Gait
— Graceful Speech
From Noah's perspective, this was one of the best skills for provoking.
'Now let's see, how many duels would it take to change their opinion?'
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A/N:
Hey guys,
Don't forget to share and send Power Stones to support this novel. Also, can you please add reviews if possible? This novel is still listed as unreviewed since there are only a few reviews.
Happy Reading,
Kamui