Inside the Wild, a young black-haired boy who looked to be about fifteen years of age stood still with a scabbard in his left hand while his right hand held onto the hilt of the sheathed sword. Littered around him were the corpses of monsters of different realms, with the weakest being at the first stage of the Guardian realm.
The majority of the monsters were in this realm but quite a few were at the second and third stages, although for the latter they were of the early rank and didn't number more than five.
"Too weak." The young teen said.
If some passer-bys heard this, they would be shocked. The young teen had not only taken these monsters on alone but he felt them to be too weak, which was unimaginable by regular standards.
However, if a student or staff of the Second Dawn Academy saw this, they wouldn't be surprised. This was because they all knew the identity of the young teen; the Unrivalled Genius, Hanru.
"Young master," A figure dropped from above and landed a few feet behind Hanru before dropping to one knee. It was a mage in a green cloak with special patterns on it.
By the looks of the person and style of dressing, it was obvious that he was a staff of the Second Dawn Academy.
This was shocking as no one would ever have thought that an academy staff would pay so much respect to a student. Nonetheless, it was understandable.
Unlike with the First Dawn academy, some of the protector mages in the Second Dawn were alumni that didn't do too well or students from other academies. Most of them were from lower houses or weren't even of aristocratic birth, as such, they would occasionally try to associate with students from higher families with a bright future and huge potential.
As long as the student remembered them after graduating and hitting it big in life, these academy members would have an opportunity to quit their workstations and follow the student. The reason this was so was that, unlike the First Dawn Academy, the Second Dawn Academy wasn't co-sponsored by the Purple Sun sacred land, and was instead run by the kingdom itself, so, opportunities were lesser compared to the former.
Although the practice of latching onto students was eventually banned by the Second Dawn Academy's higher-ups, it was still practised secretly by some lower staff members. It was also ignored to some extent so long as the staff didn't do anything to harm other students or overtly assist the student they've latched onto.
In Hanru's case, the director of the academy had even taken him in as a disciple so it was already natural for the other staff members to show some form of respect to him. At the same time, his incredible talent could not be ignored and many of them wanted to become a follower of his. This was because as long as Hanru kept growing at this rate, he would become a duke and maybe even a new great duke like Darius and co.
Even if he dropped in talent along the way, it wouldn't be a problem for Hanru to end up as a count or someone with equivalent status, or maybe even a Marquis, if he catches the attention of the king. With such a bright future ahead of him and an impressive status even in the present, it was understandable why some staff members curried his favour.
"Any problem?" Hanru asked plainly.
"The director gave me a message to pass on to you. A joint exercise has just been arranged with the First Dawn Academy and this time around, the third years are included in the exercise. Based on your performance, you could be promoted into the First Dawn Academy." The mage said with unconcealed zeal and desire in his eyes.
Promotion into the First Dawn academy rarely occurred and was difficult with only the best of the best in the Second Dawn academy making it in. If one were to consider applying to the school, getting in was hard but not difficult, although the expensive tuition fee was worth taking note of. However, making it till the third year, when the true teaching was said to begin, was considerably difficult.
The only way to do so apart from struggling from the bottom was through promotion from the Second Dawn Academy, but such opportunities were rare and mostly left for the best-performing students. Now though, an open contest was organized, and as long as one could fight for one of the top 200 spots, their promotion would be assured.
Before the mage, stood someone who was more than capable of achieving such. In fact, some believed that his only equals in his generation were the twin princesses and Duke Saunters' little daughter. As for the son of Duke Darius, he was rumoured to be a null so no one considered him as a difficult opponent.
"Promotion…master should already know about my situation." Hanru sighed.
"Although that is true, this time around is different. They can't interfere." The mage said.
"Maybe, but even then, promotion isn't my goal." Hanru shook his head.
"It isn't?" The mage was shocked,
"With my strength, very few in my realm are worthy of a challenge so my promotion is as good as set. Setting such as my goal is futile because it has already been decided from the start." Hanru calmly spoke as if stating a fact.
'That's true.' The mage thought as a fanatic glow appeared in his eyes.
Hanru was without a doubt, the Unrivalled Genius.
"Since my promotion is set, my goal should be something more challenging." Hanru slowly lifted the sheathed sword and pointed it at the sky.
"The top students of the First Dawn Academy. As it stands, I have no equal here, except for the higher realm mages, but they are not of my generation. I would like to trade blows with the geniuses of my generation and finally answer the question within my heart." A strange glow flashed in Hanru's eyes.
"You'll definitely find some strong geniuses there, young master. But as for whether you can get an answer to your question, I do not know." The mage replied.
"Here, young master." The mage withdrew a few papers from his robe and handed it over to Hanru.
"It's information on the top ten of the First Dawn Academy. Their background and elements. It's nothing classified so it can't be called cheating. The others could also find information on you too." The mage explained.
"The director told me that you should pay special attention to the top two students, the twin godsouls. 'If anyone can challenge you and even take you down, it would be one of them'; those are the director's words."
"Godsouls…" Hanru muttered strangely.
"I'll study them later. For now, I plan on trading a few blows with the late-rank third-stage beast. Please be on standby for me."
"It would be my honour, young master." The mage bowed and kept the papers back.
The duo then departed for the deeper parts of the Wild, but along the way, the mage didn't lend a hand to Hanru against the monsters. In fact, he didn't even need to as the monsters were now avoiding Hanru due to the intense blood aura leaking from him after having slaughtered tens of beasts.
In the entire Second Dawn academy, only two students could face the late rank third-stage guardian monster single-handedly; Hanru and the best student of the fourth-year division and the academy. The second-best student of the fourth-year division couldn't even pull this off as his fighting style was suited for only human-sized opponents.
Nonetheless, being capable of facing the monster didn't mean they could beat it. On average, a late-rank third-stage monster required a fourth-stage Guardian mage to take down. Hanru and the other student could at best exchange a few blows and feel the experience of walking on the edge, however, they had to do so under the watch of a protector mage lest they end up dead.
. . .
While Hanru battled the late rank third-stage monster in the Wild, the other students of the Second Dawn academy went on carrying out different training routines for the upcoming tournament. Even second-placed Koln had announced that he was entering seclusion for the rest of the month.
Apart from Hanru and Koln though, there were a bunch of other students that had quality on par with some First Dawn Academy students. Still, for various reasons such as low finance, personal issues, or the fact they failed the entrance exam into First Dawn or even got expelled along the way, they had ended up here. All such students felt that this was an opportunity made possible by the heavens and wanted to make the best out of it.