"Good morning," An old man with black slicked-back hair, a skeletal figure, and faint gray eyes stood in front of the classroom.
Just like any other professor in the Academy, he was in a black robe with a shiny black suit underneath that resembled the uniform of the dark knight sector. He was obviously a dark knight, judging from the defined mana surrounding his presence as he spoke.
Arthur yawned at the old man's words. He no longer shared a class with the people he knew since Elizabeth and Bairon had been transferred to class A. They were at the top, and seeing them was going to be harder because he was so far behind in terms of rank and strength.
He, on the other hand, had been assigned to Class C which didn't sound so bad because the lowest was Class D—at least a professor noticed his talents and took him in.
For their year, only four classes had been set for students since not so many passed the selection exam. Each first year was assigned to a class that matched their abilities from those with high potential, to those who had no potential at all but still passed the selection exam due to luck or having a strong party similar to his.
'What a drag.'
He rested his cheek onto his palm and stared outside the window beside him then thought of ways to obtain more power.
Claudia mentioned that there are more demon candidates, all with the strength to rival a gold-class dark knight. He was for now mainly because he was in the human domain and non-humans couldn't walk into it freely.
She also said that to defeat them and create the peaceful world he desires, Arthur needed to become stronger than a god…since every candidate had a primordial demon to protect them.
"I need to become stronger than a god," he muttered to himself as he kept his eyes focused on the compound outside.
While stalling, he suddenly noticed Stella with her vice president Lance Crown. It was odd to see students outside during lesson time so this caught his attention.
'Maybe being a student council member has its own advantages.' He thought.
The two both had stressed looks on their faces as they rushed through the walkways. They were bickering about something. But what?
BANG**
Something smacked his desk and pulled him out of his daze.
And a low-pitched voice followed, calling out his last name, "Bellrock!"
"Huh?"
Arthur was surprised to see his professor standing so close to him. He hadn't even noticed he was there until the loud bang rang through his ears.
"What is it, Professor Lutheran?" Arthur asked, noticing the angry look on the old man's face.
"I said you should open your textbooks to page sixty-six—I don't know why yours is still closed," the professor growled as he placed his bony hand on the textbook right in front of him.
"Oh," he remembered that he was in his first lesson as a dark knight in training. "I'm sorry Professor Lutheran…it won't happen again, I promise."
"You're here by luck and yet you still think you can just do whatever you want. More of this and you'll be back to the streets you were born on," he scoffed.
The rest of the classroom clamored after the professor's statement—and that just pissed off Arthur. He clenched onto the desk before looking at the book itself and opening it to page sixty-six as told.
"Hehe…It's good when the dogs listen," he mumbled with a menacing grin on his face then head back to the front of the class.
Arthur expected this, not everyone was okay with the idea of a lowblood in a prestigious magic academy like this one. He wasn't born into nobility so that made him a stain on their pride since schools like this one were built for them.
"The history of who we are begins with the gods and the Dark Order, mighty knights that were blessed with skills, exceptional combat abilities, and most importantly potent mana that could enhance the skills."
He then made an example by showing off his skill. He opened his hand and cast out a few magic words. Then, a purple light appeared on the surface of his palm. It was compressed with pure but unstable mana that could cause an explosion capable of wiping out this entire building in one flash.
"This is my skill; I can create energy attacks. But right now, this form of energy is now powerful enough to bring down an emperor dragon because of the mana I have poured into it," he said.
A light brown-haired girl with a ponytail and a red ribbon suddenly raised her hand to ask a question.
The professor stopped and said, "Yes Lily."
"If you do that constantly, won't you run out of mana?"
"Of course you do, that's why this is a last resort trick for highly trained dark knights. For most of you, if you feed your mana into a skill to make it more powerful, you just become immobile because you've drained all your mana veins and source. But as you continue to grow as dark knights, you'll be able to fight without any mana in your bodies." answered the professor.
'Fighting without mana…sounds interesting.' Arthur thought.
The professor went on to explain how mana can be used to enhance skills. Just like how dark knights were capable of enhancing their bodies to move at unbelievable speeds, carry items that were ten times more a human's average weight, and could reinforce their bodies with it. The ability was known as mana conversion.
Mana conversion was what put humanity on par with demons in terms of strength and speed. Before the first order, the human race only had mages and heroes to protect it against the demon race's invasion. Mages weren't so good with close combat attacks and the heroes weren't strong enough to fight against them no matter how much they trained.
And that's where gods came in. They gifted the heroes and mages a chance in close combat against the demons. The gift of skills later led to the survival of humanity, and the birth of a new era of magic users thanks to the divine gifts from the gods.
As the lesson continued, Arthur figured that he needed to awaken his demon powers to increase his odds of surviving as a demon candidate and as a human student.
"If what that demon mentioned was right, then the demon sword must be connected to my demon side. Maybe that's why it unlocked its power after he became its wielder."
'Does that mean that it can unlock my demon half if I keep on using it?'