Jake's plan to use his classmates to win the Young Heroes tournament sounded manipulative, but he had no bad intention. Besides, he would help them get stronger too, so it was a win-win cooperation. However, it seemed all his classmates weren't convinced with him. The girls were staring at him while gossiping. Some boys looked at him in discontent.
"Jake, are you serious about helping us win the Young Heroes Tournament? I heard our academy hasn't won in 5 years," Cody Hall asked.
"What is a Young Heroes Tournament?" Warren asked.
Brian looked at Warren with a dumbfounded expression. "You serious? This is why you shouldn't think perverted things every second. It is a famous fighting tournament! To tighten our friendship, the 8 biggest academies in this continent will select five of their best freshmen in order to participate in this tournament."
"Why freshmen though? Can't they send sophomores or seniors?"
"I don't know, but my guess is they want to brag which academy has the best seeds."
"Sounds boring. Why do you want to win that tournament, Jake?" Warren asked.
Jake agreed with Warren, but he couldn't reveal what he felt. "It is not boring at all. The winner of the tournament will receive enormous rewards, you know?"
"Like what?"
"The first ranked winners will be given special crafting tickets. You can give this ticket to any master craftsman in this continent and ask them to craft you a special weapon. You will also receive an elixir that can raise the growth potential of one of your attributes."
"Oh, I love something that will help me get stronger. You can count me in if you want to win this tournament."
"I appreciate the thought, but everyone here isn't qualified yet by my standard. But, don't worry. I will help you guys get stronger."
After Jake finished his words, someone slammed the table. It was a tall man with a scary expression. His name was Misael Grimes, ranked third in this class. He approached Jake and looked down on him. "Jake Butler, you have quite a cocky attitude. Do you think you are better than everyone here?"
Jake scratched his cheek. He didn't like to look down on people, but it seemed some people misunderstood his words. "Misael, you are wrong. I just simply want this academy to win—"
"Cut the crap!" Misael grabbed Jake's collar and pulled him. "I know people like you. You like to use people who you think are inferior to you. Don't act like a saint, you piece of sh*t."
Jake couldn't refute his words. While it was true he didn't look down on people, he wanted to use them for his own agenda. He couldn't help but smirk after someone caught him red handed. "So what do you want about it? You are weird too, Misael. You are pretending to be angry. What do you want?"
"Jake is true!" Brian exclaimed. "I am a good judge of people, so I know you aren't angry at Jake. You are excited. What are you excited about?"
Even Warren and Cody frowned at Misael. It was because the man grinned, and he frequently licked his lips. It was as if Jake was his prey.
Misael laughed loudly and said, "I have been found. Alright, who cares about your agenda? You want to use us as pawns in order to win the tournament? Be my guest. I love fighting strong people. In fact, I am itching to fight right now. Jake Butler, number one in this class, let's fight."
Jake looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. "Oi, you are the third. Shouldn't you challenge the second first before me?" he asked as he pointed at Reina Rowe.
"I don't like to pick a fight with a girl!" Misael slammed Jake to the table, or so he thought. In reality, he only caught his blazer, while Jake was nowhere to be found.
Everyone looked for him, so Jake coughed, making people look up. Jake was standing upside-down on the ceiling while calmly fixing his necktie. "So you want to fight? Can you stop it? Let's have a talk like grown-up men."
Misael only grinned at him. He stepped onto the table and jumped to the ceiling while launching a punch at Jake.
Jake somersaulted and did a handstand on the ceiling, avoiding the punch. After that, he flipped his body and stood on the ceiling again.
Jake looked at the hole on the ceiling and frowned. Misael was serious because he used mana to strengthen his punch.
Jake was troubled. He didn't think he could escape from the situation without fighting back because Misael was a hot-blooded type, and his type was something he disliked the most. "Even if you only live peacefully, there is someone who will hate you. That's how this world works I guess."
Misael landed on a table and grinned. "Why? You chicken out? How are you going to convince everyone to do your bidding if we don't know how strong you are? Come on. Fight me, Jake."
Jake sighed. "Not here. Let's go somewhere open."
Jake walked along the wall and approached the window. As he opened the window, he grinned at Misael. "Then see you outside."
Misael ran toward him, but Jake already jumped outside. Of course, he didn't plan to completely plunge out, even though he would be fine. He covered his hands and feet with mana and stuck himself on the wall.
[Center Shift]!
This ability allowed him to create push or pull force in his hands and feet. He used this technique to stick himself on the wall.
As Jake hid beneath the window, Misael jumped down the window and landed on the ground. The man looked around to find Jake, but he couldn't find it.
At this moment, Jake released his ability and plunged down. He applied push force on his foot and kicked Misael's head to the ground.
"I was only doing self defense, Misael, so don't blame me," Jake said.
Jake thought he had knocked him down, but Misael actually pushed his foot back with his head, surprising Jake. After that, runic tattoos appeared all over Misael's body as he stood up.
The runic letters on Misael's body shone in blue light and crawled along his skin. Each of them didn't form a sentence, but the patterns looked beautiful on his body.
"This is my talent, [Tattoo Magic]. Even in my family, only I am blessed with the ability to cover my entire body with runic letters. Hey, Jake, let's see which talent is better!"
"Cut me some slack. Yours is better."
"Then let's see what you are made of, First Rank!" Runic letters on Misael's chest formed the word 'strength'. After that, he charged at Jake.
Jake needed only half a brain to deduce the word actually enhanced his strength. That was how rune magic worked. Misael was coming with monstrous strength, but Jake knew his endurance and speed was the same. That meant he could only compete with Misael in terms of speed and endurance, and Jake was confident with those stats.
As Misael threw a straight punch at him, Jake covered his hand with push force. When the punch was closing, he parried it. After that, he immediately changed his aura to pull force as he pulled Misael's wrist and twisted. In the blink of an eye, Misael's body turned upside down.
Before Misael could process what happened, Jake threw him over, placed his fist over his neck, and punched him to the ground.
Misael squirmed in pain as he grabbed his neck. However, he noticed Jake's cold expression as the latter looked down at him. He bit his lower lip until bleeding and threw a kick toward Jake's groin.
"You are so brutal," Jake said calmly as he evaded the kick and landed on his opponent's leg. "So, do you want to continue?"
Misael roared in anger at the provocation. He got up and tried his best to hit Jake. However, things were completely one-sided. Even when Misael threw a barrage of attacks, Jake could flawlessly evade all of them, as if he could predict his movements. Whenever Jake hit him with normal attacks, he always took critical damage. As a result, Misael was humiliated in front of the crowd.
"What happens? Why can't I hit him? Why is his attack so hurt?" Jake muttered, guessing Misael's thoughts. The answer was simple. He was just a good martial artist. When he evaded all Misael's attacks, he could simply read it; he didn't have any prediction magic. When he landed critical damage, he simply attacked Misael's vital areas. That was his fighting style that was recognized by the magic system.
---
A few weeks ago. Chairman's Office.
Mercedes Norrington privately met the Chairman of the Beryl Academy, Lacus Goodman. The middle-aged man in front of her put a document on his table after reading it.
"So, Your Majesty wants me to put this student as number one in class A? I will gladly comply with Your Majesty's request."
Mercedes smiled. "I am sorry to bother you with my selfish request, Mr. Chairman."
Lacus coughed. "Don't be, Your Majesty. Even without your donation, I will gladly do it for this student. To think he could withstand the burden of absorbing a powerful legacy, I can't wait to see this student's growth."
Mercedes laughed. "Even without his inherited talent, I would still insist on putting him as number one in the Class A."
"Just because he is Tang Xia's son?"
Mercedes shook her head. "Because he inherited his father's natural gift. I still can't believe the system doesn't recognize this gift as talent."
"Your Majesty knows well why. The system only recognized things related to magic. That means natural gifts won't be recognized. But, it makes me curious. What is Jake Butler's achievement for you to recognize him?"
"As you know, his father was from a prestigious Tang Family in another continent. That family has a powerful martial art that is recognized by the system. At ten years old, Jake instructed many practitioners of Tang family, helping them to awaken the martial art as an ability that is recognized by the system."
"Oho, interesting. Does that mean Jake Butler has mastered the Tang Family's martial art?"
Mercedes nodded. "Not only that. At thirteen years old, he created a brand new martial art by fusing two martial arts. And... He taught it to his mother and the head of Tang Family. The brand new martial art is so practical that the Tang Head put it as a high tier martial art in his family. The name of the martial art is...."
---
[Congratulations! Your martial art is recognized by the system!]
[Congratulations! You have learned Butler Style (F)!]
[Congratulations! You have learned Butler Style: Weeping Blossom!]
"Ah, it is here," Jake said as he threw Misael to the ground with one hand. He looked at his opponent and found out he was unconscious. So, he ignored him and opened his status window.
[Name: Jake Butler
Species: Human
Level: 1
Talent: Center Shift (F), Akashic Eyes (S), Overcome (F)
Strength: 15 (C) || Endurance: 17 (A)
Agility: 16 (B) || Perception: 13 (A)
Intelligent: 21 (S) || Wisdom: 21 (S)]
[Ability: Center Shift (F), Akashic Eyes (S), Overcome (F), Butler Style (F).]
"It is good to see my stats have recovered," Jake casually said before clicking his new ability.
[Name: Butler Style
Rank: F
Description: A martial art that is centered around soft and sharp styles.]
[Weeping Blossom: utilizing the opponent's power against them, moving them as easily as a falling plum blossom leaf.]
Jake smiled bitterly. [Butler Style] was Jake's self created martial art. That was why he expected the system to raise the mastery to S rank instead of F rank. "Well, it doesn't matter. I can raise the rank easily as I perform more movements I guess."
"Where do you think you are paying attention to?" Misael asked as he forced his legs to stand up.
Jake clicked his tongue. "Just lie down. You are powerful for someone of your level. I acknowledge you."
Misael laughed wickedly. "Do you know you can pay quite a sum to the priest who is doing your awakening ceremony to hide your talent? I have done it to hide my second talent. Kekeke. I never care, but my old man forced me to hide it."
Jake frowned. "Don't tell me...." He activated his [Akashic Eyes] and saw Misael's status window. He widened his eyes when he read Misael's second talent. "This ability...."
"Shall I show you my second ability?" Misael's body emanated red aura as he shouted, "[Demonic Transformation]!"