I said farewell to the old man this morning. He was an exceptionally emotional man.
He first cried, remembering the day when I ended up knocking on his door. The small and weak-looking Noah at that time and now a tall and strong guy in front of him who's about to soar into the sky... His words, not mine.
Indeed I changed a lot so does he. He fulfilled his promise to take care of me until I became an adult not to mention I ended up staying longer than I had expected with him. He was like family so it was hard for me to say goodbye.
It was not like we will not meet again, nope. we will but after a year or so when I will get vacation or free time.
I told him before he departs, patch up with the villagers of Stormfront. He doesn't have to face heat for my sake, he was in good terms with them but mostly he will need them more than me. He also has friends in the village.
My story is different, I don't know if anyone will welcome me back there if I ever went back on my vacation. Or maybe they will, who knows Jamia was a positive bout that.
I held a round metal token resembling a coin in my hand, looking up at the pinnacle of the Academy. That is my goal.
They collected back my token and sent me in a certain direction, through the red-stoned Archway.
It was big and had various designs carved onto those red stones. It looked terrific, not to mention the light touch they have given to the Big name on it.
Blazing Star Academy!
I stood staring at the name while others just walked past me. I was among the countless students who were aiming to enter this glorious Academy.
The surrounding walls were gigantic and made of heavy rocks, and the ground was plain and straight unlike any other mountain peak. I barely saw soil as the snow was dominant on the bottom.
There were several tents right before us near the spacious ground. The disciple wore purple uniforms and the same purple trousers.
That was the official uniform of the Blazing Star Academy.
One of the disciples wearing a uniform waved at me and told me to join his group of new guys. I stood among them as he recruited more before we all headed toward the tents.
"This is where you stay until further notice," he said again, "You guys are the last batch of recruits so be prepared for the training. It will start at noon"
He left.
What the heck was that? Training? What about the entrance exam? Did we get an instant selection? Why? I haven't even shown them my skills, where is all the bullshit about the norms and standards of the Academy... Man, what's going on in here?
Among us, everyone was speechless. Many were confused and dumbfounded.
"Did we get selected as warriors?" one said.
"Seems so, he mentioned training" Another one whispered.
"What? Training... But I want to be an alchemist" A girl around my age stuttered looking over at the disciple who was now chatting with his fellows.
"Maybe there is some mistake" A skinny guy laughed. He was nervous. "We are all not warriors"
All doubtful gazes were running around and we found the same situation with other groups. We were not the only ones it seems.
One tent was for five people, so I settled myself at the corner, and with me was the same skinny guy who spoke earlier. His panic mode was on, he was sweating profusely.
The burly guy with a twitching expression told him to zip it up and stop crying or he will beat him up.
His name was Lark, he was from a Nearby village and surprisingly he was over twenty-five yet he got selected. He tried many times before but always failed to get recognition and prove his worth but finally, heaven was on his side, and this time he got selected without doing anything ignoring the fact that he was too old for the norms.
Blazing Star Academy recruited, more than enough people this time around for the unknown reason. Mass recruitment.
We went to the training area right next to our living quarters half confused and frightened. It all felt strange for some reason not only to me but to many who joined the Academy with me, except the burly guy. He was intemperate by the fact that heaven favored him.
The recruits mean we people without official uniforms stood on training grounds in a fine line, in a group of fifty pupils.
The Elder, the one who's in charge of teachers and various affairs of the Academy stood at the podium before us. He seemed to have higher authority than the rest because others behaved obediently to him.
I expected an explanation from him or anything that was related to this situation but to my surprise, he said nothing about this strange situation. He said some glorious shit about his Academy making me feel more uneasy and left telling us to focus on our training henceforth.
Many tried to voice their complaints but a teacher who looked mid-forty shouted using some kind of magic to resound his dominant voice all over us. He told everyone to keep quiet and follow the daily routine.
It was obvious now after going through the regular training they are hiding something from the rest but I did not let that affect me at all. After all, I am not the one who was feeling all wrong, I was a warrior and it was my field to begin with. But others who were aiming to be scholars or alchemists felt panicked and frightened.
The early morning training then a meal at noon and a big break till evening training to lunch at night. This was our routine.
A week went by and everything seemed to be going fine. They separated those who were talented in magic or alchemy and took them to study their respective fields leaving the warrior class and Scholars behind to do the same thing over and over again.
Lark and I were in the Warrior class, he was decent in swordsmanship. When I say decent mean was passable but not even enough to defeat a bandit level around seven or eight even tho he was a level nine warrior. He simply did not have the skills and experience.
It was now my turn to get potato soup and bread from the counter near the training ground. The bread was not warm nor soft but manageable, and the soup tasted plain.
I looked for a place to settle myself and then sat at the corner on a log. I don't want to sit on the snow or stand up and eat, it's already a lot to sleep on hard ground in a tent. Thankfully my bedroll was soft and squishy.
All this time I fell flat to understand one simple thing, why did they not take the entrance exam or even not take those who wanted to be scholars? The Academy just forced them to wield weapons and learn the defense spell.
The defense spell is the same transparent barrier the people use to protect themselves from magical attacks, but it's ineffective in physical attacks. Any arrow or sword could go through it like passing through the dense air.
To use that attack all I had to do was focus on my hands and feel the blood running in my veins, the presence and texture then imagine forcing it out of my hands and forming a shield. Fuck, I don't know how that works but I managed to use it without realizing it.
The moment I tried to follow their instructions the system popped up and asked me if I wanted to use the barrier spell and boom. I did it before anyone does.
The fucking teacher barely cast a gaze at me as he never cared to begin with, I mean why the fuck are you teaching us then?
Anyway, just like fire magic my limit was three seconds. If I try to go above that the severe headaches and pain run around my brain.
I lay in the tent, it was time for the rest, a big break at noon.
"hey I heard something bizarre" the skinny guy named Roah whispered to me. "I heard them talking,"
I sighed. Yeah, you did but I don't wanna hear it.
"The teachers said their elite group of students tailed last night"
I instantly opened my eyes. The heck he said.