The next morning Anri woke up quietly, once again Grak was already training, Anri had a strange feeling in his arms, it was almost as if energy was building up in him, slowly he moved them, it was all as usual, but then, what was this feeling? His thoughts were interrupted by Grak who was just staring at him while he was doing pushups.
"You. Ready?"
Grak meant if Anri was ready for the test, today he was supposed to split the meadow, but with the strength he had gained yesterday this shouldn't be a problem, right? What would happen if he failed the test? Would he then not be allowed to participate in the competition? He wanted and needed to avoid that, it was a way to find inner peace for him, he almost cherished the feeling called "revenge" but he also wanted to see how strong he was now. Winning the competition was not only important for the guild, otherwise Anri probably wouldn't have accepted the offer, no, it was important to build up a reputation, only if people knew he was strong he could start his way as a hero, not through the hero academy but through the guild, he had given up in the meantime to go the same way as his role model, the hero, no, now he would find his own and become even stronger than the hero.
Arriving at the meadow Grak looked at him seriously, Anri himself was not sure if he was strong enough now, but all the work should have paid off now, he was sure. No matter how strong he would be now, he would definitely win, he swore to himself.
Slowly he reached out his hand as Grak had shown him, Grak's eyes were already widening, his mind and his experience from his active adventuring days signaled danger to him, quickly Grak held his hands in front of his face as protection while Anri split the ground faster than anyone could see, the force far exceeded Grak's, as Anri grabbed his mana right as it hit the spot he touched, not just a bit of his mana, but all he could grab in, the meadow looked like a battlefield, the earth continued to move for minutes afterwards, it was almost as if Anri had triggered an earthquake. Grak's intuition was right, his hands had several cuts because the debris flying around on the ground had hit him more than once, any normal adventurer would have died based on that blow, Grak clapped anyway, the cuts weren't deep, Anri wasn't surprised, the orc was like a walking tank now.
"Good, good."
Said Grak applauding and looking around dumbfounded, as far as you could see everything was destroyed. Grak pondered and had just figured out why Anri was so strong now.
"Eating well + punching technique = strong."
...
Well, he was half right, because the technique the goblin had shown him was really crucial, because he hadn't used his mana before, in combination with his trained body this was a deadly weapon.
Anri was surprised, he had actually done it and that wasn't even all, he had exceeded the expectations of Grak and himself, he was happy.
"Celebrate food."
Grak didn't want to get rid of Anri directly like Thrakka did, even if the job would be over for him by now, he felt it should be duly paid for, while Anri prepared everything on the former meadow, the pot, the wood and the fire. Grak brought the same ingredients as the last meal, again a whole cow and vegetables. This time Anri cut everything while Grak watched.
Grak smiled now, the bond the two had built within a few days was strong, they understood each other extremely well, but Anri would have to move on, after dinner they both slept on the meadow one last time before Anri said goodbye and headed towards the capital to Thandor.
When Anri arrived at the guild, Anri asked for Thandor, who was waiting for Anri in a room for the last few days. When Anri came into the room, the mage was having breakfast and greeted Anri only with a wave. Anri had almost forgotten about the demon king by then, he didn't miss him either. However, Thandor knew about the seal, he had given it to Thrakka, but would it hold? For now it would, but should an immense amount of mana be channeled into the book, the seal would surely break, so Anri had to learn to cast magic without the book.
"Sit."
Thandor pointed to a chair in the room as he drank a cup of coffee. He had several plates already behind him, like his former party mate he ate a lot but apparently gained little weight, he looked at Anri and asked him in a calm voice.
"How was the training so far?"
Anri sat down and then answered Thandor's question. He had enjoyed a part of his training and rather hated the other, he took a deep breath and then told the truth rather less.
"It was quite good."
He looked Thandor up and down and watched as he finished his breakfast and then smiled at him.
"And are you ready for the last stop of your training?"
Anri was looking forward to finishing the training, it was nerve wracking.
But first he would have to go through Thandor's training, who just stood up and went to a backpack, which he must have left in his room. When he opened it, he took out 5 books, all of them seemed very old.
"You rely completely on your book, that should change, in battle it can be taken from you and lead to problems. These are all books of excellent mages, some of them will most likely be present at the competition, my own book is also among these, you have the remaining days to memorize these books, at least the most important."
He waved a blue book where water magic was written on it, he then pointed to the title.
"The books are all described with titles, their elements should become clear by then at the latest, normally a mage should be able to do a maximum of 3 types of magic, but you can do more, I can tell you that."
He threw the book on his bed and swung his staff back and forth.
"You just need to believe in magic and speak the words, then anything should be possible for you. In addition, I will put a spell on you that will suppress your aura ..."
So Neve was right, the adventurers had already noticed his aura, did Thandor consider that a problem? Anri was afraid of what Thandor will say.
"Because otherwise the fight would be half as exciting."
Phew, Anri was already bathing in sweat, but relief overcame him, Thandor cast the spell on Anri to suppress his aura and then picked up all the books and pressed them into Anri's hand. Then he patted Anri's shoulder with pride.
"I am sincere to you."
He took a deep breath and looked at him seriously.
"You can never read these books in under a week."
Anri was already wondering why he should even start these then, when Thandor continued speaking.
"Well, however, I can cast a spell on you that will make time run longer for you, in that time you might manage to read and understand all the books."
Anri liked the idea quite a bit and just nodded without asking about any supposed side effects. Thandor already created a kind of mist around Anri as he listed them first.
"Good luck, it's unlikely, but sometimes those affected suffer severe brain damage! So you will need it."
Anri was about to let the spell break by trying to get out of the fog, it was already too late, he was almost like in an alternate world, worrying about getting out of the spell again would only waste time, now it was already too late, so the only thing left for him to do was to study, slowly he took the first book that Thandor also took earlier, Water Magic.
Slowly he read the pages of the book, remembering exactly which spell was for which purpose. Anri noticed early on that he did not feel any fatigue, how could he, one day in the spell would not even come close to 3 hours in reality.
In real time more than 3 days passed, but for Anri it seemed like almost a month had passed, in that time Anri actually managed to remember the contents of the book and then Thandor dissolved the spell. Anri had actually learned all sorts of spells on the elements of water, fire, nature, barriers and shadows, so really no one could touch him, could they?
Thandor definitely thought that would be enough, he looked at Anri, they still had several days before the competition, but Anri still had to make the trip to the Hero Academy.
Thandor still wondered where Anri could have gotten the Demon King's book, silence would do no good, which is why he asked him and spoke to him straight out honestly.
"Where did you get that?"
He pointed at the book and looked at Anri seriously, reluctantly Anri would do without the book, after all it gave him the power to become the hero, yet Anri did not want to lie to Thandor.
"I found it in a cave in a skeleton's hand."
With this, Anri finally did not lie, even if he did not tell everything. For Thandor, however, the information was very interesting, because until now he assumed that it would be hidden in the underworld, no one had looked for it on the surface so far. But that was the end of the conversation between the two, and Thandor took Anri to the counter, where the guildswoman received him and led him to a carriage, the competition was not at the Hero Academy, as Anri had thought, but rather on the outskirts of the country, in the fishing town of Ertel. Thandor still accompanied the two to the carriage, where he saw Anri off.
"Learn to use your own power, the one inside you, not this one that absorbs yours, eventually you will understand this, I hope it won't take too long."
The guild lady also said goodbye to Anri and gave him an letter.
"Hand the letter to the arena and they will let you in."
Anri took the letter as the carriage slowly picked up speed, the carriage had been provided exclusively by the guild, Anri deduced this from the fact that the carriage driver wore the guild's crest as a cufflink.
Anri thought a lot about the competition, while the carriage driver just kept silent, then he remembered that he might even meet Vaelus, no, he would not think about him further, he would have to concentrate on himself now.
It was a long way to the Hero Academy and the days passed faster than expected, while Anri fed on prepared meals and the carriage driver drove on and on without sleeping, eating or doing anything else, not uttering a word, it took a long time for Anri to realize that it was not a human, but a doll, at first he was frightened, but then he found it very interesting again, he did not know this kind of magic.
They were driving through a forest when Anri got a strange feeling, something was wrong, but what?
With every meter they drove deeper in, this feeling got stronger, then he realized what was going on, in front of them a carriage was blocking the way, when they stopped Anri continued to have the bad feeling, then he sensed 8 people, they had placed themselves around the carriages in bushes, were they robbers? No, this is way too planned, had someone planned to assassinate him?
The answer didn't matter, the moment Anri was able to track down the assassins it was already too late, as they came out of their hiding places Anri swung Thrakka's sword and caught half of them already, then he turned to the remaining ones who looked at him.
"That wasn't the deal."
Murmured one who had a knife as a weapon, he swung it in the air and then pointed at Anri.
"Come on! Attack the guy already!"
Visibly intimidated, he had his men, who followed his order, run forward, and were knocked unconscious by Anri with water magic.
However, the apparent leader then realized himself that they had no chance and ran off as the only one, letting Anri pull him.
He then knelt down to one of the robbers, who seemed responsive.
"Tell me who hired you or I'll kill you."
Of course he was bluffing, never would he murder, but he needed information now and this was the only way to get some.
"An older gentleman....."
Said the robber as Anri looked at him and thought, he couldn't think of an older man who might have something against him, who could? He didn't have that many enemies.
"Do you know a name?"
Anri asked the robber, who only shook his head before Anri let him go, then Anri cleared the robbers' carriage onto its side and got back on so they could continue on their way, entangled in the thought of who might have assassins out for him.
Several days passed, so that the day before the competition had dawned when the arena finally came into view.
Anri was amazed at the sight of the arena, it was really huge, the carriage stopped and Anri dismounted, then the carriage drove off again, at the entrance of the arena two men in suits checked the participants passes, when Anri arrived they just looked at him suspiciously, this was not because he was a demon, but because all the others wore the student uniform of the Heroes Academy, only Anri had something else on, his black robe covered a large part of him. It would be no wonder if the controllers would think he was an assassin, Anri feared the same, who takes out the letter with the seal of the guild and hands it to one of the men.
"Welcome to the tournament, the guild will pay for your stay, please proceed to sector A, there you will be assigned a room and your group for tomorrow's battle."
The man told Anri, he nodded friendly and gave the letter back, Anri was amazed, the arena was indeed extremely large. Anri went into a quiet corner where he changed his face, he wanted to be sure not to be seen by Vaelus, he had nothing to hide from him, but something in Anri stopped him from talking to his brother again, he would only talk to him when Anri had become the hero, he promised himself. He changed his face to look like a male version of Neve.
As Anri followed the signposted path to Sector A, he looked at the different people, there were all kinds of people there, a large part wore the uniform of the academy, while some nobles were also there, either because they wanted to bet, or because their children were at the academy. Anri pretty much stood out in the crowd, he also stank quite a bit, how could it be otherwise, unlike the academy, the guild did not have a shower.
Then a boy came out of the crowd towards Anri, at first Anri thought it might be Vaelus, but the boy was completely unknown to Anri. Grinning he stomped towards Anri and then held out his hand, he was not much taller than Anri and seemed to be of rather thin build. However, when Anri took his hand he understood the qualities of the student, he was strong, not as strong as Grak, but almost. But the hand pressure had nothing on Anri, his hand was stronger.
"Tano, my name, it's nice to meet you, you are the participant from the guild, right? What is your rank? How many missions have you done? Is it true that you've had extra training?"
He certainly had more questions, in fact Anri wanted to answer them all as well, but then an announcement came throughout the academy.
"All students to your sectors please!"
Tano just looked up, a little sad that there wouldn't be time to answer his questions he already was. Then he looked at Anri with a smile.
"Well then, I'll be going, I hope we can meet again."
He waved to Anri as he took his leave and headed towards Sector A.
Sector A was a large hall with a podium where a woman with purple hair stood on it, Anri already knew her, it was the woman who had handed Vaelus and him the papers at the exam, motivated as she apparently always was she read out the names and gave them the room numbers.
One name after the other was called and last but not least it was Anri's turn, he was assigned a small room on the first floor, when he first set foot in the room he already missed his room in the guild.
He hadn't had anything from the Demon King in a long time, it wasn't like he missed him, yet he wondered what was going on.
("Why don't you talk to me anymore?").
He didn't get an answer, of course, then he thought, when had the Demon King stopped talking? When Anri had given the book to Thrakka. Had Thrakka done something? It seems like, Thandor knew it was the Demon King's book, but did Thrakka know that? Anri tried to make connections, but he was already too tired to think clearly.
He sat down on the bed and just let himself fall backwards and went straight to sleep, he was extremely exhausted and would need a lot of energy for tomorrow.
The next morning Anri got up on time and went to have breakfast, in sector A there was a kind of refectory where students were allowed to eat, hardly any seats were free, but Anri found a table for himself, while everyone around him stared at him and talked about him, he enjoyed his breakfast, he didn't care. After breakfast he went to take a shower, something he had needed for a long time, unfortunately he didn't have time to wash his clothes.
After Anri ate breakfast he went to the hallway where he looked at the schedule for the fights, disappointment overtook him when he went through the names and learned that Vaelus would be his opponent if then only in the finals, but then he was sure that it wouldn't matter, he was going to win this thing so he would have to make it to the finals. But now he would have to concentrate on his first fight, which was still an hour away.