Kern reached his classroom without any trouble. The classroom was unexpectedly small, only having enough space to house 20 people. Kern sat down on the last bench and started to think about his priorities.
'I should try to see how the storyline is going. Sure, staying out of the main story is one way to stay alive, but the gut instinct is screaming at me that something's going to go awry.
He also recalled to his maximum about the body he inhabited. There have been no mentions of a guy named Kern Novarnam, at least according to his knowledge. Kern had skipped some of the people's backstory since it was just them handling political issues, which is one of the boring things you could find at the romance focused fantasy novel.
Kern's biggest concern right now is his memories. He had to make sure that he learned about Kern Novarnam's past before he met somebody that the original Kern Novarnam knew.
He also thought about how he could get stronger. There were few people Kern knew from the novel who taught independently to students, but he had no way to even approach them. Right now, he is just a worthless commoner. A weak one at that.
As Kern was thinking about these things, many students had already come and sat in the classes.
Kern's attention snapped from his thoughts when he heard someone sitting next to him.
He quickly cast a glance at his right side to see who sat next to him. To Kern right now, he needed to make friends in order to survive while being a weaker student.
However, the sight he saw startled him. He saw a handsome guy with red hair and black eyes with ruffled hair sitting next to him. He was wearing the same uniform as Kern but a black windbreaker over it.
'Is my luck rotten!' shouted Kern inwardly as he recalled the collection of illustrations that came to his mind. Soon, he found the illustration that matched the person in front of him.
'No way I met one of the main characters this soon. Maybe my inner pondering raised a fucking red flag?' thought Kern as he kept staring at the guy.
"Hey, how long are you going to keep staring?" asked the guy, interrupting Kern's inner monologue.
"Ah, sorry," said Kern quickly before turning to face the front.
"Name's Scott Heslington," said the guy to Kern with a cold face.
"Kern Novarnam"
After their simple pleasantries, the atmosphere turned awkward.
Kern did not try to smooth the situation. He knew much more than anyone what kind of guy Scott Heslington is.
He is one of the main characters who started off weak and turned out to be a multiple-awakener.
Mulitple Awakeners are those who awaken again while having already awakened their elemental skills.
In this world, the norm is to awaken two elements at once. However, there have been cases where people go through another awakening and attain another element.
The people who awakened second only acquired another extra element, but Scott Heslington awakened two elements yet again.
This shook the world when it was made public. However, this came with its disadvantages. Many people have a certain capacity in their mana core. Controlling four elements wasn't easy since the mana core capacity can't store much mana.
This was the only reason Scott wasn't stronger, even in the final arc. He served his purpose in the first year of Acadamy and completely went off-screen, with him appearing only in the final arc, where he was killed yet again off-screen while protecting his noble house, Heslington.
The main character was different since he had unlimited potential and had unlimited mana core storage.
'Soon, Scott will go to the other sister part of the acadamy since after the first semester, he will awaken and beat some of the nobles.'
The class, which was brimming with whispers, suddenly went silent. Kern looked forward to seeing an old man with a blue robe and a monocle enter the classroom. He stood on the podium placed in front of the class and started talking.
"Good morning. My name is Augustus Varn, and I will be your homeroom teacher and combat teacher from now on. Try to maintain discipline, or you will be kicked out before you even know it."
The class went silent as they couldn't believe what he just said.
"An old man like you is our combat teacher?" muttered someone near me.
Kern would have agreed with that person in any other case, but this was not one of them. One thing Kern's novel reading life has taught me is to not underestimate people, especially old people, when it comes to combat in magical worlds.
Augustus Varn was one of the people who didn't even appear in the novel, let alone be mentioned. So Kern had no idea how strong his teacher was.
"Today, we will be learning about the history of different combat styles, or...do you wish to have a practical demonstration?" asked Augustus.
Kern was baffled. He expected to learn something about this world's combat, but he didn't expect his teacher to be this straightforward.
"I would like a practical demonstration," said Scott next to me, breaking the silence.
Soon others started voicing their opinions, and the majority wanted practical classes.
"Well then, let's go to the combat arena," said Augustus as everybody followed him with a hint of exasperation. However, it was the opposite for Kern, who hasn't experienced this world's combat prowess.
'I'm pretty sure my fights with the homeless man are useless here,' thought Kern as they finally reached the arena.
It was small, fitting of the class's strength. The students stood still as Augustus went to the center of the arena and called out.
"Now, who wants to challenge me first?"
Silence was ensured for 10 seconds before a student confidently went to stand opposite Augustus.
"I will gladly be your partner, sir," said Scott, taking a battle stance.
"Then, let's get started. I will not use mana or any form of magic. This will be purely your ability to fight physically," said Augustus.
Soon, Scott, with a dangerous leap, approached Augustus as they got involved in a series of dodges and punches.
Each was blocked with precision and accuracy by Augustus, to the point where he was not even moving two steps.
Scott, on the other hand, changed techniques, going from a roundhouse kick fient to knuckle punches.
To his dismay, the fient did not work as Augustus, with his left hand, caught the right leg of Scott and lifted him dangerously up high in the air.
Sensing this, he quickly braced for an intervention, but Augustus just threw him away as softly as possible. Scott landed with comfort as he was panting heavily.
"I wouldn't want you to get hurt, kid. We still have theory class after this," said Augustus as he laughed.
Scott, with a faint smile, surrendered himself and quickly came and stood beside me as he wiped his sweat.
Everyone was silent and jaw-dropped by this fight. Nobody was even able to speak, but Augustus spoke up soon enough.
"Are you guys going to come, or should I cancel the class?" said Augutus with a smile. It was terrifying for the students to see an old man like that.
Soon, other students went to challenge him, but the fights didn't even last for 6 seconds, while Scott's fight lasted for at least 1 minute.
After 2 minutes, it was Kern's turn. He quickly stepped up to stand in front of Augustus and did a quick bow.
However, neither of them were moving. The arena went silent for at least one minute, but Kern wasn't succumbing to his rashness. He was patient.
He remembered what the homeless man taught him, and he recalled every single rule he taught him.
'Who attacks first doesn't have the advantage of repositioning," thought Kern as he saw Augustus calmly observing him.
It soon passed 10 minutes, and Kern was still standing, waiting for the first move. The students just stood dumbfounded as they watched this scene.
"Hey dumbass! Just attack!" shouted a girl from the sidelines. None of them even glanced at the girl and continued to look at each other.
Soon Augustus sighed and said," I will give you credit, kid. You knew I had to attack first to end the class soon."
Augustus took one step and launched himself at Kern at a terrifying speed. Kern sidestepped, but soon Augustus launched a kick to Kern's face.
Kern dodged it with his right hand and proceeded to pull a punch to attack his torso. However, Augustus soon regained his balance and blocked it with his left hand.
Soon, they were head-to-head, with them moving around the arena and repositioning while the latter chased and tried to finish the other off.
Soon, Kern's stamina slowly depleted. This body was weak in terms of strength and stamina, so Kern had limited time.
Augustus soon started to go on the offense while Kern was on defense, dogging punches and kicks.
Augutus was strong in physical strength and stamina. Kern had to admit it; he was losing against an old man here. His combat teacher, the homeless man called Marcus, would be laughing at him if he saw this scene.
Kern knew one thing from this point. This old man was weaker than his teacher. He still didn't know if Augustus was holding back or not, but this current fight would be easily won by the homeless man named Marcus, who taught him combat, if he were in the place of Kern and Augustus was still pulling punches at this pace.
Kern still blocked his puches and was waiting for an opening. Soon, that appeared to Kern, but he did not choose to attack. He knew very well that this was a fient and decided to block the kicks and puches diligently.
To Kern's dismay, his stamina was depleted, and Augustus, seeing this, delivered a kick to Kern's stomach, which made him fly a distance from the center of the arena.
"I will hand it to you, kid. It's been a while since a student made me fight seriously. Now take some rest for 10 minutes and come back to the classroom for theory," said Augustus as he nudged the other students to leave the arena.
Soon Kern was all alone in the arena, laying there and wondering what he could have done to win the small duel he just participated in.
..............
Scott Heslington has lived a happy life. At least that's what the people around him thought. He had an older brother who was talented in many ways and was called the next head of Heslington House.
When he first awakened, he was happy beyond measure. He thought that he could stand by his brother's side and help him in his endeavors.
But it didn't go as he expected. His family always protected him, thinking he was weak, and always took care of him. This made him even more guilty.
Some people might ask, "You have a happy life! What if you're not strong? Just live under your parents as a happy son.".
'Happy son, my ass'
Scott had a severe inferiority complex when he saw his brother achieve something again and again, even after his awakening. Scott was just a little gold-aged younger brother who was to be protected.
He didn't like it. His sole purpose in coming to the academy was to beat his brother and prove to the world that he was simply better.
However, when he saw a guy named Kern fight better than him, he was simply disappointed in himself, not angry at the guy.
"Kern Novarnam, his fighting skill was spectacular," muttered Scott as he entered the classroom after the combat session.
However, unknown to him, his combat teacher Augustus was having extremely similar thoughts about Kern Novarnam.
.....................
A/N: I accidently changed my synopsis the last time. Now, I edited it correctly. I kept changing thrid rate villian to extra in the synopsis. Now, its corrrectly done. Please refer to it if you have any problems.