Chapter 21 –Uneventful Beginnings

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The rain heaved heavily upon the carriage; large puddles of dirtied water could be seen on the road side. Witnessing firsthand the savageness of the teachers, Lucifer knew that he had no one but himself to rely on. Betrayal and murder would be very common on the institute grounds. The carriage often made rickety noises and during their progressions he encountered a few bandits which were throttled by their elven teacher.

The elven teacher had a revolting look as he viewed the human recruits and he made apparent his dislike in the upcoming days. In the elven continent racism was common. Elves disliked humans and it stemmed from when humans had enslaved them years back. The enmity still persisted till now, no matter how it looked on the outside as if the races lived in unity.

Lucifer overheard this information, while the two other recruits were discussing in the carriage and seeing the teacher`s behavior, he was sure that was the case. As he looked out of the carriage window sill he viewed the walls of the institute. They looked very large made of some kind of material which was similar to cobblestone, the was a drawbridge connecting to the institute`s entrance. It kind of seemed that they were keeping vicious monsters inside so that they couldn`t escape.

The carriage came to a halt outside the institute, they teacher clambered out of the first carriage and lifted some kind of badge which glowed in a reddish color. The guards on the institute walls noticing the badge gleaming lowered the draw bridge, as the carriage passed over it. Lucifer looked at the sheer drop below it, if anyone fell, they would be turned into a pile of mangled bones and flesh. The space in between contained sharp jutting rocks, and various corpses of creatures and people alike were displayed, it seemed this is where they dump the corpses of their recruits.

As they passed through the entrance the drawbridge was again lifted, and then the carriage had to navigate through a small forest inside the institute compound which was lit by post lamps on the pathway, the carriage came to a halt. All the recruits exited the carriage, eager to see the institute for themselves. As Lucifer departed, he viewed the institute before him. It had 3 large towers aligned horizontally, and it looked similar to a castle. The walls were made of a mysterious stone which was infused with mana. In front of the castle-like institute, a huge open space was seen with a well-trimmed lawn, and beyond that was a cluster of trees through which their carriage has navigated through. It would be a perfect place to kill someone was the first thought that erupted into everyone`s mind.

As they were directed into the institute by their elven teacher, they came upon the other 568 recruits sited in their places. The castle-like institute had a large hall a rows of benches were placed upon which the recruits were sited. As the other recruits looked around they gazed upon the recruits from the various other races such as demons, vampires, dhampirs, half-lings, dwarfs, etc. There was a mix of many races overall, however, all of them were gifted and they were his opponent’s. However, he noticed that a little more than half were female’s recruits they were a higher ratio then males.

In front of the benches stood a high platform with a podium upon it, as he gazed at it, an elderly man materialized, he had a large white flowing hair, with wrinkled skin, however, his eyes held an ominous feeling, as he looked at the crowd, all of sudden everyone felt the temperature in the hall decrease by 10 or more degrees, many recruits shivered. At that instance, he unleashed his aura, which caused most of the recruits to tremble. The aura was terrifying, Lucifer judging it, came to the judgment that he had killed many to have such a thick bloody aura. However, the man was nowhere near his level.

As the elderly man`s booming voice resounded, he spoke” All of you have come here to become strong, However, only a few of you will be able to survive, In the morning you will have three sessions. After your sessions you can try what you have learned on your fellow recruits as practice, if you don`t meet the monthly quota of winning at least two duels against other recruits, the recruit will be expelled.

After that a wrist bracelet type item materialized before all the recruits, the elderly man instructed them to equip it. As they put it on, they felt it connect with their mana.

“This Alsiz bracelet will record the number of your battles you engage and win in, crippling or even killing your opponent is acceptable!” the elderly man spoke before vanishing of stage. After the introductions the teachers directed the recruits to their allocated rooms, however, the tension in the air was heavy everyone was uneasy because all of the recruits that were going to be their opponents.

As the recruits passed from room to room, the institute appeared even bigger than it seemed from the outside.

Lucifer thought, “Spatial expansion”, a rare technique which he had read about in a book, it required a lot of talent and at least 20 years for someone to master it.

The teacher came to a standstill in a hallway which separated into five pathways, ordering the recruits to get into four group of five and one group of two. As all they recruits hustled to get into the group of two, Lucifer silently watched from the sides not caring which group he ended up into. The teacher getting angry at the commotion personally selected the members of the groups, Lucifer ended up in the group of two with another human female.

No one could see Lucifer`s appearance because he still had the cloak on, as the female and him stood in a group, the other recruits gave envious looks with a few traces of anger in their expression. How could they not feel angry at them, all of the recruits were their opponents and at night they would barely get any sleep knowing that someone could cripple them or even heavily injure them.

The teacher produced five glowing balls of light which directed the group along the five pathways to their room. As Lucifer followed the ball of light with the female, she tried to start up a conversation, first introducing herself as “Silia”. Though, Lucifer hardly responded back, paying no attention to her only noting her name. They made their way to large antique door, which swung open as soon they stood in front of it.

Entering the room they noticed a pair of beds, tables and cupboards where they could keep their stuff. They were going to live here until the top hundred were decided and then they would graduate. So who knows when that would happen, so the institute provided all the resources necessary for their comfort and all the recruits were supplied with gold coins that they could use to demand stuff from the Institute shops. Two bathrooms were also connected to the room one for the Silia and another for him.

As soon as Silia entered the room, she crashed upon one of the beds, Lucifer moved to the cupboards, when he opened it; he noticed a bunch of clothes personally for him. The institute had sent outfits beforehand. It was similar for his female companion. She went through her wardrobe, having weird expression sometimes, as she went through them. They were certainly high quality clothes.

Looking at Lucifer she spoke,” Don`t you fill uncomfortable, it doesn`t matter if you are ugly I won`t say anything”.

Setting his rucksack in the cupboard he watched Silia take her set of clothes and go into the bathroom to take a bath, Lucifer did the same. After a while, he exited refreshed, as he got out, he scanned around noticing his companion was already out and ready. As she glanced at him, she was dazed, her face flared into a bright red shade, she stared at him for several moments before turning her gaze away, all the while Lucifer set upon his bed cultivating to increase his level in a meditative state, Silia did the same, preparing for the bloody tomorrow.

Currently Lucifer`s rank had reached Lv.59, his progression had gotten incredibly fast after he had created the Attribute core even when he didn`t cultivate. He judged that it would take him two days or so to reach the beginning stages of the Transient rank. He cultivated till early morning gaining five levels overnight. His body didn`t necessarily need sleep so that was a plus point for him.

Putting on his assigned uniform he exited the room wanting to explore more of the institute to better associate himself with it. However, as soon as he exited the room, he found the elven teacher glaring at him.

“Wake the other one up” he spoke rudely

Moving towards Silia`s bed he shook her softly, while telling her to get up. Woken up from sleep, she quickly ran to the cupboard picking out the uniform, she changed quickly in the bathroom. The elven teacher directed them into different passageways before finally reaching a somewhat large room, where a dwarf was seated upon his table with sheets of papers stacked in front of him.

“Choose only three sessions” the teacher spoke, the dwarf then handed Lucifer a sheet of paper which he had to circle three classes from. He chose Practical theory, Martial arts and Essence arts.

Silia had also chosen the latter two but instead of Practical theory she selected Alchemy, after signing on it. The sheet of paper glowed with a blue hue before moving into the Alsiz bracelet.

The dwarf spoke”” Your timetable is stored in you bracelets, and it will direct you to your lecture halls, it also has an additional function on displaying how many recruits are present in the institute”.

Meanwhile, the elven teacher had left during the explanation, looking at their bracelets a faint glow was given off hinting them to move in a certain direction. Though Silia`s and his paths diverged, he knew that she had alchemy or the hall room would have been the same.

Moving to the lecture hall, he peered inside, however, as it was still too early barely anyone had arrived beside the teacher, who was rather chubby; as he gazed at Lucifer he motioned him to seat. Moving towards the front desk he seated himself, waiting patiently for the others to arrive.

After a while, recruits rushed into the lecture hall of varying ranks, all still fidgety and mumbling, many of them had heavy dark circles under their eyes, barely getting any sleep from the fear of getting attacked. 3 boys and one girl clearly from the demon race judging by their external features sat beside him, and the lecture began, however, most of them didn`t concentrate on the lecture but slept to recover from their lost sleep.

Lucifer had personally chosen this class so that he cloud use it to develop new abilities and broaden his use of essence and martial arts together to create a formidable foundation. The lecture was kept simple, discussing the most practical methods of attacking, and disabling one`s opponent, after the session was over everyone rushed to the other classes as they had recovered a bit.

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