-Tuesday Morning, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

'I used a lot of Qi in that fight,' I sigh as I turn around to walk off the platform, 'It's going to take a couple of hours to regain the amount that I lost.'

"I need to go back up to the spectator's are— A—Ugh!!" I groan, feeling the hot, stinging pain coming from my side. With every step forward, the pain gets worse and worse, but- "I—Agh—I can still fi—ight."

'I don't want to stop here, I want to show the results of my training to everyone-' I take a deep breath and another step forward, "-I—Ugh—don't want to give up yet."

I clench my fist, trying to bear with the pain as I walk away, leaving an unconscious Percy behind. I enter the hallway, using the wall to support myself as I walk to the room to drop the sword off. I pass by Percy's friends on the way, 'They must be going to pick him up and bring him back to the spectator seats.'

They look at me with angry expressions for a moment, before rushing to the platform. They're probably mad that I beat him. But how they feel doesn't matter. I won. I beat him, and if they want to fight me over it, I'm more than willing to fight them when it's their turn.

After dropping off my sword, I leave the arena and go up to the spectator seats. A few seconds later, they come up with Percy, one on both sides, carrying him with one arm over their shoulders. Seeing that everyone is here, Mrs. Janson announces the next fight before walking over to me.

Mrs. Janson looks over my body with a serious expression and frowns, "Although the scratches are fine, that cut is bad. I don't think it's a good idea for you to continue fighting."

Hearing her comment, I clench my fist and frown, 'I know that she's right, but I don't want to give up. It hurts, but I can still fight, so I take a deep breath and tell her, "-I want to continue."

"No matter what? Even if the pain is only going to get worse?" She squints her eyes, and an invisible pressure presses down on me.

I grit my teeth and circulate my remaining Qi at full force to resist the pressure, 'No-No matter what, I won't give up.'

"So, what's your answer?" I slowly nod my head because I can't open my mouth, "Alright."

She sighs, and the pressure surrounding me disappears. Free, I fall to my knees and take deep breaths, trying to calm down. Mrs. Janson takes a rag out of thin air and wets it with some water. She uses it to clean the area around my wound and takes out some bandages to wrap it up before going back to watch the fight. After a couple of minutes, the fight ends, and I stand up, still feeling weak.

"You'll really let me continue, right?" Mrs. Janson turns around after announcing the next fight, "Since you insist on continuing, I'll let you see it through to the end. You're not allowed to give up until you can't move."

I nod my head with a determined expression, "I won't."

"You're such a reckless child," She shakes her head and turns around.

'Mom says the same thing,' I scratch my head, thinking that I need to be more careful in the future.

"Ryner!" After Mrs. Janson leaves, Jasmine runs over to me.

"What's up?" She looks like she's about to cry.

"I-I saw you get injured during the fight, are you okay?" She asks while looking back and forth between my face and my wounds.

I scratch my head and tell her, "My wounds still hurt, but I'll be able to continue after cultivating for a bit."

"Are you really going to continue?" She stops looking at my wounds and looks me in the eye.

"You probably overheard my conversation with Mrs. Janson," I think pretty much everyone heard it.

"I did, but-" I shake my head and cut her off there, "I want to get into the Academy just like everyone else, so I'm going to keep fighting. If I don't, I might not get accepted, and end up disappointing everyone that believes in me. You have people that believe in you, too, right?"

"...Mm," It looks like she wants to say something else, but she shakes her head and walks over to my injured side.

I tilt my head and ask her, "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you to your seat, I know it's pretty hard for you to walk right now," She puts my arm over her shoulder.

"Thanks," I smile, feeling a little warm inside. Although it's not that far away, I'm happy to have someone help me out.

I sit down and watch a little bit of the fight before losing interest again. I turn to Jasmine and tell her, "I'm going to cultivate for a bit, so tap me when the last fight starts."

●●●

-Tuesday Afternoon, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

"Ryner!" Hearing Jasmine's shout, I open my eyes, "Finally!"

"Sorry about that, I must have entered a deeper state than I meant to because of my injury," I scratch my head with a shy smile.

She shakes her head, "It's fine, are you feeling any better?"

"Mm, my Qi is pretty much full, and my wound doesn't hurt as much anymore," I tell her before turning to Johnny, who's still cultivating.

"He woke up once, but since you were cultivating, he didn't want to bother you. After hearing about your fight, he went back to cultivating because he still felt a little weak." Since he woke up, he should be able to fight in the next round.

"Alright, I'll let him keep cultivating until it's his turn," I turn my attention to the platform where a girl just knocked her opponent off the platform.

"Number 795 wins! That's the last fight of round one!" Mrs. Janson announces the results.

After the two applicants return to the spectator seats, Mrs. Janson tells us, "Some of you did well, while some of you didn't do as well. It may have been because of bad matchups or just insufficient training, either way, that's why it's divided into three rounds. After you guys eat, we'll start round two!"

Mrs. Janson takes box after box out of thin air and sets them down in the space between the spectator seats, and the wall that divides it from the center of the arena. Like the applicants, I stare at her, confused about where the boxes came from. She did the same thing with the tests yesterday, and the bandages and stuff.

Before anyone can ask any questions, Mrs. Janson shouts, "What are you guys standing there for? Hurry up and get your lunches, the next round starts in twenty minutes!"

"Let's go get our lunches," Jasmine nods, so I walk over to one of the boxes with her.

"We should get one for Johnny too," I smile at her suggestion, thinking that he's probably going to be hungry when he wakes up.

"Al-" Before I can finish my sentence, someone's arm slings around my neck, pulling me into their chest, "-Yo Ryner! I heard that you won your match, just like I predicted!"

"Ye-Yeah, I was planning to wake you up when it was time for your match, but since you're up now, I don't need to do that," I tell him after taking his arm from around my shoulders.

"Be a little more considerate! Ryner is still injured!" Jasmine stares at him angrily while puffing her cheeks.

"Ah—That's right," Johnny smacks his head and does a slight bow, "I forgot, sorry, Ryner!"

Looking at both of them, I sigh and wave my hand, "It's fine. I told you that it feels a lot better than it did earlier, so you don't need to be mad at him. Besides, he wasn't trying to hurt me, so it's fine."

"If you say so, but you should still be careful," Jasmine sighs and turns around.

Johnny raises his head with an awkward smile, "I'm really sorry."

"It's fine," I shake my head, "Let's go get lunch."

Johnny nods, so we catch up to Jasmine and grab our lunch when our turn comes around. After getting our lunches, we go back to our seats and eat while talking about our matches. Praising each other good moments, and complaining about the bad ones.

In the middle of our conversation, I hear someone shout, "COMMONEEERR!!!"

"Percy!" Getting a bad feeling, I jump to my feet and turn around as fast as I can, but Mrs. Janson was already one step ahead of me.

Before Percy could attack me, Mrs. Janson caught him by the back of his combat uniform, "You again? Do you want to get disqualified that badly?"

"Th-The Ma-Match…" He starts muttering about the match, but his voice gets so low towards the end that I can't hear him.

"Do you remember now? The match is over, and you lost," Mrs. Janson sighs and lets him go.

"I-A noble lost-to a commoner like him!!?" Percy holds his head with a confused expression on his face.

"Social status has nothing to do with your physical strength. He beat you because he's stronger than you. That's all there is to it. You need to accept and realize that just being a noble doesn't make you better than commoners. Strength. Strength speaks the loudest here in the Academy and outside of these walls. When you're in danger at the end of the day, what's going to save you won't be your status but your strength. To overcome all obstacles that stand in your path, what you need isn't status, but strength and determination," She sighs and turns to us, "Those words weren't just meant for him, but every single one of you applicants! I don't expect you to remember all of those words, but at least remember and know this! In Arcadia strength speaks the loudest!"

'Strength. I don't really know how much stronger I need to become, but at the very least, I know that I need to get stronger,' I clench my fist, feeling my desire for strength grow even more.

She turns back to Percy and tells him, "If you don't want to get disqualified, I suggest you don't act out anymore today."

"I...won't," Percy bows and goes back to his seat with a pale face.

"Good," She goes back to her spot in the front row and turns to all of us, "Now without any more interruptions, let's start Round 2!"