“Ten… Eleven… Twelve… Thirteen— Huff… I can’t do it anymore!”

Kayden had his elbows to the ground, hoisting his body up as droplets of sweat fell onto the ground from his face. He was planking… for the sixteenth time today.

His arms were trembling under his weight, and his eyes were twitching from all the effort. He wanted to let go so badly, but he knew the consequences of doing so, and thus, resolved himself. In between deep breaths, he began counting up once more.

“—Twenty seven… Twenty eight… Twenty nine… THIRTY! I’m done!”

With a grunt and a sigh of relief, he collapsed onto the ground and lay in his sweat. He wanted to stand up, but his arms failed him, so he settle for lying face up instead.

“[…Take a breather for now. Once it’s dinner time, you’re going to do another set.]”

Kayden groaned, clearly displaying his displeasure, but Hel wasn’t having any of it.

“[You need to exercise! In times of emergency, you can’t have your body fail you!]”

Kayden knew that of course, but it didn’t mean he would enjoy the process. Back when he was training with his master, even though it was far more arduous and painful than this, she always gave him plenty of breaks. But this time… there was no such thing.

Squats, Push-ups, Planks, Running, Jumping jacks… the list was never-ending, and there were some exercises that Kayden had never heard of before too. Hel had called this a ‘HIIT workout’, and it was supposed to help him improve his stamina drastically in a short amount of time.

His stamina certainly was a huge problem. Even if he could dodge bullets and evade spells, all that training amounts to little once he got tired. Thus, beefing up his stamina was a must.

“You’re complaining awfully much for something you imposed on yourself, you know?” Casper, who sat comfortably on the cart, noted. “If you don’t like doing it, just don’t.”

To the gnome, it must look quite strange for a man to exercise rigorously, complain about it all the time, and still continue to exercise without letting up. Kayden simply smiled and gave the gnome a thumbs up.

Casper sighed, and shook his head.

“Masochists these days…”

Kayden’s smile turned upside down immediately, and his raised thumb became a raised middle finger. He wanted to give the gnome a good smack in the head for all the times he made fun of him, but since they were separating soon, he felt that there was no point.

Indeed, it had been two days since they crossed the border and officially entered the Kingdom of Arcadia. Just on the road up ahead would be a crossroads, with the northern path heading up towards the capital and the western path heading towards Solus Academy. There, Kayden and Casper would say their goodbyes.

And they did. It wasn’t a tearful farewell or anything, just a simple goodbye and a promise to keep searching for Casper’s daughter. Kayden decided that he would help however he can since he kind of owed it to the gnome after ‘borrowing’ all the illusion spells he could. Should Kayden be busy with his school life, however, he wasn’t going to go out of his way to help.

It’s not like Casper offered that much gold for his services, and with the drugs he smuggled in, Kayden was confident he could make money. Things were going to be a piece of cake!

‘No! Don’t get cocky! I can always be caught red-handed!’

Kayden managed to stop himself from growing too overconfident with himself. He should know better by now… that compared to the rest of the world, he was far too weak.

Kayden watched as the gnome traveled on foot into the distance, his silhouette growing smaller and smaller as he ran, desperate to search for his daughter. After seeing him off, Kayden turned to his own road and flicked the reins of the horse. He had his own destination to reach.

The last two days of the journey was uneventful, unless you counted the many times he cried in pain after Hel’s exercises as noteworthy events, in which case…

‘P-please! Just make it stop!!!’

By the end of the week-long journey, Kayden had gained noticeable increases to his stats.

[Endurance increased from C >>> C+]

[Strength increased from D >>> D+]

“Huh. My Health points also increased.”

It had jumped from a total value of 273 to 294. Seeing the numbers jump always brought a smile to his face. It was fool-proof evidence that he was getting stronger, and always made the torture worth it in the end.

Currently with a map on his lap, he was sitting cross-legged on his cart, now a little roughed up after the journey. Judging from the landmarks he can see and comparing it to the map, he should start seeing the Solus academy right about…now.

And he did. Over in the distance, there was a singular pillar that pierced the evening sky, making it the tallest building Kayden had ever seen in his life. He couldn’t even see the top of the damn thing, and that wasn’t all.

Several other pillars surrounded that central one, each of varying heights, though none of them got close to the center pillar’s magnificence. Still, the sheer number and scale of them shocked him, and he couldn’t even begin to fathom why there was a need for so many.

Most of those pillars were built upon a large mountain, far larger than the one he had climbed back at the Kelekona mountains. If their goal was to impress all those who witnessed it with sheer scale, Kayden had to admit, it was working damn well.

A little bit of background info that Kayden had learned before he started his journey: The Solus Academy was founded and created by the Wizards of the Western Continent, also known as the WoWC, which was why their building choice was so strange. The wizards there really loved their mage towers, and it was a common joke among the Galian populace.

They were also known to be masters of magic, spearheading the charge when it comes to magic technology, such as artifacts, weapons, vehicles, you name it. They were even the ones that came up with the spell grading system, where spells are separated into six tiers.

Tier 1 to 5, which Kayden was familiar with, and the mystical sixth tier, also known as the Divine tier. This was what separated mortals from Gods.

As such, Solus Academy was known as one of, if not the best place for people to learn magic, thanks to a mixture of highly competent teachers and advanced magical technology. Of course, this meant that the expectations for any student studying there were incredibly high.

As Kayden stared starry-eyed at the looming towers, his horse suddenly reared its body and stopped in place, sending him flying forward in the cart. Luckily, he had gripped the edges of the cart tightly and was spared from having his head smashed into the dry wood.

“What the hell—?”

In front of him was a stone brick wall that definitely wasn’t there before. The wall was so tall that Kayden must have been blind if he didn’t see it approaching.

The horse must not have seen it either, as it looked visibly spooked and was nervously tapping its hooves repeatedly on the ground. Not once had the horse suddenly stopped like that during the journey.

“Okay… something’s going on here.”

Just as he was about to get down and inspect the wall, a voice from above whistled for his attention.

“Hello traveler! If you wish to enter the city, you must come in through the front gate. I’ll lead you there, so follow me!”

‘Front gate? City?’

Kayden looked up to see a jolly old man in a large wizard hat and robes, waving at him from up above the wall. With a swing of his staff, a white cloud materialized in front of him, which he proceeded to sit on. The cloud brought the old man gently down the wall right until he was just a few meters above his cart.

“Well then, shall we?”

The old man rode the cloud and zipped away along the wall to his right. Still slightly confused, Kayden chose to follow the old man, hoping to get some answers.

“[It’s illusion magic. I’m surprised you still haven’t figured it out. The entire city and the pillars were veiled until you came within a certain distance. A spell of this scale must have been made by someone very powerful, so maybe try researching into it once you’re inside,]” Hel suggested.

Kayden nodded. A wide-scale illusion spell like that would be a worthy addition to his arsenal. Be it illusion magic, transformation magic, or necromancy, he would take all he could get.

However, there was something still bothering him, and he called the old man over for clarification. Kayden took out the map he had and showed it to him.

“The map here says that we’re at Solus Academy, but you said that this was a city. Is the academy that big, or am I just in the wrong place?”

The old man laughed, and lowered the cloud until they were on the same level.

“Well, the first thing to be built upon the mountain was Solus Academy, and the city around it was only built afterward. You can call it part of the academy, but students won’t be having their classes there.” The old man casually explained. “By the way, you’re here to take the entrance exam, I presume?”

Kayden nodded, and the old man laughed once more.

“If that’s the case, you really should have come much earlier. Pretty much all the inns and taverns are booked, so unless you’ve made a fancy reservation, you’re going to have trouble finding somewhere to sleep.”

Kayden froze.

“Uh… how much time is there until the exam begins?”

“Two days.”

“Oh boy…”

He wondered if he could park his cart somewhere and just sleep inside. There were already pillows, and he could use the sheet that acted as his roof as a blanket. For security, he could just cover himself up with an illusion…

‘Ah right. My mana won’t last that long overnight. Something’s definitely going to get stolen if I did that, I can see it already.’

Faced with no other choice, he asked the old man for advice.

“Do you know a place I can stay? Surely there must be other people who are as unfortunate as me! They aren’t just sleeping on the streets, are they?”

“No, that’s illegal here. For those that could not find a place, they had to beg the residents and shop owners. I see that you have a horse, maybe you could try the stables!” the old man kindly suggested.

“The horse is rented…”

“Ah… Too bad, then.”

They then traveled in silence for a while, with Kayden trying his best to think of a good way to get accommodation. He really didn’t want to beg, nor did he want to pay extravagant amounts of gold to bribe the residents either.

“Aha! What about the Adventurer’s Guild! There are rooms there!”

“Oh? You’re an adventurer? What’s your rank?”

“C!”

“Yeah. Not happening. There are still rooms reserved for A ranks, and maybe even B ranks. But C-ranks? We have them in abundance here.”

Kayden sighed. Perhaps he was a little too spoiled. The majority of adventurers in Dragonsteel had been D-ranks, and combined with his reputation as an A-ranked adventurer’s disciple, he always had a room to himself. But now? New city, new guild, no master.

“By the way, how do you know so much? It’s like you’ve been to every establishment and checked the rooms or something.” Kayden asked.

“Ah, it’s thanks to a relatively new invention that allows me to check all these mundane things quite easily. If I’m not wrong, all students will get one, so maybe you’ll be able to have one for yourself.”

The old man pulled out a black, stone tablet with what looked like a magical screen display on top. The screen could be interacted with, and the old man proudly showed him some tricks it could do, such as flashing a small beam of light or writing down notes that were then stored and could be retrieved at any time. All in all, it seemed like a very useful tool, and it was quite easy to use too.

The old man lent him the artifact and let him play around with it. He could swipe down and see the list of functions, tap on things to expand it, and there was even a magical energy bar on top to indicate how long it could last. Everything just seemed so… intuitive. Truly a marvel of magical technology, and a great testament to the wisdom of Western mages.

“[Hold on for a sec… That’s just a smartphone!]”

Hel seemed both troubled and amused, and he didn’t know why. Just what was this ‘Smartfone’?

“By the way, I haven’t asked you for your name yet, traveler.” The old man asked, drawing Kayden’s attention away from Hel’s cryptic ramblings.

“It’s Kayden. What about yours?”

“Simon, but feel free to call me whatever you like.”

Kayden then thought of an idea.

“Mister Simon, can I stay at your place? Please?”

“Haha. No, I have a wife and kids. Anyway, we’re here!”

They had reached the front entrance of the city, and Kayden was shocked to discover that the entire doorway was just a shimmering barrier. And a very large one at that.

“Don’t worry. Now that I’ve confirmed your name and that you’re not suspicious, you can just walk through it. “ Simon then cleared his throat before speaking in a much louder voice.

“Welcome! To Solus Academy!”