n

n

n“Wake up,” the man said with an annoyed voice. “It’s time for our deal.”

nShang slowly opened his eyes with annoyance.

nThe two of them had argued for way too long.

nIn the end, they had come to a deal.

nShang could sit on the ground for the night, but when people would begin to show up, he would sit on the chair.

nShang stood up, pulled the chair over, and sat down.

n“Was that so hard?” the man asked.

n“I can also just sit on the ground again,” Shang answered with an even voice.

n“Hmph,” the man only snorted.

nIn the next couple of minutes, Shang saw the sky slowly light up.

nThe braziers had been put out a couple of minutes ago, and Shang heard the first faint noises of movement from the surrounding houses.

nIt seemed like the 500 or so people directly living in the city had their houses adjacent to the academy.

nA couple minutes later, Shang saw the first people exit their houses. They walked with practiced ease to their destinations.

n“Bakers and smiths,” the man said. “They have to wake up very early.”

n“Mhm,” Shang muttered.

nSome minutes later, the sky became bright enough that even a normal person could see in the streets. Due to the high elevation and the walls, the dawn couldn’t be seen from within the city.

nSome more minutes later, more people began to exit their houses as they all walked in the direction of the city center. Those were probably all the merchants and other artisans.

nWHOOOOM!

nSuddenly, a loud horn echoed throughout the city, and Shang looked up.

n“That’s the signal that the gates are being opened,” the man explained as he stood up. Then, he walked over to the gate and simply pushed it open.

n“It wasn’t locked?” Shang asked.

n“Why would we lock it? I’m here, after all,” he said.

nThe man stretched a bit as he fixed his clothing. He had to appear presentable to the students.

nSome minutes later, Shang heard the sound of a horde of people moving, and a couple of seconds later, Shang saw several youngsters and children walk towards the academy.

nSome of them were ten-year-old kids.

nSome were already adults.

nSome wore bronze uniforms.

nSome wore yellow uniforms.

nSome walked in groups.

nSome walked alone.

nHowever, one thing was the same for every student.

nThey all wore at least one weapon on their person.

nShang received plenty of different gazes from the passing students. Some of them looked with confusion at him, some with interest, and some with disgust.

n“Hello, teacher!”

n“Good morning, teacher!”

n“Finally done with work, huh?”

nMany students greeted the middle-aged man beside the gate.

nThe children were very polite, while the older ones were more casual.

nThe teacher gave some polite and curt replies while the students passed him.

n“Quite popular, huh?” Shang commented.

n“Tch, they only respect my status,” the man answered quietly, “but at least they respect something.”

n“Do you want to start with that topic again?” Shang asked.

n“Hmph,” the man harrumphed without saying anything more to Shang.

nShang kept looking at the passing students.

nThey just didn’t end!

nIn fact, the entire street was crowded with people. It was almost like a festival was taking place in the city.

nBy now, the city had also become very noisy and loud. The number of guards on the walls had also multiplied by several times.

nSuddenly, Shang saw a shadow.

nThe shadow of a person had just jumped from the wall, right into the academy.

n“That’s the dean,” the teacher said when he noticed Shang’s gaze. “He oversees the security of the city by night and leads the academy during the day.”

nShang’s eyes widened in surprise. “Doesn’t he need to sleep?”

nThe teacher only snorted. “People on his level don’t need to sleep any longer. Don’t forget, the dean is the most powerful warrior in the entire world.”

nThat’s when Shang remembered everything he had been told of the Warrior Academy.

nRight! The strongest warrior in the world stayed here!

nThe only warrior that had ever managed to reach the Fourth Realm, the same Realm as Duke Whirlwind!

nShang felt a feeling of wonder when he realized that he had just caught a glimpse of the most powerful warrior in the entire world.

nIt had only been a glimpse, but that glimpse had meant taking a glimpse at the current peak of physical fighting.

nAfter a couple of minutes, the flood of students slowly subsided. Yet, what replaced the students were the teachers.

nShang saw several people in silver uniforms walking down the street, talking with each other.

nThey didn’t wear armor, but their uniforms were obviously designed to also be used in battle. They seemed light but powerful, hard but flexible.

nSome of the teachers were also talking with some older students. Obviously, the barrier between teacher and students wasn’t as stringent when the student reached a certain age.

nAfter all, they were all adults at that point.

nBOOOM!

nSuddenly, a loud explosion came from the top of the city walls.

nShang looked over in shock, and he saw a gigantic ballista on top of a wall.

nHe saw several soldiers standing around it, all looking over the wall, into the distance. Two of them wore silver armor, while the others wore bronze armor.

nThe sound had obviously come from this ballista firing.

nA second later, the guards high-fived each other.

n“Sometimes, Spear Storks fly too close to the city,” the teacher explained. “They are Beasts in the Third Realm, the Commander Stage. We can’t always send soldiers to hunt them down, so we kill as many as we can from the city.”

nThird Realm.

nShang was reminded of the Earth Fruit Hedgehog and the Old Ice Octopus in Duke Whirlwind’s garden.

nSuch a majestic beast had died… just like that?

nAt this moment, Shang finally realized what kind of place he had come to.

nThe most powerful warrior in the world was here.

nOver a hundred real Mages were here.

nWho knew how many Commander Stage Warriors were here.

nBeasts on the level of the Earth Fruit Hedgehog were regularly killed by some random guards.

nThe difference was just too vast.

nIn Duke Whirlwind’s garden, the Earth Fruit Hedgehog might as well have counted as a God.

nOn the outside, Beasts on General Stage had reigned supreme, and Shang had nearly died to one of them.

nThe most powerful guards had been in the General Stage.

nBut here…

nHere, Commander Stage Beasts died on the daily.

nCommander Stage Beasts were nothing special in this place.

nShang couldn’t even fight a General Stage Beast, but he had entered a place where not even Commander Stage Beasts were special.

nFor the first time, Shang felt like he was far out of his depth.

nOn the outside, he had been a force to be reckoned with. Not even the real bandits had dared to attack him after they had known of his location.

nEvery beast except for the most powerful ones had been under Shang’s mercy.

nBut here, Shang was only a common youngster.

nEvery single guard in the city could easily kill him.

nThere were even several students in the General Stage.

nShang was in a different world.

n“Oh? Who’s that?” one of the teachers asked the teacher beside Shang.

n“He came at night,” the teacher answered. “He wants to have the special exam.”

n“Oh?” the other teacher answered as he looked at Shang.

nShang was taken out of his thoughts, and he looked at the new teacher.

n“I have time right now,” the other teacher said.

n“Follow me. I’ll take care of your exam.”

n