Way of the Knights

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"Oh?"

Raven let out a surprised sound as soon as he got the message. It seems their classmates were back from their examination and the classes now officially resumes.

Raven paused his training, took a quick bath and changed into a new set of uniform since the previous one was drenched in sweat. After changing, he went out of his dwelling and made his way towards the directors office to meet with his assistant. Paul and the rest were already there when he arrived so they immediately went to the room where the rest of their classmates were.

The assistant opened the door not too far away from the office, it was a vast room covered by clear glass. At the center of the room, there is a round table with a few people sitting around it.

The old and the new's gazes met, a strange atmosphere filled the room as the two batches stared and sized up each other, if it weren't for the director clearing his throat the awkwardness won't disappear.

'I heard of these people from my past life, but never truly knew what they look like nor their behaviors except for one, but hell am I not happy to see this person here. Who would've thought?'

Raven snickered in him mind, he along with the rest seated themselves and paid no attention to the rest since there was no need to just yet.

"Like I was saying earlier…" Victor smiled and started talking, "Today, you will be joined by 6 new classmates who passed the Promotional Tests while you were away, do take care of them and introduce them to the ins and outs of the institute if in case I missed somethings during our initial meeting."

Victor then faced the new comers and asked: "Why don't you introduce yourselves?"

The team did what he asked and introduced themselves one by one, and if there's anything that these old batch of students figured out with their introduction, it would be the fact that all of these kids came from an impressive background, so much so that plans started circulating on their minds.

"Okay, it's your turn you brats." Victor then faced the old batch and told them to do the same.

Starting from the closest person from Victor, a man who had a bright red hair introduced himself, "My name is Yohan Myon. 16 years old."

"Veronica Noel, 15 years old."

"Blain Sky, 17 years old."

"Rupert Polan, 16 years old."

"Trebor Foren, 17 years old."

"Sasha Foster, 17 years old."

"Wilbert Scar, 18 years old."

"Philip Newman, 18 years old."

"Scarlet Berthol, 18 years old."

"Zelor Mort, 18 years old."

All in all, there were seven guys and three girls. With their addition, it was now 10 guys and six girls. Now that the introductions are done, Victor then proceed to discuss everything that is important right now.

"You guys won't be included in this just yet…" Victor said to the new batch, "You guys successfully returned from your biannual examinations, you passed so congratulations. But if you think that you can heave a sigh of relief, then think again because in the next six months there would be another one. And if you slack down with you cultivation, then you could start packing up your things."

"Surprisingly, the rankings had been changed." Victor then focused his gaze on one specific student from the old batch, it was a guy who has a silver hair and has a vertical scar to his left eye. "Good job Wilbert, you clearly outdid yourself this time around, I always had this feeling that you're holding back on us and it seems that I was correct."

The man named Wilbert just chuckled with Victor's comment.

"So since Wilbert took the first place in this examination, according to the rules, he would receive the agreed rewards, does anyone object?"

No one raised any complaints, it seems that the rest were convinced about the results. Victor then beckoned with his hand and the assistant behind him summoned a few things from his spatial ring.

In front of the man named Wilbert, there is a fancy sword, a leather box, and a bottle.

"Storm Calling Sword, a B-rank Mortal Weapon. The leather box contains 25 mid-grade Energy Stones and the bottle is a Essence Gathering Pill. This will now be handed to you as rewards for taking the first place."

Wilbert's eyes shone with excitement as he hurriedly took his rewards and placed them inside his spatial ring. No thanks was needed since these rewards were naturally earned by him.

"Alright, since that's done. Why don't we begin the class? Let's start by a little warm up, everyone out of the building, now."

Victor ordered as he himself disappeared from his seat. The rest of the class started moving along with his order, but of course the new batch had this somewhat confused expression on their faces. It was then that someone from the older batch approached them with a smile.

"Don't think too much, just follow his instructions and you would be fine." From Raven's memory, this should be Philip, he doesn't have a very striking face nor any unique qualities in him, but of course he should be formidable since he's part of the Genius Class.

Raven and his friends nodded and followed them down towards the exit. Upon getting out of the building, they saw Victor standing in front of him while clasping both of his hands on his back. The students lined up in front of him, waiting for his next instruction.

"All of you, give me 300 push ups."

Without any remorse, the order was handed out and the students immediately went on the ground to start. The order was clear, he said all of them, which means even the girls have to do it.

Of course at the beginning, all of them had it relatively easy, but upon hitting the 50th mark, 40th mark for others, some already felt the strain.

Before Victor called everyone to class, he made sure that the older batch had a nice rest before doing so, in order for them not to use 'exhaustion from a long journey' as a reason to fail his orders.

Time passed and majority of the class reached the 100th mark. Some of them were already sweating from the exercise but there are also others who felt that this was way too easy, like Raven and his circle of friends.

When the rest were at their 100's they were already at their 150's, and the others felt exhaustion this only cause their foreheads to gleam in sweat, Raven wasn't even sweating at all, it looked like he was just doing a trivial thing.

Time went by and eventually, the 300 push ups were done. Surprisingly, Raven and his friends finished earlier than the older batch. Which made Victor quite amused and lost on his own thoughts…

'Did I go easy on them?' He thought, he then looked at the baffled expressions of his older students and went: 'I guess that's a yes, but only to this new batch. My older students seemed to be a little tired from that already. I wonder why is that? Is it because they're younger? Hmm…'

"All of you, give me 10 laps around the building. Now!"

Victor ordered again after seeing that all of the students finished their 300 push ups. Now, 10 laps might be a small number, but considering that they just came from doing a great number of push ups and hadn't had the chance to catch their breaths. Needless to say, they still followed Victor's orders and this time around, the disparity was even more obvious.

Some hadn't even made a second lap but looked like they were ready to kick the bucket. Some were taking it a little too hard while some persisted, and then…there's Raven and his group.

Nothing much to see, except from they were literally talking to each other while running, as if they weren't doing something strenuous but rather a minor inconvenience, they could even saw them laughing while making a lap after another like it was just a trivial thing.

As Victor watched this, he couldn't help but see the newer batch in a more different view. It seems that there more than what meets the eyes. (?)

[A/N: Idk if I worded that out correctly, does anyone has suggestions?]

What they didn't know, was that this is just a normal warm up for them, literally. Victor was riling them up when he said that this is warm up, even he himself knew that these exercise are far from being just a 'mere warm up'. But for Raven and his friends? This IS a 'mere warm up'.. Imagine what will happen if they happen to know the sheer intensity of their exercise.

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