Chapter 71: An Lakes wave

Jumping up to the second floor through the main staircase, he landed on its railing, reading the signs for directions.

’Southern second corridor?’ he whispered. ’’North-south corridor’’ He added, confused, ’They all were completely placed out of order or direction.’

’Who created those signs? They aren’t even making sense,’ he yelled, then quickly shut his mouth.

He had nearly forgotten to stay hidden because of this stupidity. As he jumped towards the only corridor without a sign.

Dashing past the rooms, he searched for Alem’s or Syno’s mana, but the magical wall made it hard for him to even sense anything.

Until he did, a small concentration of mana had been formed a few rooms ahead, almost as if somebody was casting a spell.

Dashing over there, he stood at the small window from the corridor, staring inside.

It was a small training room only fitting for a teacher who specialises in defence magic.

In the middle was a small ring not much bigger than four metres in diameter, and two students were fighting in the middle of it.

As they fired off a fireball and ice shard against each other, a winner was quickly decided.

The losing student got so mad that he hurried out of the room, leaving the door open perfectly for Steven to enter.

Stepping inside, a second round of fights started as Syon entered the state, having to fight against only a topaz grade.

But even then, the fight was weird, as Syno seemed to lower his mana willingly.

"And don’t forget to only use the Jade class spell," Professor Alem reminded everyone as the crowd gathered closer to the fight.

"I think Clavm will beat him; after all, he is much more used to Jade-level spells than Syno." One of the students spoke, raising his wallet as if he were betting.

’’Exactly, those high talents don’t know how we can handle jade spells.’’ Another one added, raising his hands in excitement.

"Don’t let yourself be fooled," Professor Alem spoke, his eyes darting between the fighters. "Just because they can use higher-grade spells doesn’t mean the lower ones are hard for them."

As he hit a bell starting the fight, ’’No, it’s often completely different; to reach a higher level, you have to be a master of all the basics.’’

As soon as he finished his sentence, the fight had already been over, with one precise piece of stone and Clavm thrown out of the ring.

As the crowd let out a surprise gasp, Steven only stood there confused; after all, this was just basic combat training.

Where were the great announcements or team selections for the event?

Even then he decided to stay until class had finished; maybe the professor had just forgotten or was going to announce it after class ended to keep the attention high.

But even after the final bell was rung, nothing had happened, just basic exercise combined with lots of suffering and disappointment.

’’Is he not going to announce it at all?’’ He whispered to himself as one of the students turned towards him with a confused glance.

But the person couldn’t find the reason for the voice as they just turned away from Steven.

As the class slowly left the room to return to their dorms, Alem remained at his desk checking some papers as if he were correcting some last mistakes.

Until he suddenly rose, bringing a single sheet of paper to each of the desks. "What do you think, Mr Bright? Is talent the only deciding factor in a fight?" he asked, continuing his task.

Steven turned himself visible after being caught. ’’Everyone in the school already has great talent, or else they would’ve never made it here.’’ He answered calmly, picking up a single sheet of paper.

"You’re right and wrong at the same time, young man..." Alem continued while placing the last paper down.

’Having talent might be great, but it won’t ever beat the feeling of achieving something yourself.’ As he turned towards Steven, his glance determined. ’’And they will continue to ride that wave until nothing can stop them anymore.’’

Reading the paper in his hand, there were only two names for a group and a list of preparations needed.

"A wave will always crash, but a lake will remain the same forever." He answered flatly, putting the paper back.

’’But who had reached greater height?’’ The professor didn’t stop his debate. ’’Think about it, Mr Bright, and tell me the next time we meet.’’

As the professor left through the door, Steven didn’t even try to stop him, already pushing his words to the side. What did a man like Alem even know about life?

He had got everything he needed to know from the paper, and if he was just going to stay with Syno, he couldn’t miss an event ever.

Just as he was about to leave the room, his gaze lingered on the ring in the middle. letting out a sigh.

Stepping inside the ring, he positioned himself where the student had just stood; raising his hands, a small fireball appeared inside of it.

It was a simple jade class spell like everyone else at this school could cast, and yet it would also be enough to kill every single one of them if landed correctly.

Shooting the fireball forward, it hit a small metal lamp on Alems’ desk, knocking it over to the ground.

As the flame ignited the carpet on the floor, slowly setting the whole room on fire, but not a single flame even dared to come close to him, avoiding his body like the plague.

It didn’t matter if those people were the wave’s riding of achievement or Lake’s holding more power than somebody could imagine.

No, not even if they were the whole ocean would it change anything.

The flames of hell would burn them to the ground until only an empty dryland remained.

And inside of it would be only those able to live without being themselves at all.