Chapter 62: A Duel’s Invitation

The Arclight City was bustling with endless activity. The bright sun rays fell everywhere, illuminating the streets and tall buildings with a warm, golden light.

High above the bustling city, sitting at a towering altitude, a massive academy could be seen from miles away. Its sheer size was enough to catch the eye of anyone walking through the streets below.

The academy was named after the city itself. Long before the Arcane Academy was even built, Arclight City was already famous across the globe. Rumors suggested since ancient time that countless secrets and mysteries were hidden deep within the city’s foundations, waiting to be found. Legends from ancestral times also claimed that the very first Awakener in the world was born right here in Arclight City. His true name was lost to history, but the title ’Arclight’ was given to him by ancient scholars who researched his life. This specific location also marked the exact place where mana first descended into the world!

The current principal of the academy was a relatively young woman. However, there had been many wise principals in the past, teaching students from generation to generation. Over the years, they had molded monstrous geniuses and terrifying prodigies. Because of this rich history, the Arcane Academy was famous worldwide under a very intimidating nickname: the ’Cave of Monsters’.

...

Inside the academy, or more specifically, inside a sprawling training ground, a boy was busy swinging a wooden sword. He stood in the corner of a partitioned space where a sturdy training dummy waited for his next strike.

He wasn’t alone in the facility. Many other first-year students were training around the area. Because of the crowd, the academy provided various small, divided spaces for the students to practice their skills in peace.

Alden stared intensely at the wooden training dummy. He took a precise battle stance. He placed one leg exactly fifteen centimeters behind him and bent his other knee slightly to lower his center of gravity. Pulling his right hand back while gripping the hilt, he concentrated a small, dense amount of mana perfectly at the very tip of the sword. With a swift, fluid motion, he thrust the blade forward!

*CRACK!* *SHATTER!*

A thick crack spread sideways along the dummy’s torso before spreading over its whole body. A second later, it shattered completely, and the broken wooden pieces fell to the training floor.

Alden pulled his sword back and straightened his posture. A tired look appeared on his face as he wiped the sweat and dust from his brow.

"Sigh... It failed once again."

His face looked disappointed rather than happy, even after successfully breaking the dummy. So why was he sad about shattering his target? What was his real aim here?

’Let me guess where I went wrong, From the past few moments of repetition, I learned that even if I thrust the sword the exact same way, the angle and body posture are not the only things that matter. What truly matters is the specific point where I apply the pressure.’

’The main goal is to pick out the exact center of gravity of the object I want to shatter. But it is hard for me to learn that right now. I don’t have any special skill to tell me where the center of gravity is for different objects. All I can do is guess.’

’Well, my guess might be right from time to time because of my overpowered luck. But I cannot depend on that forever. I can never be sure when my luck will work and when it will fail. I have to learn how to measure the center of gravity with my own skills.’

’If I can figure that out, I can just target the core center of an opponent’s body. If I hit that specific joint with a mana-infused thrust, the result will be the instant shattering of the object from the inside out, without spreading any initial cracks.’

That was the exact technique he had been working on for the past month since returning to the academy. Of course, he was not just focusing on his swordsmanship. That was merely a secondary task. His primary goal was to improve his mana capacity and train in the magical fields where he still lacked experience.

Surprisingly, he was getting really good at almost every other field. His martial arts naturally improved because of his new technique, and his magic control, spell construction, and elemental magic were all growing steadily.

However, there were a few courses that still gave him a massive headache. It wasn’t because he was bad at learning them, but because he had zero primary knowledge of how they actually functioned.

The first major hurdle was Space magic. Even though he had possessed the ’Space’ element for a long time, he didn’t actually know how to use it properly. Normal elements like fire or water could be summoned with a simple thought. Space was an entirely different variable; it could not be ruled by a mere thought. He had tried several different methods to cast it, but all his efforts turned out futile. He decided to just leave it in his arsenal for now, hoping he would figure it out naturally later on.

The second massive problem was Summoning magic. Why was Summoning magic turning out to be so hard for him, when it was an easy task for almost everyone else? The reason behind his failure was quite complicated, and he didn’t even have a single clue how to fix it.

After learning the basic spell formulas, every student could perform a summoning ritual. They would usually get an unknown, unpredictable beast or spirit to form a pact with. The specific course was limited to the first semester since most students secured their summons early on.

Many of his classmates already had their partners. Some got the weakest beasts available, while others managed to pull much stronger spirits.

Alden even learned that Alicia had successfully secured her summon. Though, for some unknown reason, she refused to show it to anyone. There were many famous rumors going around the academy saying she had pulled a very weak beast, which was why she hid it from the public. That seemed like the only logical possibility, but the actual truth was known to no one.

But for him, summoning magic always failed. He revised the spell again and again, yet all his practice bore no fruit. Even the professor was left deep in thought after Alden repeatedly failed to summon any beast. Naturally, he assumed that Alden had no affinity for summoning. However, even students with an affinity close to zero could still summon a beast, though it would usually be a very weak one.

Alden shook his head and moved his focus to a brand new training dummy.

He took the exact same stance as before. He pulled his back leg a few inches away, bent his front knee, and leaned his chest forward. Gripping the hilt tightly, he pointed his sword at a specific spot, taking a guess at the dummy’s center of gravity. He concentrated a small amount of mana onto the tip of the sword, and with a fast, blinding motion, he thrust the blade with perfect accuracy!

*SHATTER!*

This time, the training dummy didn’t just crack. It shattered into a hundred pieces from the inside out! The mechanism of this attack was simple. By concentrating a small amount of mana into the tip and striking the core mass of the body, the hit directly supplied the mana into the object’s entire frame. Striking the center mass caused the whole body to shatter instantly!

Alden looked at the broken pieces of the dummy scattered across the ground and finally pulled his arm back. He walked toward the weapon rack to put his sword away and get out of the training ground. He hadn’t eaten lunch yet because of his intense training session. He was quite hungry, so he wanted to grab something delicious from the cafeteria.

Just as he was about to place the sword on the rack, a loud voice echoed behind him.

"I challenge you to a duel, Alden!"

Alden looked over his shoulder, feeling completely unsurprised by the dramatic entrance of the student. He didn’t even bother to reply. The other student just gestured for Alden to follow him to the duel grounds, walking away with a smug stride without even caring about his answer.

Alden finally sighed and followed the confident student out the door. He just had to accept the fun fact that his life was never bound to be peaceful anyway.