“Your lordship, it’s time for you to get up!” Lucia, my vampire maid, woke me up with a shake.

Before I could even get up, I heard crashing from the corner of my room. “Hey, you! I wanted to do that!” Ellysa shouted as she shuffled towards me.

With a light gust of wind magic, she was sent tumbling back down onto the floor. Though Ellysa had been learning to cope with the fact that most of her strength was locked by the angel’s blood within the amulet around her neck, she was still susceptible to harmless spells like this.

“I told you to stay in the corner, Ellysa,” I reminded.

“B-But that lowly thrall is…”

“If you don’t behave, I’ll call Satel back here,” I threatened.

“No! Anything but that demon! Woe is me!” Ellysa cried as she crawled back to her chair.

It wasn’t like I was torturing her on purpose. She had a nice corner with all the things a vampire queen could possibly need. I just needed to make sure she wouldn’t be near me while I try to enjoy my alone time.

But still, the fact that she was starting to get used to the angel’s blood was starting to worry me.

What if I accidentally train her to overcome the divine protection and she somehow becomes stronger? Or worse…

A masochist?!

Oh well. I leave that problem to the future me.

I wore my bunny slippers then went straight to my class. As usual, Inez followed me behind like a good puppy, but for some reason, a certain fat boy was following us as well.

“Why are you up this early?” I asked the fat boy.

“I, Vakasa of the Darkness, heard that sorcerers from the other city-states are coming to inspect the competitors, so I, thanks to my unlimited knowledge, have no doubt that one of them could be a spy sent to sabotage our class!” Lard concluded.

“Is it really that obvious?” I asked.

“I was spot on?!”

“No. I’m just going along with what you said.”

“Oh. Well, I, Vakasa of the Darkness, still believe that one of those so-called ‘delegation’ would be a spy. There’s always one!” Lard declared as he followed behind me, but as usual, I ignored his rambling.

It didn’t take long for me to reached my classroom. Instead of kids standing all over the room or playing around noisily, the students were standing at attention towards the front. They didn’t even bat an eye when I entered the room.

Once I reached the teacher’s table, I slammed my hands down, then declared, “Soldiers, we will go over the plans for today’s operation. I need a status report now.”

“Squad Allfather all accounted for, sir!”

“Squad Blackgate all accounted for, sir!”

“Squad Chaosrealm all accounts for, sir!”

The squads reported one by one until all of the students were accounted for. I nodded at the discipline I managed to slap into the students, and I was almost impressed with how I managed to turn raw meatbags into battle-ready demons.

“Good. Let’s begin. As you know, the other city-states will be sending some people to inspect and record the candidates chosen by their respective home cities. What I know is that they’ll ask for your personal information, then check your magical and medical conditions. All recorded data will be disclosed to me, so you better not fail the magical examinations,” I explained. “Any questions?”

“Sir!” Boye raised his hand.

“Yes, boy?”

“By fail, you mean fail to meet your expectations?”

“Of course. There could be no other end.”

*

*

*

“We’re here, huh…” one of my assistants grumbled as we entered Cahalot.

“Yes, it’s the city without muscles,” I groaned.

“Ah! You must be the delegation sent by the Interstate Games Coordinators! Welcome to Cahalot!” a puny, scrawny woman ran up to us just as the guards finished looking over our documents.

“Ah, Master Yomi. A pleasure to finally meet you,” I greeted as I flexed my biceps.

“What happened to Master Benchlord? He had always been the one sent by the Coordinators to check up on Cahalot’s candidates,” Master Yomi asked.

“He was sick. He had contracted Leggus Dayius Forgettiam which caused him to be sent to the hospital. In his place, I will be inspecting the candidates,” I explained.

“That’s too bad. Well, nice to meet you, Master…”

“Triceptarius. Master Triceptarius of the Sorcerer City of Armaggedon.”

“Alright! Now, if you would follow me onto the floating platform, we’ll head straight to the Central Academy,” Yomi said as she started to lead the way.

“Wait, I heard from Master Benchlord that the students would be gathered at the Cahalotian Capitol, so why aren’t we going there?” I asked.

“Oh, we only do that so we don’t have to visit every academy in Cahalot to meet the candidates. This year, Cahalot will be solely represented by the Central Academy!” Yomi proudly boasted.

“All from one gymnasiu-... I mean academy?!” I shouted as my pecs jumped up and down in shock.

“Yes! I might be biased, but I feel like I have a good feeling about this year!”

As we got onto the floating platform, my closest assistant whispered to me, “Perhaps the Cahalotians have started to consolidate their candidates in one place?”

“That’s crazy. Every gymnasium specialize in different parts of the muscle group. I mean… every academy specialize in different fields of magic. Even the academies’ locations are crucial in sorcery education, and I highly doubt that Cahalot would have a place that could cater to every field of magic!” I whispered back.

“We shall see, Master Triceptarius. For now, we should be patient and plank in peace,” my assistant said as he started planking on the floor.

The rest of the journey was spent discussing plans for the check-ups with my colleagues, and some small chit-chats with Master Yomi. While Cahalot was not as impressive as my city, it was interesting how these puny sorcerers could actually make a beautiful city without the power of muscles.

“We’re here! Welcome to the Central Academy of Cahalot!” Yomi introduced as we landed on the academy grounds.

“Wait, are those the students?” one of my fellow sorcerers pointed at a group of students waiting on the academy grounds.

They all stood in formation while a mysterious thin man in white robes waved at us.

“Yes! These are my students! And this man here is Boss-”

“Professor Boss. Don’t forget that, muscleman,” the man correct Master Yomi.

“Ho? I only recognize other true sorcerers as professors,” I told him.

“Oh yeah? How about a handshake?” He offered his hand towards me which caused me to flex in confusion. I couldn’t detect any spell activation, so I supposed that he really was just offering a handshake.

“Very well, here I- Uoh?!”

This grip!

How incredibly strong!

I tried to pump all of my muscle energy towards my hand, but this man was almost like an immovable barbell! I could feel sweat falling through my back as I poured every power and will into my grip, but it was all in vain.

At last, I let go off the man’s grip. “Urf… it seems you have made your point, Professor Boss. I am glad there is a sorcerer here that knows how to talk with their muscle,” I praised.

“Of course. Now, let us move on with the inspection, shall we?” Professor Boss offered.

Professor Boss led the candidates and the delegation to a large stadium. As per protocol, the female candidates were to be inspected by my female assistants, while the rest were dealt by me and my other assistants.

After separating the students, we had Professor Boss and Master Yomi leave the building for fairness and inspection purposes. I quickly went about with checking on the students’ magical conditions.

“Is the student named Shtern Boye here? Boye come here,” I called out then went to a small room filled with equipment prepared by my assistants.

I can never get used to weird names that have nothing to do with muscles or the gym…

Almost as soon as a tall boy entered the room, I gave him a red dumbbell.

“I’ll need to record your mana capacity first. I have your school records, but we’ll need the latest record taken from a third party… which would be me. Go ahead and concentrate your mana into the dumbell,” I instructed.

The boy looked at the dumbbell and hesitated.

“Is there a problem? Do you need a protein shake?” I asked.

“No, sir. I’m afraid I might melt this thing,” he answered.

I burst into laughter then explained that the dumbbell was made of a very high grade material which could withstand high mana concentration. After a few seconds of thinking, he finally began to flex-... I mean chant.

“Once you’ve poured all you’ve got, just drop it onto the table, and I will-... What the?!” I raised my arm in a pose out of shock when I saw the red dumbbell was starting to glow. “Hey, wait. That’s a bit too much!”

The dumbbell began to shine brightly before slowly melting. When it was too hot for him, he dropped the half-melted dumbbell onto the floor, but it continued to heat up.

“W-Why is it still absorbing mana?!” I shouted.

“It must be due to my training, sir! I could transfer mana from a small distance, sir!” the boy answered quickly.

“That’s impossible! Are you suggesting that you don’t even need to hold a barbell-... I mean staff in order to cast spells from it?!”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

I looked up to the ceiling as my body tensed up. With a sigh, I have concluded one thing: It’s going to be a long day.

*

*

*

“Booooring, boring, boring!” Lard cried as we sat on a bench.

“Shut up. It’s not like you’re the only one here,” I chided then pointed at another bench from afar. “Why can’t you be more like Inez? Look over there. She’s quietly reading a book over there like a good child.”

Lard leaned forward then tried to see what Inez was reading. “Hey, wait a minute. Doesn’t that say ‘How to Cause Pain to the Undead’?”

“I don’t know. I can’t read anything but Commons.” I shrugged, then continued, “I’m still annoyed that you somehow have the ability to understand languages instantly while it took me a long time to understand the Commons alphabet.”

“Whaaat? You’re a thousand years old. Surely you would be fluent in a lot of languages!” Lard exclaimed.

“A lot of dead languages, yes. It only takes two hundred years for a language to change drastically, you know? I’m really surprised Ancient Commons is still somewhat understandable by most people,” I sighed.

“What other languages do you know?”

“I could speak a lot of languages like gnomish. I’m sure the gnomish I know it still the same.”

“Wait, gnomish? You mean gnomes? Short weird people?”

“Yes. Though, gnomish is mostly gibberish. Anyway, I was stuck under a rock for a thousand years, and at best, I only got a few visitors every few decades. Even then, they end up just screaming out some swear words before leaving,” I said. “So, basically, I only learned some curses from the new languages.”

“Yeah, I get that. Swear words are always the easiest things to learn… Wait, you said you were stuck under a rock for a thousand years? What happened?”

“It’s a long story...”

“Senior! Boss! The sorcerers are calling for us!” Yomi called out to me as she struggled to catch her breath. While I lazed around at the academy grounds, Yomi stood vigilantly outside of the stadium for any news. She probably ran all the way here when the sorcerers asked to speak with me.

But still… for Yomi to be already out of breath just from jogging for a few minutes. She should join the students during their training...

Lard and I followed Yomi back to the stadium to find myself staring at a group of musclemen posing to each other.

“Is… there a problem?” I asked out loud.

“Ah, Professor Boss. My colleagues and I were discussing some important matters. I’ll get straight to the point, we can’t finish the evaluation today,” the lead muscleman said.

“What? Why not? There’s only a few kids here. Not only that, only an hour has passed,” I pointed out.

“Well you see…” He lowered his body slightly then stretched his muscled arm upwards before continuing, “We need to request for special equipment from the Coordinators HQ as we are currently under-equipped to evaluate your students’ magical conditions. I apologize for the inconvenience!”

“What? I, Vakasa of the Darkness, thought a student died or something… No, wait! It could be that they’re planning to bring a sabotage gear!” Lard gasped.

I decided to ignore Lard as I turned to the lead muscleman, “I suppose this is to be expected. Very well, you can do the magical examination later, then.”

“At the very least, we’ll be able to finish the medical examination today. I thank you for your patience, Professor Boss!” the lead muscleman exclaimed before heading back into the stadium.

With that done, I started to make my way back to my bench.

“What did you do, Senior? This has never happened before… at least, not in Cahalot!” Yomi asked as she followed me behind.

“It’s all according to my expectations,” I muttered.

“What was that, Senior?”

“I asked whether you want to go for a jog? You seem to be rather unfit, Yomi.”

“W-What? I- no! I don’t want to jog!” Yomi protested.

“You could jog with Lard, if you wish,” I offered.

“NO! If I, Vakasa of the Darkness, exercise, the darkness within me would break out, then I will be unable to shield the world of Light from the Dark One!” Lard screamed.

“Sweating doesn’t mean the end of the world, Lard,” I retorted.

When I finally reached my bench again, I plopped onto it and sighed. “Well, whatever. The day’s quiet so far so I’d like to keep it at that.”