Kai looked stunned as he saw Zion Academy up close. He hadn't expected the school to be this big, despite hearing stories of its grandeur. The main building was at least 20m tall, but it was the amount of space the school occupied that was impressive.

After all, in terms of land area, Zion Academy was larger than even the Royal Palace, which paled in comparison to be honest. This explained why people from outside the capital often confused the Academy with the Royal Palace. However, this also demonstrated the royal family's commitment to education and the respectable status of Zion Academy.

Looking up at the clock tower, Kai noticed that the time was 0740. He quickly showed his admission papers to the guards standing outside the gates of the Academy and in return, they gave him a blue crystal before pushing open the gates.

"What's this for?" Kai asked. One of the guards replied, "Well, the crystal is for identification purposes, as it emits a unique mana signature that shows that you are friendly to the guardian spirit of the Academy."

"Guardian spirit?" Kai enquired.

"Yeah, you heard me right, this Academy has a guardian spirit by the name Terran, you'll see it sooner or later. Now off you go, aren't you running late?" the guard replied impatiently.

Kai nodded quickly and sprinted off to the main hall. The main hall was packed with new students and the air brimmed with excitement for the new year to come. Before enrolling in Zion Academy, Kai was home-schooled by his father, learning largely the way of the spear which his father excelled in as well as literacy. Only recently, after awakening his ability to use magic did he dabble a little in the use of magic.

Nonetheless, despite his currently weak magic, Kai aspired to become a spell knight like his father before him, knights well-versed in both weaponry and magic. Indulged in his own thoughts, Kai quickly found a vacant seat to the left of a girl with blue hair. As he approached the seat, he felt a tinge of familiarity exuded by the girl. She gave the same feeling his mother had given to him when he was a young boy.

Kai eyed her quietly before asking politely, "Is anyone sitting here?" The girl looked at him quickly before shyly shaking her head. Kai quickly sat down, before extending his hand out in a handshake, "The name's Kai, nice to meet you." The girl who appeared surprised at his sudden gesture, reciprocated his handshake, albeit in a meek manner, replying quietly, "I'm Adeline. It's my pleasure to be your acquaintance."

Despite speaking softly, Kai noted that her choice of words signified that she likely belonged to nobility or beyond. Nonetheless, he was glad to make a new friend in a school where he knew nobody.

Kai was shaken out of his thoughts by a loud, commanding voice, which came from a middle-aged yet slim woman. "May we all rise and welcome the headmaster of Zion Academy, Professor Zilean!" At the centre of attention was a tall, gaunt old man whose figure is well-concealed by the thick robes he was wearing.

After reaching the podium at the centre of the stage, he waved his hand and the applause died down. "Thank you Head Teacher Cassandra. Welcome everyone, to Zion Academy. Here, we strive to maximise your potential, be it in magic, swordsmanship, gunnery and more, to achieve your aspirations…"

Headmaster Zilean then continued to drone on about the 3 main courses that students can enrol in, namely the Soldier course, the Spell Knight Course and the Wizard Course. As the Headmaster continued to elaborate on the details of the curriculum, Kai's thoughts had already drifted away from the content of his speech towards the girl sitting next to him.

Kai didn't understand why the blue-haired Adeline made him so restless. Sure, Adeline was attractive but it was more than her looks that gave rise to the indescribable feeling within him. Why did she give off the same feeling as his mother? Was it just the colour of her hair, which was the same as his mother? Or was it something else? Her scent maybe?

Adeline, who was initially paying close attention to the content of the Headmaster's speech, felt that someone was scrutinising her heavily, so she turned to face the direction where she believed her observer was coming from. Just as Adeline was about to turn to face Kai, Kai swiftly looked away and pretended to be focused on the Headmaster's speech.

Adeline gave a curious look as she couldn't see who was eyeing her so intently, before turning back to face the front. Kai heaved a silent sigh of relief. He wouldn't want his first friend to think he was a weirdo after all. Resolving to solve the mystery another time, Kai took a deep breath before directing his attention towards the Headmaster.

After finishing his talk on the various courses and subjects, Headmaster Zilean went on to introduce the teaching staff for the 1st years. From Kai's understanding, each batch of students would have their unique batch of teachers who would stick with them throughout their 4 years at Zion Academy, so he was quite excited to see who would be teaching him.

After all, the teachers of Zion Academy are people with years of ground experience, most of them having been in the military or were adventurers before settling down to teach. As Headmaster Zilean went through the names one by one and their respective portfolios, Kai realised that this group of teachers were all pretty young to his surprise, most of them looked to be in their late 20s to early 30s.

Kai was expecting to be taught by combat veterans, but he had faith in his teachers for they had passed the stringent selection process of the Academy. Among the younger teachers, he noted that a few of them came from the Titan Slayers, a guild he wasn't familiar with.

Kai asked absentmindedly, "Who are the Titan Slayers? I've never heard of them before. Sounds cool though."

A brown-haired boy seated next to his left replied, "Ah, they are a guild which worked mainly in the North, protecting our borders from giants from the Northern Wildlands. It's no wonder you've never heard of them before, because they kept a pretty low-profile throughout their existence. They were disbanded 2 years ago though, for reasons unknown."

Kai nodded in acknowledgement as his heart trembled with excitement. These guys were specialists in killing giants, which were very strong in their own right, so these people must have a lot to offer in terms of expertise and experience.

Before concluding his speech, Headmaster Zilean turned to a young woman with scarlet red hair and said, "Now, let's welcome the year head, Ms Scarlet, to say a few words." Scarlet stood up from her seat and with an air of confidence she walked to the podium.

There, Scarlet said sternly, "You guys are our future. I hope you all would work hard in your time here and do your best. That's all." She then turned around and returned to her seat as the whole hall erupted in applause.

After the introductory session, the rest of the day was spent on orientation of the school facilities. Kai tagged along with Adeline who didn't seem to mind his presence, throughout the entire orientation. Their final destination was the Training Hall, a place where combat training between students was held. As one of the most important facilities of Zion Academy, Kai could observe that the training hall was well-maintained despite its frequent use.

Scarlet, who was their guide, extended her hand towards a robed individual and said, "Welcome to the Training Hall, I would let my colleague in charge of this place, Mr Victor, go into the details."

Mr Victor, a bespectacled individual, cheerfully continued, "Thanks Ms Scarlet! Now, students, if you take a look over there, you would realise that our training dummies are a lot different from the past.

With advancements in both magic and science, I'm proud to introduce the new Duelbots! With varying levels of combat and magic expertise, these magic-infused puppets, which can only be activated by a few people including yours truly, would serve as capable yet safe opponents for you to test your mettle! Now, any volunteers? How about you?"

Kai was shocked. Mr Victor's finger was pointing towards him. "Me? I-I'm not sure if I'm up for it." Kai stammered. Mr Victor smiled brightly and said, "Relax, I've already ensured that the level of the duelbot used is the lowest possible. After all, to get accepted into this Academy, all of you must have decent combat skills right?"

Kai reluctantly stepped onto the battle area upon Mr Victor's request. In this large training hall, there were a total of 6 battle areas, with runes marking the perimeters. Kai stood nervously facing the duelbot. It had a humanoid figure but no facial features, a simple and pragmatic design.

Mr Victor chuckled, "Hahaha, the reason why our training hall is so well-maintained is due to those runes you see on the floor. They form a protective barrier during duels so that the audience would not be hurt. Don't worry, if a match has to be halted, we can deactivate both the barrier and the duelbot to prevent serious injuries. Now, your name's Kai right? You ready?"

Kai looked at the duelbot firmly and nodded. Mr Victor declared, "Alright! There are no restrictions in this battle. Time limit is 10 minutes. Begin!" The duelbot immediately flickered into life as Kai noticed its hands were gathering mana. He recognised the spell to be the basic water spell, [Ice Bolt].

The duelbot shot the spell at Kai, who easily sidestepped and avoided it. Kai muttered to himself, "This would be a good warm-up." as he allowed mana to flow out of his body, covering it entirely with a near-transparent hue before leaping towards the duelbot.