Jael and Zara stopped once they got within six feet apart from Asher.

They both treated Asher's mocking words like thin air. Whatever he said was just mere flowery speech that didn't mean anything to Jael and Zara.

Jael's expression remained arrogant as his gaze imposingly glowered down only on Asher, completely ignoring Reese and Kylee.

"I already thought you were hopelessly stupid before. But now you're also showing that you're pitifully stupid. To think you consider yourself superior for beating the weakest ones in our, you know, massive ass group."

Zara didn't want to mince trash-talking words with Asher. She pointed to Asher, giving him a glare that expels danger. "We only came here to give you one last warning. Keep your pitiful head down and respond when the boss calls for you. Or….it will only get far worse from here, Vipond."

Asher was entirely undisputed. He only gave Zara and Jael a completely indifferent look while telling them, "Yea, yea, whatever you say. But you know….all of this is just empty threats if you can't back up your words with action."

"Tch." Zara and Jael simultaneously clicked their teeth, nearly feeling the urge to crack open Asher's skull already.

But Zara and Jael held their hands. They knew his hot air confidence will get destroyed very soon. Jael was the one to speak this time, telling Asher,

"So you want to keep going, huh? Perfect. You will know hell very soon."

And without missing a beat, Zara and Jael turned their backs on Asher and left from the front of the Ice Cream shop.

Throughout that whole exchange, neither of them spared even one glance at Reese or Kylee.

"Haaah…." Another great big sigh leaked from Reese and Kylee's mouths.

"Man, I don't think you'll ever let up with anything. Now that everything's on the table, things will escalate from here. I'm just hoping this doesn't come to bite us in the ass." Reese said while shaking his head.

Kylee gave Asher a deep look before saying, "Really, someone's gonna need to be there to save your ass with all the trouble you dive headfirst into. And honestly….I'm getting a bit tired of being treated like air by them every time."

Reese nodded and followed up, saying, "Those guys are vicious, and we no doubt fear them. But they could at least acknowledge our existence. It really is time for some self-improvement on our part. Or else, how can we even try to save Asher, Kylee?"

"Oh, please! It was me that had to do some extra convincing to get your ass on this decision." Kylee joked a bit, getting Reese to lightly chuckle in slight embarrassment.

Asher wildly smiles as he already sees their moods improve a bit. "Alright, alright. No matter what, we're all heading to the same place. Come on, let's get this year started."

At the same time, Asher, Reese, and Kylee began heading over to Balreth Academy, all three of them at varying determination levels.

….

A few hours quickly slipped by. And Balreth Academy was bustling with rowdy noise as per usual.

But for today, there was even more excitement roaring through the halls.

The thousands of students all had varying levels of mindset as they travel through their day. Some felt satisfied, some felt a slight sense of melancholy, others felt a rising fighting spirit surge within their bodies.

Presently, every student has just got done with signing up for their own goal path in life.

And along with common expectations, more than half of the thousands of students signed up for General Job classes. Even though this path of life leads to very little fame and wealth, it was the most guaranteed in keeping their lives and getting some form of job.

After all, the General job market had an oversaturation abundance. These students would eventually go on to take up the numerous civil worker jobs, factory workers jobs, or a Common Fighter job.

Out of those jobs, the only one that still gives a legitimate threat to one's life is a Common Fighter job.

These jobs include training up to become guardsmen for Pearlcrest city to go on regular patrols either in the Decrypted Wood or outside in the general area of the City.

On patrol, these guardsmen would hunt any wild Mana monster, either capturing them or killing them. For the average person, even when they have a Magical Power, the thought of fighting a feral Mana monster is still terrifying.

Fortunately for these jobs, guardsmen patrols are always gathered into team formations so everyone would always have each other backs.

And though the Common Fighter jobs are the most dangerous from General courses, it is the job field where anyone is guaranteed to land a job.

There would always be Mana monsters to kill, and accidents frequently happen, so more forces needed to be replenished.

While it may seem from these General jobs that one would get stuck in a routine lifestyle. There was one silver lining. If one can put in a tremendous amount of work being a Common Fighter, they would be able to become a part of Pearlcrest City Mayor's Forces.

Being a part of the Mayor's Force gives anybody a free pass of having to go out and hunt dangerous Mana Monsters.

Their pay is also exponentially increased, and one can even gain some respect from this position.

What the Mayor's Forces really do is act as the police for the City's general public. They would enforce laws and rules on those who have the lowest form of Magical Power, ensuring there is a stable order here.

On the other side things, every student joining the competition year all had a burst of fiery fighting spirit!

Every student who signed up has the obvious goals and aspirations to join a Sect or special Academy.

Their blood began to pump at all the numerous prospects that came with it. Fame, glory, status, power, all of this come with joining these kinds of places. In some sort of form, these students want to be well known throughout the entirety of Pearlcrest City.

In one of these blood-pumping competition classes, Asher was, of course, in it.

The room was set up in a fairly traditional classroom setting.

Compared to General job classes, there weren't as many desks and chairs. But the students here were still plentiful, and there was enough to seat them all.

At the front of the classroom was highly advanced tech. It was all various computer tech that Asher never bothered to study about. And that computer was connected towards a modernized smartboard.

Towards the windows of the rooms, Asher could be seen sitting at one of the desks there. His hand rested on his chain as eyes curiously gazed around the whole room.

There were around forty students here. Most of them were humans, but there was the occasional different species race.

As par of the course, these students had already split off into their own groups and were loudly talking with each other.

Asher wondered how they could have so many conversations among all of the bustling noise from each other. But, he remained to himself, being indifferent to his classmates.

And in return, his classmates left him alone.

After being sorted into this class, all they needed to do now is wait for the Professor to come.

As he waited, Yuki suddenly began to talk. 'Hm. You know, I don't blame you. I really wouldn't talk to any of these kids either. They're just too….standard for my liking.'

Asher quirked his eyebrows. From how Yuki usually acts, he believed she would be the one to have a loud, colorful personality that stole the attraction of any place she was in. She certainly is quite lively with him.

But before Asher could make any remarks, Yuki immediately spoke again.

'But hey! Since you're to yourself, you know what this means? You could use this rowdy noise to try and focus your control over Spirit Mana.'

Asher thought about it for a second before understanding would be a good practice in focusing his mind. 'Alright, thanks for the suggestion, Yuki.'

Of course, it was easier to cultivate Spirit Mana in a completely calm and quiet environment.

But there were apparent merits to being able to separate yourself from a great deal of noise and entirely focus your mind.

Asher knew this would only sharpen his focus and make it easier to cultivate in a tranquil environment.

There had been times in the past where he had attempted this process. Although Asher wasn't very successful at any time, he tried it. Even for him, the noise was just too distracting, and his mind couldn't attain a focus grasp.

However, now, Asher believed it will go down differently. His whole body is now greatly enhanced by System's soul Magic, and there was also the Merger of powers he had with Yuki.

Asher thought these combining factors should make a significant difference.

With a rising assurance, Asher closed his eyes. The noises of the students still slithered into his ears, echoing around his head.

But this time, Asher used his Aura Sense to focus his mind. He put all of his attention on just trying to perceive Spirit Mana and nothing else.

No matter how loud some of the students were getting, Asher kept his Aura Sense focused on perceiving the Spirit Mana permeating the air. None of what the students, none of what the students were doing, matter to Asher.

In this heightened state of focus, Asher could still hear the mumbling of students.

But after several seconds, a change started to occur.

Slowly, the students' noisy bustling began to become quieter for Asher. Even the loudest ones started to get tone down to a more manageable noise level.

And as the students slowly got quieter, a blurry colorful image began to form in Asher's mental scape space.

The blurry image was, of course, Spirit Mana.

Asher felt a bit of satisfaction seeing he was actually getting somewhere on his very first try with all of his new powers.

Although, as expected, compared to cultivating in his room, cultivating with the noisy students was a challenging task.

Asher could gather the Spirit Mana in his mental scape space. Still, it was much harder trying to keep it stable in this environment.

The students' volume level may have gone down, but they didn't fade away completely.

As Asher continued on sharpening his focus, he was getting close to making the students' noise become small whispers.

But right then, a hostile sensation streaked through Asher's Aura Sense.

Asher had sensed two aggressive presences strolling up to his classroom. Because of this, his focus was ruined, and the Spirit Mana disappeared from his mental scape space.

An annoyed expression crossed over onto Asher's face.

His eyes flung back open, and he could tell his first day of the competition year is destined to not be peaceful.