In the dark of night, deep in a forest in the south of the empire, far from human civilization. A man dressed in a long robe was standing in the middle of wild boar corpses, and his face was not visible because of the hoodie. All of the boars had a darker skin tone than usual. They had a dark-red line throughout their bodies, starting from under their eyes.

“Tsk.”

The man clicked his tongue.

“Another failure?”

A sound came from behind him, but he didn’t bother to turn and look who he was. A man emerged from the darkness of the forest. His face was also not visible.

“It should have been ready by now. Are you stalling me?”

He asked with a menacing tone while putting his bloody sword back to its sheath. The man who came later smiled. For a second, the edge of his face revealed as the moonlight reflected. There was a red line running down his cheek. Later, he handed a small bottle filled with red liquid.

“What is this?”

The man with the sword asked while examining the bottle.

“We succeeded in liquefying. They still won’t listen to you yet, but this time they will turn when you want to.”

The man nodded and put the bottle in his pocket.

“Contact me when you perfected it.”

He said with a satisfied tone and disappeared into the forest. The man who came later checked the pile of corpses. He snapped his finger, and all of the wild boars turned into ashes.

“Hehehe, a pawn dares to talk to me with that arrogant tone.”

He laughed, and his image slowly faded away.

* * *

‘How did he do that? Was that teleportation?

Elius couldn’t sleep. He was thinking about his complete loss today. Idarin showed their rooms after a bit of tour inside the building. The room was not fancy at all. There were just two beds, that’s all, but they didn’t care as they would come just to sleep. Elius felt uncomfortable and got up from his bed. Ian was sleeping, so he tiptoed as possible. He wanted to talk with Idarin, so he went to his office and barge in without even knocking. Idarin was reviewing some documents. With the sound of the door, he raised his head to look. Elius was already about to sit.

“Come in.”

Idarin said sarcastically.

“Mr. Idarin. I don’t understand. How can you be so powerful as a mage?”

Idarin raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t expecting something like that.

“Why not?”

“Because my father said that mages are weak.”

Idarin sighed.

“Elius, don’t get me wrong, but your father can be a little dumb sometimes.”

“How so?”

“I’m sure he didn’t explain it, so I’ll try instead. Now Elius, although we refer to ourselves as mages, we shouldn’t. To be more precise, we are wizards. There are a few more mage types. They can manipulate the mana around them just like us, except they can’t control everything as we do.”

“What can they control then?”

“Hmm, healers are good examples of that. We can learn to heal too, but not to their extent. Some healers can bring back people from death if they are fast enough.”

“Wooah.”

An admiration slipped through Elius’ mouth.

“And there is the Queen of Odiria Kingdom, she is a mage too, but she only can control nature. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that she is one with nature. There are even necromancers. They are so rare, though”

“I see.”

Elius nodded.

“So… Are we actually the strongest?”

“Totally! Unless they breach our defense, of course.”

Elius didn’t look convinced.

“But you know, stop overthinking. The academy starts tomorrow morning, and you’ll receive your temporary license. So you should be sleeping.”

Elius nodded and got up. He looked a little disappointed, so Idarin wanted to cheer him up.

“But you know, starting from tomorrow, you can always ask me to teach you if you want.”

Elius’ expression got brighter instantly.

“Really?”

Idarin replied with a nod, then Elius thanked him and went back to bed.

“Will you just wait there and watch me like a creepy stalker?”

After he said that, a man emerged from the shadows of the room. For an assassin, he was wearing casual clothes. There was no sparkle in his black eyes. Looking directly into his eyes made people feel as if they would get lost in the dark.

“Didn’t want to disrupt your conversation with the kid.”

Idarin sighed.

“Why doesn’t anybody knock on the door. What do you want, Jay?

“I want them.”

“What?”

“Give them to my team.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Why? We will get to choose when they form a team anyways.”

“Yeah, but they’ll have a right to refuse. If you want them so badly, go talk to them yourself.”

Jay nodded and disappeared by blending into shadows.

The following day, while Elius was still asleep, the remaining students had already arrived and were waiting in the front yard.

“ELIUS!”

With Ian’s shout, he jumped out of bed.

“What?!”

Ian was changing his clothes.

“We are late! Get up, and let’s go quickly.”

Elius turned his head to look outside from the window. Indeed so many people were waiting. Then he quickly prepared, and they ran outside. With the building’s door opening, everyone’s attention shifted towards it. They were expecting Idarin but instead, two kids just like they appeared. After feeling everyone’s gaze, Elius weirdly smiled and scratched the back of his head, and slowly, they mingled with the crowd. As they walked to the back row, Elius scrutinized everyone. He saw elves and even a few people with big builds almost twice as him. Neil leaned towards his sister.

“Who are they? Even we were told not to come early, but two randoms are welcomed?”

He whispered. His sister, Nora, was thinking just like him right now. They both got their looks from their father. Her snow-white hair that reached her waist and her red eyes that looked like they would set you ablaze were enough to captive most men. She mesmerized most of the boys around her already, but none of them had enough courage to approach since she was the emperor’s daughter. She also wasn’t happy about it either. She was just about to say something, but then, her eyes met with Ian’s, who was passing by next to her.

*Thump*

Her heart skipped a beat, and she lost herself in his endless blue eyes like the sky. She panicked, but Ian softly nodded and kept walking. She didn’t even return the nod. She was blushing and turned his gaze towards the ground.

“I-I don’t care.”

“Huh?”

That wasn’t the kind of answer Nora would give. She always had something to say about anything. Neil turned to look at her and saw her red face.

“What happened? Are you sick?”

He checked her forehead.

“No, I’m not. Stop touching me!”

She pushed his hand. She knew he’d make fun of her if he found out.

“Hey, why are you this aggressive, or is this the tension that you girls got premen-”

But before he said it, a body blow hit him. Her face was entirely red now because people around them were listening. She bit her lip because of all the embarrassment.

“Lower your voice, idiot!”

Then she searched the area to see if Ian saw it or not, but she couldn’t find him. Finally, the building’s door opened, and Idarin appeared with 20-25 tough-looking adventurers behind him. When they all set foot to the outside, the ground shook, and its shape began to change.

Before anyone understood what was going on, Idarin and the adventurers were standing on something like a balcony. Now everyone was able to see them. Idarin cleared his throat and began to talk.

“Welcome, all. Starting from now, you are the first-year students of the Blernian Academy. I don’t care what your status was outside. It doesn’t matter here. I accepted you all because I believed you have enough potential to become great adventurers that this empire can be proud of. Today, you’ll get your students id, which is also your temporary adventurer’s license. In the past years, we have decided to change the way we teach. You will spend most of your time doing tasks assigned to you regularly with your captain instead of seeing unnecessary lectures here. In a week, we will organize a small tournament among ourselves to measure your power level. Along with it, you will be assigned to your captain as a team. Of course, if you want to set up your own team before the tournament, you are free. But keep in mind that teams can consist of a maximum of 10 people. If you understand, I wish you all a great year.”

Idarin’s voice was firm and dignified. After finishing his speech, the ground shook again and returned to its original shape. Everyone was about to follow them inside, but one of the adventurers turned towards the crowd and searched the area, then he disappeared and appeared again, in front of Elius and Ian, he was Jay. Ian flinched for a moment.

‘What? How can he cover that much distance with shadow step?”

He was surprised. But the more surprising part was he knew who Jay was. He only heard of him, but he was one of the renowned shadow assassins of the empire.

‘I never thought he was a teacher here.’

“You two.”

Jay said. Elius raised his eyebrows and pointed at himself.

“Us?”

“Yes, you two join my team.”

The crowd was already chattering, but Jay didn’t care.

“Huh? Isn’t that Jay?”

“You mean the ‘Crimson Smile’?”

“Yeah, I heard he almost wiped a city single-handedly on another continent.”

“Wow, Why do they call him the Crimson Smile?”

“It is said that if you have become his target, you will die before you can see him, but if he wants to show himself, then all you will see is his deadly smile covered in your blood.”

The people who heard that shivered in fear. Neil became more irritated.

‘It’s not enough that they’re accepted early, and they also get an offer from the Crimson Smile without even getting their IDs yet?’

On the contrary, Nora was playing with her hair next to him. Her cheeks were pink.

“What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing.”

She chuckled and went in first. Meanwhile, Ian was in shock.

“Yes!”

He shouted. That made Jay smile and nod in satisfaction.

“Hey, wait. Why should we? Who are you? How do you know us? Why do you want us?”

Elius asked all his questions at once instead of asking them one by one, as he always did. Ian panicked. He was expecting a harsh reaction, but rather, Jay casually answered.

“Because I’m strong. I’m Jay. I don’t know you, and I just saw you fighting with Idarin yesterday. That is why I want you.”

The crowd began to chatter again.

“They fought against Academy Head?”

“Who are they?”

Idarin sighed in desperation.

“Come on, everyone! We don’t have all day!”

Idarin sounded angry, and everyone hurriedly began to follow him.

Elius still wasn’t convinced, but Ian didn’t let him talk anymore.

“Sir Jay, please excuse him. He can be a little clueless sometimes. We are honored to join your team.”

Cassandra was watching them suspiciously all this time.

‘He didn’t accept any students for the last two years. How come he just casually asked these two to be in his team? Something smells fishy. I should keep an eye on them.’

“You two come find me if you are interested.”

Jay said and disappeared. Ian couldn’t suppress his smile.

“I can’t believe we will be in his team. What should our name be?”

“Hey, I haven’t decided yet, as the new generation founder of Namean Dyna-”

Ian grabbed his arm and started dragging him inside. Due to Ian’s endless praise and insistence in the afternoon, they decided to join Jay’s team. All they had to do was find a name now. Elius walked down the long hallway to the cafeteria to meet Ian. He checked his ID with sparkling eyes; therefore, he didn’t notice the huge person coming across.

*THUD!*

Elius felt like he hit a rock.

“Ouch.”

“Watch where you are going.”

Elius heard an angry tone and raised his head to look. A giant-like boy was looking at him while frowning. He was almost twice as Elius.

“Wow, man, you are huge.”

He became angrier by hearing that instead of an apology.

“Hey –”

He was about to say something, but Elius saw the elf next to him.

“Wow! Nice ears!”

He didn’t look like mocking or making fun of him, so the elf laughed awkwardly.

“He-he, thanks.”

‘What is wrong with him?’

The elf thought to himself. Then Elius walked away as if nothing had happened. The huge guy was about to shout at him from behind, but the elf stopped him.

“Liam, stop.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why? Why do you start fights everywhere we go?”

“Because it is… fun?”

“Fun to you, not to everyone else. He was one of the guys that Jay wanted in his team.”

“Really?”

A smile formed on Liam’s face.

“What do you say, Ruvyn? Should we test him?”

“Does it matter even if I say no?”

“No. Hehehe.”

Ruvyn sighed and kept walking. Two battle junkies were about to meet tonight.