William PoV

Seven days of training with Sir Francis and I have yet to learn the skill.

At first he would just hit me, then he started telling me to change some things in my posture, and when he had to leave I was left doing some drills with the shield.

My status have kept growing steadily.

At this moment Sir Francis and I are sitting inside the training room having a five minute a break.

“You know William, at first I wasn’t going to train you”

He looks serious.

“I thought you would quit after a few hits, after all, this training we are doing is step five, and most people can’t handle it before completing the previous steps”

Then he laughs.

“But you are an obstinate fellow”

“Why would you want me to quit?”

He sighs.

“You know I’m in love with miss Daniah and used that information to get me to teach you, I was just going to hit you for a while”

I look behind him, the priestess is blushing next to the door, he just confessed and doesn’t even know it.

“Teacher”

My tone is serious.

“What is it?”

“Miss Daniah is behind you and I think she heard what you just said”

He raises an eyebrow and then laughs.

“That’s a good joke”

I sigh.

“Look behind you”

“I’m not falling for that”

I look towards the priestess and shrug my shoulders.

Sir Francis face gets pale, he slowly turns around a sees the girl standing next to the door.

They both remain silent for a minute.

Awkward situation for me to be in.

She smiles and then leaves.

The instructor is too shocked to do anything.

Five minutes later he finally realizes she left already.

“Are you okay?”

I can see a tear appearing in his eye.

“Get ready to train, I need to relieve my frustration”

That means he’s going full power, scary.

I grab the shield and prepare myself to hold my position, I must stop his attack no matter what.

He swings his sword towards me, his movement is so fast I can’t even see the sword coming in my direction.

The clash of sword and shield echoes all through the room.

I was pushed back a couple of meters, at least I have grown stronger these past few days.

‘By holding your ground against a stronger foe you have learnt Naleya’s Shield

Health +5

STR +1

VIT +2’

“I got it”

Sir Francis looks at me confused.

“I learnt the skill”

He smiles.

“Good”

His tone sounds depressed.

I would like to fix his mood, I’m thankful to him for training with me the whole week.

“Come on, it isn’t the end of the world, besides I think you have chance with the priestess”

He keeps looking down.

“Why do you say that?”

“She was blushing and smiling, didn’t you notice?”

He looks at me.

“Really?”

This man clearly doesn’t have faith in himself, at least concerning women.

“I saw her, she was smiling”

He smiles awkwardly.

That’s it, I leave the room.

I find the priestess sitting next to the fountain in the garden.

Time to play matchmaker.

Normally I’m not the kind to meddle with other people affairs, but I like both of them and I think they would be a good couple.

Besides, I know how it is to have to look at the person you like from afar.

“Miss Daniah?”

She is playing with her hair while observing the clouds in the sky.

A minute later she notices I’m in front of her.

“William? What are you doing here?”

“I learnt my skill”

She smiles.

“Congratulations”

“Anyway, that isn’t the reason I’m here”

She tilts her head while staring at me.

“It is about Sir Francis”

The priestess blushes.

“The poor man was shocked when he noticed you heard his unexpected confession, when I left the room he wasn’t looking good”

“Why is that?”

She seems concerned.

“Imagine that you are secretly in love with someone and that person happens to overhear your feelings, how would you feel?”

She remains silent while thinking.

“I understand how Sir Francis feels, in his situation I would go to hide in my room and never come out again, not only would I be embarrassed, I would be too afraid to face that person”

“I have to talk to him”

She stands up and leaves the garden.

Should I wait here? I must admit I’m curious.

I will walk over there slowly, no need to meddle in their affairs anymore.

When I’m about to arrive there, Miss Daniah is leaving the room.

She notices me and bows, after that she keeps walking.

I enter the room and Sir Francis looks a lot happier than before, I imagine things went well.

“Teacher? Are you okay?”

He looks at me, I don’t remember seeing such a happy expression before in his face.

“Ah.. William, yes, everything is alright”

I sigh.

“Sir Francis, I came here to thank you for training me”

His expression turns serious.

“I only hit you, you learned the skill through your own hard work”

Then he takes a small journal from his pocket.

“Take this, you may find some useful tips to improve your skills”

I grab the journal and put it in my bag.

“Thanks”

“Are you going to take the test now?”

First, I have to get to the arena and beat eight people to earn a prize.

“There is something I have to do before graduating”

I hope that little devil is there, I want revenge.

“I doubt we will see each other again, I hope the skill you learned from me is useful in your journey”

“I’m sure it will”

After that we say goodbye and I leave the temple, Miss Daniah was nowhere to be found so I couldn’t thank her.

On my way to the arena I stopped in the marketplace to pick up some food.

A while later I arrive to the arena, there are more people than before.

I register for a battle and go to my designated circle.

When my turn arrives, the opponent is some guy holding a sword with two hands. I have a sword and shield.

He swings his sword and I block with the shield, compared to Sir Francis his power is lacking I barely even feel it.

I decide to keep blocking for a couple of minutes, until he runs out of stamina. Now he’s a sitting duck, I use Bash and after a few hits he gives up.

Every battle I have after goes in a similar fashion, I block and my opponents get tired, my skill even got to level 2.

I looked for the little devil, doesn’t look like I will have my revenge today.

On my ninth battle a magic user appears, but compared to the girl I fought before he lacks control and speed, at least he has two basic spells, water ball and ice javelin.

Water ball is fast but weak, my shield is good enough to stop it. While Ice Javelin takes him more time to cast and is slower, but I can feel its power when it hits the shield, when he starts casting it for a second time I rush and hit him with my sword, his concentration fails and his Ice Javelin disappears.

A minute later I win the battle, in comparison with Iris, he was more like the stereotypical mage who is weak against physical attacks.

My tenth battle I win easily.

“Congratulations on winning ten times in a row”

The NPC in the counter grabs a little box from a drawer and hands it to me.

I open the box, there is a brooch with the shape of a sword and shield.

I wonder if it gives some bonus, now I realize that I haven’t learnt how to analyze items, do I need a special skill?

The man notices my expression and explains to me that to see the description I just need to hold the item and say ‘information’, most items will show its basic information that way, but some will need to be identified by a special skill.

“Information”

‘Initia Elite Brooch

This brooch takes the shape of the weapons used to win on Initia Academy’s Elite Arena, it is proof of being one of the best students.

STR+ 1

VIT+1’

I put the brooch on my shirt.

After that I thank the NPC and leave the arena.

I’m a little disappointed, I think it was too easy and I didn’t manage to fight the opponent I was looking for.

Now it’s time to graduate, I wonder what the test is like.

I walk through the academy, it’s almost evening.

The examination center is open, I find the same lady that answered my questions on the first day.

When I sit in front of her she smiles.

“I’m surprised, it only took you two weeks to learn three skills”

She smiles.

“You are the eight adventurer ready to take the test, so far only two have passed the exam”

Six failed, I thought it was going to be easier.

“Are you ready to take the test?”

“Yes, I’m ready”

The woman snaps her fingers and suddenly I’m in a room surrounded by white, just like when I was creating my character.

There are hundreds of weapons around to choose from.

She didn’t even explain the test, but it must be combat related.

I grab a sword and a shield, they are the same type I used during my training.

“Show Status”

‘Name: William

Class: None

Health: 55/55

Mana: 10/10

Stamina: 100/100

Satiety: 91/100

STR: 12(+1)

AGI: 5

VIT: 13(+1)’

My health has grown nicely, but I find my lack of mana to be a problem, maybe I should have gone to read books or something like that.

“Show Skills”

‘Class Skills:

None

Common Skills:

Sword Mastery – Beginner Level 2

Bash – Beginner Level 2

Naleya’s Shield – Beginner Level 3’

I think I can handle anything they throw at me.

I open the door, a completely different room appears, there is grass and you can see the cloudy sky.

As I pass through the door, it disappears.

I take a look around, there is a silhouette in front of me.

I walk towards it.

Slowly I get closer, a human shaped creature is there, grey skin, yellow eyes, bald head, some tattered clothes covering it, around 1.50 meters tall.

When it notices me, it has a furious expression.

The creature starts running in my direction, a knife in its hand. It is faster than any of the players I fought on the arena, I don’t have time to react and my leg gets stabbed.

‘Health -12’

The pain in my leg is unbearable, the hits I took on the arena where nothing compared to this.

Looks like at the arena there was some sort of pain reduction system.

After hitting me the creature backs away and runs around me in circles.

I manage to remain standing.

Slowly I get used to its speed and manage to avoid its attacks, luckily the injury in my leg isn’t serious, the pain was strong only for a few seconds.

Then I notice the creature coming directly towards me at full speed, I raise my shield and block the knife, it isn’t strong, it gets pushed back by my shield and falls on the ground.

The creature looks stunned, it is my chance to attack. I gather all my power in the sword and hit while it’s on the ground.

I slash multiple times, the creature cries in pain until it finally falls dead on the grass.

My sword remains inside its body, the feeling of having stabbed something it’s strange, on the arena I never directly stabbed my opponent, I slowly damaged their health by slashing them.

‘You have killed the Young Goblin’

‘You have passed Initia Academy test’

Once I finish reading the messages I’m transported to a white room.

It’s completely empty.

I wait a few minutes, nothing seems to happen.

Suddenly a woman appears out of thin air.

I notice she looks similar to the priestess Daniah, a little bit older.

“Congratulations William”

She pauses.

“You are the third graduate from Initia Academy”

It wasn’t that hard, I was surprised by the goblin at first but after a minute I got used to it.

“I am Naleya, Goddess of Love and Wisdom”

What? Why is a goddess in front of me?

“Every adventurer that graduates the academy gets the protection of a God, meaning we provide you with a class”

I see, she will change my class.

“You are talented, that is why I decided to take you into my protection, most adventurers will be blessed by minor gods, only one in a thousand gets chosen by a member of the seven major gods of this world”

This got better.

“Would you like to hear my suggestion for a class or do you have an idea of what you want to be? A class suggested by a God is most likely to be unique, shaped to your capabilities”

Looks like I have no choice then.

“I would like to hear your suggestion”

She smiles.

“King of Hearts, that’s the class I suggest for you”

King of Hearts? I’m not sure about it, I don’t think I could tell people that my class is King of Hearts, it would be embarrassing. My brother would certainly laugh about it.

“It is a special class tied to my followers, if you take it people would know you were chosen by me”

What to do? I’m sure the class has strong skills, Naleya’s protégée doesn’t sound bad, but the embarrassment.

“What kind of skills would I learn as King of Hearts?”

“I’m sorry, that I cannot say”

I remain silent for a while, it is a hard decision to make.

“Then William, will you take my suggestion?”

A vicious look appears on her face, I don’t think I really have a choice in the matter.

“Yes, I will become the King of Hearts”

“Good”

She smiles, the goddess is clearly a beautiful woman, probably one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It isn’t only her pale skin and dark hair, nor her plentiful curves, I’m just drawn by her eyes, such powerful eyes, and the warm and gentle feeling I get from looking at her.

“Are you done admiring my beauty?”

She sounds amused.

I blush.

She laughs.

“Let’s continue”

Suddenly I feel a powerful force, I unconsciously kneel.

The goddess puts her hand on my head.

“From now on you will be known as William Royalblood, the King of Hearts”

‘You have become the King of Hearts

Faith added to status

Health +50

Mana +20

STR+5

WIS+5

VIT+10’

‘You have learned the skill Royal Presence’

“Look for me when you become stronger”

Slowly I pass out while looking at the goddess smiling face.

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Only one chapter left to finish the academy arc and the real adventure begins.

Thanks to everyone who leave comments and enjoy the story.