The following morning of the next day, together with Julius, Zieg was quickly flown over to the gates of the magic academy. After bidding Julius farewell, Zieg observed his surroundings. There were already several people standing idly by the gates, waiting to be accepted into the academy. It looked like there were several races gathered that was from a large age range, from those with beards and short statures, beautiful appearances and pointed ears, beastial features and qualities, and many more.

The academy itself was excessively ornate and enormous, it was white and glossy, with mana slightly radiating from the buildings and ground. Zieg could tell that they offered some resistance against magical attacks at a glance.

The entrance to the academy was particularly prominent, with two large stone gargoyles sitting atop the two pillars situated at the gate. The eyes of the gargoyles’ seemed to ominously follow and observe those standing at the entrance.

Suddenly, a voice rang out into the minds of all those waiting at the gate, “Welcome to Galvane, the happiest place on Grandiel! Your new headmaster Chase here. You all are hereby accepted into Galvane. You may now enter freely as long as you continue to be a student here. First, go to the armory located in the west wing of the academy and receive your badges, your room numbers are written behind them.”

As soon as Chase finished, one of the gargoyles broke off from its state of stillness, and spread its wings to fly. It made gestures like it wanted the new students to follow it.

Following the hovering gargoyle to the west wing, Zieg felt like there were several eyes on him.

The gargoyle led them into the armory, and behind a counter was a golem made of metal… wearing a maid outfit.

The golem made an out-of-place bow, and said in a robotic voice, “Please come forth and receive your badges and interspacial ring. After taking them, you may enter the door that leads to the first warehouse and take three sets of uniforms, and up to one piece of equipment, taking more than one at any given time will result in immediate punishment and expulsion.”

Behind the counter, there were five doors. Each door had a sign with different numbers that said, “1,000+,” “1,000-,” “500-,” “100-,” “10-,” only those with the respective ranks were allowed into each warehouse, and the equipment of each warehouse only became increasingly impressive at lower numbers. Even your living conditions were separated into ranks, and those at the top 10 were given their own mansions to stay in.

It seemed that classes at Galvane were optional, and most students enrolled for the hands-on battle experience in order to make breakthroughs and gain insights.

After each of the new students picked up their badges and interspacial rings at the counter, they all made their way into one of the doors with the sign labelled “1,000+.”

Zieg experimented with the plain, silver interspacial ring in interest, and discovered that they were enchanted with a space magic that allowed you to store some inanimate items within them.

The badges looked like a miniature silver kiteshield with a blank circular mirror in the center, three faintly glowing green spheres of light on top of the badge indicating the required daily number of duel acceptances, and one faintly glowing green sphere of light on the bottom indicating the daily number of duel challenges available.

Zieg had already arrived at the end of the warehouse by the time he had finished inspecting the two new items.

Within the armory, a plethora of armor and weapons ranging from variations of pole weapons, swords, daggers, bows, staves, bludgeons, flails, whips, knuckles, and many others were displayed before them. There were many that even Zieg was unable to recognize, but the equipment all had one thing in common: they all looked very ordinary. To him, they were comparable to garbage.

The school uniform appeared very sleek and black, with streaks of white symbols and designs.

It looked like the best metal available here was iron, meaning that there would be a large gap in equipment in each of the five rank groups. Zieg was very quick to understand this fact, and thought that headmaster Chase, the one who came up with this idea, was actually a very shrewd person.

(So the only way to win a duel against someone who ranks in a higher group than you is by relying on your own abilities) he thought, and nodded approvingly. He unintentionally let a smile creep across his face in anticipation to the coming battles that reminded him of his days courting death while roaming the North.

He quickly stored three sets of uniforms into his interspacial ring, and grabbed a random iron shortsword without even looking back twice, which to him, seemed like a longsword given his age of five years old. While the other new students were still browsing through the trash gear, he was the first to make his way out of the warehouse, then out of the armory.

The second Zieg left the armory, he was met with an onslaught of stares, all of them holding either curiosity or killing intent.

There were multiple groups and lone veteran students in the hundreds that have been at Galvane since its founding observing both him and the armory in general from a distance.

They were all there with the intention of either scouting out the new arrivals, or were after their blank badges. If a ranking student wins a duel against another with a blank badge, they’re allowed to take the blank badge and trade it in exchange for three days of immunity against duel challenges. In short, some of them were here in hopes that easy prey will challenge them in order to have a break from duel challenges for a few days. They were especially looking for, “a kid with silver hair that headmaster Chase thinks is named Hope.”

The veterans were all looking at Zieg in interest or hostility, but most of them seemed to be looking at him in complete disdain. It was like they did not have him in their eyes. In response to those gazes, Zieg held his head up high and locked eyes with each of the students there, even those that tried to conceal their presences.

Zieg momentarily paused when his gaze came across a group that had a young human male with short, white windswept hair standing at the front. The boy looked at Zieg arrogantly, smirked, and walked away, the group around him following closely behind. Before the boy turned around, Zieg was able to catch a glimpse of a badge on his chest with the number “1” in place of where the blank mirror was. He was able to tell that the boy with white hair was at the peak of A rank, and some of the others that stood around him were as well.

As if the boy with white hair leaving was the trigger, people began talking, and things like:

“Is that the one?”

“It’s him, isn’t it?”

“A year of immunity, too easy, hahah.”

“That’s Hope?”

“I’d just watch for now, I heard he’s the son of an immortal. You’ll die if you get careless.”

“Oi, want to provoke him?”

“The Silver Saint’s kid…”

“Is there a reason why the headmaster placed a bounty on only him?”

“He’s in Galvane at such a young age, scary~”

And many other similar lines could be heard from the surrounding veteran students.

“If you plan on dying, duel with me,” Zieg said in a quiet, but firm and clear voice that instantly stopped the surrounding commotion.

“Did you hear that? He’s going to kill us! Hahaha!” one of them said, resulting in a wave of laughter from some of the students. However, there were some that held impassive expressions, and others’ whose eyes had narrowed, and there were even those that were provoked by Zieg’s statement.

“This brat…” a slim figure wrapped entirely in white bandages, similarly to a mummy, said in a barely audible whisper. Strangely, when that whisper was heard by the others, they became quiet.

“It’s the Ripper,” one of the students whispered to her colleague.

Zieg looked at the bandaged figure with interest, and saw that they possessed a badge with the number “597,” and only one of the three green spheres glowing on the top of it, and that they were at the top of B rank, while he himself had entered C rank only yesterday.

The figure began to slowly walk towards Zieg.

Alcantis the Ripper. Alcantis was infamous within Galvane for torturing and killing the challenger, always leaving behind a shredded, mutilated corpse after a duel. This earned them the nickname “The Ripper.” It was rumored that Alcantis was on par with the best among the 500- group, but chose to stay within the 1,000- group for the sheer amusement.

When Alcantis arrived just a few meters directly in front of him, Zieg loudly said, “I challenge you to a duel.”

There was a shift in the bandages in the area covering Alcantis’ mouth, and the spectators could obviously tell that it was a smile.

“I accept,” Alcantis replied in a quiet and ghastly voice. After Alcantis’ acceptance, the remaining green light on the top of their badge flickered, before it lost its light, on the other hand, Zieg’s single green light on the bottom of his badge flickered, before similarly losing its light.

“The new kid just challenged the Ripper to a duel!”

“Dying that young is a shame.”

“Is he insane?”

“Little bro, at least get laid before you die.”

“Maybe he doesn’t understand the concept of death yet, haha.”

“PLACE YOUR BETS HERE!”

“Damn it! I wanted that year of immunity!”

“That’s what he gets for not knowing his place.”

Words along those lines were heard everywhere.

“Where and when should we begin?” Alcantis silently asked.

“Here and now,” Zieg responded confidently while getting into a stance with his iron shortsword.

“Then die. Inferno Wall!” Alcantis called out, and flames erupted from their surroundings.

They were now surrounded by ten meter high walls of flame in each direction, blocking out the surrounding audience and cutting off their view.

“Now, no one will be able to save you even when you surrender,” Alcantis said while lunging towards Zieg, covering their distance in a blink of an eye.

Alcantis’ right arm wrapped in bandages swiped towards Zieg in a grabbing motion. Reacting quickly, Zieg backstepped to avoid the grapple, at that moment, he heard an almost inaudible voice say, “Release.”

A large blade burst out of the bandages on each of Alcantis’ forearms arms. Alcantis had actually been wearing gauntlets with retractable blades underneath the bandages.

Taken by surprise by the blade heading towards him from the attempted grab, Zieg was barely able to parry against the blade in time with his iron shortsword.

His body could not keep up with his reactions, and in his state even Alcantis was faster than him because of the difference in tiers of power. Although the parry had been successful, a strange metallic sound was heard. Zieg’s iron shortsword had been snapped in half. He was now holding onto a hilt with a broken blade.

(Shit! I knew those weapons were garbage! This wouldn’t have happened if I still had Bloodwhistler! Whatever, no time for inner monologues) Zieg thought, annoyed.

“Wind Blade!” Zieg shouted, and the blade of his shortsword became a blade of wind. He quickly retreated while sending blades of air flying towards Alcantis.

The blades of air were all easily blocked, and once again their distance was closing when Zieg abruptly stopped and stood his ground.

“Finally accepted your death?” Alcantis mocked, and leapt towards Zieg while swinging a bladed arm.

Still standing his ground, Zieg shouted, “Despair Aura!”

The faint blue mana around Zieg slowly started turning dark purple in color. This was one of his abilities that was able to bring peak A ranks to their knees in oppression and fear while he was in his prime as an immortal. It was an aura that made all those weaker than him tremble and wallow in absolute despair. He knew that the effect would be greatly reduced because Alcantis was actually currently more powerful than him in terms of pure power, but had thought that it would be effective the first time it was used as a surprise.

When Despair Aura was used, Alcantis experienced a faint sense of fear, and froze in mid-air for a moment. That moment was all it took. Taking advantage of Alcantis’ pause, Zieg smoothly slid straight through Alcantis with a swing of his blade of wind.

When Alcantis landed on their feet, there was the sound of two objects having been dropped. One was Alcantis themself, the other was the left arm Alcantis had swung with.

“Ahhhh!” Alcantis shouted in pain, before stumbling over and falling.

The amputation had been so fast and clean from the shoulder that no blood had landed onto Zieg, and only now was blood pouring out of where the left arm had previously been attached.

Using fire magic, Alcantis quickly cauterized the wound to prevent bloodloss.

“Kill… I’ll kill you…” Alcantis mumbled incoherently while trying to get up, only to stumble and fall over again.

The loss of a limb had created a distortion in Alcantis’ sense of balance, and thus Alcantis was unable to even stand upright. As far as Zieg was concerned, the duel had already ended in his victory.

“Admit defeat, or I’ll kill you,” he stated coldly.

“I’m not done yet…” Alcantis snapped back, while struggling to stand and falling back down repeatedly.

Zieg sighed, “Just give up. I’m not fond of killing pitiful women who are unable to even defend themselves.”

That had been the truth. Stemming from his real mother, Zieg wanted to avoid it as much as he could.

Falling down flat on her back one last time, Alcantis tilted her head slightly to look directly at the sky, and said, “I… surrender…”

When those words were uttered, the number “597” on her badge was replaced by a blank mirror, and the number reappeared onto Zieg’s badge.

The walls of flame began to slowly dissipate.

The audience of students had been waiting in anticipation. The betting odds were 30:1 against Zieg. They were waiting impatiently to see the mutilated corpse of a kid with silver hair. Finally, there was no more fire.

No one made a sound. It was eerily quiet. Most of them couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was so shocking to them that they needed some time to comprehend the scene before their eyes.

In the center of where the walls of flame had previously been, the Ripper was on its back on the ground, panting heavily and looking up at the sky. On closer inspection, there was something missing from the Ripper. The Ripper’s left arm was no longer there. That alone was enough to make some of the students’ mouths hang open.

Standing a few meters away from the Ripper, looking up at the same sky was, “a kid with silver hair that headmaster Chase thinks is named Hope.” The odd part of it all was that he was completely unharmed. The audience was baffled. The duel had ended so quickly that they had thought Zieg had been butchered to death, just like that. They had all scanned his power before and after the fight, and he was undoubtedly barely a C rank, just passing by the minimum requirements to enter Galvane.

It was unprecedented in Galvane for someone to win a duel against another from a higher tier of power.

Some of the audience recalled Zieg’s words, “If you plan on dying, duel with me.”

When they remembered those words, they felt a sense of foreboding.

While some students were now wary of Zieg, there were some who grinned. They were the ones who wanted to take advantage of the fact that he had to accept his next three duels.