"You're from the academy, right?" Ingrid pulled his blade out from a dead Thyxar.
"Then you must know my brother." He dipped his hand into the corpse, extracting two black orbs that had pulsated with an eerie light.
'Existence stones.'
Zach had never seen the orb when he previously killed the imp cause the stone got absorbed into him directly.
"Wait, you have a brother?"
"He's a platinum student named Grey." He looked at Zach.
"You should know him, considering you guys are of the same rank." Zach smiled internally; he didn't know how to tell the kind knight that he was, in fact, trash.
"Yeah, I know him..." Zach rubbed his neck. The knight looked at him for a bit and sighed.
"You know, I hate people lying to me."
Ingrid's sharp eyes glared at Zach.
'Ah, sh*t, what was I thinking?'
He could've known a knight with advanced senses would be able to tell he was lying from a mile away.
"Calm down, sir." Zach chuckled nervously, holding his hand up in defeat.
"Telling an imperial royal knight to calm down... you've got some nerve."
"I mean I'm about to reach the platinum rank by next month." Zach stated.
"So you're at the gold rank..."
"Well... not quite."
Ingrid raised a brow.
"I'm at the bronze rank, sir." The academy was the structure that took up the entire space on the island.
Turns out this world was also driven to the edge of extinction, and the only fortress standing were the two great kingdoms.
The Kingdom of Persia was once a place of trade turned into a military warzone. Zach could say Persia was a military island.
Everyone here was either retired knights, servants to knights, or aspiring knights.
Then there was the other Kingdom, Kingdom of Creed, which was actually the bigger kingdom, filled with traders, merchants, weapon vendors, and anything you would find in a totally normal kingdom.
The lush land isn't ruled by a king but by a series of knights called the Twelve Cavalry.
Totally different from Persia, where even newborn babies get their swords picked out before their awareness sharpens.
"Bronze, huh..." The knight crushed the black orb, sending a wave of bright blue energy through his body.
"Take care, boy." He began walking away, returning the sword back to its scabbard.
Zach didn't know whether to tell him or not. Telling a royal knight there would be an attack from Thyxars by next month would actually sound insane.
"Ingrid..." Zach called out. Ingrid turned to him.
"Make sure you are ready by the shores three days after next month." Zach spoke.
Ingrid raised a brow. "Why?" he said, almost lazily.
Zach pointed to the dead corpse. "I heard one of the invaders mention something about an attack three days from next month."
Ingrid looked at him. "No need to lie to me, boy... you know something." 'As expected... he's a sharp one.' He internally commented.
"I just know it." Zach said. Ingrid pondered for a bit.
"I'll think about it." He walked away into the tall trees ahead.
"I hope this changes the course of things..." Zach's next plan: Get stronger.
And the only way to truly get stronger was to consume as many Bloodstones as he could.
Zach thought back to the underground cave where he met the imp.
The place was littered with Bloodstones, up to two thousand.
If people are really consuming 2000 Bloodstones in a single gulp, then even killing 1000 monsters means nothing.
Zach can't think about it; he had to get out of this damned trial. And fast.
Zach tried to pick up the giant greatsword, but the thing was damned too heavy, so he proceeded to rip out the dead beast's sword-like tail.
"He's not using it... do you mind if I do?" It wasn't that hard; the blade slid off the tail easily.
It was a raw blade; Zach used a cloth he found in the corner to wrap the blade's rim.
Perfect. Zach raised the sword.
Ingrid returned to the mainland above the cliff, but Zach stayed in the oasis path of land.
The island's layout allows scouts to look afar from above, but the cliff was way too high to properly see what was going on down below.
Days passed by, and Zach used the techniques Beatrice taught him to hunt the monsters.
The city had already sent knights to take over the border knights.
Knights occasionally wandered by, wondering what the young lad was doing.
In the day, Zach would kill the monsters and absorb the Bloodstones; in the night, Zach would chill with the border guards, listening to them complaining about work and how 'stressful' guarding the gate was.
Slowly, two weeks passed by, with effort and grit.
[Name: Zachariah Oliver Keal]
[Age: 17]
[Class: Shifter class]
[Sequence level: Earth]
[Existence pool 0/100]
[Soul essence 312/312]
[Skill: Shadow Morph
User can transform into any animal imaginable. Beware, the stronger the animal, the more soul essence it'll drain]
-
Zach had been grinding all week, and yet just a few monsters had fallen by his hands, but he could notice changes in his overall physique.
Zach grinned at his reflection in the waterfall over the nightfall, shirtless.
His body was no longer that of a bronze rank. Somehow, the Bloodstones had done wonders on his body.
His abs were perfectly defined, glistening under the pale moonlight; his hazel brown eyes and deep chocolate brown hair fell limp.
Zach stood tall in the lake; he also noticed a few changes in his height. When he came to this world, he looked 6ft, but in just a few days, he could tell he'd grown taller—probably 6'2.
Zach's face was chiseled, with what he would like to call 'sexy' dark circles under his eyes.
"Damn," Zach marveled at his reflection.
But he wasn't sure if this physique was enough to defeat a platinum-rank trainee.
To put it into perspective, there were 1000+ bronze-rank students, 500+ silver ranks, 100+ gold ranks, and 10+ platinum.
Platinum rank was for the students that were deemed overpowered by the academy, and they decided to create an entirely different rank for them.
But it was time for Zach to return.
Zach quickly wore his clothes after taking a bath in the spring.
The snake monster was disturbing his peace, so he had to kill it, making the lake near the waterfall totally safe.
He took the hidden passage, passing through the sleeping guards in the form of a shrew rat, passed by the guards in front of the gate, and morphed back in front of the receptionist's door.
The academy was barren at the time, but there were no curfews.
But sleeping is one of the attributes of a sound mind, at least that's what they were mindlessly taught in the academy.