CHAPTER 12: SLOW PROGRESS

It was already Sunday, the 14th.

Tomorrow marked the official opening ceremony of the academy, as well as the beginning of the first class.

For the past three days, Amon had done nothing but train.

His progress? Minimal, but there was some.

"Status,"

------

[Status Window]

Name: Amon Vale

Age: 17

Rank: Awakened

Class: Death Bearer

Element: Shadow, Darkness

Mana:52

Strength: 18

Agility: 23

Speed: 26

Endurance: 10

Skills: --

Spells: [Gloom Orb], [Shadow Clutch]

-------

"Hm. At least there’s some progress," he sighed, closing the status window.

With that, Amon returned his focus to training.

He walked back onto the training grounds and repeated the same drills he’d done the past few days. What was amusing, though, was the sheer amount of time he dedicated—ten hours a day, every day. That kind of effort, though brutal, was the only reason he’d made any progress at all.

He continued his usual sword practice: 200 strikes each of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal cuts. After that, he sparred against the training dummy, practicing his movement and footwork.

Thankfully, Amon wasn’t entirely clueless. He had done a little training before arriving at the academy, so his basics weren’t a total disaster. But if he was honest with himself, that past training was always half-hearted and irregular. He only practiced when he felt like it—which wasn’t often.

While striking the wooden dummy, a sharp sound echoed through the air.

Amon’s eyes widened as a glowing message appeared before him.

Skill Acquired: [Basic Swordsmanship]

"Status," he called again, and the window appeared once more.

-----

[Status Window]

Name: Amon Vale

Age: 17

Rank: Awakened

Class: Death Bearer

Element: Shadow, Darkness

Mana: 52

Strength: 18

Agility: 23

Speed: 26

Endurance: 10

Skills: [Basic Swordsmanship]

Spells: [Gloom Orb],[Shadow Clutch]

----

A wide grin spread across his face.

"Yes! I knew it! I do possess hidden talent. Four days of training, and I’ve already acquired a swordsmanship skill!"

He chuckled to himself. He was mostly joking.

The truth? Getting [Basic Swordsmanship] wasn’t exactly rare. Most people who trained hard from a young age already had skills like that by the time they awakened. In Amon’s case, he’d never trained properly during childhood, so his skill list was empty when he first awakened.

The most practice he got as a kid was running away from things—After pickpockting, trouble, bastard goons or angry merchants.

"Those were glorious days," Amon muttered with a nostalgic sigh, remembering the chaos of his life after his parents from this world died.

He feel sad for a while and missed them.

Though now, things were different. He was determined to grow stronger, even if the path was slow.

He continued to train until the sky turned orange.

---

That night, lying on his bed, Amon checked his pager.

There was a new notice about class assignments.

"I’m in Class A."

He also noticed his rank among the first-years.

"Last... figures," he muttered.

Just two days ago, Professor Darven had summoned him for a brief evaluation. The professor hadn’t checked much—only Amon’s mana capacity, elemental affinity, and whether he had any skills or spells.

Back then, Amon had no skills and only two spells with low mana output. Compared to the others, he was easily the weakest student in the entire year.

Even among the commoners, most had more skills and knew basic or even advanced spells.

"Seraphina Luminous... she’s ranked first," Amon said, scrolling through the list. Just recently, he’d realized that Seraphina was the girl he had seen on the training grounds on his first day.

"Haven’t seen her around since."

The second-ranked student caught his attention.

"Marcus?! That bastard is actually second place? He’s really strong... maybe I shouldn’t tick him off too much."

Further down the list, he saw Eliana Sylvaris at third.

"An elf," he whispered. "Haven’t seen her either these past few days."

"She must be beautiful and kind."

Then came the fourth-ranked student.

"Aisha Darkfang... beastmen," he noted.

All the top-ranked students came from prestigious families. They each held golden passes, much like Amon. But unlike him, they had earned theirs.

Class A consisted of 100 students. Out of those, only five were golden ticket holders.

Unfortunately for Amon, the top four ranked students—Seraphina, Marcus, Eliana, and Aisha—were all in his class.

He, meanwhile, was dead last.

Out of the entire first-years, he was ranked 400th. That also meant he was the lowest-ranked student in Class A.

’At least according to class’s ranking I am 100th.Better than 400th’

The academy had randomly distributed the twenty golden ticket students among four classes. By what divine joke, Amon ended up in the same class as the best and brightest?

He sighed and thought, I should at least try to befriend one of the top students.

Having made up his mind, he placed the pager on the bedside table and lay back down.

His thoughts drifted toward the opening ceremony and the beginning of classes.

’Am I going to be bullied? Mocked for being weak? For being a commoner? Just like those web novels I used to read...’

He stared at the ceiling for a while.

Then, as if pushing away the negativity, he shook his head and smirked.

"Whatever comes, I’ll face it head-on."

As much as hard this academy maybe,his determined to enjoy it to the fullest.

And with that final thought, Amon drifted into a deep, well-earned sleep, his body exhausted from the intense training.

Tomorrow would be a new beginning.

The time has come.