Chapter 9: IX

It had been just shy of two weeks, since Dylan's battle with the soldiers.

He was currently running along a farm line. He had travelled around one hundred fifty kilometers. While his pace wasn't very fast, he had manage to avoid contact and map out a even larger portion of the kingdom.

By his math, Dylan was fairly certain he turned ten in about forty-eight hours.

Then he would finally have access to his blessing.

His plan was to wrap back and head towards the orphanage and finish mapping out the kingdom. He couldn't imagine the border being much further east than he was. For all he knew it could be the coast.

He planned to find a large enough settlement to enter unnoticed, and procure a map. Hoping the blue stones he acquired would show their worth.

He figured he could travel at least, two-hundred kilometers by the time he turned ten.

Two days of constant travel, then he would find a place to make camp and lay low a few weeks. Hopefully he would be able to understand the abilities bestowed by the blessing in that time.

'Ill finally be able to see how my power truly works,' he thought. 'Then I won't have to hide!'

A large bastion surrounded by crop fields, a bustling common area with many different merchants and the secure barracks of the city guard.

These were the things one would mention, after they mentioned, the jewel of the capital, of the Kingdom of Crane.

The Silver Academy

The name was plain, but the academy itself housed some of the most promising young mages and warriors. Any one who was not enslaved, or sent to the army at ten years old, dreamed of going there. Many of the great generals, famous adventures, and powerful nobles, garnered their education at the academy.

This time of year was the entrance exams.

The academy was one of the few places in the country that, accepted anyone from any background. If one gained entry, they would only be tasked with choosing a name for themselves. Their surname from that day forth will be Silver, and their first name would be, that of which they choose.

Joining the academy essentially, meant starting a completely new life. Something most people dreamed of. So naturally, the exams would be flooded with participants. The first few tests would weed out most of the fodder.

Afterwards, a tournament will be held, where only the top thirty-two participate.

The rankings of the class will be determined by the results of the tournament but all thirty-two students would enroll. The winner being the class president.

Any one from ten to thirteen years old can enroll as first years.

Most that make the cut were near the age cap.

This didn't mean ten year old's wouldn't be admitted, it was just less common.

This year's entrance exam had finally boiled down to the top thirty-two.

Many tests of strength and knowledge, had been preformed, to reduce the thousands of applicants, to the miniscule number of combatants.

All the prepubescent children currently enrolled in the tournament, could easily kill a mid-tier soldier. That's just how exclusive the academy was. Every child there could be considered a genius. They all had been accepted by the academy after all.

But now, it was time to see who the most powerful student in this years class would be.

The first fight was between an un-named contestant and a well-know noble's daughter.

The young woman was thirteen years old, and was prolific in ice magic. She was favorited to end up in the semi-finals, and gain a spot on the student council.

Her opponent was a small boy, maybe only a meter and a half tall.

He was cloaked in a large fur coat, with unkempt jet-black hair. A longsword held loosely in his right hand. It scraped the ground, due to the deference in it's length and his height.

He stood laxed, with a slight bent posture. His purple eyes, staring with intent at his opponent. A slight aura of a wild animal, lingered around the boy.

As if, a beast lay hidden under his skin.

The ice mage, Miranda, couldn't help but feel un-easy looking at him. She knew a magic barrier was put on them to defend from a killing blow, but she still could feel the end of her life near, when looking at her opponent.

The announcer called for the audiences attention, for the match was set to begin any moment.

With the sound of a buzzer, silence fell over the crowd.

The boy just stood there as Miranda charged, readying a spell. She had to be moving at least a kilometer a minute, and managed to land a few meters before the boy in a matter of seconds. One had to understand that the arena was over 100 meters wide.

This speed was reached due to an enhancement spell, she had pre-cast for the battle.

Before she was in striking range of the boy's sword, Miranda sent a ice blast with all her power, barreling at her opponent. She chose to fire it at a closer range to catch the boy of guard. Hoping, the sheer power of her attack was enough to finish him off.

The column of ice shards and mana obscured her vision, but she knew the boy couldn't avoid the blast.

It's width spanned over 10 meters!

He surely couldn't dodge it.

As she was having these thoughts, a gasp could be heard coming from the entire crowd, and she heard someone yell behind her.

"Focus burst!"

Dylan, had appeared behind Miranda, after she had fired the blast. He then raised his sword slowly above his head. Once it reached its pinnacle, he said the name of his new attack.

Turns out, techniques given to, or created by a Gear, required them to say the name of the attack.

For Dylan, the first skill he had learned from his blessing was, Braver. Which he activated when Miranda unleashed her attack.

Braver was an all-out technique, that doubled his stats for one attack. It was sort of a finishing move. With this, he could focus all his strength and agility to counter Miranda's blast.

With the boost in agility, he managed to get behind her without any detection.

He was now channeling all his mana into his blade and was about to attack her.

That's right.

Once Dylan unlocked his blessing he gained mana, and the passive skill, weapon-intent.

This skill would allow him to pool his magic power into his weapon, and unleash it in an attack.

Unsurprisingly, anything mana related is powered by the intelligence stat, so that means his combined strength and intelligence stat, would create an attack that he named, focus burst.

With his three new techniques combined, he swung his longsword at a sharp downward angle.

The blade released a giant wave of white energy as it collided with Miranda. The blast sent her flying against the other side of the arena, over fifteen meters away.

Her body smashed against the wall, with a huge cloud of dust forming, destroying it completely.

Once the dust settled, an unconscious, barely alive Miranda, laid amongst the ruble.

Never in the exams history, had the barrier around the contestants failed.

The staff could only be pleased, the one protecting Miranda from death had worked. If not, the blast would have turned her into paste, never even causing the damage to the wall.

Dylan just remained in the spot where he unleashed the attack. Adopting the same laxed stance as before the battle.

-SYSTEM DATA-

Name: Dylan/Grain

Age: 10 years 1 month (post-Gate)

Race: Human/???

Level: 4

Skills: Focus Burst (lv.1)

Strength: 13

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 18

Dexterity: 11

Faith: 5

EXP: 0/1500

(Blessing)

Category: majestic

Name: Valor

Skill: Braver (lv.1)

Skill: ??? (Faith>10)

Skill: ??? (Faith>20)

Passive: Weapon-Intent

Passive: ??? (Faith>30)

Description: As an apostle of Valor, the host can channel their magic power into their physical attacks, along with multiplying their power. Faith is gained from use of these abilities and grows as the host's level increases.

Dylan had spent a little over a month, training after his tenth birthday. His new fighting style dropped the bow completely, for explosive short-ranged combat. No longer would he, wear his opponents down from afar.

With his braver skill only having a ninety second cool down, he could simply avoid his opponent until delivering the killing blow.

The entire arena sat in a stunned silence. The announcer took a few seconds too compose himself, stuttering while speaking.

"Th..th..the winner is, the un-named contestant!"

Silence.

Dylan walked towards the gate of a small settlement, making sure to appear like he knew where he was. Thankfully the system had mapped out this area over a year ago.

He had spent the past few weeks training, and now he wanted to get a map.

He wanted to journey to a large city to look for ways to work or gain resources. He knew he could only become so strong, alone in the wilderness.

Upon arriving at the entrance, two guards asked his name and demanded he hand over his belongings for a search.

Dylan simply responded with one word.

"Malcom."

He had watched people enter for a few days, and none of them had been searched. Dylan assumed these guards intended to shake him down and extort him.

He chose to give a fake name, and hope the guards would just let him be.

Originally he wanted to respond with 'Grain', since he had been called such for eight years, after all. Dylan still knew his name, but it felt natural to use another one in this world.

He felt like a completely different person than he was before.

One of the guards told the other to 'just let him in', and Dylan walked passed, with out batting an eye.

He managed to find his way to the market place of the town.

Upon arriving he found a sign that read: 'Academy enrolment commences soon! The exam will be held at the capital.'

Reading further, Dylan understood the criteria and felt slightly interested.

He smiled, when he read the portion of the re-naming each student would receive.

'Looks like i figured it out. How to keep from getting held back in this world,' he thought. 'Finally, I can show off a bit.'

Dylan had itched to get in another fight, ever since the altercation with the soldiers. Once his adrenaline was gone and he came to terms with killing, he yearned for the feeling of his blood boiling from an intense battle.

Little did he know, it would be harder to get a fair battle that would rile him up to that degree.

With the new found information, he traded his bow and quiver for a map to the capital. He felt ripped off, but he had no use for the bow anymore.

After all, he still had yet to learn how to control his mana properly, and how to cast spells.

If he had mana, there had to be magic.

'Welp, time for school.'