The next morning, Grey got up early like always and went over for his physical training. After two hours of hard training, he went home for a bath before heading to the Lightning Hall.
After leaving the Lightning Hall, he headed over to the library since he needed to practice new techniques. His current schedule was insane since now he barely even has time for any other thing apart from training.
He headed over to meet with Chris for his array training. When he entered, he noticed the Griffin was not in the valley. Chris came out of the cabin shortly after his arrival.
“Did you study the scrolls?” asked Chris.
“Not all of them” answered Grey. After leaving Klaus’ place, he went over to Alice’s place since she would probably attack him if she finds out he had returned and didn’t visit her. He only started reading after his visits, but he was able to read most of the scrolls.
“Okay, you’ll continue studying them,” said Chris. “But first and foremost, before you start studying, make me lunch” Chris added shamelessly. He got some chickens and pigs now, so there would be a variety of meats for Grey to choose from when making lunch.
Grey was startled by his request again but didn’t think too much, he quickly made lunch for him before starting his study.
Two weeks passed in this manner, Grey would almost always do the same things. The only changes were when he would go to the Earth Hall or the Wind Hall. Although he was only a student of the Earth and Lightning Hall, he was free to head over to the Wind Hall any time.
The only problem was getting wind elemental techniques from the library since he was only entitled to collecting only earth and lightning elemental techniques. Before taking techniques out of the library, the student will have to register it with their school ID. So there is no way for him to take an elemental technique that wasn’t in his ID.
He had gotten some benefits from going to the Wind Hall, but it didn’t amount to much.
Another two weeks went by without any change.
Grey was already making good progress in his training with Chris, although it’s small, it was a good start. He had to read different scrolls for over two weeks before Chris felt he was ready to try out making small-scale arrays.
He hasn’t been able to hang out with his friends during this month. Klaus came over several times, but they didn’t do anything fun since they only talked about a few things. What shocked Grey was the fact that Klaus was still with his girlfriend, he thought they would have already broken up since Klaus rarely stays up to the one-month mark.
He had sparring sessions with Alice, Reynolds, and Klaus. They were all surprised by how fast he had advanced. Now, only Alice was ahead of him in cultivation. She was already in the Eight stage of the Arcane Plane, Reynolds was in the same plane as he was. Klaus was lower by a single stage.
Since the time of the competition was getting close, the news of it had already circulated everywhere, so each student was working harder than usual to make as much progress as they possibly could. The quotas haven’t been announced yet by the empire, but they all wanted a good level so they could get to participate in the competition.
The competition was a grand event for the students since they would get a chance to show their abilities to everyone in the empire.
Grey who was about to head out suddenly saw Alice, Reynolds, and Klaus walking towards his house.
“Good thing we came early, any later than this, and we would’ve missed him,” Reynolds said.
“We’re heading to the city, are you coming along?” asked Klaus.
Before Grey could reply, Alice spoke up.
“Why are you even bothering to ask him, of course, he’s coming with us,” said Alice.
Grey felt a headache, he was about to head over to the valley for his array training. “Sorry guys, I really can’t go this time, I have to go train”.
“You said the same thing last time”
The group all felt Grey trained too much. He rarely has time to go out and have fun.
“You train too much, you should go out with us today,” Alice said walking towards Grey.
“I really can’t guys, sorry” Grey stood by his first answer.
“Are you sure nothing can change your mind?” Alice asked with a grin.
“Absolutely not” affirmed Grey.
Thirty minutes later, Grey and his friends could be seen passing through the gate of Lunar City.
On the way, Klaus was still stunned by the scene that played out when Alice tried to ‘persuade’ Grey.
It seems Alice’s definition of ‘persuasion’ was to beat up the person until they agree to her demands. At first, Grey managed to keep up with her, but after she got serious, Grey gave in.
Reynolds and Klaus had already decided they would never allow Alice to persuade them for anything in this world. They gloated at Grey’s misfortune.
“Grey, so what changed your mind?” Reynolds asked for the tenth time while they were walking.
When Klaus heard the question, he started laughing. Grey glared at them but refused to answer. He still felt pain in some parts of his body, he never expected Alice would use such methods.
“Alice I sincerely approve of your persuasion methods. If I ever want to get Grey out of his place, you’re the one I’ll take with me” Klaus gave Alice a thumbs up.
“Anytime” Alice replied with a giggle, from her expression you can tell you enjoyed thrashing Grey.
Grey looked at her with fearful eyes, she was a terrifying opponent. But he didn’t really take it seriously. If it were to be a real battle, even though he knew he couldn’t defeat Alice, he would definitely be able to escape given his speed. But he knew he also needed some time off from his daily training. He had been too focused on his training lately.
They all joked and laughed as they walked into the city. Klaus suggested taking them to a place he newly discovered in the city. After walking for some time, they reached an old-looking building in a secluded part of the city. Klaus knocked on the door with a strange rhythm.
The door was suddenly opened from the inside. Klaus told them to follow him as he walked inside.
“What is this place?” Alice looked around with curious eyes.
“You’ll know once we get to our destination,” Klaus said mysteriously.
They walked deeper into the building, after passing a series of doors, they started hearing noises. After passing through the last door, the newcomers stood rooted on the spot.
They were in what seems to be a huge arena, with five battle platforms at the center of the arena. People were cheering for the fighters on the platforms. They looked around and estimated there were over three thousand people present here.
“How did they even build this place,” Reynolds asked dumbstruck. If he wasn’t taken here, there was no way he would believe there was a place like this in the city.
“I asked the same question you did the first time I came here. This is an underground fight club, a friend of mine brought me here about a year ago when I came to the city” Klaus said.
They searched for a place to sit and watched the battles going on. Grey was surprised to see a student he had seen in the Wind Hall on the battle platforms. Grey pointed out his discovery to his friends.
“Students from the Academy come here to battle frequently since this is different from sparring with fellow students. Although deaths are a rare sight here, injuries are seen frequently” Klaus said.
They all nodded. Grey hadn’t had a real battle since leaving the Misty Mountain, discovering this place was great for him. He could try out just how strong he had grown. After his previous breakthrough, he hadn’t fought a satisfying battle since.
While they were still discussing, one of the battles ended with the student from the Wind Hall suffering a defeat by a small margin.
“How do they choose fighters?” asked Alice enthusiastically.
“You can either register to have a battle or take up a challenge if a fighter puts up a challenge” Klaus explained.
Alice listened intently, Grey also focused on the conversation since he also wanted to ask the same question.
Before long, a fighter stood on stage and challenged anyone from the crowd on the same stage as him. He was at the Eight stage of the Arcane Plane.
‘This will be a good way to test myself’ thought Grey and charged towards the platform.
“Whoosh”
A silhouette suddenly appeared on the platform.