A Side Villain…

At night inside the academy’s administration room, discussions for the next day's mock dungeon run were going in full swing and as it has been for many years Laura was made the head in charge for this endeavor, of course she was assisted by a group of other teachers and trainers for this job.

 

“No Arata adding a second tier golem is an overkill for the students though I would like to see how the SIT trainees would fare against it.” Laura replied to another trainer.

 

“I know it’s an overkill officer but you do know that they need to be ready for the ‘unexpected’ in a dungeon?” Arata replied.

 

Arata Watashi was a tigerkin who had recently joined the academy as a hand to hand combat trainer. He despite the menacing looks was actually a kind hearted man and a great teacher who never discriminated among the students.

 

“You really wanna do this? They won’t be able to score high like that.” Laura questioned.

 

“Yes I have the same opinion Arata, you have already added hundreds of goblin commanders and mages plus a dozen hobgoblins and now a golem? That too of a second tier?” Another trainer named Simon Seinfield argued.

 

“You do know that some of them have already reached the third tier and are closing on the second and first.” Arata said and that silenced a lot of them.

 

“Thi-third tier in the first year?” Simon wasn’t going to believe that for him it was something impossible to achieve.

 

“Not everyone but a handful of them and that’s why I think that we will try Simon’s idea. Make the golem the last monster not many will be able to reach there.” Laura said in a decisive voice.

 

“That’s great! I should go ahead and make preparations for it then.” Arata was cheerful.

 

“Actually bump it to the first tier, some of the brats have become cocky and it will b.” Laura told him while thinking about the recent performances of the group.

 

“Officer Laura don’t you think that’s a little overboard? I am sure that your little group of SIT students could go head to head with such monstrosity but what about those in the B and lower sections? They also need some scores in this evaluation.” Simon argued while looking at her.

 

“So what? If they are weak then they should be training their asses off instead of dilly-dallying. It’s actually better that they get some setbacks early on in their life which will motivate them to work harder.” She said in a domineering tone making it impossible for him to reply.

 

After that he got quiet and didn’t participate much in the further discussions. The rest of the group made some adjustments here and there and after an hour or so finally agreed to the overall level of the mock dungeon that the students were going to face.

 

“Thanks everyone, let's meet tomorrow.” Laura announced and with that she left the room followed by a group of other teachers.

 

Once they had left Simon got up from his seat and smacked the table with his fist.

 

BOOM

 

“THAT fucking bitch! What the fuck does she thinks of herself??” His voice was distorted due to the mana turbulence inside his core.

 

His entire self was in a state of extreme anger and it was making his aura go haywire which affected the things and the other people that were left in the room. 

 

“Just because that bitch is stronger than me she can do whatever she feels? AHH.. I so wanna strangle her to death.”

 

“Simon calm down, you are hurting our men!!” One of the other teachers yelled.

 

That made him snap back to his senses and lower the violent aura he had manifested. Once he was back to normal and looked at the destruction caused to the room he sighed in his heart and casted a restoration spell which in the blink of an eye restored the room’ condition to as it was a few hours back.

 

“It’s not my fault Giuseppe that slut gets on my nerves. You saw it right? Everytime I argued about tomorrow’s event she and that lowlife would counter.” His tone was so venomous that Giuseppe shuddered.

 

‘Sigh’ Giuseppe sighed and replied, “I know but what should we do now? Laura and Arata won’t allow any changes.” 

 

Simon was the son of one of the biggest names in the adventurer’s community Cornelius Seinfield, one of the few tier A ranked in existence. His name alone was enough to establish awe and respect among the common population and the royalty alike.

 

Everyone expected his only son to follow in his shoes and Simon did show shocking results in his teenage years, especially when he was in the academy. His scores set a standard for everyone else to emulate.

 

But after graduating from the academy his potential died out, he got stuck at a particular tier and no matter how much he trained, how many monsters he slayed, how many medics, alchemists, mages his father hired he was never able to cross that barrier.

 

Yes, since the last twelve year the son of A ranked adventurer Cornelius Seinfield, Simon Seinfield had not advanced from tier D plus to E minus. Although tier D in itself is not that bad to say but when you are an offspring of someone like Cornelius it is laughable.

 

(After an individual transcends the zero tier the tiering system is adjusted from E minus to SSS plus though barely anyone reaches that. 

 

A plus is considered the peak of humanity and other races but since it’s so hard to achieve every empire has less than five of them living in their territory.)

 

Simon was stuck at tier D for such a long time that those who were his batchmates in the academy who were thoroughly decimated by him again and again now got better than them. 

 

They didn’t had the monstrous talent as him but it wasn’t on the lower side too so they were capable of equalling him in strength and some of them had even surpassed him, they were able to reach C and B tier.

 

And since most of those who had surpassed him were beastkin of Lionheart empire and elves of the Fiora empire he had come to develop a sense of hatred for other races. And that was one of the reasons he vehemently opposed the inclusion of such in the SIT of Laura.

 

Since his strength could not be increased he decided to increase his clout in the empire by favoring the kids of important people in the academy many of whom were in B and A sections. 

 

The argument with Laura to decrease the difficulty of the mock dungeon was in accordance with the plan to swifty enlarge his clout and make the top students of A and B section dependent on him in their future endeavors.

 

It was actually a decent plan as not only the cream of this year’s first year would be following him but also the families behind them would support him too for the grand ideas he had thought of.

 

It was his main reason to join the academy as a teacher, the joining was pretty easy as his father had personally written a letter to the principal.

 

“Well they won’t allow any changes in the setup but she can’t change the list of overseers, can she?” He replied to Giuseppe after a long thought.

 

Giuseppe’s eyes widened at that moment, the overseers were the person who would be present inside the dungeon to prevent any mishappenings but since the watches given to them had an option to transport them to safety this position wasn’t considered that important.

 

“Damn right! You can get the overseer position but still there would be recording devices inside of it.” Giuseppe was happy at first but his mind was working fast.

 

The other trainers in the room who were in his group were also racking their brains for this impediment but he already had a plan for that.

 

“Do you really think some cameras and low level spells would be able to stop ME?” He put extra emphasis on the last part.

 

“You have something to bypass it?” Giuseppe was confused as those mana enforced cameras were really a pain in the ass to handle and not to say that they were constantly monitored.

 

“You will see it tomorrow.” He replied coldly and left the room. 

 

The next day

 

“Shit, I overslept and now only ten minutes left for the academy.” Akira woke up to the bright sunlight kissing his face.

 

Last night after coming home his excitement was on the peak and the reason behind that was the gear bought from Bernard’s shop.

 

Heck even Bernard who made the stuff didn’t know the abilities as detailed as Akira.

 

The armor could barely be said to be an armor as instead of being made with metals it was made out of the silk produced by mana silkworms found exclusively in the dungeons and was even lighter than the academy dress he wore but its tensile strength was over ten times of mana enforced titanium.

 

But that wasn’t even the best part, all the armors that were present in the market for under tier 1 individuals had a drawback of affecting their movement and speed. Sure the weight reducing spells helped but that drag was still present.

 

The royalty and the rich merchant kids didn’t think much of that as their families always had something better than what was available in the market but for the rest of the students it was a big problem.

 

Akira came out after taking a bath and looked at his watch to find that only six more minutes were remaining before the academy’s gate closed.

 

“Not good, not good gotta run with everything I got.” And to make things worse his mother won’t be preparing the breakfast as she was going out of the town to meet her parents.

 

He quickly packed everything required in his storage ring and dashed out of the house making lots of noise which got the attention of everyone who was roaming outside.

 

Now running through the market district is never a good idea to begin with and the morning is definitely the worst time you could choose as it was stormed by adventurer groups and the normal people.

 

“Oops, sorry for that.” He lightly touched a man and yelled while still running.

 

“Excuse me, coming through.” He had to say this a couple of times as more and more adventurers were filling the streets.

 

Only two more minutes were left and the academy was still a bit far away which made him increase his speed even further by using mana to coat his muscles. 

 

But the roads were not suitable for such high speeds so he decided to take the roofs which proved to be a wonder as there were no obstacles so now Akira was hopping his way.

 

At the academy’s gate Evelyn, Ichinose and the other members of student council were marking the attendance of the students and when Ichinose was going through the first year list she frowned.

 

“Onee-san that boy didn’t come today.”

 

“Hmm? Someone is absent on a mock dungeon run?” She replied.

 

“Yes and it’s that boy you were nagging since last week. But why would he not come today?”

 

Evelyn didn’t reply and thought, ‘he isn’t someone who would miss such an important matter.’  

 

“Please close the gates.” Ichinose said to the guards who nodded and went ahead.

 

At the same time a figure could be seen running at high speeds and coming straight towards the academy, the student council members saw that and told the president who also saw it and allowed the guards to keep the gate open.

 

Akira finally managed to reach the place in time and breathed a sigh of relief, he had to say even though it was risky, the adrenaline rush was too good to experience and maybe it was the reason that all the protagonists often came late?

 

“Stop.” Ichinose said.

 

“Huh?” In his excitement he had forgotten that there were other people present and was going towards his class.

 

“What’s wrong, vice president?” He turned around to see Ichinose’s smiling face.

 

“Hehe, you are late and that means you are going to be punished.” She replied.

 

The student council members and Akira shuddered at that, the members had seen this earlier and knew how dreaded her punishment could be and that’s why they never gave her an opportunity to punish them.

 

“But I was on time.” He argued with a pale face.

 

Evelyn was having a hard time controlling her laughter upon saying the pale faces of everyone. Her sister’s ‘punishment’ was not as bad as everyone makes it to be.

 

“No you were late and everyone here can attest to that.” She replied.

 

CLAP CLAP

 

“It’s getting late and we have work to do so everyone back to your duties.” Evelyn told them.

 

“Phew.” Akira mumbled.

 

“Akira please meet us after school today and it’s compulsory this time.” She said sternly and turned around to leave with everyone around.

 

The bell rang, making Akira who was standing there dazed come back to his senses and dash to the classroom. He decided not to think about what could happen as those two sisters were unpredictable but even in the worst scenario they knew their boundaries.

 

Inside the E section students were chattering around about the upcoming event, for most of them it was their first time going into a dungeon and that was making them anxious and nervous.

 

Many were concerned about their gear being low quality and not upto the mark while others had doubts about their battle prowess. Some of them were confident in the group they had joined but they couldn’t calm themselves down.

 

Some of them had also noticed the absence of Akira and were confused as to why he had not arrived yet. Ryle and his group especially were getting uneasy over his absence as many of their plans would go wry if he didn’t come today.

 

But Akira didn’t let him down as amidst all the chatterings he along with Mr. Woods came in the class and went to his preferred place at the back.

 

Mr. Woods met him on the way and they chatted as to why he was late and how he was feeling for today. Woods was truly a wonderful teacher as he could understand his students' worries and artfully help them.

 

“Ahem.. Ahem.” He wanted the attention of all the students.

 

“Today is a very special day in your life, it might be the day that changes a lot of things or it could be just another monday. All that depends on how you evaluate yourself at the end of the day.”

 

“Now many of you might be feeling nervous while many others would be excited and I could talk about that but I am not going to do that. Once you go inside a dungeon everything that I say would be redundant as for the first timers there are too many things going on in their mind.”

 

“Just go in and perform freely, don't let anything drag you down. Best of luck.”  

 

All the while Akira was nodding his head thinking that for a first timer these are really some valuable tips. 

 

The first timers who were also called newbies would always keep on overthinking and over complicating stuff which would prove to be counter effective. One should just go in and take the feel for the first time, killing monsters and leveling up could be done at another instance.

 

“Okay everyone please head to the mana simulation room.”