After his talk with Trux, Athar returned back to his room. As soon as the gates of the room were closed behind him, the entire demeanour of his body and the expression on his face shifted.
His shoulder which had slumped in nervousness, fear and anxiety straightened. A new life had been induced in his spines.
The expression of panic on his face was replaced by one that of confidence and resolve. It was as if he had transformed into an entirely different human. He stood tall rasy to face all difficulties coming in his way.
"Trux," he muttered under his breath. "So, you are the first link of that mysterious but powerful web that Dervin had talked about."
"How convenient of you to deliver yourself to my door," he added with a grin. A grin that screamed danger.
If Trux had not revealed his strength by showcasing his E Rank aura, Athar would have remained wary of him.
But the moment, Trux thought that this was a good method to pressurise Athar, that fool had lost the plot. Trux had thought that his E Rank aura would frighten Athar but that had completely opposite effect.
The aura had made it very clear to Athar that if need arose, he could take Trux on. And for this he could not stop thanking the tree of origin. As far as Athar was concerned, that tree was sole reason for his absurd talent.
Setting aside these thoughts, Amden retrieved one of the beast cores from his wooden cupboard. It was time for cultivation.
Athar had made an approximate calculation that at the speed at which he was able to absorb the mana from the beast core, he can make a breakthrough to E Rank in two months. For that to happen, he needed one beast core daily. But he received only 5 beast cores for a week. Which meant, he needed almost 15 extra beast cores. Even so, Athar was determined to make his breakthrough in the next 2 months.
Athar set aside his thought of acquiring extra beast cores and decided to worry about them later. He needed to focus on cultivation and he knew that it was going to be an eventful week this evening.
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The next morning, the first thing which Atahr did, even before going to his theory class, was to collect his quota of weekly resource. He then safely placed the cloth sack of the resources in his room.
So far, Athar had understood one thing, that no matter how much academy turned a blind eye to a lot of bullying or pranks or any other thing, intruding into room of any other student without their permission was a complete no.
This was a red line that was not to be crossed. The academy would not tolerate this in any situation. The room were like safe havens for every student. If a student renained, in his room, he was safe. No ifs and buts in this matter.
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4 days passed in a blink of an eye. Nothing eventful happened in these 4 days.
Athar would take his theory class in the morning, spar with Ryler in the afternoon, attend the practical class of Sankul in the evening and then absorb the beast core in the night before going to sleep. This was his daily life.
The one thing which Athar did more was that he had started to observe things. During his free time in the afternoon, apart from his spar with Ryler, he would continously observe the other students who were there doing either their training or sparring with each other. And Athar paid special attention to E Rank spars.
And in these 4 days, Athar concluded that the assumption that he had made- that he was a genius was correct.
Watching all the E Rank students doing their training, he was certain that with few planning and elements of surprise, he could defeat a E Rank student. And this fact, gave him a boost of confidence.
The other part, which he had included in his quest of observation was Trux. Be it in the dining hall, or after classes or in the training area, Athar tried to observe Trux as much as possible. And he tried to find a pattern in Trux way of life. And fortunately, Trux had found a certain behavioural pattern which was going to help Athar tremendously.
It was the late cover of night and Trux had just had his dinner. He was moving under the not so bright lights of Mana powered lamps.
There was a certain behaviour which Trux followed daily after his dinner. He would go to the top floor of the D Block and would spend sometime there alone. He liked enjoying the scenery of the city illuminated in all colours of light during the night. This was his hobby of sorts.
He had just crossed the fourth floor and had taken on his way towards the fifth floor. Since, students hardly visited the fifth floor, there was no mana powered light on this staircase.
The flicker of light coming from the fourth floor was the only thing that was dimly illuminating the stairs.
He had just placed his foot on the large stair in the middle of the staircase from where the staircase made the one hundred eight degree bend when he heard a sound of rustling.
His eyes snapped forwards as he tried to locate the source of the sound. But it was too late for him.
What greeted him was a dark silhouette looming over him. That figure was carrying a thick metallic rod in his hands and that rod was over his face.
Before he could even raise his hands in defense, the rod struck squarely on his face, near his ears.
Trux felt his head cracking under the impact of the metal as he was violently thrown away towards the wall.
He felt some liquid flowing over his face, which in all probability was his blood oozing out from his broken head. Even before Trux could let out a scream, he felt darkness taking over him as he collapsed on the stairs.
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