Alfred Carolino was a businessman. He knew the nuances of making deals, figuring out what his clients wanted and how to provide them. And when he wasn’t trying to make deals, he taught economics, math and physics at the greatest school for delvers, Brightheart University. It had been founded by Alicia Brightheart 2 centuries ago and was still the best by a wide margin.

  It produced multiple powerhouses every year, which was already a grand feat. And the rest who didn’t become excessively powerful still had great carriers. It seemed like a haven for delvers. The only problem was that the acceptance rate was abyssal. There had been so few people able to join the school that they had to accept rich spoiled children to be able to hold the quota of students needed.

  The rate for children below the age of 18 was even lower. One could perhaps show up once a year but even that was unlikely. So, when he had been tasked to invite one of three children under 18, he was intrigued. There was Damien Javier, Lucinda Kazen and finally, his charge, Blaze Harrow. A sixteen year old boy.

  Alfred, though everyone just called him Alfie, read through the reports one more time. The boy started as unremarkable, just another level 1 to be overlooked, but after an incident with a supercharged dungeon, the boy had seemingly changed. Surviving the dungeon would have already been a feat, but to kill a level 50 beast as well? That was far more impressive. The boy had come out reforged, having turned level 13 in an instant. Not only that, but the boy had right after gone into 5 different level 13 dungeons. Heck, the boy was probably delving one right now.

  Alfie loved his job. While it was sometimes annoying nowadays because of the spoiled brats that went to this school, there was always something, or someone, interesting to watch. The job was also important. Guiding powerhouses was in a sense saving humanity from extinction. Getting paid to save humanity felt good.

  ****

  Blaze stared wearily at the officials.

  “What do they want? Are they here for me?” Blaze watched as the official on the left tapped the middle man, a tall man with blond hair and wearing a black suit with sunglasses, and pointed towards Blaze.

  “So, they were after me after all.” Blaze thought. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Blaze nodded toward the men, then tried to escape. He was in the middle of the street, as that was where the dungeon had appeared, and tried to slip into one of the alleyways.

  “If you may excuse me, Mr. Harrow. I wish to speak with you, if that’s at your convenience.” Blaze turned to see that the middle man had spoken. Blaze thought about just saying that it wasn’t convenient but in the end decided it wasn’t worth it to prolong an inevitable conversation.

  “Of course.” Blaze answered and walked towards the men.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Harrow. My name is Alfred Carolino, but you may call me Alfred or Mr. Carolino.” The man introduced himself.

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Carolino. What is this about?” Blaze asked, trying to be polite.

  “We at Brightheart University have heard of your grand feat by not only surviving, but also slaying a level 50 monster, and would like to invite you to join our university to help you advance. We offer top grade education and…” Blaze sighed internally as Mr. Carolino told him about all the benefits of going to the school. Blaze had been excited at first when hearing “Brightheart University”. After all, it was a place where legends were born, but… he knew it had just been luck that he had survived. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself.

  “I’m truly sorry for this inconvenience, Mr. Carolino, but I can’t accept your invitation. I don’t believe I meet your qualifications to join your ranks.”

  Mr. Carolino blinked in surprise.

  “But sir, defeating a…”

  “Sorry for interrupting, but it just had been dumb luck. I’m guessing that the beast had some condition that made it weaker?”

  Mr. Carolino flinched. “Yes, the beast seemed to be suffering from a slight disease but even if it had been weakened, it was still an impressive feat, Mr. Harrow.”

  Blaze knew that this man wouldn’t be convinced until he really saw how weak Blaze was. So, he decided to show it to him.

  “Then what about a spar, Mr. Carolino. I’m sure that you are far stronger than me, but I heard cultivators can restrain their cores?”

  Mr. Carolino nodded quickly.

  “Of course, Mr. Harrow, that would be true. So, do you wish me to restrain myself to level 14?”

  “Could you make yourself match the power of a level 21, considering cultivation percentages, of course?” Blaze asked.

  Mr. Carolino had glasses on, but Blaze could clearly see the shock in his body posture.

  “He must have done the math in his head. Did I reveal too much?”

  “Of course, Mr. Harrow.” Blaze felt the man’s aura weaken quickly until it could rival his own.

  Nodding, Blaze pretended to grab a sword behind his back and pulled out his rapier. Mr. Carolino raised his hands. “Here?”

  “Doing it in a public area might get attention. Attention I do not wish on myself, if I may ask.” Blaze answered. Mr. Carolino nodded quickly, then took a combative stance, no weapon.

  “Martial Artist or Pugilist, then.” Blaze could handle those. The man on the right of Mr. Carolino raised three fingers, counting down. When he struck zero, they both shot into action. The main weakness of a bare hand fighter was that when fighting another with a blade, they couldn’t grab the weapon directly, they could only redirect or dodge. Blaze used that to his advantage.

  While he didn’t think that he could win, he was still going to give his best. He lunged, doing a stabbing motion at Alfred’s heart. He wasn’t worried about hurting the man. Alfred, of course, moved to redirect the weapon. But at the last second, Blaze twisted his ankle, making the blade of the weapon point straight at Alfred’s outstretched backhand. Alfred reacted quickly and moved his hand to hit the blade on the bottom, knocking it away. Blaze stepped back and circled the man, going for another attack. Alfred was a trained fighter, so he easily blocked all of Blaze’s attacks.

  Blaze changed his fighting style and rushed in, unleashing a flurry of quick attacks. Alfred redirected all of them and went for a counterattack, knocking Blaze’s sword away, then throwing a fist towards Blaze’s face. Blaze had already sensed the attack, however, using [Karmic Sense]. He had felt a burst of intent from the man and dodged the attack. He didn’t expect the kick on his chest. Blaze flew back and stumbled, but quickly regained his position.

  "Definitely a martial artist.” That gave Blaze a slim avenue of possible attacks. But Blaze did have one. Blaze concentrated on his [Mana Manipulation] and summoned a blade of mana to lengthen his blade to reach two meters in length. That gave Blaze more piercing power and range. He rushed back in, going for another flurry of attacks. But this time, Blaze was out of reach for the man. Using this skill might push Alfred to using his own skills, so Blaze needed to finish quickly. Cuts started appearing on Alfred’s shirt, but he only got small cuts.

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  Then Blaze got to see Alfred’s first skill. Alfred started glowing with a blue light and he sped up intensely, pushing Blaze to a defensive stance. Blaze was getting pushed back and he knew he had to do something quick. So, throwing caution out of the window, Blaze hurled himself towards Alfred and tackled him to the ground. This startled Alfred, which gave Blaze a moment to summon a dagger that he had put in his inventory and aim for his throat. But then, just before Blaze was about to hit, Blaze was teleported right next to the right man.

  Blaze blinked in confusion, then realized that he had “died”. A spike made of mana sticked out of Alfred’s chest as he got up to his feet, brushing himself off.

  “That was incredible, Mr. Harrow.” That hadn’t been the answer Blaze had been expecting.

  “I died. In a real fight I would be dead.” Blaze said, confused.

  “Who taught you, if I may ask, Mr. Harrow?” Blaze thought for a moment, then realized that no one had taught him anything. He had been alone for most of his teenage life.

  “The fact that you could have almost beat a master in combat, if I may so myself, is already impressive. With our education, I’d love to see how you would grow.”

  Blaze was silent for a moment, then reflected. Sure, he had won against the level 50 beast only with luck, but what about the other dungeons. There, it had only been him.

  “I guess it is worth a shot.” Blaze conceded. Mr. Carolino beamed.

  “Wonderful.” Mr. Carolino pulled out a letter and handed it to Blaze. Blaze raised a finger.

  “I do have a condition though.” Mr. Carolino chuckled.

  “A condition to have us teach you?”

  “It won’t affect you. I just wish to stay low. I bet there will be lots and lots of competitions. I wish to fight under a masked identity to show my true prowess.”

  “That won’t be a problem, Mr. Harrow. We have a similar system already.” Mr. Carolino assured Blaze.

  “Also, if I may ask, what was the skill you had used? The one where you sped up. I think I can make good use of it.” Mr. Carolino smiled and took off his sunglasses, revealing sea blue eyes.

  “What about you test it for yourself, Mr. Harrow?” Mr. Carolino fished in his pocket, then tossed to Blaze a skill shard.

  “Consider it an entry gift.” Then, the three men were gone.

  Blaze looked around for a moment, then stared at the skill shard.

  [Skill: Accelerate]

  Blaze crushed the shard under his palm and let the mana flow into his body. He was getting quite the arsenal of skills now. How life could change.

  Name: Blaze Harrow

  Level: 14

  Class: -

  HP: 276/300

  MP: 240/240 (24/min MP)

  Strength: 11

  Agility: 13

  Dexterity: 11

  Endurance: 13

  Vitality: 10

  Mana: 12

  Luck: 1000 (Max)

  Free points: 0

  Skills: Mana Strike (Lv.4), Karmic Sense (Lv. Max), Mana Manipulation (Lv.3), Accelerate (Lv.1 )

  Blaze smiled. He was already getting far stronger.

  ****

  [+1 Dexterity]

  This message startled Blaze. He had been jogging back to his treehouse when this message had appeared.

  “Did I get this from running?” Blaze thought. From as far as he knew, that wasn’t possible.

  “But not everyone has the system.” Blaze thought smugly. He truly had gained a cheat system.

  “What else can I get from the system?” Blaze muttered.

  “Excuse me?” A man that had been walking past him asked, confused.

  “Oh sorry, it was nothing.” Blaze quickly said and kept jogging. If he could gain stats by training, he was already starting to plan a daily routine.

  [New Quest: Daily Routine]

  [You can get progressively stronger by training. So, you decided to lean onto that.]

  [Quest: Complete 0/1 routine.]

  [Reward: 1x Recovery Potion]

  [Accept?]

  [Y/N]

  [Warning! Claiming a daily quest will result in disbanding the current daily quest.]

  This didn’t faze Blaze at all. The free stat point was nice and all, but Blaze would gain multiple points from exercising.

  “Accept.” Blaze said. Then, he started jogging. He had a quest to complete.

  ****

  Blaze laid on the ground, groaning. He had finally completed the routine he had planned: a 30 minute jog, 25 pushups, 25 sit ups and 50 squats.

  [You have completed the Quest “Daily Routine”. Rewards are pending. Do you wish to claim rewards?]

  [Yes/No]

  Blaze accepted and inspected the potion. It was filled with a white liquid that seemed to be glowing. Instead of drinking the potion, Blaze stored it. It might come in handy in the future,when he truly needed it.

  Blaze had gained a point in Dexterity, 2 in Strength and 1 in Endurance.

  Grinning, Blaze pulled out the letter Mr. Carolino had given him.

  The letter contained a text written in a loopy, beautiful handwriting:

  Dear Mr. Harrow,

  We are pleased to extend to you an invitation to visit Brightheart Academy and become one of our students. You will be picked up on the 8th of September at the Delver Association Building in Plymouth. You will be provided a place to stay, study and grow into a protector of humanity. We look forward to welcoming you.

  Your’s truly,

  Miss Alicia Brightheart

  So, it was really happening then. Blaze was going to go to the greatest academy to ever exist. Even if he made a foot of himself, who cared? Blaze would at least come out stronger for it. Blaze was ecstatic. “Can this day get any better?”

  Sure, Blaze had almost died just yesterday, but he had leveled up to level 14, had a cheat system and was going to the best school in the entire world. All in two days. Could this day truly get any better?

  That was when Blaze heard a cracking sound. For a second, Blaze thought karma had caught up with him and his treehouse was breaking down, then he realized it had come from the egg. A small crack ran down from the top to the middle of the egg. Blaze quickly got to his feet and crouched in front of the egg.

  Another crack. Then another. More and more cracks started appearing all over the egg. Blaze watched with excitement and worry. It was a dragon, Blaze should have been ecstatic. But… What did the dragon need? There was no manual for dragon care and even if there was, how would Blaze afford everything. His budget was 5000 dollars, which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t a lot.

  Then, with a final crack, the egg broke open, revealing the creature underneath. It was a small creature, with black scales and dark purple eyes. It screeched, then bit into the shell of its egg. Blaze watched with wonder as the young beast started eating its egg.

  [Familiar “Void Dragon” has been contracted with user “Blaze Harrow”.]

  [Assign a name: ____ ]

  Blaze didn’t even hesitate. Blaze sent a command to the system and the prompts disappeared.

  [Name “Ayaan” assigned]