Mystical Journey

The arena was filled with commotion while Serena screamed and ran out of the door. A large group of noisy onlookers ran outside and gathered around Quentin's body while she remained on the ground.

Quentin's face was pale while she lay on the ground. She tried to stand but was unable to hold herself up.

She had only suffered cramps but had not fractured any bones. Garen knew not to overdo his actions and had only planned to strike her attack position lightly to reprimand her.

Garen shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the doorway nonchalantly despite the hostile gaze of the crowd.

"You went a little too far." A muscular figure blocked his path.

It belonged to one of the two coaches that had been training them earlier.

He was a white man whose golden hair was swept back in tall peaks. His arms and legs were filled with taut muscles and a short beard grew below his chin. Meanwhile, his eyes were staring daggers into Garen.

"I'm the coach of this club. You can call me William," said the man as he offered his hand to Garen and shook it.

Bang!

A loud exploding noise could be heard suddenly.

Garen and the man crossed limbs, while Garen's shadow appeared before him unexpectedly. Their arms were tangled with each other's while they moved speedily, making it almost impossible to see their physical bodies except for the four shadows that intertwined with one another endlessly.

Bang bang bang bang!!!

Every time the noise rang out, the man's face became slightly paler.

Crack!!

A depression appeared in one of the walls while the man's face was filled with sweat. It seemed to have occurred when his opponent's fist grazed past the side of his face, causing more than half of it to turn numb. Before he could react, another terrifying, storm-like barrage jabbed towards him again, until he was forced to step backward continuously. If he was unable to retaliate in time, he would collapse for sure.

"Pretty good speed. Your rhythm is acceptable too."

Garen's voice echoed softly, causing Quentin, Serena and the others to gulp unconsciously.

"However, your speed and strength are still too weak."

Another explosion followed soon after.

Suddenly.

A cracking noise could be heard below the white male's legs while he sank into the light red wooden floorboards underneath him. He raised both of his arms up high to block the large hands that were pushing him downwards from above.

His face turned pale at first before it was filled with blood quickly, turning into a red mess.

Crack!!

The man's entire body sank into the ground and he was soon embedded within the floorboards from below his knees.

The students were completely silent.

That hurricane-like fight that happened earlier allowed everyone to experience the actual violence and ferocity that was expected in a battle.

This was true combat! This was a hot-blooded match!!

Excitement stirred within the hearts of everyone while they watched Garen pin the coach into the ground single-handedly.

"Abandon all weaknesses and get rid of your doubts, fears, and dreads. All of those things are useless." Garen pursed his lips and glanced around himself. "During combat, there is only one thing that needs to be done, which is to get rid of your opponent."

The arena was completely silent. No one spoke while only the sound of coarse breathing could be heard.

Some of the boys' eyes turned red as Garen had ignited the passion inside them, allowing them to realize that this was real combat! This was actual fighting! Killing!

Cold stares, violent attacks against one's opponents, strength, speed, collisions without the slightest hesitation, and terrifying pressure were the final goals that the numerous combat enthusiasts were headed towards all along!!

Garen looked around at the students whose passion he had just ignited before returning his hands to himself happily and standing up.

He had merely planted a seed inside their hearts so that his reputation would be spread throughout the regular people. After that, those who were interested to pursue combat and fighting would come to him naturally.

Frankly, it was just a temporary moment of excitement. He still felt that this world was uninteresting and other than the Witches and Blood Breeds, the regular people were not worth his attention. However, there was a probability that he would find an excellent seed among them.

Meanwhile, he already had a vague idea for a quicker method to solve the problems regarding the time taken to upgrade his powers and the question of loyalty.

If this worked, he would be able to form a strong human team that he would be able to control fully in a short amount of time.

Garen glanced across the enthusiastic crowd and smiled at Serena, before taking long strides out of the arena and disappearing on the lawn.

Since they were the outstanding students of Gullivier University, he would only need to find a few good quality seeds that possessed both brawn and brains, as these people would be suitable to become the core of his team.

However, the decision regarding those who would engage in actual combat would require the assistance of the Nighthawks.

But he would not rush this, as his ideas still needed to be checked carefully.

After Garen had left, the site of the combat club became silent again.

Although more than a hundred people had gathered here, only the sound of coarse breathing could be heard. The other coach walked forward and pulled the white coach from the floorboards. The crowd then realized that the white coach had exhausted all of his strength and was only able to collapse in a pool of his own sweat as he did not even have enough strength left to stand.

"That young person… is basically a lion!! A golden lion!!" A terrified expression flashed in his eyes. "I think he would have killed me if I was distracted for a moment! I'm serious, Jim! He would have definitely killed me!! Did you see the look in his eyes?! His gaze showed that he was looking at a dead person! I dare say that he's definitely killed someone!"

He lowered his head and ran all ten of his fingers through his hair while his entire body trembled.

"When I collided with him, I couldn't see anything but a golden mess in front of my eyes as that was the most eye-catching color on his body. I couldn't see anything else clearly. The collision sounded like a roar and that was the only thing my ears could hear. I couldn't divert my attention at all. Really…"

Coach Jim held him and patted his back carefully.

"I don't think he can be a coach anymore," said Jim softly while looking at Quentin and the others.

Quentin was completely silent.

"President!"

"The president is here!" shouted someone behind her.

A muscular black male student took long strides as he walked into the arena with an equally shocked expression on his face.

"I saw everything…"

"The new members this year…" Quentin turned around and looked at the black student with a forced smile.

"Give him the position of President then," pondered the black male student for a moment. "It's just a title anyway and it doesn't matter. According to the rules, only the strongest club member has the right to be the president. But now, even the…" Although he stopped speaking halfway, the meaning of his sentence was already obvious enough.

Both of the coaches were actually fierce professionals that possessed strength surpassing that of the students. The club members, and even the president himself were unlikely to defeat either of the two coaches.

"Both of the coaches should go and take a break first." A bespectacled gentle-looking male student walked out from behind the black male student. He was a slender Caucasian male who was dressed in white casual clothes who carried himself with an exquisite air and was clearly not of humble birth.

"Just give him the president's position," nodded the male student while agreeing with the black student's suggestion. "Us four captains and Vice Presidents of the Elite Team will not have any objections. It's fine as long as he's the strongest member, regardless whether he's a newbie or an old member."

Serena nodded faintly. Garen had shown her older sister mercy, allowing her to have a favorable impression of him. Although it looked like Quentin had suffered a serious fall, she had merely been inflicted with cramps but was not injured at all.

The main skeleton of the combat club consisted of the five captains of the Elite Team. Initially, none of them had possessed great strength but were merely masters of rich households that were passionate about combat. Therefore, together they'd provided the funds to establish the combat club. If they had not done so, the funds provided by the university and their meager competition winnings would not have been sufficient for the expenses of such a large combat club.

The cost of equipment, activities, constantly organizing training sessions and external incentive trips were all huge expenses towards the large combat club.

When they were finally confident about their strengths and were ready to seize the president's position from one another, an abnormal newbie appeared suddenly.

When Garen entered the club, the few members that planned to duel for the right to be president were now disheartened.

When the other two captains arrived later and heard about this incident, they were wary of it at first but decided to give up on the presidential duel temporarily.

Each of the five captains belonged to rich families and were also combat fanatics. If that were not the case, they would not have pumped so much money into the club during the past few years.

Once everything had settled down, they began to discuss the matters concerning the new member Garen.

********************

Time flew by quickly.

More than two weeks had passed in a blink of an eye.

The new students had gradually caught up to the hectic pace of their studies, leaving them with less free time for themselves. Meanwhile, the club activities had also started in full force.

Some clubs organized dinners while others held dances. Other underground gatherings that had never been heard of now organized character roleplaying games, causing the students' lives to become chaotic and messy.

Some students moved out of their dorms and rented houses with their girlfriends instead. The hornier ones would unknowingly put on a show for the rest of their university mates in a secluded forest near the university.

But they were only a minority. Most of the new students were still diligently working and resting.

Their burdensome workbooks and papers were constantly being sent back by their lecturers and teachers who asked the students to redo them. Some students were even forced to sleep at two or three o'clock in the morning every day while having to wake up at five or six in the morning.

Garen's roommate Alexander was one of those people. As his papers were not up to standard, two papers of different subjects were sent back continuously and he was forced to rewrite them. Consequently, he'd been unable to get five full hours of sleep for the past three days.

It was already risky enough when one's papers were below standard, but if he failed this course and lacked too many academic credits, it would be even more exhausting to make up for that later. Furthermore, the most important part was that a Gullivier student would be sent packing if they failed more than two subjects.

It was even worse for someone who had been a top student at their old school, as everyone who entered Gullivier had their own pride and self-esteem.

Garen stood on the balcony and basked in the sunlight while drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. He looked over at the red-eyed Alexander and shook his head, sighing. These were the sorrows of a student of a top university. There were many new students like Alexander who would suffer similar setbacks either because they were not used to the lecturers' cursive writing style, or because of other unknown factors that made it difficult for them to adapt to their classes.

These setbacks would cause unsurprisingly immense pressures.

Alexander noticed that his roommate had finished all of his tasks while he was left to fight alone. He once assumed that everyone was on a leveled playing field. However, the papers and workbooks had suddenly created a great divide between them. This feeling was like a terrible attack towards the self-esteem of the new students.

Could it be that he was truly not as intelligent as the others? If not, why were they be able to finish everything so quickly while he took such a long time? His initial confidence would be destroyed by questions like these if he was not careful.

However, these were merely regular papers that were used to calculate their results. When it was time for their end-of-term main paper assessments or mock papers…