The student was sent back by the unexpected attack.

The other two were about to jump on Noah but he activated the Shadow steps spell and immediately appeared in front of the first youth.

He had wielded his sabers during his charge and he delivered two fast strikes with the bladeless sides of his weapons.

The strikes multiplied mid-way and became six different attacks that hit the still stunned student on his joints.

Two blows for the elbows, two for the shoulders, and two for the knees.

Cracking sounds sounded from his body as he fell powerlessly on the ground.

The might of a rank 4 martial art coupled with the solid stage and with the surprise effect rendered one of Noah's seniors harmless in a few instants!

And that without even activating the First form!

The other two students arrived on his back and launched a series of attacks with their weapons.

'Echo'

Noah's upper clothes tore and his blood companion came out to block the incoming a.s.sault.

Its figure was particularly lifelike and it successfully endured the strikes of the youths.

Its body broke but, as the weapons sank in it, it reconstructed, blocking the movements of the blades.

Noah didn't waste that chance and promptly charged at the closer student.

The other one released his grip on the weapon to prepare a spell but Echo screeched, releasing a sound attack that briefly disoriented him.

It didn't take much for Noah to defeat the youth, leaving him with only one opponent.

Noah neared him with Echo quietly crouched on his shoulders.

"You will not get away with this. Lionel, why haven't you done anything?"

The student yelled, looking at the guard on the side of the entrance.

The guard shrugged his shoulders before replying to him.

"Small fights are allowed in the academy. No one had suffered any severe damage so it's up to you students to handle the situation."

Noah shook his head seeing that the youth had sought the guard's help.

"How can you n.o.bles be so weak? With all your wealth, is this the best you can amount to?"

The student was angered by his words and tried again to launch a spell, his weapon was still stuck in Echo's body after all.

Noah was on him before he finished his preparations and strongly hit his waist, making him crash on the ground.

He sighed and rebuked him to vent a bit of the stress he had acc.u.mulated in the last months due to the side effects of the Elemental forging method.

"I believe that your expensive combat teacher in your mansion will be ashamed to know that you tried to launch a spell at such a short distance."

He then stomped his head on the ground, making him faint.

Noah put his sabers back in his s.p.a.ce-ring, as well as Echo in his body, and wore a simple robe to cover his naked upper body.

He then turned toward the circular building and moved to enter it.

"That was a nice fight, it's rare to find someone with that battle experience at your age."

Lionel spoke to him before he could reach the door.

Noah replied putting a fake smile on his face.

"I didn't know that you could bribe a guard to reserve the Sulfur domain. If you tell me your price, I might think of making use of your services."

The soldier smiled awkwardly and scratched the side of his head.

"Don't blame me too much, I'm just trying to make a living in a world ruled by n.o.bles. Sadly, the Utra continent is at peace so we in the Royal army can't earn a decent pay."

Noah rea.s.sured him.

"No worries, they are not really a threat anyway."

Lionel laughed a bit looking at the fainted students on the ground.

"Will you apply for the Royal army? I believe you might become a captain in just a few years."

Noah shrugged his shoulders but didn't answer and placed his token on the entrance.

The door slowly opened and a burning air came out of it.

"Think about it. Our position is actually pretty privileged in Elbas city."

Noah nodded at him and entered the building.

The door slowly closed behind him.

He found himself in a long and illuminated corridor, an azure halo was exuded from the end of the pa.s.sage.

The air was so hot that Noah had to circulate the "Breath" in his body to resist the temperature.

At the end of the corridor, there was a large circular room with a flickering azure flame at its center.

The room had no floor but only a sandy terrain.

The grains of sand were yellow but contained azure shades in their colors.

'What a strange environment. This heat seems to have some effects on my sea of consciousness.'

As Noah neared the flame, he would feel his mental sphere loosening up, increasing its expansion speed due to the internal pressure from Echo and the "Breath".

'I understand, the flame has the effect of increasing the malleability of my mental sphere. Simply put, training here will enlarge my sphere faster.'

"I believe I said that I wanted to be alone."

A voice sounded from the other side of the flame.

Noah peeked and noticed that Daniel was sitting cross-legged on the sand, holding a small sheet in his hands.

"Oh, it's you."

He had raised his gaze and stared at Noah, he could not help but be surprised by his presence there.

Noah didn't speak and simply moved in the area occupied by him.

He noticed that the temperature increased even more as it did the effects on his mental sphere.

He had to use his solid "Breath" though to oppose the temperature, his rank 3 body was not enough in that environment.

He calculated the distance that he had to keep from the flame to last for one hour with his amount of "Breath" and sat on the ground.

Noah took out the second Kesier rune and began to look at it.

The pressure from the insides of his sphere enlarged at high speed the loosened sea of consciousness.

'This speed is simply amazing! I should always spend my merit points to use this building.'

However, Daniel spoke again.

"Am I really not worthy of your attention?"