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Chapter 24: The Final Push Before the Assessment

The two girls stared blankly at Ashura, who rattled off the negotiation plan he had come up with the night before.

His words went beyond anything they had ever heard; they had never met someone so shameless.

They exchanged a glance and, with that single look, reached their first tacit agreement.

Magina said coolly, “Your proposal sounds fine, but I think we can beat you up without spending any credits,” and, the moment she finished, Lan Yu whipped out a kick that sent the still-protesting Ashura flying.

Ashura had not expected them to be so unreasonable, and he watched them crack their knuckles as they came toward him.

He hurriedly shouted, “Calm down, both of you! If you think the price is high, we can negotiate! I never said I wouldn’t bargain… how about a friendly rate of 400 credits?”

“Stop coming closer, 300 credits, okay… 300 credits?”

“I have my limits too, so final offer, 200… 200 credits, that’s generous, right?”

“100! 100 credits a month! If that still doesn’t work, I’ll stop coming to the training field for classes… I mean it!”

The two girls actually stopped when they heard that, exchanged a look, whispered for a while, and then turned back.

Looking at the utterly dejected Ashura, Magina suppressed her laughter and said, “Fine, one month at 100 credits; we’ll try you out for a month, and if you cheat us we’ll come to your dorm and beat you up.”

Ashura quietly breathed a sigh of relief and said impatiently, “All right, credits first, spar later,” then pulled out his badge to transfer the credits with them.

The two girls were laughing like mad inside at his look, but they kept their aloof façade, handed over their badges, and transferred the credits.

When Ashura saw the amount they sent, he immediately protested, shouting, “Can’t you count? We agreed on 100 credits a month… why did each of you only send 50?”

They stifled their laughter, and Lan Yu replied calmly, “We are splitting the order, one day each; today you belong to Magina, tomorrow you belong to me, and remember, no skipping or being late, or you’ll get a combined beating.”

Ashura stared blankly at the two beauties; who said pretty girls were always kind-hearted?

These two are clearly bullying poor me, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

Rage surged through Ashura and fighting spirit flared, but before he could take the opening stance of his family art, Thunderclap Fist, a massive horse-slaying sword and a blue-glowing dagger were already pressed against both sides of his neck.

Ashura’s aura collapsed in an instant; his hands dropped helplessly as he forced out his last bit of stubbornness, “We agreed… no hitting my face from now on…”

And so Ashura began a life of shuttling between the Magic School and the training field, simply skipping any magic class he could not understand.

He sweet-talked his beautiful desk mate Clara into taking notes for him, which he studied slowly back in the dorm.

Clara made her notes thorough and added her own insights, trying to keep them simple so the boy could follow.

Sometimes she deliberately wrote tricky questions in them, waiting for him to come ask her the next day.

Training at the field was even tougher; he already could not beat the girls, and both of them had now advanced to Martial Master Stage 2.

Ashura found it harder and harder to parry, yet the two girls did not abandon spars because of his weakness; instead, they seemed to enjoy every bout immensely.

In less than a month of such sparring, Ashura broke through to Martial Master Stage 1.

This made the girls even happier, and they cheerfully renewed their sparring subscription.

Of course the renewal process was brutal: feeling cocky again, Ashura accepted a two-on-one beating from them…

Time flew by, the third month since enrollment was about to end, and the academy assessment was just around the corner.

Some freshmen were excited while others were anxious; some hoped to shine in the test, and a few even planned to compete for the Freshman King title.

There were also those who usually slacked off and were now cramming because they felt their strength was lacking.

On an open patch of the freshman training field, two figures clashed; the slight advantage belonged to Magina, the fiery-haired girl who was charging full force at the black-haired boy in front of her.

The black-haired boy was none other than the academy oddball Ashura; word among freshmen had spread that a magician kept running to the training field to spar with two beauties, got beaten miserably every time, yet still showed up daily.

Everyone thought the magician endured the beatings to court the two girls, unaware of how unfair their 100-credit agreement really was.

Ashura’s school-issued magician robe had been tattered by the sparring; a new one cost 100 credits, and he could not bear to spend it… earning that 100 credits was hard, and the less said about it, the better.

As their levels rose, their exchanges became more spectacular and no longer one-sided, and Ashura got hit less and less each time.

In fact, the more Magina fought, the more alarmed she became, surprised by Ashura’s growth.

Although he was still one minor stage below her, their bouts were evenly matched, and she could not defeat the black-haired boy without going all out.

She had secretly watched Lan Yu spar with him as well and clearly felt that even the speed-based Lan Yu was no longer as relaxed and actually struggled at times.

They simply gritted their teeth and kept silent; of course, neither girl used their families’ powerful martial techniques, since some of them dealt uncontrollable damage.

Magina blasted aside the boy’s thunder-cracking fist; earlier this month he had surprised her with this strange punch aimed at her chest.

Although she blocked with her arm, the inner force exploded against her left breast with a crack of thunder; she had said nothing at the time, but back in her dorm she undressed and saw a pale purple fist mark on her ample left breast.

The next day she found Lan Yu and insisted on swapping days so that she could spar with Ashura again.

The outcome was predictable: the following day the boy could scarcely walk, which made Lan Yu, whose turn had been moved, extremely displeased…

Three months of relentless sparring greatly improved Ashura’s martial path.

He was now faintly touching the threshold of Martial Master Stage 2, and his use of the martial technique Thunderclap Fist had grown so skillful that he could release two thunderclaps… two bursts of inner force.

Yet he had not shown the double-thunder version to the girls; he wanted to surprise them when he advanced to Martial Master Stage 2… after all, he had endured three months of beatings.

Ashura even adapted the Thunderclap Fist motions to Twin Swords techniques; before leaving home his second brother had given him a pair of twin swords that felt comfortable in his hands, but he had no sword techniques.

The brilliant youth grafted the Thunderclap Fist’s momentum onto the twin swords, and the power was surprisingly good.

Ashura’s magic level had advanced even more astonishingly; he had meditated day and night without interruption and had now reached Mage Adept Stage 3, though that was still below the Magician Stage 1 required for the assessment.

Nevertheless, the boy was brimming with confidence because he was already a bona fide Martial Master Stage 1 and believed he could pass the test.

In this way, the three-month post-enrollment assessment was fast approaching.

All the freshmen tuned themselves to peak condition to face this crucial assessment…

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