Lord of Charm

"What classes do I have today?"

"Today you have beast-hunting class and spells practice. Do you want to take any second profession?"

"Yes, I will take the magic circles class."

He thought it was a perfect option for him. Many circles required two or more mages since they required 4-6 elements. His advantage was that he could potentially get all of them by himself, and with his sharp mind as a higher ruler beast, he could probably perform plenty of complicated magic circles without support.

"Magic circles class added to your schedule. The class takes place on Mondays."

Today was Thursday. Each class was usually 3-4 hours long with a break or two in the middle, but his schedule was still quite free. He understood the academy gave the students a lot of free time to self-practice and rank up.

But Gale had one minor problem; he had no idea how to practice and rank up normally, and at this point, he was too afraid to ask. He only advanced by plundering his female enemies' energies, he never practiced increasing his connection!

However, he still had other things to practice. He was nowhere near Lena in his casting proficiency, and although he could overpower most students with sheer power, he didn't know if it also applied to the top 10.

"You have a new notification."

"What is it?"

"You were challenged by Dean Brown, ranked 42. You must accept within 3 days."

"Sure, accept and set it for tomorrow."

"You have a new notification."

"What is it?"

He was getting challenged repeatedly by various people. Although he defeated rank 101, not everyone was there and saw his prowess. There were over 5000 students in his age group, and many disliked the idea of someone starting from the top without climbing up.

However, only the students of the top 100 could challenge him after his previous duel. Overall, he got challenges from ranks 77, 50, 42, and 18.

Since he already accepted the challenge of rank 42, he decided to wait until after the duel so the weaker challengers will be denied automictically. As for rank 18, he set his duel with him for the day after tomorrow.

He left for the theoretical beast-hunting class. Thanks to the simple layout of the building, he could easily find his way to the right classroom.

He entered the class and found a female redhead teacher. She was short and chubby, not resembling a huntress even one bit. Since class didn't begin yet, everyone was talking to their friends, and nobody noticed his arrival.

He found an empty seat next to a cold-looking girl and sat there, earning a cold gaze in the process from the girl next to him.

"Pretty boy, you should mix with other nobility. Don't sit next to an orphan."

"The name is Gale. I'm from a kingdom, so don't worry about that."

"Kingdom? so you're a weakling. You don't have the right to sit next to me. I don't like people sitting around me, especially men, so go away."

"There's no other free seat, so I'm sorry, but I'm staying. I'm ranked 4 in our age group, I'm pretty sure I have every right to be here."

This time his eyes shone with green light and the girl next to him relaxed.

"Oh, so it's you who got his rank unfairly without fighting. Hmph, I will challenge you soon and reclaim my position at the top 10."

The girl snorted in dissatisfaction.

"Oh, so you must be ranked 11. What's your name?"

"None of your business."

Gale rolled his eyes and found it pointless to use his charm for that when he could just check his Alessa Watch. He found the list and searched for rank 11, seeing the name "Joanna". Probably because she was an orphan adopted by the academy, she didn't have a last name.

"Joanna? I've heard this name before. Oh right, you're Ronda's girlfriend!"

He remembered the fiery girl who kept beating him in the martial arts lesson. Her warning was to lose on purpose if Joanna ever challenged him.

"How'd you know that?"

She squinted her eyes and finally turned to look at him more carefully.

"Um, she was my partner in martial arts lesson, and we bonded really fast, so she told me about you."

Joanna seemed like a proud person, and he guessed she wouldn't like it if she heard he was threatened to let her win, and he preferred not to enter their romantic drama.

"She never bonds with anyone, you're lying. Whatever, I will ask her about it later directly."

She trusted Ronda and didn't need to ask strangers for information about her behind her back.

The class soon began and Gale turned his attention to the teacher.

"Hello students, I'm professor Mary Hamilton. In my course, you will learn about the different beasts in the 3 hunting grounds of the academy. As you all should know by now, you have to go out and survive on any ground of your choice for 3 days every month."

Gale looked around and saw that everyone knew about it except for him.

"Additionally, you need to hunt successfully 5 fourth-rank beasts by the end of the year. Does anyone know why the training grounds are dangerous?"

One student raised his hand and Mary allowed him to speak.

"There are fifth and sixth-rank beasts in the forest. Additionally, there are some elite beasts and even the weakest is comparable to the weaker students in the top 100."

Gale suddenly understood he was lucky to fight with old fourth-rank magic beasts on his way to the capital. If he fought an elite beast, he'd definitely die or have to run for his life.

"Correct. Although rare, there are even a few higher elite beasts, and those can even fight against normal advanced mages when they're still in the fourth rank. Students die in the training grounds every year, I hope you can remember that."

She wanted to make sure they understood why her theoretical class was important since she knew students only liked to attend the more practical lessons. The lesson continued and she taught them about the forest near the academy and the animals that reside there.