Eritance - Chapter 38

That one punch had cracked the wall. It was unbelievable. I had spent many tens of minutes beating the wall before and I hadn’t even left a scratch on the wall. How was it that I could now damage the wall?

“Ross, can you show me the power that was in that last strike?” I asked.

Focus punch power 10

It was crazy! The power in that punch was twice as much as the power I could muster normally. Focus punch was something that would change my life forever. With this, I could even go against a spine bear. However, the problem is that I could already tell at this point, it was very draining for me. I could probably only do four or five focus punches until my stamina was completely drained.

However, I was sure that once I found increased my stamina even more, I would be able use it more often.

I didn’t have time to dance for joy though. I needed to get through the wall. I focused my energy in my fist and struck the crack again. I did it four more times, in the same place. This caused the cracks to grow larger and larger until finally, a rumble was heard.

The rumble was the sound of the wall not being able to hold against my punch anymore and it collapsed. The wall collapsed, and a cloud of dust burst forth. It was quite thick, so I had to shield my eyes with my arm while the dust settled.

Once the dust had settled I saw bright orbs illuminating a large room that I was now standing in. There were golden doors that were before me. They resembled the arched gateway that I had gone through to get into the tunnel.

I thought that I was going to be trapped again, but this time, when I walked up to the doors they opened of their own accord. After the doors opened, I entered, and they shut behind me.

A bald man with a long white beard was standing before me. He had a long flowing robe on. This robe was gold in color. “Welcome to the relic academy” he said with his arms stretched out wide. “Here you will be able to train your body, soul, and mind. This training will help you understand your relic and how to use it”.

“You did well to make it this far. Many are never able to damage the wall and have never seen the academy” he continued. I interjected, “what happens to those who can’t break the wall? Do they just die in there?”.

“Oh no, nothing of the sort!” the man said. “That tunnel can be considered the entrance exam. After 12 hours, if you haven’t been able to break through you would have been collected. If you had damaged the wall at all, you would have been accepted as a bronze rank student. If you couldn’t damage the wall you would have been sent to the warrior academy and become captain of a field squad”.

Ah, so it was like this. The rebels didn’t waste the weak but didn’t waste time on pumping all their precious resources into the weak either.

“So, what is my rank then?” I asked curiously. I had after all broken the wall in just a few hours. I would probably be among their top-ranking students, thanks to focus punch.

“Let’s see here” he began. “It took you 7 hours to break through. That means that you are a low silver ranked student. A pity, if you would have broken through just 4 hours sooner, you would have been considered a gold ranked student” he said.

I was shocked. What kind of monsters do the rebels have? Students that were strong enough to get through that test in such a short amount of time. IT was unthinkable to me.

“So, what do the ranks mean?” I asked him. “Your rank determines your potential and the resources that will be given to you. However, you can move up in ranks over time if you have enough merits and demonstrated potential. As a silver ranked recruit you will be able to have access to more courses. These courses will include education that goes beyond studying your relic. Silver rank recruits typically have the hope of being commanders and our commanders must be skilled in many areas, this is opposed to the bronze ranked recruits that are trained to take on roles that are above captains, but below the high-ranking commanders that silver ranked recruits could be”.

“What about gold ranked recruits?” I asked. “Well, not that you’ll have to worry about it, but these people are always groomed to be in the position of general and above. They represent those who will lead the armies and make decisions that affect the entire organization” he concluded.

It was interesting. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to lead an army, but I was quite interested in the education that I would be receiving. Ross had mentioned several times already that if I were able to learn more I would be able to better understand the knowledge inside my relic and reach even greater heights.

“There’s just one thing I can’t help but wonder” I began. “I don’t mean any disrespect, but how would an old and frail man like you be able to teach me anything?”.

“Ah, I see, you are a physical user. Your kind always need a demonstration of true power, before listening. Very well then” he said to me.

With that, he pointed his hand at me and I was suddenly flung into the doors behind me with a great force. I coughed blood and then I was raised into the air and slammed into the ground hard.

“That is but a small amount of my power. My relic is much stronger than your average relic. It boosts my magical power to a great degree. I could easily destroy a wall one hundred times stronger than the one you faced” he said. “Alright, pick yourself up now, it’s time to get things going here”. With that he turned around and slowly walked away from me.