THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

" I know it wasn't on purpose, I couldn't feel any killing intent from you or the sword which shouldn't have been the case if you were trying to harm me; that would have been impossible even if that was the case, at least for the current you. But…how did you do it?" James assured Ivan he was bothered about what just happened before asking what he was curious about.

"I…don't know, I just thought of a sword attack and this happened, " Ivan said half truthfully, he didn't want to disclose everything to James. After all, no matter how kind James seemed, ivans still could not easily get over the fact that he was also a…Nexulyte.

"Hmm, it's alright. Elora Will come get you soon, we'll continue trying tomorrow" James said after giving some thought and decided not to press Ivan further.

Elora soon came and Ivan followed her out of the office, after Ivan left.

James' face immediately turned into one of shock that he had been suppressing for a few minutes now, he lifted his left hand and looked at his palm.

On it was a small shallow cut which was a result of him blocking Ivan's sword, his body trembled.

"How terrifying, if I didn't react as fast as I did then the result could have been severe! He's not even a Mortal king yet and he was able to wound me with a sneak attack!" James exclaimed, barely containing his excitement and disbelief.

Such miraculous talent, if the Owen Tower could gain the full trust of such a person then there might be the hope of restoring the world and the heroes of it would be them!

"He thought of a sword attack…hmm, thought, wisher, wish" James eyes suddenly widened in realization.

" I get it now! He just has to wish for something to make it happen, of course! That's what a wish should be! I have to inform father about this!" James said to himself as he hurriedly grabbed the book he had dropped unknowingly and vanished from the office.

....

Meanwhile, Elora had brought Ivan away to another place.

This place was just as huge as the usual combat classroom with reinforced walls and weapon racks with different types of weapons on all sides of the room, various training types of equipment like dummies, automatic firing machines, and the like could be found in this room.

A stage was set in the middle of the room that acted as a small arena for people to practice against each other, Elora walked toward one of the numerous weapon racks before turning to Ivan.

"What weapon would you like to train with?" She asked.

Ivan looked at the numerous weapons in the room, there were so many of them that he didn't even recognize some thus making him unable to choose quickly.

"Don't just pick a weapon because of how cool it will look when wielded, your weapon will become an instrument of killing, saving, and also protecting your life in the future so make sure to choose after really considering it" Elora advised when she saw Ivan staring at the various fancy weapons on the weapon racks.

Ivan's face turned serious when he heard this and after minutes of thought, he made a choice.

His choice of weapon was…a sword, this didn't come as too much of a surprise to Elora. But Ivan had different thoughts.

One was that the sword was like a short stick which he was familiar with; he usually used sticks and bars to defend himself in the outskirt when there was nothing to throw, the sword was just like a short stick to him.

Another reason was its sharpness, being able to cut and stab made it a nice choice. Lastly, using a sword would make him look…cool.

"Hmm, a sword it is then" Elora nodded, turned to the weapon rack close to her, and grabbed two swords before passing one to Ivan.

"I'm not an expert in using the sword and it's not my strongest forte, but I have enough experience to teach a newbie like you the basics. Don't think I'll go easy on you just because my fa…the Tower master thinks favorably of you " Elora said before getting into a stance, Ivan followed her movements as they began training.

…..

A few hours later.

Ivan could be seen walking out of the infirmary with an apologetic smile on his face, behind him was the woman who had treated him the two times he had been brought here; she had her arms folded in front of her chest and a pout on her face as she glared at Ivan's back.

Elora had been serious when she said that she wasn't planning on holding back against Ivan even when he was a beginner, they had even used real swords instead of practice swords and Elora had been ruthless and harsh with her training that Ivan had ended up sustaining some injuries and had to come for treatment.

"Better look after yourself, you hear me? I don't want to see you anywhere close to this place for the next two weeks!" The woman in a white coat said sternly to the departing Ivan. Ivan's rate of pulling up to the infirmary was too frequent compared to other trainees and she was starting to get concerned.

Although the infirmary was able to bring people to peak health in no time, such a mentality wasn't fit for young people.

"Sorry, I'll try not to" Ivan replied awkwardly as he hurriedly left the place.

Ivan left for the lobby after leaving the infirmary, he found Ralph was already waiting there as planned.

"Hey, Ivan. You finally came" Ralph called out when he spotted Ivan approaching him and Ivan responded with a silent nod before sitting beside Ralph while they waited for Glen.

For some reason, Ivan felt strange sitting like this with Ralph. Not that he disliked it or anything. It was just that, for the past month, he had taken training so seriously that they had not been hanging around as much as they used to and Ivan felt bad about this.

Ralph seemed to notice Ivan's strange emotions and stared at the white-haired young man while shifting his glasses.

"Are you alright? Something bothering you?" Ralph asked.

Ivan was a little startled by the question, he looked at Ralph who was staring back at him before looking away with a guilty look on his face.

"It's nothing, I'm fine" Ivan replied after a few seconds of silence.

Ralph stared at the side of Ivan's face for a few seconds before sighing, he suddenly noticed that Ivan had grown a bit different after one month although the changes were almost unnoticeable since they saw each other every day during training.

"You don't have to feel guilty about anything Ivan, we understand perfectly. Everyone is trying to get stronger as quickly as possible and we shouldn't be held back by unnecessary things, we'll have all the chance to hang out and fool around like before after leaving here; everything will be different by then and it will be a good experience.

So don't think that you're distancing yourself from us, you didn't get first place by luck if you really think about it. Glen thinks the same too, so don't dare slack off because of this or stop training seriously; you never know when I'll come for your first place " Ralph said with a small smirk on his face.

Ivan was taken by surprise by these words, he stared at Ralph for a long time with his mouth hung open. When he finally recovered, his lips curved into a big smile as he quietly muttered ''I understand, thanks "

Ralph smiled back at this and struck up a conversation while they waited for Glen.

Glen arrived a while later and looked as tired as an old man.

"Damnit! The class today was so boring, I almost fell asleep" he lamented as he landed his butt heavily on the bench beside Ivan.

"There's something I want to tell you guys," Ralph said immediately after Glen sat down, the boy obviously stared at him with resentment; would he kill him to let Glen take some breath first?

While Ivan stared at Ralph with a curious expression, he didn't seem to have anything important to say before.

"Don't look at me like that, I was waiting for everyone before saying it because I don't want to repeat myself" Ralph said in his defense and proceeded to tell the two of them about what he had read in the library…the fusion of the dreamscape and the real world.

After explaining everything that he had learned in the library, Ralph turned silent and allowed the information to sink into the two.

A few seconds later Glen finally broke the silence.

"Damn, seems like going to the library is better than attending classes. The fusion was also mentioned to us in today's class but it wasn't as detailed as what you've explained, we have to make enough preparations before then! From now on, I'll train harder and try to enter the top fifty" Glen voiced out with determination, Ivan only nodded.

The three friends spent some time together before going their separate ways, while Glen returned for more classes, Ralph and Ivan went to the training room; Glen wouldn't be able to use the training room as it was only available for those in the top fifty.

Ralph and Ivan arrived at the training room and found a few trainees were there as well. They were staring at something on the roof.

The two of them looked up and saw that it was a list of names similar to the ranking list.

This one only counted up to a hundred and out of it, thirty were lit up while the rest were dim. On the thirtieth row was a single name which showed that only that person had managed to reach that place.

" Alaric Vladimir" Ivan called out the name on the thirtieth spot, every other name was placed on the twentieth row and downward, none could be found above the twentieth row until the thirtieth except this Alaric Vladimir.

Not paying any more attention to the list, Ivan immediately entered one of the training rooms with determination to surpass this person.

Ivan entered the place and he found a pod which he immediately entered, he was transported to another place that looked like a VR world.

[Welcome to the training hall]

[Initializing trail, level one]

[Pain, senses, movements, trainees data has been set to reflect real life]

[Begin training!]

A set of prompts popped up in front of Ivan before vanishing and in front of Ivan was a monster he was ever so familiar with…the one-eyed monster that had almost killed them during their test.

"Let's do this!" Ivan muttered to himself as a card appeared in his hand.

Roar!!

At the same time, the monster lunged at Ivan with remarkable speed while swiping its long hands at him.