Book 1 Chapter 109

The audience cheered for Leo, who showed overwhelming skill.

'I didn't intend to stand out.'

Leo sighed as he looked at the blood on his body.

He had unintentionally been covered in blood and flesh when the Cyclops exploded a moment ago.

Leo left the arena, guided by the announcers amidst the cheers.

He was led to a waiting room within the Colosseum.

Upon entering, he found the entrance candidates who had already finished the Monster Carnival murmuring amongst themselves.

And then they stopped abruptly upon seeing Leo covered in blood.

Since they had all finished the Monster Carnival earlier and watched the competitors, they had just witnessed Leo's performance.

They all looked at Leo with wary eyes.

From the perspective of the Azonia candidates, Leo was a powerful rival.

"Is there a place to wash up?"

The attendant who guided Leo spoke.

"You can wash in your room."

"Where is my room?"

"Before you go to your rooms, the entrance candidates must listen to the instructor in charge of this entrance ceremony."

'I'm going to stand out like this.'

Since no one else was as spectacularly splattered with blood as Leo, his current appearance was even more conspicuous.

'I should just quietly stay in a corner.'

Leo went to a corner of the spacious waiting room and sat down alone.

'By the way, hand signs. I never expected that.'

He looked down at his hands, recalling the situation from a moment ago.

'It's truly surprising that I could evoke the effect of hand signs with Polymorph.'

This is Arion's breathing technique, now called [Hero's Breath].

Of course, it's very different from the 'original' that Arion used, so the free hand sign ability has disappeared.

Yet, Leo, in his polymorphed state, had used that hand sign ability.

'Well, in my case, there were no significant changes to my body.'

Polymorph is a magic that changes appearance, not essence.

Although he appeared to be a half-breed beastman and activated the hand sign ability with his breath, Leo was an unavoidable human.

Only his appearance had changed to that of a beastman; his body hadn't been strengthened.

Therefore, the aftereffects of drawing out Arion's breath to its limit were inevitable.

While Leo was thinking about Hero's Breath.

Ar was watching Leo from afar.

'No matter how much I think about it, I didn't see wrong!'

Having seen Leo's hand signs for a fleeting moment in the arena, Ar couldn't stop thinking about Leo.

Beastmen had continuously researched hand signs for a long time.

Hand signs were the most powerful weapon given to the beastman race.

Being able to use hand signs freely was one of the greatest desires of beastmen.

However, throughout history, only one beastman had been able to do so.

'[Hero] Arion-nim!'

Ar's ears and tail perked up, and his eyes widened like a cat's.

'Even Arion-nim, who could use hand signs freely, only has it recorded in literature!'

There are no 'combat' hero records remaining among Arion's current hero records.

As a result, the fact that Arion could truly use hand signs freely only remained in literature.

Among beastmen, opinions were divided on whether it was true or false.

Of course, Ar believed that Arion could use hand signs freely.

'There's nothing Arion-nim can't do!'

To the girl who had heard Arion's heroic tales since childhood, Arion was a great hero who could do anything.

She even took his name from Arion.

'I have to ask him!'

Ar approached Leo, who was sitting in the corner of the waiting room.

"Black rabbit, I have something to ask you…!"

"Hey."

However, someone approached Leo before Ar.

Seeing the person in front of him, Leo stood up and looked up.

There stood a muscular wolf beastman boy, who looked well over 180cm tall, looking down at Leo with his arms crossed.

"What's up?"

"You were quite something."

The boy looked Leo up and down as if appraising him and grinned.

"I thought you were a complete coward, just hiding in a corner. You were impressive."

The boy with gray hair and wild golden eyes introduced himself with a warlike smile.

"My name is Dion Den. Yours?"

"Kyle."

"Kyle? A name like the hero of the beginning. How unusual."

"What business do you have with me?"

"Well, it's a simple matter. I was worried there would only be weaklings, but it's reassuring to know there's someone as skilled as you."

He chuckled and his eyes glinted.

"Thanks to you, school life won't be boring."

"Muscle-for-brains. You're talking nonsense again."

Ar, with his arms crossed, approached with a look of exasperation.

"What? It's Ar."

Dion looked bored.

"You always look so frail."

"Hmph! There's no need to build unnecessary muscles. Look at this flexible and beautiful form."

"Yeah. As usual, you look pathetic."

"Who are you calling pathetic!"

"I'm not particularly interested in you, my childhood friend. I know how strong you are. I want to compete with new strong individuals."

The wolf beastman boy, who grinned, was a quintessential beastman who pursued strength.

"Then talk to me all you want after me! I also have business with the black rabbit!"

"With me?"

"Yeah! I have something to ask you!"

"What is it?"

"You!"

"Wait! I was talking first."

"So, after me."

"Don't be ridiculous, I refuse to be cut in line!"

"I knew him before you did!"

"What does that matter! Follow the order!"

Leo said, watching the two beastmen growling at each other without backing down.

"You guys are close."

"I'm not close to a mongrel who only knows how to fight?!"

"Do you think I'm close to this idiotic cat?!"

"Everyone, gather."

Someone entered the waiting room and gathered the entrance candidates.

"Let's gather first."

As Leo went to gather, Ar, who had missed his chance to talk, kicked Dion.

"I missed my chance to talk because of you! You're no help!"

"Hmm! You have the composure of a strong person! I like you even more!"

"Are you ignoring me?!"

"When the semester begins, the world will focus on us, not Lumeren!"

"Don't ignore me!"

Ar hit Dion's back hard, as he was not listening to him.

"Your hand will just hurt."

In reality, hitting with his bare hands only hurt his hands due to the hard muscles.

Seeing Dion smirk, Ar's expression turned cold, and he extended his claws.

Dion, his face contorted, grabbed Ar's wrist and blocked the attack.

"You damn cat!"

"What! You damn wolf!"

Ar, with narrowed eyes, pushed Dion's face repeatedly with his foot.

"Hey! What are you doing not gathering!"

Finally, the two were reprimanded by an assistant instructor.

***

After the Monster Carnival ended.

The entrance candidates were given a brief explanation of the desert crossing marathon to be held the next day.

The rules were simple.

Depart from Azrek, cross the Great Desert, and arrive at Azonia in the middle of the desert.

This was the condition for admission.

At first glance, it seemed very simple.

However, crossing the desert between Azonia and Azrek was by no means easy.

"The Azrek Great Desert is one of the harshest regions on the continent."

The entrance candidates looked with admiration at Berga, the man in the waiting room explaining the desert crossing marathon.

He was the most recognizable man among the beastman heroes.

He was a truly powerful hero who had been active on the front lines until very recently.

"So, I will give you one piece of advice."

Everyone swallowed nervously and looked at Berga.

"Do not make the foolish mistake of confusing recklessness with courage."

With those words, tension spread among the students.

Some were gritting their teeth.

"This is my last chance…"

"To be told to give up after barely passing the Free Course."

"How did we even get here!"

Like Lumeren, Azonia also has an age limit for admission.

And there were many repeat students who had reached that age limit.

For them, being told to 'give up' was tantamount to telling them to abandon their dreams of being heroes.

"And those who have admission recommendations, please come forward."

At those words, five boys and girls stepped forward.

The gazes of the students who had passed the Free Course turned to them.

'We struggled to pass the Free Course! And these guys…!'

The decisive difference between those who passed the Free Course and the entrance candidates.

It was that they were judged to have overwhelming skill, making the Free Course unnecessary.

However, even knowing that, it was inevitable that the students who had struggled to pass the Free Course would feel resentful towards the recommended entrants.

Especially the fact that they were all from famous prestigious families made the other entrance candidates even more displeased.

Meanwhile, Berga crossed his arms and looked down at the recommended entrants.

'Ah, Father! As expected, the pressure is immense! He seems even more determined today…'

'As expected, Berga-nim! What immense pressure!'

Ar, his daughter, who had seen him often since childhood, also tensed up.

The other two beastmen were the same.

Only Leo looked at Berga with a calm expression.

Berga, who had been staring intently at Leo, spoke.

"Since you didn't take the Free Course, you probably don't have many friends among the other candidates. Therefore, please introduce yourselves."

At those words, the entrance candidates began their self-introductions one by one.

The first to introduce herself was a female fox beastman wearing glasses.

"My name is Stea Ruall. My specialty is magic. Please take care of me."

"I'm Reite Vega. A spirit summoner."

The bear beastman said with a confident smile.

"Ar Tune. Let's all do our best."

"Kyle. Please take care of me."

At Kyle's introduction, some students looked surprised.

The name of a great hero was so famous that while names were derived from a few characters of their name, the full name was rarely used.

Furthermore, since Kyle was treated as a character from a fairy tale, there were even fewer people who used that name.

After the introductions of the previous four recommended entrance candidates, everyone's attention turned to Dion.

Dion revealed his fangs and smiled coldly.

"If you are weak, give up early without becoming a burden."

The faces of the entrance candidates hardened.

A few assistant instructors flinched, and Berga narrowed his eyes.

'Dion has the skill to say something like that. But can he handle it?'

Berga liked strong people.

But being merely strong wasn't enough.

Berga's first condition for recognition.

It was the ability to take responsibility for one's words.

With this one remark, Dion had essentially made enemies of all the entrance candidates who had passed the Free Course.

Ar shook his head as if he couldn't help it, looking at his childhood friend.

After each introduction, Berga said, "Good. Do any of the candidates have any questions?"

No one raised their hand to his question.

"Then you are dismissed. You will be assigned rooms if you go down that corridor."

At Berga's words, the students who had passed the Free Course left the waiting room.

They all coldly ignored the entrance candidates.

Seeing that, the entrance candidates looked at each other, sighed lightly, and shrugged.

They had expected it, so they didn't show any signs of displeasure.

The entrance candidates also prepared to leave the waiting room.

It was when Ar glanced towards Leo, intending to wait for him at the entrance.

"Kyle."

"Yes."

"I will have a separate meeting with you."

'A meeting? What is it?'

Leo's expression tensed slightly as a lecturer, a professor in Lumeren's terms, called him separately.

Meanwhile, Ar frowned.

'Will the meeting take a long time?'

Thinking that the timing was consistently off, Ar headed to his room.

'I'll find him at his room later.'

Ar was determined to find out Leo's secret somehow.

After the students left, the assistant instructors also left the waiting room to maintain order.

When they were alone, Berga spoke with a serious expression.

"Kyle. I'll ask just in case."

"Yes."

'Did they find out I'm from Lumeren?'

Leo tensed up.

"Are you by any chance the son of Reina?"

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