Chapter 137: Elite Knights

Monday, Day 59, Mage-Knight Training:

Zane spent the entire Elite Class being severely beaten, but it was for a good reason: he was testing out his new spells. After calculating the perfect engraving path and a bit of training, he could now use them. However, they were not battle-tested. The Elite Class’ training was the first attempt at changing that, and this training would be the second.

Since her arrival, Khadijah has always chosen to fight first. Ahmed used any excuse to be with her, so he was the opposing knight. Since Zane also wanted to train, he volunteered to go first, resulting once again in a man-vs.-woman battle. After thinking about it for a moment, Zane chose Evans as his teammate, with Tom and Devonte acting as the referee.

"Here is our plan," Zane said after gathering his teammates. His plan was simple: mix the matching. Previously, knights fought knights while covering their team, but for this one, Zane chose Khadijah as his match. Evans was tasked with stopping Evelyn, while Ahmed went for Keesha.

This tactic proved effective immediately. Khadijah was an excellent defensive knight — an excellent tank. However, her weakness was obvious: control. And that’s exactly what Zane’s new spells brought to the table. By using a variety of ropes to bind her legs, arms, and even her shield, Zane not only limited her range of movement but also her defensive capabilities. Plus, he also learned from her previous battle; he knew she could also be an offensive menace with that shield, so he kept his distance.

Meanwhile, his teammates were also performing well. Evelyn was slowly getting into her magic knight role, so for this battle, she not only used a staff but also a shield. Unfortunately, she wasn’t that adept at using it, which greatly affected her battle prowess. Meanwhile, Evans — who usually fought against Keesha — was having the time of his life. A Mind Mage is somewhat of a counter to Dark Mages, who cannot use their powers of influencing the mind with negative emotions; Evelyn did not have a natural resistance against Dark Mages, and with her poor performance using the shield, she suffered in their fight.

Lastly, Keesha didn’t fare any better. Her greatest reliance was her telekinesis and her rocks, but Ahmed was swift enough to block them with his shield as he closed the distance. Then, in hand-to-hand combat, Keesha lasted a while with her quick reflexes and the use of mana channeling, but she was eventually defeated. Ahmed then turned around to help his other teammates deal with their opponent.

The next match was Devonte’s turn, and Zane wanted to continue, so he chose Tom and Khadijah for his team. Keesha and Evans joined Devonte. For this round, Zane also changed tactics: he and Khadijah would stop Devonte while Tom Nguyen used his undead to face the other two. Zane’s team was victorious, but it wasn’t easy.

Devonte was much more mobile than Khadijah, which made controlling or restricting him a lot harder. Luckily, Zane was looking for this kind of challenge to train, and with Khadijah’s assistance, they took down the young terminator. Tom Nguyen did his duty: he held on as long as possible against two other mages until reinforcements arrived.

Zane still wanted to continue, so he recuperated his mana before proceeding with the third match. Today’s intense training was exactly what he needed to adapt as quickly as possible to his new spells; the next tournament was only a few days away, and he wanted to be ready.

"Zane, what were those new spells?" Keesha asked as she poured water over her hair and body. Although she was only wearing shorts and a sports bra, all the fighting and sweating still made her hot.

"Yeah, I thought you were saving points for the analytic club," Evelyn said as she took the bottle from Keesha and mimicked her.

"I didn’t buy a new spell; I modified the ones I already knew."

"You can do that?"

"With the professor’s help, I can now."

Keesha sighed. "I’m going to stop being surprised by what you do."

"Agreed." Evelyn nodded.

"Wait, a new spell requires new incantations or an activation sequence. Did you learn Rune Activation Frequency Deduction?" Tom Nguyen asked.

"Not yet. The professor helped me deduce them."

"That makes sense." Tom nodded. He’s been trying to "create" a Nonverbal Casting Skill, and his research led him to learning about mana frequency and activation frequency. However, that’s something even he couldn’t do, and math was his thing.

"Oh, by the way, Khadijah, could you teach me how to use a shield? I don’t mind compensating you."

"Hmm? Aren’t you a mage?"

"Magic knight—although not officially," Evelyn said.

"I have no issue, and compensation is not needed."

"Are you sure? I don’t want to waste your time."

"It’s fine," Khadijah insisted. "Let’s set up a time and just meet."

"Alright."

"Doesn’t your club teach how to wield a weapon?" Ahmed asked.

"Right now, they are only focusing on training our life energy and learning the basics; the training is too slow for my liking." Unlike mages, magic knights have a requirement of 0.5 life energy to condense the first ring, so Evelyn’s club activities involved a lot of physical training, supplemented by basic weapon training.

"I’m suddenly curious," Zane said. "What other powerful knights do you guys have in your class? Are there any monsters like Devonte?"

"Who you callin’ a monster? I mean, who are you calling a monster?"

"Believe it or not, he’s not the most powerful one in our class," Ahmed added.

"You’re capping, right?" Keesha asked.

"In terms of skills and overall abilities, Devonte is indeed the best. But in terms of pure stats, that goes to Faletui."

"Faletui? Is he Samoan?" Zane asked.

"He is," Ahmed nodded. "His Life Energy is the highest in our class, and his control over it is also the best. If nothing unexpected happens, he’ll probably be Earth’s first 1-star Knight."

"That’s a bold claim," Tom Nguyen added.

"Maybe, but many feel the same, including some of our professors."

"Anyone else?" Zane continued.

"Fiona —no one can beat her with a spear," Devonte said.

"Fiona McCarthy — she received the blessing of Cu Chulainn, and as a result, she’s truly unmatched with the spear."

"Cu Chulainn? As in the one from Irish mythology?" Evans asked.

"Yes."

"He’s real?"

"Didn’t you know? I thought your class covered Earth’s shamans and egregores," Ahmed asked, looking at him with a baffled look.

"They did, but I don’t think they covered that."

"It’s news to me too," Keesha said.

"Our professor briefly mentioned it during the lecture on the gods," Evelyn added.

"No, we covered it in class. Zane and the professor had a conversation about it."

"I’ve also talked about my guardian spirit or egregore," Zane added.

"I remember that conversation," Evans said. "I thought it was implied that now that magic was reviving, egregores might be born; I remember Professor Burbank’s warning about creating personal egregores."

Ahmed shook his head. "No, they exist and have always been a fundamental part of Earth."

"All I’m hearing is that there are powerful spirits, and they can give blessings. How do I get one?" Keesha asked.

"It’s probably impossible. From what I gathered, all of them are directly connected to certain regions, cultures, or religions."

"Zane, you have one? How did you get it?"

"My family has been practicing spirituality for generations. I’ve had a guardian spirit since I was a kid."

"Of course you did," Keesha said, rolling her eyes. This man was too blessed.

"You’re a part of the Akan religion?" Khadijah asked.

"You know of us?"

"I’m a historian and my PhD was on the development of worldwide religions," she said, nodding. "Let me guess: Anansi is your guardian."

"How did you know?"

"The tattoo."

Zane held his chest and nodded.

"You didn’t get a blessing, did you?"

Zane didn’t answer. Instead, he calmly removed his bag of dark chocolate from his backpack to munch.

"Of course you did," Keesha sighed. She reached to take a handful of his chocolate.

"What’s the effect?" Evelyn asked.

"A 20% increase in knowledge absorption."

"What? That’s terrifying," Tom Nguyen exclaimed. He knew how smart Zane was, and with this blessing, his small math advantage might disappear over time. For a moment, Tom considered getting back in touch with his Vietnamese roots; maybe he could find a guardian to bless him.

"Don’t focus on me," Zane said. "What other powerful knights are there?"

"Finally, there is Tio," Ahmed replied. "The five of us are usually the best-performing knights in our class."

"What about your class, Khadijah? Wait, you are in different classes, right?" Zane asked.