However, Erik immediately stood in front of the burly man and went into a fighting stance. Now that he was in front of the man and observed him better. He was a very tall middle-aged man, at least 2 meters tall; he was the tallest man Erik had ever seen.
The man had a massive body; his shoulders were at least 70 centimeters broad, his arms were insanely thick his legs looked like tree trunks. GIGANTIC was the only adjective to describe the man. And then there were those two enormous hands...
The man had black hair greyed on the side near his temple by time. His eyes were deep brown with wrinkles around them from age lines. No color or shine was left on his face because it was completely covered with scars. Those weren't just old scars either; they appeared fresh and new, as if the wounds still hurt when touched.
And yet, despite all these features, one thing caught Erik's attention: the man's long nose. In general, the impression Erik had was that the man was rather primitive, and by observing his previous interactions, he was a very rude man.
However, for many reasons, it was clear that he had to be insanely strong. Not only because of his physical build but because he taught at the Red Palace, an honor not many people had.
As the burly man saw Erik's stance, he was immediately disappointed.
"What is that half-assed posture? Stand properly!" he shouted.
Erik tried to go into the best stance he could. However, he couldn't, and the burly man started shouting.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU LITTLE PRICK? DO YOU CALL THAT A STANCE?"
Erik was mortified. However, he couldn't reply to the burly man since he would have probably done something to his rank if he did.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I just recently started fighting..." Erik embarrassedly said.
"WHEN?" the burly man asked.
"A month and a half ago..."
"WHAT?!..." he tried to calm down a little bit, and after a deep sigh, he said, "Never mind then, just attack me with all you got..." visibly disappointed.
Then Erik channeled his power and started attacking the man.
"NO, NO, NO! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" the burly man shouted, embarrassing Erik even more.
Not only was Erik not able to punch or kick as he should've, but he also missed all the openings that the burly man was purposefully showing.
The awkward test lasted ten minutes, with the burly man swearing at Erik and saying how bad his martial arts were. After these long and humiliating ten minutes ended, the burly man said. "Dano, give him position 3543."
Erik's friend looked at the teacher with disconcerted looks, but there was nothing they could do about it.
"What?" Erik shouted. Despite getting higher scores on the other tests, he got a visibly worse position than all his friends.
"What? You are not happy?" the burly man said. "And I was even generous with you!"
Recalling Nathaniel's earlier situation, Erik replied, trying to look as humble as possible.
"It's not that, sir, just that I don't understand this score..." Erik, he didn't have as much fighting experience as Anderson, Amber or Nathaniel. However, he was also told he had improved; he got better and learned a lot quickly, and what the man said left a bitter aftertaste. This was the reason why Erik was confused.
"How can't you understand?" the burly man said. "You suck at martial arts. Your brain crystal power is so-so and clearly best suited to be used with weapons, yet you use it on your body. Aside from that, you could only last this long because of your physical statistics, which you do not deserve by any means. I'm disappointed, young man. I thought awakeners were tough guys."
"But, sir!"
"No, buts! Or I will lower the score even more!"
The people surrounding Erik, even some of the students from New Alexandria, started laughing at the young man, who was visibly angry at that point. Yet, he didn't say anything that could worsen his situation. With that, the awakener left the stage and went to his friends.
Amber, Gwen, Floyd, and Benedict approached Erik, who was visibly upset by the rank he had just got.
"Hey..." Amber said. "Don't worry about it... your situation is understandable."
"Yeah, man, don't worry, you will have much time to learn..." Floyd added.
"I don't understand. I thought I improved a lot during this month. Professor McAllister even said that I got to a good level, yet, this person is saying the opposite," Erik said.
"Erik. We are talking about a Red Palace teacher. His standards will be much higher than every other person out there," Gwen said. "Besides, despite having improved a lot, you still have a lot of flaws, but it is understandable since you started recently. We had all our lives to learn how to fight, while you didn't. Don't worry about it too much..."
Somehow, Gwen's harsh reply was the only thing that made the young man feel better.
Benedict got closer to the young man, "So, you are an awakener, eh?" the young man asked. Erik looked at the guy and nodded.
"But there is nothing good about it, Benedict. I only got problems since I decided to tell people I was."
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear," Benedict replied.
"Nevermind..."
Once all the students got their tests done, Dano started talking, "As you should all know, you will be forced to fight at least once a week to maintain your rank. However, you can actually fight as many people as you can for as long as you want. If you do this, you should be able to increase your rank, and it is clear that once you reach the squire rank, you will get better benefits. So, try to improve, increase your current position and strive for success," Dano concluded.
With that, everyone dispersed into groups. Erik, Amber, Gwen, Floyd, and Benedict headed toward the first floor, not knowing what else to do.
Erik was in a reasonably visible bad mood, but the others appeared to be normal in Benedict's eyes. The young man was very curious about these three people. To have such high ranks, they were for sure the best of their school.
For him, it was weird that Erik was so low-ranked compared to them. Still, he recalled that he was an awakener but that he had just started fighting recently, so everything started to make sense. For sure, he met an interesting group of people.
"Well, are you satisfied with your rank?" Benedict asked after a few minutes of walking.
"I don't really like my result," Erik said.
"Yeah, I figured that out, but you all?" he said while looking at Amber, Floyd, and Gwen.
"Yes."
"I do."
"Yeah..."
Despite being sad, Erik didn't want his mood to affect him and the others that much, so he decided to check his quests.
<System, show me the daily quests,> he thought.
-----------------------------
[Quests List]
[Daily]
<Eating Habits: COMPLETE.>
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Eat a healthy meal)
<Physical training.>
-Rewards for completion: Ten Experience, ten DNA points
-Failure Penalty: None
(Train for at least an hour. The Host may choose whatever exercise to complete the quest.)
-----------------------------
<I have yet to make this quest...>
"Hey guys, mind going to train?"
"Yeah, it is a great idea!" Benedict said.
"Sure, bro!" Floyd replied.
And so, the five went to the gym. The group of friends quickly went toward the elevator, and once they were on the first floor, they headed to the gym with Benedict leading the way.
"Are you sure you know where we are going?" Amber asked.
"Don't worry! I know this place like my pockets!" Benedict eagerly replied.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺