Kayden asked a few more specific questions about each place, such as the average level of people who visited them and what were the best days and times to go to each of the spots. The boy knew how to answer each of Kayden’s questions perfectly.
"The city is made up of one ruling family and we all just follow their orders. It’s been like this since always. Our currency is only used locally and needs to be exchanged at a ratio of five to one of the national currencies. We have a public library that costs a hundred coins an hour; It is a luxury for few. Our economy is based on fishing and selling exotic fish."
"Thank you for your help," Kayden said goodbye to the boy and disappeared before he could receive any response. He returned to his room and saw Felix studying the ship’s runes curiously.
"These runes are far superior to ours. It’s practically like we used wet wood to start a fire," the cat commented, and Kayden just nodded. His knowledge of runes was extremely low at this point.
He practically stopped studying runes in the second realm and only kept a few in the third. His spells didn’t qualify as runes, so he didn’t understand anything the cat was babbling.
Kayden was lost in thought. His priority at that moment was to improve his path, but it was something very difficult to do, mainly because he had nothing to support himself. Everything had to be explored by him.
His focus lasted until the next day when a knock on the door disturbed Felix, who in turn bit Kayden to go see who it was. The principal was outside, and Kayden remembered at that moment that he had a class to teach.
He spoke to the director for a while and then said goodbye to Felix. The walk to the top was quick. Kayden found himself in front of at least two hundred students, few considering what he had seen before.
There were some bleachers arranged circularly around a stage. Kayden walked calmly to the center while observing the students. The average level was similar to what he had seen in the city, probably because no students lived on the ship.
In one of the corners, he saw two people he had met before: the teenager who helped him get to the city and the teenager who helped him at the market. But the two were in totally different groups; while one was with the best, the other was isolated alone.
"Hi, I’m Kayden. You don’t need to call me by any title, just Kayden is fine. I will be teaching some monthly classes on how to fight. Before we begin, you will have to answer one simple question: are you here to learn how to fight or protect yourself?" Kayden’s introduction was short and his question took everyone by surprise.
Most needed a few minutes to think and the vast majority already knew they were there just to protect themselves. Few were interested in exploring this world; their parents and ancestors told stories too dark for them.
"Those who want to learn how to protect themselves can leave. This class won’t help you at all, but you’re free to stay if you want." Kayden’s sentence was ignored by the majority and, like a herd effect, no one left.
"Alright, I’ll start by making a few things clear." Kayden took advantage of this moment to pull out a chair and sit down comfortably. "Practically all of you would die in a fight outside to any fighter in the same realm, even with an inferior amount of lightning or strength." Kayden was about to continue talking when someone raised their voice.
"You’re very arrogant..." Kayden saw a boy clearly from the upscale area of the city surrounded by his fan club of ass-kissers. Before the teenager could start a cliché sentence, Kayden stood up and...
SLAP!
He gave the boy a hard slap in the face, which sent him spinning in the air. As if he hadn’t done anything big, Kayden sat back down in his chair. His speed was greater than anyone could keep up with inside.
"I think something is not clear. I was hired to teach. I don’t care if you have complaints or want to use your superior position in the city to pressure me. This is irrelevant. Just shut up and watch or leave."
Kayden released some of his mana pressure on the students, directing it fully against the teachers who seemed to want to cause a stir. Even the director felt pressured and scared to face Kayden. It was a very frightening pressure and it made it clear that he would be a dead man if he made a mistake in his actions.
No one in this town could truly threaten Kayden. The strongest would still have a cost to fight him, especially considering that Felix was together with Kayden. At worst, he just needed to get away.
"As I said, what’s left for you is a life or death struggle. You are flowers that grew in greenhouses. Anyone outside will just use their killing intent against you, and the battle will tilt toward their side. This is the first defect we will correct." Kayden saw a hand raised and stopped his speech. "You there, with your hand raised, ask your question."
"What is intent to kill?" Kayden blinked in surprise at the question and realized he had a lot of work ahead of him.
"The more people you kill and the more you understand about life and death, the stronger you develop a type of intention similar to mana pressure. The difference is that the intention to kill does not waste energy and does not depend on anything to develop other than killing other people. Those who have never interacted with her will be severely weakened when confronted."
After Kayden stood up to everyone in the room, teachers and students were paying more attention to his words and taking the class seriously.
"The training for today and the next classes is to resist my intention to kill. I will dilute it and increase it as you improve. To pass the test, it’s very simple: you just need to fly 30 meters above the ground. Those who want to leave, do so now." Kayden gave everyone a few seconds and then released his killing intent.
Most who had a weak will began to instantly feel sick and suffocate on their own; others fainted immediately. Kayden just looked at this with disgust and removed these students from the scene, placing them a few meters away. Even the weakest human would not have such a weak mentality.
Probably, because human society was much more competitive and violent, from an early age you were taught to stand out and be better than others. Death was present everywhere and, once in a lifetime, one human would kill another.
"You have a short 5-minute rest. Afterward, my killing intent will return." Kayden stopped after a while. Of the two hundred students, only half were still resisting.
Five minutes later, Kayden continued with his diluted killing intensity. Whenever someone started to float, he would increase the intensity. Incredibly, the pathetic first-realm teenager who helped him the day before was among the best.
It took about four hours before no one else was able to continue. At that moment, Kayden stopped his killing intention for good. This was work that had to be done continuously and was unlikely to have immediate results.
"Come back next class. We will continue this until you can resist perfectly." With that, Kayden returned to his room under everyone’s gaze. He just came to get Felix so they could go to the Storm of Wisdom.
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The cat complained a lot but was convinced by some food. Felix’s help would be very useful if they encountered any group of strong opponents or even a peak transition mage with seven rays.
He didn’t need any map, he just headed in the right direction, and after a few minutes at full speed, he was able to see a huge gray storm with red threads thundering over the sea.
His spiritual sense was shrunk once again and only reached 10 kilometers, but it was still quite high considering Felix was barely 500 meters at the moment. This small advantage on his part caused him to be able to locate a trio of mages in the third realm.
Without any shame on his face, Kayden asked Felix to distort the three’s senses and, easily, he performed a hexagram and cut their bodies into dozens of pieces. Kayden didn’t forget to burn the bodies completely to avoid any traces.
A few seconds later, the two felt red rain dripping onto their bodies. The drops felt like falling cotton and were barely felt by them, but quickly penetrated their skin through their clothes, or, in Felix’s case, through their fur.
"It’s little, but it’s very useful," Kayden commented as he felt the symptoms of the urge, but on a scale hundreds of times smaller. This moment of impulse lasted about an hour. It was useful and helped him better define his path.