Destroyer of Ice and Fire

Chapter 9: Under the starry skies

　　Nightfall. Resplendent starlight sprinkled down on every corner of Holy Dawn Academy.

　　The kingdom of Eiche was located at the southern end of Doraster, inside the Dragon Gasp Mountains. The Dragon Gasp Mountains themselves const.i.tuted the region in Doraster with the highest elevation. Added to the fact that the towns and cities of the kingdom were mostly built on mountains, it was why the kingdom of Eiche had had the t.i.tle of the kingdom closest to the sky every since its very beginning.

　　The closest to the sky, the brighter the starlight at night.

　　The stars in the night skies seemed particularly big in most part of the kingdom’s territory, particularly bright, as if you could pluck one down by just stretching your hand over.

　　Such "starry skies" were unique to Eiche, that’s why Eiche gained the name of "the kingdom under the starry skies" later on, a name lasting until today.

　　And for many people of Eiche, the dazzling bright stars in these skies, seemingly so close to the touch yet unattainable in truth, also seemed like the dreams of each and every person.

　　In a quiet nook of the Thinker’s Stone Forest, Chris rested her two hands on her knees and gasped nonstop for breath.

　　Sweat dripped down her fair pointed chin, drip by drip, to the soil at her feet.

　　Anyone would be able to see that she’d reached the utter limit of her body, but after a quick rest, she actually spit out two words through her clenched teeth in a light voice, "Once more!"

　　She began to sprint again, to leap up high. When her body reached the highest point, soon about to drop down, she suddenly twisted around and exerted her strength, stiffly made several extremely quick dodging motions in the air. Then she landed steadily, crouched down, and stamped her way forward like an arrow.

　　When her figure halted once more, she was finally unable to endure any longer, and fell backward on the ground face up, utterly exhausted.

　　Bitter and astringent sweat flowed into her eyes and her mouth, but lying there on the ground, she actually waved her fist toward the starry skies and whispered to herself, "I have win."

　　…

　　The woody area around the Ivy district was the best training ground for the freshmen.

　　Huge trees reaching the sky created a natural divide between many isolated, quiet s.p.a.ces. Quite a consequent amount of gra.s.sy ground in the forest had already been stepped into solid clay grounds where not even a blade of gra.s.s grew.

　　For freshmen, Notebook Teacher Huston could only be describe by the word "freak." On top of that the vast majority of freshmen were already unwilling to fall behind to begin with, unwilling to be worse than others. That was why light echoes of "Explosive Blazing Punch"… "Explosive Blazing Punch" came nonstop from the empty s.p.a.ces inside the forest, shrouded by starlight.

　　Ayrin also stood inside one of these s.p.a.ces.

　　Sometimes, when there were truly too many things someone was ignorant of, they wouldn’t be in too great a hurry to understand these things. Instead, they would be more devoted to the matters right in front of them.

　　He was already certain by now that the bloodline old Ginns made him fuse with was definitely no shoddy stuff at all.

　　He’d already completed all the foundation exercises arranged by Huston. He probably wouldn’t have been able to complete even half of it before, he would already be flopped on the ground by now.

　　Now he was also very tired, soaked with sweat from head to toe, but he could clearly sense his own progress. Under the tempering of such foundation training, apart from the soreness, he could even feel many extremely fine threads of heat moving inside him, penetrating inside every corner of his body.

　　From old Ginns’ repeated explanations back in Cororin Town, he understood very clearly that an arcane master’s power originated from physical strength and arcane power. Physical power also consisted of two parts, one part being the energy stored inside every minute particle of the body, the other part being the power of spiritual will.

　　He also knew very clearly that the power saved inside all the tiny particles inside the body would increase through diet and training, but he was even more certain that without the fusion of the weird bloodline, it would have been impossible for him to progress so fast.