As it turned out, it was a bad idea to leave my dormitory room and wander around Vermillion Academy. Even though I roughly knew how it looked like after watching the entire flashback arc of Dad, that didn't necessarily meant I knew the school like the back of my hand. My poor sense of direction was my undoing again, and I found myself utterly lost.

"Hey, you over there!"

I caught sight of a couple of students in the Vermilion Academy uniforms approaching me. One of them was a huge guy with a really buff stature and closely cropped hair, while the other was a carefree, skinny guy with a bandanna wrapped around his head for some reason.

"Why are you loitering around here? Aren't you from one of the other schools? You're here for the exchange session, aren't you?"

"That's right," I affirmed, scratching my head sheepishly. The burly guy was quite imposing, and his tone was just as intimidating as his huge figure. "Sorry. I didn't mean to loiter around. I was just searching for the training room."

"Relax," the skinny guy told his friend before he turned to smile at me. "Don't mind Brutus. He's always quite…"

"…brutal?" I offered. The skinny guy with the bandanna burst out laughing, even as Brutus's expression grew more severe.

"That's certainly one way of putting it. Anyway, if you're looking for the training room, it's in that building over there." He pointed in the opposite direction. "You're a long way from it."

"Holy f! Thanks! No wonder I couldn't find it!"

"No problem. I'm Riley." The skinny guy with the bandanna offered his hand and I took it. His handshake was strong and firm but warm and friendly. "I think I recognize you. Aren't you the guy from Jing Tian Academy who helped our captain out when she was in a pinch?"

"Your captain?"

"Lilith Porter. You should know her. You took really good care of our captain in the Spiritual Road, from what I heard anyway."

Brutus grimaced and looked away in embarra.s.sment. "I should thank you. You succeeded where we all failed…we got wiped out by Ji Xuan's forces right from the beginning. We are really grateful to you for saving our captain."

"Honestly, I didn't do much." I raised both of my hands quickly. "Your captain is perfectly capable of taking care of herself."

"You're just as modest as we've heard." Riley chuckled and patted my shoulder. "I'm glad that, of all the people in the Spiritual Road, she ran into you."

"You saved her from Ji Xuan and his cronies," Brutus agreed.

"The authorities would have intervened if things got too far," I argued. Actually, they couldn't. The Spiritual Road was completely separate from the real world. No matter what transpired within that artificial reality, the instructors and teachers in charge were not allowed to intervene. Or they couldn't. Once they sent students into the s.p.a.ce, there was no way for them to enter the Spiritual Road. Having known that fact, Ji Xuan exploited it to his advantage, but he never thought he would be defeated and have his blood token seized from him.

He clearly intended to stay in the Spiritual Road forever and create his own little kingdom within that little, isolated pocket of reality. Too bad he failed. The moment he was forcibly teleported out into the real world, he was apprehended.

Despite him breaking the rules, the Spiritual Road training camp was counted as a success. The higher-ups viewed this as a good experience in teaching us students how to deal with the unexpected, and they really admired how we coped with Ji Xuan's unscrupulous attempts to conquer the Spiritual Road. They declared that we had emerged from the experience a lot stronger and wiser. Furthermore, even though Ji Xuan broke the rules, it wasn't as if anyone died. The a.s.sa.s.sins trainees were still pretty green, and they refrained from murdering because it wasn't part of their contract. Also, they knew that crossing that line would bring about a tremendous backlash and force the surviving students to resort to much more desperate measures.

They didn't want to deal with those sort of measures inside the forest, where they were unfamiliar with the terrain.

"Isn't Captain training there too?" Brutus suddenly remembered. "She wanted to go over a few of her new techniques, if I recall correctly."

"She probably is. The captain loves to train." Riley grinned at his own remark as he glanced at me. "She's kind of similar to you in that regard."

"…why do you know what kind of person I am?" I frowned in both annoyance and puzzlement. This was the first time I've met these guys, and Riley was acting overly familiar with me. He chuckled in a placating manner.

"You don't realize how famous you are online, are you? Quite a few of your schoolmates posted about you on forums when the other schools were asking for your information…ever since you defeated the Invincible G.o.ddess of War."

"…right."

"We should get going," Brutus reminded Riley. "We still have several errands to run."

"Oh, right. Anyway, don't get lost again. Just keep going straight toward that building." Riley gave me a slight push and I nodded before I made my way. Waving back at them, I plastered on what I hoped would look like a friendly smile.

"Thanks again!"

It didn't take more than a few minutes to reach the building. There was a huge gymnasium in the first floor, which doubled as an arena. No sooner had I stepped through the huge door and into the premises when a familiar voice called out to me.

"Oh, hey! Richard!"

Lilith waved to me, a sheen of perspiration clinging to her skin as she breathed heavily. The ground around her was scorched and the air was s.h.i.+mmering from the heat. Evidently she had been practicing her fire spells.

"h.e.l.lo, Lilith. It's been a while."

"It has indeed." Lilith beamed dazzlingly. "I'm so glad you could make it to the exchange session my school is holding."

"Well, it was too good a chance to pa.s.s up on…"

Lilith giggled. "Yeah, I suppose. By the way, you came here to train as well?"

"That's right." I nodded as I swung my arms in preparation for training. Some kind of weird warmup to loosen my muscles and relax the tension in my body. "I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not! In fact, I welcome it!"

Lilith was grinning, and for some reason I felt a sense of foreboding.

"On one condition, though." for some reason, I knew she was going to say that, and I suppressed a groan. "Spar with me!"

Well, at least it was a lot less contrived than me being tricked by a trio of idiots who held a grudge against me for no reason other than because it seemed I was popular with girls, and walking into Lilith wearing nothing but a bath towel in the changing room right after she had just taken a shower (seriously, why wasn't the door locked, displaying an occupied sign or at the very least separated according to gender?). I know Skeletal Wizard loved his fanservice and any sort of excuse to throw his protagonist into enviable situations with beautiful heroines, but honestly, that wasn't how reality worked. Lucky sube incidents just didn't happen out of thin air. And people didn't just hold grudges for something as stupid as "why is this baby face super popular with girls?" Not unless the author just wanted to w.a.n.k off to how lucky and enviable and super popular his self-insert male protagonist was.

I mean, I was also a blatant self-insert protagonist (or author avatar), but I obviously didn't have good things conveniently falling into my lap all the time. Reality was never that generous. All that label granted me was the ability to break the fourth wall, make obscure manga references and rant about irrelevant stuff.

"What in the nine h.e.l.ls are you talking about?" Lilith demanded. "Why would you walk in on me when I'm in the changing room? They're sorted by genders and they have electronic locks to prevent that kind of thing…to prevent the wrong person from just intruding in like that! This isn't an ecchi story, you won't be getting fanservice from me! And I'm not even a heroine to begin with! So don't even think of adding me to your non-existent harem!"

"…uh, okay." Seemed like my ability to break the fourth wall was pretty infectious. Anyway, time to return to the main plot before the irrelevant ranting and dialogue derailed the story entirely. "Give me a second and we'll begin."

I dropped my stuff on the floor…which wasn't much, actually. I didn't bring Hei Yue and Bai Ri.

Lilith noticed that and she raised an eyebrow. "Where are your swords?"

"I didn't bring them. I wanted to train with my summoning magic, not my swordsmans.h.i.+p. I didn't expect to be sparring against someone. Sorry about that."

"No need to apologize. Summoning magic is fine too." Lilith casually tossed her crimson sword aside. "Then I'll also fight barehanded."

"Cool." I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose as I studied her. Even though Lilith exceled in the sword, I was aware that she was no slouch in the unarmed combat department either. In fact, I looked forward to seeing what she could do. Stepping up into the stage, I took my position. Lilith nodded at me, and then she swung her hand down.

"Let's begin!"

"Okay."

I let her make the first move, not because I was underestimating her (her being a lady had nothing to do with anything) but because I was recording the kind of skills and spells she was using. If she, like Brutus and Riley said, was practicing new spells, I wanted to know what they were. Even though her school hosted this exchange session, we were all in a sense enemies and rivals in the upcoming national tournament.

However, her first move took me by surprise.

"h.e.l.lfire Bear!"

I watched as the h.e.l.lfire Bear plummet upon my position, and scowled.

"What the h.e.l.l?! That's against the rules! You're not supposed to have your summoning spell already cast at the start of the battle!"

"Sorry, but I was training the entire time, so this isn't the start for me. Besides, you're supposed to learn how to deal with the unexpected. And treat this as a match where I have already summoned my h.e.l.lfire Bear to eliminate your teammates in the previous match…just like how you team-killed Crowley's Grand Arcane Academy with almost a single Vermillion Phoenix."

"Right." I fought to roll my eyes. Even though I was at an overwhelming disadvantage, I didn't complain. Instead, I decided to embrace the challenge. Like Lilith said, I should learn to expect the unexpected and find a way to win from an extremely disadvantageous position. Only then could I become strong enough to be a hero.

Villains weren't going to give warnings or offer me ample time to prepare before they struck and attack the innocents. They often caught heroes off guard through despicable means and nefarious schemes. It was the same logic here.

Taking a deep breath, I jumped up and evaded the h.e.l.lfire Bear's flaming paw. Spinning in midair, I dodged another blazing swipe and dropped to the ground. keeping my head low to prevent it from getting burned off, I then dove to the side before the h.e.l.lfire Bear could stomp me into a pile of ash, and rolled up to my feet just in time to duck under a fireball.

"Impressive." Lilith was forced to keep her distance somewhat or she might end up becoming collateral damage from her h.e.l.lfire Bear's devastating attacks. Her Soul Beast rampaged in an almost berserk manner, smas.h.i.+ng and scorching the arena as I dodged around. "Your evasive techniques are excellent."

"Because I might die if I don't dodge?" I pointed out wryly before I avoided another blazing swipe from the h.e.l.lfire Bear. Just another minute or so…

"Too bad you didn't learn Ghost Steps or Shadow Steps from w.a.n.g Zhong…or that clown, Simba, or I'll be calling you the Garrulous King and having a crush on you for no reason other than because you're the invincible protagonist."

"Can we stop making references to Battle Frenzy? It's getting pretty old by this point." I sighed. Dodging yet another flaming slash from Lilith's Soul Beast, I counterattacked with a kick. The h.e.l.lfire Bear merely grunted and retaliated with a crus.h.i.+ng swat that reduced the ground to burned rubble. Fortunately, I managed to escape that attack too.

Snarling, the h.e.l.lfire Bear continued to bear down upon me (because it was…a bear. Get it?). I jumped away and gave another kick into its growling face, but its fiery mane protected it from any real damage. Flipping myself up and over the rampaging Soul Beast and just narrowly escaping its intersecting claws that would have eviscerated me if they landed, I slammed my foot against the crown of its head, ignoring the blazing mane.

Even that kick didn't work, but I never intended it to. As the berserk Soul Beast struck at the top of its head with both its blazing paws, I propelled myself off the top of its head and launched myself across the arena. Reaching the other side of the stage, I tucked my legs in, hit the ground and rolled away, even as the lumbering h.e.l.lfire Bear turned to face me.

Bellowing, it charged at me. I smiled as I adjusted my gla.s.ses again.

"Too late."

Ursa Major materialized in front of me. Dropping to his haunches, the immense Constellation spirit charged and tackled the lumbering h.e.l.lfire Bear. The two gigantic monsters grappled, wrestled and crashed heavily onto the ground, sending tremors across the gymnasium.

"Ho…as expected, you're an expert at dealing with monsters. But…how about a human opponent?"

"?!"

While I was busily dealing with Lilith's h.e.l.lfire Bear, she had been clenching her fists excitedly. Right after I summoned Ursa Major, she kicked off the ground without any hesitation and launched herself at me. Her fists burst into flames and she delivered a barrage of punches.

"Ugh…"

I grunted as I whirled around to face the new threat. Taking a deep breath, I deflected her punches to the side, twisting my body to minimize the impact of her strikes and deftly knocking her blazing fists away while taking minimal damage in return.

"Wing Chun?"

A bead of perspiration dripped down Lilith's pretty face, but I mercilessly kicked her from below, forcing her back. The two of us sprang apart in a blazing spark. Lilith skidded backward for a moment, a smile spreading over her face.

"I knew it!" she crowed. "You really learned martial arts from Uncle Shun Yin!"

In a distance, our two bears continued to wrestle and shove each other. They were locked in a stalemate for now, but Lilith paid no attention to them. Instead, she raised her hands, her fists igniting into flames once more.

"Again! Another round!"

"Fine then." I pushed my gla.s.ses up and loosened my tie. Smiling, I flicked my arms to loosen the muscles and prepare for another punis.h.i.+ng session of combat. "I'll accompany you until the very end."