Chapter 146: Surging currents on a dark night

Chapter 146: Surging currents on a dark night

The dark curtains of the deep night once again shrouded the tranquil Holy Dawn Academy.

In a certain third-year dorm, Tonkin 1 tossed and turned, but couldn’t fall asleep no matter what.

He was an ordinary student of Holy Dawn Academy, the one who once walked past the academy canteen’s notice board but chose to turn a blind eye.

Once, he had been utterly disappointed by the academy team’s fighting achievements. Once, he had been in utter despair. But the feelings once pressed down to the depths of his heart had been thoroughly ignited once again by the present team’s performance.

“I still can’t sleep…”

After tossing and turning countless times, Tonkin finally couldn’t help himself anymore. He sat up, gazed at the stars twinkling and glittering in the night sky. “The news about Ayrin and the others in their first match should reach Holy Dawn Academy by tomorrow morning, shouldn’t they? I really hope they can defeat their opponents once more…”

“Victory! We won again!”

All of a sudden, an ear-piercing yell cut through the night, startling countless nocturnal birds.

“What!”

Tonkin opened the windows, almost subconsciously. He directly leaped outside without even wearing his shoes.

A single yell startled awake the entire peaceful Holy Dawn Academy, turning it into a boiling pan.

Tonkin heard countless shrill sounds cutting through the air. When he turned around and saw countless figures rushing outside just like him, he realized that most people couldn’t sleep, just like him.

“We won! We really won!”

“A senior who’s already graduated transmitted the news through the night. Our team won a great victory over team Mountain Kings, five two!”

“Ayrin beat four of them all by himself, and in the end he even forced the captain on the other side, Wild Battlemaster Werther, to run out of arcane particles and directly forfeit!”

“There’s another good piece of news. In the same group, the match between Harrenhal Academy and Rapier Academy turned out extremely bitter. The score was five to four. The victorious Rapier Academy has three members of their main lineup who suffered heavy injuries and who might be absent in the next match. And their next match, it’s precisely against our Holy Dawn Academy!”

…

“We defeated team Mountain Kings!”

“We really defeated a strong team like that by a great margin!”

Tonkin suddenly released a great shout when the very precise news came to his ears one great yell after another. His red feet stepping on the icy-cold stone pavement, he started running as if his life were on the line.

It seemed the only way he could thoroughly vent the feelings inside him was to run madly, to cheer at the top of his lungs. It was the only way he could dry the hot tears of happiness gushing out from the rims of his eyes.

The entire Holy Dawn Academy fell into crazed joy that night.

Many people ran wildly, many people sang at the top of their lungs, many people cried tears of joy, many people didn’t even know anymore why there were randomly bouncing and jumping.

…

In the dark of the night, Eichemalar was still lit as brightly as before.

All sorts of crystals left from the era of the War of the Dragons overflowed with brightness and color. Almost every shop kept to the tradition from thousand years ago: whether deep at night, or just before dawn when they were at their most tired, they were still open for business. Polite and attentive shop clerks were on duty, ready to receive at any time guests come from afar.

Even in an era of absolute peace, some clans or perhaps some special communities innately preferred to operate at night.

Before the War of the Dragons, irascible cave dwarf buyers, night elf nobles who liked to buy special crystals, drink- and brawl-loving mountain giants, all of them could be commonly seen in Eichemalar’s streets at night.

In the athlete village defended and patrolled by teams of elite masters, almost all members of participant teams were already fast asleep.

A lone figure wearing team Hellfire’s uniform walked out from one of the residences within. He walked all the way inside an ordinary training building.

This person wearing team Hellfire’s uniform was shockingly Death God Lotton, the one who’d caused the whole arena to fall into panic.

Before him, there had already been three contestants participating in the tournament who’d entered this dark training building, wearing uniforms from different schools.

“So you’re the captain of our team?”

The three of them were frightened when they clearly saw Lotton’s face as he walked inside the half-open doors.

Lotton merely took a single glance at these three, committing the three of them to memory, then nodded. Without a word, he went out of this training building shrouded in darkness.

Inside the building, the other three also walked outside soon after, each of them clearly carrying their own thoughts and worries. They left separately.

After the four of them left, three arcane masters wearing black arcane robes soundlessly flashed out of the shadows surrounding this training building, like ghosts in the night. One of the arcane masters asked the tallest one among them, “A very unusual situation, how should we proceed?”

“Report to the Office of Special Affairs, send a team to first observe these people. Don’t let them find out. Let us first discover their intentions.”

Light faintly flashed in the eyes of this arcane master, the tallest one among them. After issuing his orders, he hesitated a moment, then added, “To prevent any mishap, we need Jurin’s team to come over. Even I can’t see through this Lotton’s genuine strength, but what I can be sure of is, his arcane skills are partly mind attacks in nature.”

…

“Is this the place?”

At about almost the same time, five people stood in the sewers somewhere underneath the athlete village.

These five people wore uniforms from respectively Abel Academy, Silver Trout Academy, Three-Headed Dragon Academy, Windsinger Academy, and Sea Gale Academy.

Among the five of them, there was one Ayrin could have recognized. It was the one from Silver Trout Academy, the tender-faced shy-looking freshman, Shinro.

“Is this the place?”

A short boy wearing Windsinger Academy’s uniform glanced at the sewer wall in front of them. He stretched out his fingers and tapped on it, then turned his head around and looked at the skinny boy wearing Abel Academy’s uniform.

For five people like these to be assembled in the hidden sewers, it was already a very strange combination. But what was even more surprising was, Windsinger Academy didn’t rank as a powerful team in the national tournament, and there was no especially famous celebrity fighter in the team either. Between them and a team like Abel Academy that was vice-champion last year and was also dubbed a monster-level team this year, the distance was as far as between the sky and the land. But right at this moment, this short boy wearing Windsinger Academy’s clothes didn’t seem to feel awkward or stifled in the slightest. He seemed to be on equal footing with every one of the other four.

“This is the place.” Seeing the short boy from Windsinger Academy tap a tiny depression in the wall, the skinny boy from Abel Academy looked slightly displeased, yet he still nodded. “When the time comes, we only need to break this wall and go through the sewers behind. We’ll directly reach the water tower. There are only two guards there usually, and they aren’t especially strong either. As long as we act swiftly, this should be a surefire plan.”

“I hope so,” the boy wearing Sea Gale Academy’s uniform coldly said. Inside the darkness, his skin seemed to glimmer with faint fluorescence like some deep-sea fishes. “Right now, it’s the time of the year with the greatest concentration of elite masters in Eichemalar. Just the teachers in charge of the teams are strong enough to make you dead afraid.”

“As long as these team-leading teachers don’t find out in advance and join hands to deal with us, then even if a few of them came by themselves, they still might not be our match.” The short Windsinger boy smiled arrogantly. “Be at ease. At the very least, we’re not the team that’s going to pull their attention. A plan in motion for several decades, and we’re the ones who’ll ultimately carry it. We should feel proud of ourselves.”

…

“It hurts! It hurts!”

In Holy Dawn Academy’s residence, Ayrin jumped on his bed, shouting miserably again and again.

A female medical master with long black hair, seeming very quiet and gentle, was sticking thin hollow needles in his arms and dripping some medicinal liquid inside.

Apart from Ayrin and this quiet and gentle woman, Carter was also standing beside Ayrin’s bed.

“You, why are you shouting so miserably? You’ve been screaming ever since she started helping you drain the blood from the bruises, all the way until now,” Carter said, half-angry and half-amused as he watched Ayrin wretched shouts. “Also, you keep screaming miserably during a match, you simply don’t have the style of a master. You have to know that after the match against team Mountain Kings, you’ve also become an idol for many people, you’ve become one of the celebrity figures in the national tournament.”

“It’s not that, teacher Carter,” Ayrin explained with a pitiful look. “It doesn’t hurt as much when I shout.”

“Carter, I really can’t understand. You clearly had victory firmly in your grasp, why did you still make him stay and fight another bout? Others may not know Dark Destruction Dragon’s power, but I’m very aware of it.” The gentle female master lifted her head and looked at Carter in great confusion. “His constitution is much stronger than ordinary people. It looks like it has a certain relation with his considerable amount of training. But all the bones in his arms are covered by a myriad of tiny cracks. Someone else would have been out of commission long ago.

“Also, what I understand even less is, in the medical teams inside our athlete village, Athan’s team is clearly the best at dealing with the type of injuries he’s suffering from. So why did you insist on having me instead? Even with their team handling the treatment, he might not have been completely recovered for the next match.”

“It’s because I’m not familiar with the other teams. But you Mira, you’re the one most worthy of trust for me, Liszt, Ciaran, and the others. In fact, you’ll understand in a few days. We’re merely trying to help Ayrin keep his secrets as much as possible. His regenerative ability is so much stronger than ordinary people. For an arcane master, the more secrets you can conceal, the more assurance you have to be victorious against your enemies,” Carter said, looking at her. “If nothing unexpected happens, he shouldn’t miss any match whatsoever with the treatment you did.”

This arcane master he called Mira was taken aback. “Is his regenerative ability so strong?”

“Secret,” Carter said with a small smile.

“I understand now.” Mira nodded.

“It’s really a rare occurrence for a little monster like this one to come out of our academy, of course I have to be careful. Also, the Evil Dragon followers have been more rampant than usual lately.” Carter released a quiet sigh.

Mira seemed to think of something. There was a sudden faint redness to her eyes.

“It’s been so long already. Are you still as much of a cry-baby as you used to be?” Carter thought, looking at her.

“In your group, before the match between Harrenhal Academy and Rapier Academy, everyone had their eyes on Harrenhal Academy. But Rapier Academy won instead. Several main members in team Rapier are seriously injured, they’ll definitely be absent for their match against you. So you’re getting a good deal. If nothing untoward happens, you should be able to grab an easy win over them,” the red-eyed Mira said. “So, in the match against Rapier Academy, are you still going to make him go on stage?”

“Does that count as leaking inside information?” Carter cracked a small joke, then he nodded. “Want to know the reason? Ayrin, come here, test your spiritual strength again.”

“Test my spiritual strength? Alright.” Ayrin saw Carter take out a dwarven benchmark tool. He immediately sat up, stretched out a hand Mira had wrapped tight in bandages.

“How much is my spiritual strength at now?” Ayrin himself was very much looking forward to the result.

After an “Ah” of pain, the scales on the dwarven benchmark tool started to glow with green light.

Already very familiar with this thing, Ayrin counted swiftly. He immediately announced the result himself: “Forty-three?”

“Sure enough, it’s gone past forty already.” Carter couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

“Only forty-three? Why is he only… Then why does he have so many arcane particles?” Mira couldn’t hold back a startled exclamation.

“He’s truly an arcane master with only one open gate. The reason why he has so many arcane particles, that’s also a secret,” Carter looked at her and quietly said. “That said, now that you saw this value, you should understand already why I’m hoping for him to go on the field every single match and fight to his limits.”

“He can open the second arcane gate when spiritual strength reaches around fifty.” Mira took a deep breath. She looked at Ayrin, pushing back her shock. “Are you trying to make him open his second arcane gate as fast as possible?”

“The intensity of his training and his progress is much higher than what you imagine. The amount of training he does in a month is equal to several months worth of training for many people, maybe even half a year or more. And his innate talent is also greater than almost everyone.” Carter looked at Ayrin and said in all seriousness, “If all goes according to my plan, it might be possible for him to open his second arcane gate before the match against team Silver Trout Academy.”

“Opening his first and second gates so quickly… That’s dragon-level talent.” Mira looked dazedly at Carter and Ayrin. For some reason, the image of the Holy Dawn Evil Six from back then emerged in her mind.

…

“I can already open my second gate in seven or so!”

“Don’t be too happy. Your spiritual strength needs to be around ninety to open the third gate. Also, the higher the spiritual strength, the harder it is to improve it. Even with talent like yours, after opening your second gate, it’ll be a very long slow road to the third gate.”

“Teacher Carter, what’s the relation between this teacher Mira and you?”

“Heh heh, she was Ciaran’s rival in love back then. She liked the same person Ciaran liked. For this thing, she even went head to head against Ciaran in the tournament. She lost to Ciaran as a result, and wept a long time in the arena.”

“But teacher Carter, no matter how I look at it, your eyes were a bit strange when you looked at her. Do you like her perhaps?”

“That…”

“Haha, no need to hide it. It turns out you had a secret crush on her!”

“Bastard, I forbid you to spread this drivel around!”

“Haha, you guys are really complicated.”

1. Tonkin is a minor character, once a great supporter of team Holy Dawn but he’d lost hope before the team started the winning streak. You can refer back to chapter 81 if you want to refresh your memory.