Chapter 20: Establishing Dominance
Qian Jin was so excited that it gave him goosebumps. Magic Forging Masters! Even the most powerful warriors and mages would have to pay their respects to Magic Forging Masters; they had to be polite when addressing them, and they didn’t dare to act arrogantly in front of them.
The most powerful families, even the royal family, would offer a lot of favorable terms to recruit them. Even if they decided to work for them, they wouldn’t be treated as normal retainers or courtiers.
Magic Forging Masters! They would become the center of attention wherever they went! They would always be the special retainers who would get paid and weren’t required to work. If they felt like it, they could casually create some gadgets, and that would make powerful families extremely happy.
“Magic Forging Master, haha!” Qian Jin shook his head as he felt very motivated. “You don’t say. Even when I was back at the Qian Family, I had only heard of Magic Forging Masters; I never actually saw one. If I could actually become one...”
Qian Jin couldn’t help but drool uncontrollably.
One gold coin, which was worth a whole month of effort, was now easily earned by just swinging the hammer for a short time. Qian Jin even felt lighter when he walked. He whistled as he walked into a cloth shop and picked out a suitable cloth that could be used as a sheet. He didn’t go hard and negotiate to save one copper coin with the elder woman who owned the shop; he paid directly and left.
The hat! The only thing that was on Qian Jin’s mind was that mysterious hat and the game called Endless World that was associated with it.
From the simple practice of the fundamentals of blacksmithing, getting water from the well became easy. Moreover, beating Rudy, who was ranked third on the strength ranking for Grade One, in an arm-wrestle was like beating a kid. Even that blacksmith shop which had never accepted students from Oakland’s Warrior and Mage Academy treated him like an important guest.
All of these things happened because of that strange hat! Qian Jin continued thinking as he paced himself back to the academy; he really wanted to see what else the Endless World could offer.
After he got past a number of structures and buildings and returned to the academy, he saw a few students staring at him strangely from afar. Some students were standing in the hallway of the dorm, and some students peeked out of their windows. They had one thing in common; they didn’t say a word to Qian Jin.
“What’s happening?” Qian Jin was very curious, “Am I that unlucky? Did the ‘extremely ugly looking incident’ become that well known?”
The door to his room was open. The door was kicked opened rather than pushed open to be exact.
The door that was intact a few hours ago had turned into a few unequal pieces of wood. They laid on the floor quietly. There were some obvious traces in the room; his lunch box that he used to get food from the cafeteria also laid on the ground quietly, but it had been clearly stepped on by someone. It was deformed; his drinking cup was also smashed into pieces.
“Thieves? Robbers?” The first thing that Qian Jin thought about after seeing the mess was the hat. He rushed into the room.
The hat was at the same place and in the same condition as when he left the room. It was still tied under the bed and not damaged at all.
Qian Jin got up and carefully observed the messy room. Nothing had gone missing. But from his lunch box and cup, someone had definitely struggled and resisted when people came in.
Qian Jin shook his head and got rid of the idea of thieves and robbers in his mind. Unless thieves or robbers were tired of living and didn’t have the courage to commit suicide, they wouldn’t come into Oakland’s Warrior and Mage Academy to commit crimes. This was the academy that trained people to kill demons in the future on the battlefield. The warriors and mage students didn’t mind treating bad guys as demons and make them disappear.
There was an envelope on the table where a lot of Qian Jin’s belongings were placed on. “To Qian Jin.” These were the only words on the envelope; Qian Jin could sense the impetuousness of the writer.
He opened the envelope and pulled out a letter that had messy writing on it.
[Rollin is in my hands. If you are not brave enough to come to the little forest at the back of the academy, then you will meet your friend in the hospital!] - Caesars.
Qian Jin squeezed the letter in his hand tightly as he bit on his upper lip. “Is this dude crazy?” He thought, “Did he not learn his lesson from last time? Rollin too! There are so many girls to like, so why does he have to chase after Julius? That woman is arrogant as f*ck! Why bother?”
He looked at Rollin’s bed and then his own bed. When he just got to the academy, he was so poor that he didn’t even have a copper coin to pay for food. If it wasn’t for Rollin who made bets with him and lost on purpose to support him, he would have had to work all the time and have no time to train at all.
After leaving his family and becoming independent, Qian Jin learned that life wasn’t easy. However, since he had decided to leave his family, he wanted to stand tall and handle everything like a man on his own and live a fulfilling life.
He threw the letter onto the ground and walked out. Rollin was the only good friend he had, and he owed Rollin a huge favor. As a man, he knew what time he should return a favor, and what time to get revenge. As a warrior, he knew not to back down from challenges.
“The little forest?” Qian Jin shrugged his shoulders as he walked along the hallway and ignored all the glances and stares. “Okay, I will use this opportunity to establish my dominance and tell people who think I’m an easy target to back off!”
Qian Jin quickly disappeared from the end of the hallway and left the dorm. The students who were staring at Qian Jin all shook their heads. “Qian Jin will suffer this time. Maybe he still doesn’t know that Caesars isn’t planning on fighting by himself. Caesars paid a lot of money and got Revolver-Skyblade who is ranked at the eighth spot on the fighting ability ranking in Grade One; he is ranked higher than Qian Jin. He is slick at the [Demon Ape Beast FIghting Technique]; even the instructors complimented him on that.”
Revolver-Skyblade wasn’t someone like Caesars. A few brave students decided to follow Qian Jin to the little forest after a little hesitation. The battle of the top ten was rare to see. They all wanted to see how long Qian Jin could battle with someone who was ranked higher than him until he was defeated.
There was a huge hill at the backyard of the academy; there would be no exaggeration if it was described as a little mountain. All kinds of trees and plants were located on it. The initial plan was to create a simulated environment for the students. After all, these students would go into the frontline of the war with the demons; this type of environment simulation would do wonders for the students, and it would increase their chances of survival.
However, this hill filled with trees had also turned into a place for students to solve their own disputes and grudges.