On the same day Black Sky was inaugurated-two months after arriving-Ezra began to make massive moves in the academy.
The student populace had been cut down by a bit beyond three thousand in the last two months.
Two thousand were female, and the rest male.
Meanwhile, Ezra and the rest breezed through the monthly tests.
As Elisa mentioned, they now had a separate class for Experts.
Having trained for two months, Theron, Ashton, Johan, Roxanne and Velora revealed their Expert levels at Ezra permission.
Ezra had upped his fighting capabilities through the strenuous training he'd been through, as well as the constant spars.
The more he grew, the more he realized he wasn't using his strength to the utmost potential.
Particularly the runes carved into his skin.
He had yet to master the impact, concealment, and the swift rune.
Now, not maximizing potential didn't necessarily mean he wasted it, buuut, he could use it better.
For one, the concealment rune was neglected the most, and for a good reason.
Its only function was cloaking one's presence, and by itself was nothing special.
But when combined with his Darkness element, suddenly had many more options.
The concealment was stronger, practically hiding his existence. Then, he could apply it to something other than himself to either shield allies, or as an attack, limiting the enemy's senses.
As for impact rune, he realized rather than having it on all the time, he should use it in opportune moments to boost attacks, surprising enemies.
And for the swift run, he mostly focused it as an increase in foot speed, when in fact, it augmented all levels of movements.
For the elements training, he used only lightning, Darkness and Blood in public, while training fire and ice in secret.
The fact that he had triple elements caused an uproar in the academy, not to talk of quadruple.
In the two months, he'd also had epiphanies which, looking at it now, should have been obvious.
The legends of tomorrow came from this academy, and the fact they were children of high status basically tagged them as leaders of the next generation.
Ezra was going to put them under him right now-at their most vulnerable point.
So he begins by implementing a tax system.
You had 8,814 students after three thousand were purged.
The top 1000 paid him 8 gold every week, then next 1000 paid 7 gold and so on. Being equal, both genders paid.
Those who tried to resist were squashed, how could anyone punish him when no one testified?
But who in their right mind would testify against the number one?
As such, the tax system came into place with the top ten as the heads.
The professor's didn't even try to stop it, mostly because it wasn't tokens, meaning they didn't need it to survive.
Ezra sought to pick out an army of 3000.
No matter what, the fact they'd passed the last two months was proof of their potential.
So he screened them in his way, you couldn't not participate-except you were okay with a few broken bones.
At the end of it, 2732 boys and 500 girls were recruited. Again, they couldn't say no.
Ezra placed the top ten at the helm, and separated the groups into ten. Valentine was not included.
Then, he personally trained them, making sure to impose more restrictions on himself while still doing more work than his army did.
The threat of Demon worshippers was looming, and Ezra didn't once forget his primary goal-revenge!
At the start the drafted students whined like babies, but after a few examples and broken bones, they tucked in their discontent and did as was told.
With Ezra's expertise, it was long for them to start seeing changes.
The rankings that were fairly stable were thrown into chaos. People were getting stronger, faster, most of which were those drafted by Ezra.
With their ranks now in dismay, others were forced into training as well, else they'd plummet in strength.
The academy got heated up.
An additional two hundred boys and thirty girls joined willingly.
Ezra had them go to the edge of hell and back. It was excruciating for these students who'd never trained so intensely, consistently. But it was very effective.
With each training session, Ezra gained their respect and loyalty.
They might have been initially forced into it, but they were forever grateful.
They grew faster than many of them thought possible.
Ezra then arranged that higher ranked students taught those of lower ranks.
Then, he still had the copper scrolls that he copied mana techniques into, he had those compiled, which he shared to top seven hundred.
With it, the top ten were able to increase their battle prowess even more.
The academy didn't have a particular quota of people to cut down, instead, they placed a score a student must obtain by the end of the month.
A cut off mark if you will.
The mass training was like an infectious disease, forcing others to work hard as well, except for the laziest few.
Elisa couldn't be happier. One because the failing rate had decreased tremendously and two, because Valentine, who was normally reserved, was training obsessively with her mother, Elisa, mentoring her.
It allowed Elisa to fix her strained relationship with her daughter, and what would know-it was because of a boy.
Every time she thought of it, Elisa giggled wantonly, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Of all things, a grudge against a boy becomes the antecedent to fixing their relationship.
What would know, the boy was also the one behind the extraordinary passing rate.
'That Ezra boy keeps surprising me. If he keeps this up…' she looked at her daughter, who was practicing her sword moves.
Valentine suddenly felt chills down her spine. Only to look and see her mom staring with shining eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like an exotic creature?"
Elisa didn't reply, her smile growing only wider as she turned to her work, pushed her glasses in as she muttered, "Oh the possibilities, the possibilities…how exciting"
On the first day of Ezra's fourth month in the academy, he received a wooden box, courtesy of Bard.
In it were three vials containing light purple, and a note.
It read, 'My liege, I hope your stay in the academy is fruit. It is with delight that I inform you that the growth potion is complete, and yes, is what you're currently looking at. Taking hints for the recipes you gave me, I came up with a solution, rather than have the potion feed off vitality, these potions feed off mana. But as I've tested, they seem to work only once, and can have its effect compounded a maximum of three times, hence the three vials. Depending on one's mana level and quality, the effects shall defer, so I recommend taking this only after hitting Expert level, which I feel shouldn't be too long and with a fit body, as effects might diverge on flabby skin. Oh, and when you do, have oversized clothes at the ready, all the changes to occur in the body take a maximum of three days to a week. I haven't taken notice of any side effects
From Bard, The Head Alchemist.
Note: What are your thoughts releasing this potion to the public, and would you mind jotting the changes that occur when you finally drink the potion?...I just remembered something, nevermind'
Ezra held his chin, a bright smile illuminating his expression. At this point, Bard's loyalty was certified.
'Now…' he raised a vial. 'Shall we see what you'll do?'
He was inwardly giddy, the potion had come at the right time, he didn't like that his meridian cultivation had stagnated.
Quickly, he went to a lone training chamber having packed the necessary items, he informed the top ten that he would be out after two weeks.
Inside, he gulps down all three potions.
A minute passes…nothing happened.
'Any time now' he thinks, a mana stone in his mouth.
Immediately, his body felt a sudden emergence.
Veins popped all over as he felt his mana depleting, drying up.
As that happened, his body shook, his eyes wide open with an expectant smile on his lips.
His eyes shone with a blue luster, and shortly after, Ezra felt himself drained of strength.
His eyelids grew heavy in an instant, darkness was upon him.
He spits out the mana stone, wouldn't have a repeat of what happened last time.
Then, Ezra falls asleep.
Time ticks by as Ezra lay shirtless on the ground, his body quivering with his veins bulging.
Ezra snapped awake. Breathing heavily, "Haaah…haaah…haaah"
His vision is blurred, his eyes itchy and his body numb.
After a few minutes the numb feeling fades, and Ezra's sight clears up.
The first thing he sees is a pair of long legs.
Curiously, he touches it. Confirming that it was indeed his legs.
Then, his hand was larger as well, wider with longer fingers.
"This…" his voice trailed off.
He'd expected changes, but this was beyond that.
For one thing, his body felt foreign.
He stands after battling with his shaky legs.
"Hoo" looking down, it seemed he'd grown even taller than his past life in his prime.
The whole experience felt surreal, he landed on his butt soon after.
'This will take a while to get used to'
More importantly, his throat was dried up, he was parched.
'How long was I unconscious?'
Apparently, he'd been out a week and a day after.
He had to practice moving all over again.
It was slow at first, but once he got the hang of it, progress accelerated.
Surprisingly, once he re-mastered the basic movements, pulling off his fighting skills was easy.
Of course, such drastic change affected him, but the Infinite Forms was called that precisely because of its flexibility, it could change its form and sequence to suit anyone.
Anywhere, that was for later.
Firstly, Ezra focused on realizing the extent of his change.
He jumped, kicked and punched all over the place, exercising even the muscle in his fingers and toes.
In less than a week, the feeling of foreignness had almost completely faded.
His power didn't increase by much, but he was thankful it didn't decrease either.
He had taken off his restraints the moment he awoke-it had become too tight.
If nothing else, his hard build muscles had deflated for an almost lanky build.
'Whatever, I'll gain it back' he thought.
Thanks to Bard's warning, Ezra changed from his short clothes into longer ones.
Just imagining the ruckus his appearance would cause, Ezra thought he'd have a headache in advance.
'Thankfully no one saw me'
He collected the box discreetly, outside the academy, so he could come up with many excuses
"Whoo" Ezra breathed out, and then pushed the door open.
The sun greeted him, glazing his eyes a bit.
Ezra rejoiced, no one was around.
But the moment he stepped into the corridor…
"Huh?"
Ezra turned to see Theron.
"Who are you?"
