Garran was born into a noble family known for their outstanding knights as descendants.
He had been trained in combat since young. Enrolling in Frieden Academy had always been one of his goals, which he recently achieved.
When interacting with his peers and the Professors, he deliberately watched his image, wanting to create a good impression. He believed that doing so would show the prestige of his family.
However, when he went to the Trial of Swords and Trial of Fists, he saw teenagers who were more outstanding than him.
For this reason, he chose the Trial of Defense as his last trial.
This was the trial he was most confident in, and he showed his proficiency by fighting against a Troll, which was one of the strongest monsters there was.
He was quite happy after receiving 3,500 Points.
Why? Because the maximum points that could be earned from each trial were 5,000.
His points were enough to land him in Class C, which he felt was satisfactory.
Garran didn’t want to compete with the prodigies and geniuses of the current generation. He was fine with being slightly above average.
Not to mention, no one had performed better than him in the Trial of Defense, so he felt confident about making a mark in the history of the academy.
All the top achievers in each trial would be displayed in a Ranking, and so far, his name was at the very top.
He believed that no one would be able to best his score.
That was until Alex appeared in the Trial of Defense.
"W-What the hell?!" Garran gasped in shock.
Even the other students couldn’t keep their eyes off Alex because of the unique way he used his shields. His way of fighting made them realize that they had never properly thought about the full potential of shields.
"Shield Boomerang!" Alex roared, and his four magical shields imbued with the holy element flew toward four of the closest Killer Quills. Upon impact, the monsters screeched in pain.
Even the Combat Professor, Darius, couldn’t help but give the young man a thumbs-up in his heart. This was the exact kind of performance he expected to see from a student.
"Watch out!" one of the students yelled as the Killer Quills unleashed another deadly spray of quills at the young man, who had just bashed a monster to death.
"Shield Charge!" Alex shouted. Soon, he transformed into a golden comet that streaked across the battlefield and clashed against the monster farthest from him.
Not only did he evade the attacks of dozens of monsters, but he was also able to instantly close the gap between him and a group of six Killer Quills, which he planned to eliminate.
The area of Alex’s attack skill shone in splendor, dealing serious damage against the Killer Quills.
He temporarily returned Svalinn to his storage ring and summoned his sword to deliver the final blow against the monsters that were already near death.
A few seconds later, six more Rank 2 Monsters died, bringing his kill count to forty.
In the eyes of the students, Alex was one-sidedly slaughtering the monsters.
Little did they know, the young man had nearly depleted his Stamina and Mana after using his skills consecutively.
The young man crouched down and hid his body behind Everguard.
The sound of quills pelting his shield was a constant reminder that despite his strong performance so far, the battle wasn’t over yet.
To everyone’s surprise, Alex took out a roasted pork bun from his storage ring and began to eat it.
Using potions and pills to heal injuries or replenish mana during the trials was technically permitted. However, the students avoided doing so since they believed the Professors would think badly of them if they did.
Because doing this was almost equivalent to cheating, and the First Years thought their points might even get deducted if they resorted to healing potions and pills.
Alex was aware of this, but since he was eating a pork bun—which was clearly neither a potion nor a pill—he assumed that he would not get penalized.
Although everyone looked at him weirdly, no one cried foul.
How could they possibly criticise Alex when he was fighting against a hundred monsters, something none of them dared to do? Complaining about his odd but harmless action would only make them appear bitter and petty.
After hearing the notification that indicated that the food buff had taken effect, Alex summoned Svalinn once more and used his two shields to protect his body.
Taking a deep breath, he waited for another quill spray before he activated his Shield Charge.
As he was low on stamina, he simply bashed the Killer Quills with his two shields, which were enchanted with the holy element.
The moment he recovered enough mana and stamina to unleash his Grand Cross and Shield Charge, he would once again go on a full offensive, steadily decreasing the number of his opponents.
The battle lasted for nearly forty minutes before Alex killed the last Killer Quill.
"Finally," Alex muttered as he fell on one knee and used his sword to support his body.
He was panting for breath, and sweat streamed down his face.
However, he was quite satisfied with his performance. For a brief moment, he remembered what it felt like to be a Shield Savant.
Although what he did was a poor imitation of that Job Class’ overwhelming offensive abilities, he was still happy because his current skill set was enough to handle dozens of enemies that were the same rank as him.
"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim landed on top of Alex’s head and handed him a towel to wipe his sweat.
"Thanks, Dim Dim," Alex replied.
It took him a few minutes to regain his breath and stand up.
"Well done, young man," Darius approached Alex with a smile. "Your name is Alex Stratos, right? I will award you 5,000 Points for this trial. Congratulations, you have surpassed my expectations."
The combat professor chuckled as he patted the young man’s shoulder.
"You have attained the highest Rank in the Trial of Defense, and I doubt anyone can surpass what you have done," Darius stated. "The top 3 rankers in each trial will receive an additional 500 points. Overall, you have gained 5,500 points here in the Trial of Defense."
Alex did a fist pump because he now had a solid shot of getting into Class B.
Along with the 1,100 points he had gotten from the Trial of Alchemy, he had a total of at least 6,600 points.
In addition, he had also passed the Trial of Music with flying colors, or so he believed.
Although he still didn’t know exactly how many points he had gotten from that particular trial, he reckoned that Professor Arienna had probably given him around 5,000 points. This meant that he would miss Class A’s cut-off score by a few hundred points.
’Just as planned.’ Alex flipped his hair because everything was falling into place.
After thanking Professor Darius, Alex left the Trial of Defense with a spring in his steps.
He planned to return to the Trial of Music to ask Professor Arienna for his score so that he could officially enter Class B.
At least, that was what he thought.
However, when he entered the Trial of Music, he got something else instead of the points he wanted.
It was a surprise that made Alex’s name spread far and wide among both the students and the staff.