Heaven's Greatest Professor

The fun idea was, of course, turning out to be an hour-long sparring session between the students and the combat instructor.

This batch of students was much more seasoned than the first years, they would last an hour of sparring. Hopefully.

Among the students, Warden found a familiar face. Liam sat in one corner, his face twisting in surprise upon seeing him as he nodded at Warden. Unlike Kiara, who was probably on leave, this was the first time Liam was seeing him since they left the village. And, of course, he was wondering how it all turned out like this.

As everything was prepared, Warden said, "Only sparring might get a little boring after a while. How about this: If any of you manage to land a scratch on me, I will reward them with 100 credit points."

Gossip broke out immediately in the class as they heard him. One hundred credit points was quite a sum to give away, even for older students like them. Only a three-star and above mission would earn a similar amount of credits, and they were never easy.

Needless to say, many of them were excited about the offer. After all, there were fair numbers of iron rankers among them. They had a fair chance of winning the points. Even if Warden had years on them, they could at least manage to scratch him once or twice, perhaps even more.

Warden smiled, savouring the thought of seeing their disgruntled looks after the sparring session. Of course, he was not just doing it for fun. In about a week, he would take these boys and girls into dungeons. If they harboured any false belief of superiority that they knew better than a combat instructor, they were bound to make a mistake.

Mistakes in dungeons only led to tragedy on most times.

His job was to ensure that did not happen, and what better place to do it than in a spar in the virtual realm, where he could test them without any qualms?

The upper classroom had five virtual capsules installed directly in the room, and students were given free rein to use them for an hour. After that, they would have to use their credits, and it ain't cheap. As far as Warden found, it was 20 credits and 50 credits, respectively, for copper and iron rankers for an hour in the virtual realm.

Warden didn't know the mechanics, but he was sure these credits gave the academy nothing other than the students seasoned through mock battles in the virtual realm.

Warden was the first one to enter the virtual realm, and this time, he had his spear with him. Another student in an iron rank appeared in no time. Similarly, a spear in hand, his face twisted in an arrogant smirk, possibly thinking the 100 points would be his.

"What is your name?" Warden asked the arrogant guy.

"Stain," the student answered. "Albert Stain. Remember the name."

"Not going to lie," Warden said as they took stances in the vast grassland. "My memory is pretty weak. I can't seem to remember forgettable faces and names."

As the countdown went down to zero, Albert shot forth,

"I will make sure to make it memorable for you," Albert said, his spear crackling with lightning as he danced into the air, hurling it towards Warden.

Warden was surprised at first, but blocked the guy's movement with the blunt end of the spear.

Albert surged with more power, his yellow lightning bursting forth towards Warden, who decided it was the best time to end the match, as the lighting was quite formidable without his [Void Shroud] turned on.

There would be many more chances for him to play with his spear, not to mention he needed to keep his stamina and energy in check, as there would be a lot of students coming to get the 100 points from him.

The spear beamed with void energy, emitting tendrils of blackened purple smoke. Since this was a virtual realm, he did not have to care about damaging loaned property. He surged void energy with wild abandon, reaching closer to the 10% capacity.

He blocked another of Albert's attacks, then drilled the spear into his head. The guy had absolute terror in his face when the spearhead dug into his face. He hadn't seen it coming, as the trajectory looked completely impossible.

That was the dividing line between a novice and an experienced fighter.

"I am not sure I will remember this," Warden muttered as the figure of Albert Stain disappeared from the grassland.

Next came a female mage, one in copper rank. But unlike Kiara, she was an ice-power wielder. Warden could see she had already drawn energy before the match had started and was constructing her spells.

Warden chuckled. This was a little cute. He let the girl construct all the spells she could, as it would be more fun crashing all of them into her face.

As the match began, she shot five ice spears towards Warden, one after another. The positions were directed so perfectly that he wouldn't be unable to destroy all of them or dodge from all of them.

Warden had something different in his mind. He ruined two of the ice spears by swinging his spear. When the next two were about to crush him, he enabled the void shroud for a millisecond to defend against the ice constructs. For the last one, he caught it in mid-air, twisted his body, and threw it in the girl's direction.

Honestly, the girl would have liked to surrender if her plan did not work. However, before she could do so, the spear drilled into her chest, and she squeaked in pain, dying in the virtual realm. She lasted just about as much as Albert Stain, and Warden did not even know her name.

The next couple of matches went on like that, and finally, Liam came out with a bow and arrows. Of course, he had come prepared. Soon the outfield changed into a thick forest with towering trees to hide himself.

"You didn't mention he couldn't change the outfield," Liam said.