"Arthur Leywin I challenge you to a duel!" Clive demanded as Arthur walked outside the dorm building.

"Famous last words if I've ever heard them," Elijah commented under his breath, earning a chuckle from the rest of the group.

"What's so funny?" Clive asked angrily.

"Nothing," Arthur said dismissively as he shook his head. "I decline your challenge." Arthur then tried to walk away, but was stopped by an arrow imbedding into the stone sidewalk in front of his feet.

"Tell me are you trying to get yourself expelled?" Kathyln asked him.

"I will not be denied my challenge!" Clive replied with an almost insane look on his face.

"Clive, Arthur has already proven to be on a completely different level than any of us. Even I, Arthur's rival Feyrith Ivsaar III, am not strong enough to defeat him."

"Power wise, no, none of us can beat him. That's why this duel won't allow for the use of mana, just our own muscle and fighting skills," Clive said confidently thinking that he finally found a way to defeat Arthur.

Everyone looked at one another with questioning looks. 'Could Clive beat Arthur like this?' They all asked themselves. Clive did have the advantage being older and stronger, but Arthur had also shown great skill with his sword.

"That's pretty confident of you considering you don't even know who his teacher was," Tess said confidently as she walked out of the building.

"Exactly. What kind of student doesn't give credit to their teacher for their skills. He was no doubt some old fart who could only swing a sword with mediocre skills, if he was even a battle mage at all," Clive taunted.

Tess was fuming. The level of disrespect Clive was showing towards Arthur and her Grandfather was unacceptable, and she was ready to take the challenge for Arthur. However just as Tess was about to speak Arthur placed a hand on her shoulder, getting her attention. Even though Arthur looked calm and collected, at this distance she could feel his anger raging inside of him just begging to be released.

"Ok then, I accept your challenge. My master is a powerful augmenter and I was fortunate to have been his disciple, but only if you manage to beat me will I tell you his name," Arthur replied.

Clive nodded, not really caring who Arthur's master was. He had only used that to try and rile Arthur up to get him to accept his challenge. Arthur and Clive moved further into the grass, away from the building and their fellow students. Other students and professors walking by took notice and began to walk over, still not knowing who they were yet, only that a duel was about to happen. Even though this was Arthur's first duel, he knew that because he was only a first year, he had to initiate the duel.

Arthur pulled out his pocket watch and held it as he spoke the words to activate it. "I declare a duel between I, Arthur Leywin and Clive Graves." Arthur's pocket watch glowed as did the pin on Clive's chest.

"I accept the duel," Clive replied. The pin and pocket watch dinged, and a barrier formed around both of them.

Clive quickly took the offensive and began rapidly firing arrows at Arthur. Even without Clive using mana the arrows were flying out incredibly fast, however with Arthur's time diving into dungeons without using mana, combined with his incredible instincts, it made it easy for him to dodge with little effort. Arthur dodged arrow after arrow without even moving his feet, infuriating Clive to no end. Clive then drew back three arrows at once and released, then repeated. Arthur couldn't help but be impressed with Clive's archery skills, as all six arrows were flying right in his direction. Even though only two were a threat of hitting him, the other four made it that he couldn't dodge without getting hit by another arrow.

Since Clive had escalated the battle, Arthur followed suit and charged forward, deflecting the two arrows with his sword and scabbard. Clive continued firing three arrows at a time, and Arthur kept dodging and deflecting as he ran forward. As the distance closed Clive began to step back as he continued to fire his arrows. A crowd began to arrive, and the disciplinary committee erected a barrier around them to contain the arrows, for the protection of the spectators. Clive began to panic as the distance closed even more, with him being unable to even slow Arthur down. Soon Arthur was within striking range, Clive tried to draw back three more arrows, but Arthur struck the metal bow causing the arrows to fall loose. Now it was time for Arthur to show who was truly in charge of this duel. He quickly began striking Clive with his sword, knocking away the bow every time Clive tried to use it to block. Arthur with both his sword and scabbard was quickly chipping away at the barrier protecting Clive, who couldn't do anything to stop him. Several of those who saw a duel was happening and came to see were excited to see it was Arthur dueling, but were also disappointed as this gave no insight into Arthur's sword skills, that several augmenters were curious about. As Arthur's scabbard struck Clive's barrier yet again a loud noise rang out, signaling the end of the duel, just as Arthur stopped his sword right at Clive's throat.

Everyone watched nervously as they both stood there, Clive's eyes wide with fear as Arthur's eyes bore into him with a cold deadly gaze. Clive was beginning to fear Arthur had finally had enough of him and was going to follow through with his attack. Finally with a breath Arthur closed his eyes as he slid his blade back into the scabbard and then back into his dimensional ring. Clive then fell to the ground on his knees, realizing how helpless he truly was against Arthur.

The bell rang signaling that everyone had to hurry to class and everyone dispersed. Arthur began to do the same but then stopped and looked up at the clock tower, then down at his pocket watch. An eyebrow raised as an idea came into his head and he then continued on to his first class.

During his first class Arthur only halfway paid attention as the professor reviewed yesterday's material, and instead began drawing up a quick blue print on several sheets of paper. During his teaching class, he allowed the class to practice some material on there own so he could polish his blue prints. Upon finishing up with his Basics of Artificing class, he said goodbye to his partner and walked up to Gideon who was packing up his papers as quickly as he could, clearing having somewhere else he wanted to be.

"Hello professor," Arthur greeted as he approached the mad scientist's desk.

"Hello Arthur. Whatever it is it'll have to wait. I have a very important project of my own I need to go work on," Gideon said in an urgent manner.

"I just wanted you to look at some blue prints I sketched up today, maybe tell me your thoughts?" Arthur replied as he placed his papers on the desk.

Gideon quickly picked up the papers and began examining them, his pace slowing with every page. Eventually using his arm he swept everything off of his desk on to the floor and began placing the papers individually on the desk to better look at them all at once.

"This is quite complicated and detailed. You're not holding out on me this time?" Gideon asked as he tried to find some curial piece missing.

"Like you said you're in a rush. Besides its not world changing like the steam engine design I gave you," Arthur replied. Arthur had many more ideas he could have shared, both world changing and not. He had even considered introducing the bicycle at one point, but decided against it due to the amusing thought of knights riding into battle on them instead of mana beasts or horses.

"No it's not. Hmm, a self winding watch. I've never even considered looking into this idea," Gideon mused.

"Of course not, you've got many more important things to worry about," Arthur replied with a business man like grin.

"So what is it you want this time," Gideon replied upon seeing his grin and remembering the last time he gave a design.

"Just some gold. My friends and I will be traveling through the beast glades as adventurers for the summer, so I'm going to need some money," Arthur admitted casually.

"Hmm, and how much were you hoping for?" Gideon asked still examining the blueprint.

"Not much, just one hundred gold," Arthur said nonchalantly.

"Not much?" Gideon repeated as he finally looked up from the papers. "This isn't nearly as big as, well many of my creations. I'm not sure if it's really worth that much."

"Maybe not at first, but over the long term I'm sure it'll catch on. People love convenience, I've heard many people grumbling about forgetting to wind their watches and having to adjust the time on them," Arthur explained confidently.

"Alright, I'll bet on human nature," Gideon conceded as he slide the blueprints into his bag. Knowing he himself was one of those people Arthur was talking about. "I'll get you the gold by the time of your final exam."

"Thank you Professor, it was pleasure doing business with you," Arthur replied as he extended his hand.

"I'm sure it was," Gideon replied sounding less than enthusiastic as he took Arthur's hand and shook it. "Just next time let's try for something a little bigger perhaps?"

"Maybe," Arthur replied with a chuckle as he turned and walked out of the room.

A little while later Arthur arrived at the entrance to the training facility under the library. Today was one of the days that he helped Tess work on mastering control of her beast will during lunch. Arthur didn't mind helping Tess, the only thing he didn't like was that this meant he had to miss lunch.

"Good afternoon Chloe, how are you today?" Arthur greeted the woman sitting at the desk before the door that lead to the training rooms.

"Good afternoon Arthur, I'm well," Chloe replied warmly as she held out the stone tablet for Arthur to put his hands on, which was like signing in. Arthur was one of the few students she was ever happy to see arrive. Most of the older students were cocky or impatient, and looked at her as more of a servant than a person, and almost never even gave her a simple greeting. However Arthur always greeted her kindly and asked how she was doing. She would always say she was doing well, although one time she was having an exceptionally bad day and slipped and told Arthur this. She had expected him to not care or to act awkwardly not knowing how to respond, but instead he asked questions and showed that he actually cared. Arthur's behavior made Chloe wish Arthur was already an adult, as his behavior was something that she would like in a man. "So a different training plan for you and the princess today?" Chloe asked as the stone tablet glowed.

"No why?" Arthur asked curiously with his head tilted.

"One of the guards doing his rounds just came back and said there were some unusual smells coming from your training room," she replied.

"Hmm, I guess I'll be seeing what's going on them," Arthur replied, and walked to the elevator.

Arthur navigated his way through the labyrinth leading to his training room. As Arthur placed his hands in the door he could smell what Chloe was talking about. It was the smell of burning wood and another smell he was very familiar with. As the doors opened Arthur could see, by the water a long fire was burning. Atop of it was a cast iron pot and several pieces of meat roasting to the side. And beside the fire was Tess, looking deep in thought as she appeared to be going overs steps as her mouth moved but no words came out as she thought to herself.

The smells of the food caused Arthur's stomach to rumble, and for Sylvie sitting atop Arthur's head, it caused her to jump down and dart towards Tess and thank her before she took more than her fair share of the meat.

"Kyuu!" Sylvie called out as she ran.

Tess heard Sylvie and turned to see a little black blur charging at her. "Hey there Sylvie," Tess said as she caught the little dragon in her arms. She then looked up to see Arthur casually walking in with a curious smile on his face. "Hi Arthur," Tess greeted with a small blush on her face.

"Hello Tess," Arthur replied as he arrived, taking a look into the pot at a stew as he took a sniff. "What do we have here?"

"Lunch. You always skip lunch on the days you help me, and since we're going to be traveling soon, I wanted to prove that I can cook for you," Tess then panicked as she realized what she said. "For us! For all of us!" She corrected quickly.

Arthur noticed what Tess had said, but didn't want to draw much attention to it and cause her any more embarrassment, he was more focused on the food and how it smelled. "This smells very familiar," Arthur commented as he looked suspiciously at the beef stew in the pot. During his previous life as a king, Arthur learned to notice little details so he could see when people were plotting against him. Arthur never told Tess that beef stew was his favorite meal, but it wasn't just any beef stew that was his favorite, it was his mother's beef stew. He wasn't sure what his mother did differently, but it always smelled different from the beef stew he ever had anywhere else.

"Well it is beef stew, I'm sure you've had it a few times before," Tess replied casually. Tess had always heard the quickest way to a man's heart was through his stomach, so she decided to try it out. Tess wanted to be patient for Arthur to be ready and tell her that he loved her too, but patience was never one of her virtues. Since she had no idea how to cook, Tess decided to enlist the help of Arthur's mother Alice to teach her. Of course Alice was no fool, she knew exactly what Tess was up to when she asked for her help. Since getting to know Tess, Alice knew that she loved Arthur and was confident that she would be a great girlfriend for her son. Although Alice did not want to be pushy, and would only use a subtle touch to help Tess.

Arthur just shrugged. "Well thank you, it smells delicious," Arthur praised. He now knew where Tess was disappearing to over the weekend, but decided not to say anything as there was nothing really to gain from it.

Tess beamed and her ears flapped from the praise. "It's still going to be a little longer before the food is ready, so we can train for a little while first."

"You hear that Sylvie? Don't eat that meat yet," Arthur instructed to his bond.

Half of the remaining time was spent training Tess' beast will, which she was now able to seal away on her own when she started to feel herself losing control. She could only keep it active for about two minutes before she had to seal it away, but Arthur made sure to make clear that it was still progress. The remainder of the time was spent enjoying the delicious food Tess had prepared. They both enjoyed several bowls of the beef stew, along with some bread that she pulled from her dimensional ring. Unfortunately they had to split a skewer of meat, due to Sylvie eating the rest before they had a chance to realize it. Arthur had to admit the soup was pretty good, a little more salty than his mother's, but considering it was Tess' first attempt at cooking he was impressed.

Days turned into weeks as they finished the school year and prepared for their summer. Clive stopped showing up to the morning meeting, resulting in him losing his position as student council Vice President. Considering the short period of time remaining it was decided to leave his position vacant, and a new Vice President would be decided on by Director Goodsky by the time they returned from break.

The end of the morning meetings reserved for Arthur didn't usually contain much new information after the second week. But instead it was used for everyone to train so they could all place as high as possible during the assessment battle for their adventurer ranking, with them all following a training regiment devised by Arthur. Four evenings a week they were able to barrow one of the fields from Professor Glory, to train those that hadn't been in a team fighting class. Some days it was done in small two versus two battles, others were the whole group learning to move and defend together as a team while Arthur and Professor Glory would launch attacks. The days they couldn't have a field were used for classroom training, going over formations and tactics, while teaching situational responses that should be taken.

After the exams were all completed and the student had left, the student council and disciplinary committee had one last duty to perform, full inspection of all the dorm rooms. The inspections were pretty uneventful except for one instance. While inspecting the senior dorm building Curtis found an artifict that resembled what looked like a bomb. The knights on the campus secured the area while the Lance Mica, and Professor Gideon went in to handle the situation. Thankfully the artifict wasn't an explosive bomb, but instead a stink bomb prank a senior left behind, and Professor Gideon was able to easily disarm it before it went off. It was a pretty big scare for everyone, but Curtis was able to keep his cool, and quickly got Lilia, who was helping inspect that floor, out of the building and notified the closest knight. He kept his cool and didn't panic, making him feel he was ready for the dangers of the beast glades.