Chapter 45: Dodgeball
"However, as I have said, it's just a myth. You brats should know that the tiers of proficiency especially for weapons couldn't be achieved easily. There are those who spend their life honing their sword but in the end, they'll only be able to reach Intermediate Proficiency at most." Instructor Oswin kept talking as his eyes radiated bitterness.
He looked at the trainees in front of him and sighed, "Take the castellan for example."
Hearing their instructor use Lord Axton as an example, the trainees all perked up their ears, especially Anton.
Instructor Oswin smiled as he saw this, "As you know, Lord Axton is a Master Class Warrior. However, that's just the surface."
"In order for an individual to become a Master Class Warrior, they will need to reach not only the Silver Core Stage but also have a Physical Rating of S. It doesn't take into consideration one's mastery of their weapon nor their aura arts."
'Interesting…' Jin's eyes sparkled at the information he was hearing while Tanya beside him just focused on her stance without a care in the world.
Instructor Oswin continued speaking, "However, Lord Axton is also a Spearmaster. This means that he had also reached the Master Proficiency in the way of the spear. This alone placed him as one of the top notch Master Class Warriors in the whole of Anthroposia Kingdom!"
Woahh—
Gasps of admiration could be heard from the trainees.
Instructor Oswin smiled at this sight.
However, that was only until he saw some trainees who were slacking on their stance.
His expression hardened as he shouted, "I'll go around again. If I see someone slacking, they'll receive a beating from me!"
Eek—
The trainees instantly fixed their forms and maintained proper stance.
They knew that although Instructor Oswin seemed friendly, he was strict when it came to training.
At this moment, a trainee asked, "Instructor, may I ask a question?"
Instructor Oswin turned his head and immediately frowned when he saw that it was Marco.
He was not really fond of this trainee because he always liked to fool around.
Nonetheless, he still answered, "What is it, Marco?"
With a confident expression, Marco asked, "I was wondering where you will place us in the tiers of proficiency…"
Instructor Oswin didn't say anything and only pointed upwards, "What do you see?"
"Umm… the sky?" Said Marco with a confused expression.
Instructor Oswin nodded, then pointed downwards, "What do you see?"
Marco looked to where their instructor was pointing and answered accordingly, "The ground…"
Instructor Oswin then said, "That's the gap."
Seemingly having realized something, Marco excitedly said, "The gap between us and Lord Axton!? Oh surely you're flattering us instructo—"
"Beginner Proficiency."
"Sorry, what?"
As they have heard stories about Lord Axton's feats in the battlefield from their parents, many of the trainees have a grand idea of how powerful he was.
His image in their minds was akin to how a child looks at their hero.
As such, for their gap to be compared to how far the ground was to the sky was already a huge compliment for them.
However, Instructor Oswin's words were like cold water that was poured over them.
"I meant to say that the gap between you and the Beginner Proficiency is like how far the ground was from the sky."
The trainees couldn't believe his words.
"B-But, it's just the Beginner Proficiency, right? Surely it wouldn't be hard…" Marco stuttered as he spoke. "...surely it won't be impossib—"
"The way you are now, it will surely be impossible for your lazy ass to even reach Beginner Proficiency!" Instructor Oswin couldn't hold his anger anymore as he lashed out.
He used his trusty wooden stick to correct Marco's form as he shouted, "You lot shouldn't even be dreaming of comparing yourselves to the castellan if you can't even maintain a proper stance!"
Instructor Oswin went around in order to make sure that no one was slacking.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
The sound of his wooden stick striking those who didn't have a proper stance resounded around the area.
* * *
"Ughhh, curse that bald man!" Marco shouted as he held his but with a pained expression.
Tanya snickered, "That's what you get for being stupid."
"Who are you calling stupid!?"
"You."
"How dare yo—"
"What? You wanna fight?"
"Let's fight here right now!"
However, Marco was already behind Jin when he spoke.
Tanya couldn't do anything but glare at him.
Their Weapon Proficiency Class had already ended and they had just exited the Training Center.
"Hmmm, I'm not that tired. What do you think we should play?" Matt said out loud.
Marco stretched his body, "I don't feel that tired too, strange…"
"Heh, we just had to maintain our proper stance for a few hours. It isn't hard. You're just weaklings." Tanya mocked from the side.
Marco rebutted, "It isn't our fault that we weren't born monsters like yo–"
"Monster? Are you calling me a monster?"
"Erm, no…"
Both the girls and the boys laughed as they saw Marco's scared expression.
However, thinking of a pastime was still a challenge for them.
At this moment, Anton spoke, "Hey guys…"
Everyone looked at him curiously as they knew that it was rare for him to take the initiative to talk to them.
This made him more shy, "Can we play dodgeball again?"
Silence pervaded in the area.
It was only yesterday that a wooden ball caved in on his stomach which made him collapse.
Normally, one would feel scared of something that had given them a bad experience.
Therefore, everyone was speechless when they heard Anton's words.
"Are you sure about that?" Tanya said with a guilty expression.
She still felt bad for hurting him yesterday.
"How about we do it a little differently?" Marco interjected from the side. "Let's do Brother Jin against all of us!"
"What!? I can't possibly hurt our brother…"
"Right!? How about we took turns hitting Marco instead.
…
The girls made a fuss as they couldn't possibly hurl a ball towards Jin.
Though they didn't notice Tanya's twitching eyebrows.
"Marco, isn't that a bit…"
"Yeah, maybe he still has some grudge left…"
"Maybe he's jealous because of Jin's looks?"
…
The boys also took turns expressing their stance on Marco's idea.
Marco couldn't help it any longer and said, "Wait, wait, wait. What the hell are all of you saying? Don't you remember how he thrashed us at the game!?"
Hearing his words, everyone remembered exactly what he was saying.
"Huh?" Only Anton was confused.
Marco looked at Jin, "So what do you say, Brother Jin? Want to relieve the old times?"
Jin laughed, "What old times are you talking about? It's only been a month. Anyways, I'd like to try…"
"Oh, becoming confident, are we? Don't you know that your sister is on our team this time?" Marco said with a smile.
"Are you sure about this, brother?" Tanya asked in concern.
To her words, Jin replied, "I only have one request; please don't hold back."
Having decided on what they were going to play, both the boys and girls scattered and surrounded Jin who was in the middle.
Anton didn't understand what was happening.
He asked Matt who was beside him, "Is Jin going to be okay?"
Matt replied, "The question is whether we're going to be okay…"
"Huh?"
"Haha, nothing. You can just see for yourself."
Anton didn't understand since Jin had the weakest physique of all the trainees.
"I'll start then, Brother Jin." Marco shouted as he hurled the ball in his hands towards Jin.
"I'm sorry, Brother Jin!"
"Don't worry Brother Jin, I'll give you a hug later!"
"No offense, Brother Jin. Marco made us do this…"
"Yeah, we can beat up Marco later if you want."
Both the boys and girls spoke apologetically as they hurled the wooden ball in their hands towards Jin.
As he had requested, they went all out.
Jin looked at the wooden balls coming from all directions and smiled, 'It's time for training…'
Zzzzz—
The world turned black and white as the wooden balls moved in slow motion.
'Hmmm, I don't need to move in the special world to dodge those. I can just read their trajectories and…'
* * *
A few minutes later…
Anton couldn't believe what he saw.
Out of almost 12 balls that were simultaneously hurled towards Jin, none hit him.
It was as if he could predict the ball's trajectories.
Furthermore, when he picked up the wooden balls and hurled them towards them, no one was able to successfully dodge.
He was neither fast nor was he strong.
However, he was extremely precise with his actions.
The slightest movement would make a ball miss by a hair's breadth while his throw was able to follow one's movements.
It was strange.
After all, even the monstrous Tanya wasn't able to dodge.
'Is he cheating…!?'
That was all Anton could think of as a wooden ball rapidly enlarged in his sight.
Pop!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone