House Ashuros was something... different.

  It's a house descended from some of the legendary figures in history and some of the gods who once roamed the world.

  Its influence and power wasn't something even the world organisation couldn't deny!

  Even if all the countries in the world united together and attacked them , although damage could be done , the damage done to other countries would be far greater than would be the damage done to Ashuros.

  Something like that indeed happened.

  Konstantinos Ashuros was called the world conqueror.

  Thirty five years ago , a coalition occurred against the empire of Ashire, the country ruled by Konstantinos and the house Ashuros.

  It was not a conflict that happened overnight however. All the tensions and differences culminated and finally resulted in a coalition.

  The main issue was the trading issue.

  Imera was the continent in Illknoia where most of the trade came in and went. It was not surprising as it was the centre most continent and trade routes were efficient.

  It was also not affected by factors like ever changing government policies or war as these were almost non existent. Governments were republics so no one ruler held the most power. So no issues would occur on the government side. The trade was mostly controlled not by the government but by trading guilds ,patricians, families and companies.

  Rivalries between these different trading entities existed but it was never outright a full blown conflict. At most some embargoes would occur and high members would be assassinated , otherwise nothing too major occurred.

  As such , each country outside this continent would always like to have some of the patricians, trading companies , families and guilds under their control so they could much facilitate the trade and bring wealth to their own pockets. They would provide military and popur support while these entities would be providing them with monetary support.

  Many of these entities fell under the influence of Ashuros dynasty not surprisingly but many were still independent or in some adventurer's guilds or country's control.

  There weren't conflicts at the start as many feared to move against Konstantinos.

  But 50 years ago, Konstantinos contracted a curse.

  A great dungeon of SSS plus rank appeared. It was a dungeon that was never seen before. The sheer aura and dread it released killed all living beings at its surroundings of 100km. Only those above the tier 9 could even stand a chance and go near it.

  As such all the great powers putting aside their difference decided to raid the dungeon and destroy it, as it was too dangerous.

  Konstantinos being the most strongest person took the lead and led the hunting party. Even Izabelle's father Augustin was a part of it.

  While fighting the boss monster which was a huge minotaur, Konstantinos was bitten by a small pet snake the minotaur had kept. Its curse was so potent , that Konstantinos had his organs slowly destroyed.

  Even though the dungeon was destroyed , Konstantinos never recovered. His condition got worse everyday and he had to be under constant mage's supervision.

  This also paved a way for the many dynasty members to vie the throne for themselves. One was his brother , Sebastos who was a cunning man.

  Austergetnd controlled a lot of oversees isnds at strategic positions. The top guild at the time , Starfallen wanted it for themselves and eventually allied itself with Sebastos and some other guilds notably the Mooncrest, Dancing hands and crying willow , ranked 5th , 7th and 9th respectively.

  The trading entities outside the control of Ashire both independent and in other countries's control also were discontent with the growing power of the Ashires in the continent of Ilmera.

  All of them formed a coalition and the conflict fired 35 years ago and sted for five years. It was called the Holy coalition.

  It was named so because Austergetnd was a pagan country with many gods being worshipped while the rest of the entities in the coalition believed in one form or another of Deus , the universal god.

  They stated their goal as eradicating the pagan country and spreading the name of Deus everywhere.

  The coalition mustered up about 2 billion men while Austergetnd and allied trading entities were on their own.

  The result?

  The coalition was utterly crushed. The guilds in this were all sughtered with the leader of Starfallen , Andrew a tier 15 knight head hung on a pike and shown in national television , ter his head being preserved in a museum.

  Some countries were outright erased from the map with their popution being massacred or taken as workers for mines and construction.

  Sebastos was castrated and thrown into a dungeon. Although he led the coalition as one of its leader as he was an Ashuros , the council didnt decide to execute him and spared him.

  This outcome led the whole world being shocked. Everyone thought that Austergetnd would lose its status as the top country in the world , its position uncontested for more than a millennia. Even those countries which didn't outright join the coalition but helped it indirectly saw their leaders assassinated.

  The guilds who were becoming insignificant or too old saw this as an opportunity and a new dynamic ushered in the guilds polity.

  Konstantions personally led the famous battle of Telmen where millions of men were massacred and Andrew himself was captured.

  Thus he was rightfully conferred the title of world conqueror.

  Children or retive of such a person would of course wield immense influence in the world despite their own prowess.

  The css was utterly silent with no one speaking a world.

  Naomi went back to taking the attendance appearing as if nothing happened.

  The bell rang indicating the end of the homeroom.

  Naomi after giving some final words exited the cssroom.

  Their first period for today would be weapons css and it was a compulsory css so everyone had to attend it.

  Everyone began to get up from their seats and started heading to the training grounds where their csses would be held.

  Alderic wanted to stay together with Aurelian who refused and began to head there on his own.

  The training grounds was a massive pce spanning some kilometres.

  It had all the facilities one could need. It had dummies for training , rooms where environments could be altered and facilities where certain skills in weapons could be honed.

  All the students gathered around a men with bzing red hair tied in a bun. His entire body was covered with muscles and seemed like it could burst out any moment.

  With a sword on his shoulders and fiery clothes he looked extremely fshy and uncanny.

  Mustering up a make shift ptform from his spacial ring , he stood on top of it.

  "Skinny mages, Rejoice its me Fiery Fire Johnson , your teacher for weapons css."

  "You lot might look down upon weapon css because of your pre conception that mage craft is superior than knighthood. But let me tell you what twinks? Its not.

  You lot won't survive if situation gets dire. In close combat you mages are trash. A knight or worse a double user will utterly destroy you if they get too close.

  Same case with monsters if you let them too close or your fancy magic tricks don't work the way intended."

  Hearing Fiery fire Johnson speak , all the students looked at each other with doubt. What was this dude babbling about?

  Magecraft is not superior to knighthood? Heck, in fact it was the most superior.

  Not only due to the facts and consensus based upon research by top scientists but due to the fact that over ninety percent of the powerful persons were mages in the world and excelled against the knights.

  Even if a knight was powerful than a mage , it was most probably due to their talent in mana which would much better be best used if they pursued mage craft.

  But as much as Johnson appeared as an idiot muscle head some people knew there was a bit of a truth to it.

  A mage was extremely weak at close combat especially if they disregarded their physical fitness or they drained themselves out by using much of their mana to the point they couldn't muster up a protective shield around him.

  Due to this reason mages often took nutritious diets and muscle syringes which were products that enhanced muscur density and thus allowed more physical strength that would be unusual for someone's size.

  But weapons css was something that could help them immensely. Not only did it help them immensely by improving their physique , it also helped them to use a weapon proficiently if things comes to ice.

  "Even if you disregard what I have just said now , do know that this css is compulsory for all the five years you would be here. As such it will py a huge role in determining your internals and scores.

  Now , go and choose a weapon you want." Johnson pointed his finger to his left where there were many weapons assorted. There were swords , spears , daggers, maces and every weapons one could think of.

  One by one , the students went and picked their weapons. Most took swords while some took bows, spears and daggers. Remaining weapons were mostly untouched.

  Sword was the most popur weapon both among knights and mages. It was the weapon man has perfected to the core and its techniques were the most abundant.

  The mages who were mostly from noble houses were taught how to handle sword from their childhood. As such it was not like they didn't even know how to handle a sword. If a common man with no talent in either craft but still has practised his sword to perfection would still lose to these mages by the virtue of talent alone. The difference between someone with no mana and with mana was immense and couldn't be bridged no matter what.

  After 5 minutes all the students had selected their choice of weapons.

  "Alright , as you have all selected your weapons , let me give an overview of this css.

  According to your choice of weapon , you will be given an appropriate technique for it.

  As most of you here are mages , you will all be given a defensive technique so it will help you to bolster your defence."

  Techniques were different ways on how to handle a weapon. They were basically defined sets of movements and stances when carrying a weapon. There were millions of different techniques in the world.

  Fiery fire Johnson then took bunch of manuals from his spacial ring and kept it on the table.

  "You can collect the technique manuals at the end of the css.

  For today , you are to fight randomly selected opponents and see how you fair. The goal is basically how your method to hand your weapons stand now and how much you would improve by learning and pondering these techniques.

  The technique you would be receiving is a standard three star technique so It would be far tougher to learn then the measly one star or two star technique you would have learned back at home."

  Fiery Johnson meddled with his smart watch for some time.

  All the students at the same time got a notification on their smart watch which was given by the academy and was compulsory to wear at all time.

  "Follow the steps as instructed by Elisa."

  Aurelian looked at the notification on his smart watch.

  Elisa was the school's personification in a sense and it was the system used by it to manage all of their online presence. It was termed as one of the world's toughest systems and algorithms to crack. Many believed it even had sentience comparable to a living being.

  Aurelian clicked the notification and it took him to a page where he was to confirm his attendance to the weapons css.

  Then it showed a page where today's assignment for weapon's css was shown.

  Clicking on it Aurelian then got a number , 66 assigned to him.

  "Now come and select your opponents by taking a paper from the magical bin.

  Knights on the right and mages on the left."

  Fiery Johnson then pointed to two magical bins that were on his right.

  These bins were crimson red in colour and seemed like cardboard at first gnce.

  On the middle of the top of the bin , there is a rge hole which is an application of space magic. A student had to pce their hand on top of it and a paper would magically appear

  Students aligned themselves and went one by one to take their paper.

  As Aurelian was a knight he naturally went to the knight's section.

  But he saw the blue haired guy Lux standing there bnkly.

  "Hey you , why are you just standing there?" Johnson asked him.

  "Um...Instructor , my watch is showing error , Im not really sure what happened."

  "What? An error?"

  Johnson meddled with his watch to see if he set some settings wrong or didn't include the appropriate number of students.

  Then he realised something and his eyes widened.

  "Wait , are you... don't tell me" Johnson was about to say something but stopped realising how ridiculous it was.

  All the teachers too didn't know the rankings or even the name of the students or their statistics.

  This was so because on the first day , they were supposed to write their input on what they thought of the new batch of students. Who caught their eye , who was strange and so on. Although these couldn't be determined on the first day , they were just supposed to write their raw impression on the students.

  Then they would get info on all the students. After a month , they were supposed to again give their input. Teaching and knowing things were completely different. Although all the teachers in the academy were highly capable individuals , their teaching skills had also to be polished every now and then.