Another week passed quickly, the resumption date was getting closer and the students were eagerly waiting to resume classes.

After another week of constant training with Ivan, everyone in the group had improved considerably. With Lena taking the lead, Juliet, Aaron, and Lucas had also finally made it to the second stage of the Level 1 warrior rank.

They had also made progress in their combat strength. Lena was now able to take care of five Level One dummies with her vines. Her control and combat foresight had increased after training with Ivan for days.

Aaron was still trying to attack like a normal mage but it was still proving difficult. For some reason, he would lose control over the spell once they disconnected from the ground.

To fix this, he was now learning how to properly use the ground as a weapon. This was going to take some time to get good at but Aaron was determined to learn it.

Juliet and Lucas weren’t playing around either. Juliet was using the dummies in the training room to learn how to fight enemies in close range. This would help in situations when her position was discovered and there was no one around to protect her.

As for Lucas, his control over his handguns was going well. He could perfectly aim at a target as long as they were within a three-meter range. Anything further away was up to luck.

But at least he wouldn’t be standing around like the last time they were in the dungeon.

As for Ivan, his improvement was the most shocking. After getting used to the third stage, he was now able to fight 3 Level 2 training dummies alone. He could take on five or six if he took out his shield and fought seriously!

Still, he wasn’t satisfied. The training dummies had the attack patterns of beasts, they had no intelligence and just attacked blindly, making them very easy to deal with.

So, for someone who was an expert in combat, Ivan wasn’t proud that he was now able to defeat six Level 2 training dummies.

Rather, he felt he was even slower.

.....

On this day, the group were once again heading to the training ground for their daily training routine when a group of students blocked their path.

Ivan and his group stopped on their tracks and looked at the unfamiliar faces in front of them. They didn’t recognise any of these people and judging by how young they looked, they were certainly students as well.

"Can we help you?" Ivan asked in a calm tone after observing the other group. Lena and the others were also looking at this new group.

Three boys and two girls. The boys stood in front while the girls stood at the back.

"Help us? Yes, you can. We heard your group got first place in the assessment, so we have come to verify that information." The boy in front said with a sneer. The other four who were with him laughed.

Ivan’s eyes narrowed slightly when he heard this. Aaron and the others also frowned.

"Who are you? If you want to verify, you can go ask the teachers, don’t bother us!" Lena stepped forward and said strongly with her hands on her hips.

The eyes of the boy who had spoken earlier moved towards her. A look of fear flashed past his eyes but was quickly replaced with an arrogant glint as he recalled something.

"Watch your mouth, we are second-year students of this academy. Do you really think you can afford to offend us?!" The boy snorted.

A look of surprise appeared on the faces of Aaron, Lucas, and Juliet.

They are senior students!

Meanwhile, Lena’s expression turned into one of fury.

"So what if you’re seniors? I’m a member of the Starling family, if you mess with..." Lena spat angrily but before she could finish her words, Ivan placed a hand on her shoulder.

Lena stopped talking and looked over, she saw Ivan shaking his head with a serious look on his face. She blinked at him for a moment and stepped back, deciding to let him handle the situation.

Seeing this, Ivan smiled slightly before turning to face the senior students; his expression turned cold as he turned.

In his opinion, there was no use in using their family’s name to scare them. They already probably knew Ivan’s and Lena’s identity but still dared to trouble them, there must be someone else behind it.

Ivan didn’t miss the look of fear that had appeared in the eyes of this boy when he looked at Lena, they probably didn’t have a choice here.

"So how can we help you?" Ivan asked expressionlessly.

The other party looked at his group members before replying to Ivan.

"A spar between our two squads. As seniors, we have to confirm the strength of our juniors to make sure that they don’t cheat.

How can a squad of randoms get first place on the ranking? Fight us if you didn’t cheat, prove yourselves!" The boy said provocatively.

"Haha, isn’t that funny. We didn’t even make it into the top five back then. Yet a squad with two weapon users, two mages, and a summoner with a useless summon managed to get first place?

Either we’re crazy or the entire batch of first-year students this time are trash!" One of the girls laughed mockingly.

"You! Take that back!" Lena couldn’t stop herself and snapped when her squad got mocked.

She wanted to take out her vines and hang these people upside down.

"What, are you angry? Good, then fight us and prove that you deserve to take first place!" One of the second-year students scoffed.

By now, some of the first-year students who had witnessed the commotion had gathered around them to watch. They were whispering to one another in low voices.

Although rumours had been going around that Ivan was more of a swordsman than a tank, many people still didn’t believe.

Ivan glanced at the surrounding students before returning his gaze to the senior students in front of them.

After thinking for a bit, he finally answered.

"We won’t fight, you are free to think whatever you want." He looked at Lucas and the others behind him after saying this. "Let’s go," he said and took a step.

"Five mana cores! Five mana cores if you agree to fight us and win." Seeing that Ivan was about to leave, the boy panicked and said quickly.

Shocked gasps resounded from the surrounding students when they heard that the senior students were ready to put five mana cores on the line just to fight Ivan’s squad.

Even Lena and the others were surprised.

Meanwhile, Ivan smirked secretly before looking at the other party.

"Okay, we accept!" He said with a big grin.

A happy look flashed across the faces of the senior students.

"Good, let’s go to the training ground." One of them said as they left the place.

Ivan and his group followed behind them.

"They’re going to fight some seniors? They just don’t know their limits!"

"Quickly, let’s go watch."

"Good for them, I always knew something was suspicious about them taking first place. Let the seniors expose them!"

The surrounding students chatted loudly.

On their way to the training ground, Lucas moved closer to Ivan.

"I don’t think this is a good idea, they are senior students. Each one of them should at least be at the third or even fourth stage, we aren’t their match!" Lucas said worriedly.

"But they insulted us, we can’t just let them off. At least let me hit them a few times." Lena said, clearly enraged.

"Don’t worry, let’s take this as a form of training. We’ll even get five mana cores if we manage to win, and we won’t lose anything if we don’t win." Ivan said with a smile.

This was why he had agreed. The bet was one-sided so there wouldn’t be any issues if they ended up losing to the seniors.

Besides, Ivan didn’t believe that they would lose.

At the same time, the second-year students were also discussing amongst themselves.

"Young master Nolan was right, they would definitely fall for the mana cores." One of them said,

"Hehe, those newbies think that they can get some mana cores from us. We are all at the third stage of the Level 1 warrior rank, they’re probably still at the second or even first stage."

"Stay focused. As long as we hurt Ivan enough for him to stay home for a while, we’ll have these mana cores to ourselves and young master Nolan’s protection."

"What’s there to focus on? We’re dealing with some first-year students. Although we aren’t a match for other squads from our year, we can easily dominate everyone in the first year."

"Is that so? What about Kelvin’s squad?"

"Ugh, I was referring to people, not monsters." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Kelvin’s squad had only talented students with the summoning ability and all of their summons were frightening. Even Aiden Belmont was part of this squad, many second-year students were scared of them.

"That’s enough. Let’s get this done and go train with these mana cores, we should be able to enter the fourth stage after using them."

"Mm,"