GUARDIAN OF THE END

'The feeling of hot water touching your body after multiple days is heavenly…' Jason thought with a pleased expression.

Jason was currently sitting inside his bathtub present in his bathroom. A soft aroma was also present inside the place which made him sleepy.

[ You can't sleep though. ] The system reminded him.

'I know, I know' Jason forced himself to stay awake by humming a song he had listened on Earth.

It was a lullaby that was soft to the ears, probably not the best choice for someone trying to stay awake.

However, it worked for him. He managed to stay awake in the bath for twenty minutes before he got out.

Jason dried himself and wore a new pair of clothes. He hadn't brought many clothes in the backpack since he had been thinking that there was a uniform for students to wear.

The uniform was present in the school but only third years and above had to wear it. Jason wished he had known that before because then, he would've brought more clothes.

'Good thing that I had a few backup clothes stored in the dagger in advance.' Jason patted himself on the back for adding these clothes early on.

Once he had wore his clothes, made his way to the mess hall. Food had automatically appeared on the table.

Amber and Mila had even started eating and were in the middle of cutting pieces of steak to it.

Jason sat on one of the chairs and started eating as well. Even though the food they had eaten for the previous week was good, some of it couldn't compare to the food they were eating right now.

Jason was currently in a trance as he ate the food. He didn't even notice that Wade and Zeke had sat on the chairs and started eating as well.

"That was delicious…" Jason commented after finishing his food.

The others had similar reactions before they collectively stood up and made their way to the arena.

Though they had some problems navigating through the halls, they asked some older students to guide them.

'I expected the students present here to be more rude… They are quite the opposite.' Jason observed.

[ There might be some kind of thing preventing them from acting like that. There is always one spoiled apple in a bunch of apples. ]

'Kinda debatable but I am not interested in that topic.'

Once they had arrived at the arena, they found Izzy sitting in the stands with a bored expressions.

"Finally," she sighed. "I have been waiting for quite some time. Anyways, you guys notice those?"

The children stared at the point where Izzy was pointing her finger at. Five bows made from dark mana were floating there.

Even ten year olds like them could figure out that the bows were going to shoot arrows at them. This was going to be an effective reflex training for them.

"Stand in a straight line with a ten meter distance between you and those beside you," Izzy instructed. "I will bind you to your location and your only goal is to not flinch when the arrow approaches you."

Jason gulped nervously and got in line. All of them stood far apart from each other, their eyes focused on the bows.

Arrows had appeared in all five of the bows and they looked ready to fire at a minute's notice.

"They will fire arrows once every ten seconds. They won't hurt you but they will come extremely close to your body. You just have to stop yourself from flinching from the arrows and you will pass this round." Izzy explained.

Once she had confirmed that all five of her students were ready, she used her dark magic to bind them in their places.

'System, make sure you take notes on this. I want to learn this binding magic as well.' Jason thought silently.

His entire body had gone numb on the spot and he couldn't move any of his body parts, except for his face and neck.

Jason knew Izzy had dine this deliberately so that they couldn't move away and have no choice except trying to complete the test.

'Well, how hard can it be?' Jason thought silently.

Little did he know that the test was going to be hard in a whole different way.

"Be prepared." Izzy warned one last timing before activating the bows.

Five arrows shot at the same time, all of them moving at the same speed. The surprising thing was that all of them were too fast for any of the children to see.

Their speed was similar to Jason's speed once he used his white lightning or thunder element. It was so quick that all of them instinctively flinched.

They didn't have the time to recover as another arrow followed the previous one at the same speed.

Jason tried to keep his eyes open and his head straight but neither of those things happened. He would close his eyes at the last moment and his head would be bent down in a protective manner.

'Damn it…' Jason mentally cursed as another arrow shot towards him.

None of his classmates were faring any better. After they had experienced ten such arrows in rapid succession, Izzy stopped the bows.

"Now that you've got a taste of this, I will make the bows shoot arrows randomly." Izzy smiled before starting the arrow shooting again.

This time, the arrows would shoot at irregular intervals. Jason couldn't figure out the pattern yet he managed to make some advancements.

Due to being in many dangerous situations before, he was slowly able to prevent his head from bowing down.

His eyes were still closing yet Jason was getting better at controlling them.

'His body is getting used to the arrows. Jason knows how to adapt quickly.' Izzy observed silently. 'Zeke and Mila are also able to resist bowing their heads while Amber is gaining control over her eyes. As for Wade…"

Izzy's eyes fixed over the brown-haired boy who was standing at the leftmost position. No matter when the arrow came, he would immediately close his eyes and try to shrink to the ground.

Izzy could feel all the struggling the students were doing so she knew that Wade was trying to cower on the ground and put his arms around his head.

'I can't blame him. After what he went through at his age, its a wonder he is present here.' Izzy thought with a resigned expression.

She wanted to motivate the young boy to do better but didn't know how to do it. The thing he had experienced in the past weren't easy to overcome.

Izzy wondered whether he would ever be able to get over his fears. All she knew was the fact that if Wade wanted to improve his condition, he would've to keep communicating with his classmates.

A few hours passed by in this manner. Everyone except wade had managed to prevent themselves from flinching.

"Good job. You guys can take a two hours long rest before coming back." Izzy declared before releasing the children.

Jason was the first one to leave the arena and head back towards the class. For some reason, his stomach seemed upset.

'I thought that mages at Gold(B) rank and above didn't have to worry about natural body processes anymore!' Jason complained.

[ While that is true, there is a limit to how much one can prevent such things from happening. Also, it turns out that every level is divided into three sub ranks. ]

'Let me guess, low, middle and high?'

[ Yes, and you are currently at the high Gold rank. ] The system explained. [ To advance to the next rank, you will need to learn two more tier 3 skills. ]

'I see…'

Jason reached the dormitories and entered his room. He spent half an hour inside his room before getting bored.

He had taken care of all of his needs which left him with nothing else to do. Jason decided to head back to the arena and ask Izzy to help him with controlling his dark element.

'System, is everyone staying inside their dorm rooms?' Jason asked curiously.

[ Except Wade, everyone is staying inside their dorm rooms. ]

Jason didn't think much about that and made his way to the arena again. He wanted to create two more tier 3 skills and advance to the next level as soon as possible.

Once Jason arrived at the arena, he paused near the entrance.

Wade was still standing in the same spot he had been standing in before. The dark bow was still shooting at him.

The silver-haired boy silently watched Wade trying his best to not flinch. He had learned to no bow his head but he was still closing his eyes.

'System, what do you think happened to him in the past?'

[ No idea. All I can say is that the children in Class Z are in no way normal. All of you have something strange about it. ]

'Perhaps that is the reason they gathered all of us together.'

Jason continued to watch Wade fight against the arrows. Another twenty minutes passed in this manner before Jason revealed his presence.

"Wade, relax your body. Think the arrow as a delicious treat that is making its way towards your mouth."

Wade paused when he heard the familiar voice appearing inside his ears. He was so confused that he didn't even notice the next arrow that came towards him.

"What are you doing here?" Wade asked slowly.

"Nothing, just watching you flinch for the past twenty minutes. Can't you hurry up and get this done? I want to use this place to train." Jason replied with a grin.

The corners of Wade's lips twitched. The entire arena was left and this silver-haired kid wanted him to move just so he could practice.

"Use the rest of the space to practice." Wade stated and prepared himself to face the arrows again.

"As I said, try thinking of the arrow as a delicacy. You will be able to complete the test that way and I can train again." Jason stated.

He sat down on the ground and waited for Wade to proceed.

'Well, there is no harm in trying this method,' Wade thought with a sigh.

He had been trying hard to complete the test for a long time. Though he had gotten some good results, they weren't satisfactory.

Wade's eyes hardened when he saw the bow's string move. He immediately thought that the arrow was a warm fire that would protect him from the cold.

He welcomed it with open arms, not literally since Izzy had frozen him to his spot.

Wade hadn't been expecting the trick to work but somehow, he was able to keep his eyes open the entire duration.

His body unfroze and the dark bow disappeared. Wade had made this deal with Izzy to keep the bow active unless and until he managed to keep his eyes open once.

"Thank you for helping me." Wade smiled while looking at the Jason.

The brown-haired boy knew that he had only managed to do this once. He might not be able to pull the same thing during a battle but at least he had managed to get over his fear once.

"No need to thank me. I just needed to use this arena." Jason shrugged and stood up "Now go back to your room and enjoy the one hour long break."

Wade nodded and left the arena with a smile on his face.

'Maybe I should have just practiced instead of helping him.' Jason sighed. He had wasted precious time by watching and helping Wade.

[ Izzy wasn't here to begin with. Its not like you wasted your time for a useless cause. Wade will definitely help you in the future so think of it as an investment. ]

'That is true as well.' Jason agreed.

He wasn't exactly nice when compared to his previous life. The only reason he had decided to help Wade was because he wanted to make the boy owe him.

There was no other reason behind his actions.

Jason looked around the arena and realized that there weren't many structures for him to use. This meant that he couldn't exactly use his string and get better at controlling it.

"Well, I guess I can try improving my control over the dark element…"