the monarch

"I would love your help," Kayden asked with a smile, "what time would you be available to teach me a few things?"

After debating a bit, Ryan said, "I have class in the morning and in the afternoon I go to a gym. I only get home around 6:00 pm, everything would be dark by now, but I can still give you a good theoretical basis for you to start your training."

"Okay, that's settled then," Kayden got up from the floor, "I'll be waiting for you in study hall."

"I hate that place," Ryan quickly cut Kayden off, "Let's go to my room, but before that, take a shower please, you stink of puke…"

After talking with Ryan some more, Kayden headed for a shower and scrubbed his body as if his life depended on it. After his shower, he had a normal day at school and waited for Ryan in the kitchen as agreed.

As soon as Ryan arrived, it was Kayden's turn to tell him to shower. He was reeking of sweat. Once everything was ready, Kayden found himself in a room full of posters of knights and men ripped to the extreme. There was only a 3 seater sofa in the room...

"Don't you have a bed by any chance?" Kayden was curious. He saw Ryan making an expression that had told these stories thousands of times before.

"When I was younger, I broke my bed practicing magic, as punishment the old man made me sleep on the couch for 1 month, the problem was that I got used to sleeping on it and I couldn't go back to a bed normally."

That was weird. But that's okay, everyone had their quirks, Kayden could accept that normally. They both sat down on the couch, and Kayden pulled a bottle of soda from his pocket.

"How do you have it? The old man would be crazy to see you drinking soda out of the weekend," Ryan was surprised, at the orphanage the food was regulated to be healthy.

"I have been saving it for a while, now can we start with the theory class you were going to pass?" Kayden urged the boy on. He was curious to know what he could do to gain muscle and strength.

Ryan was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts and distributing what was important to pass on to Kayden.

"Well, come on then, first, no soft drinks, that's not healthy..."

"You're drinking right now," Kayden pointed out his friend's hypocrisy, and his friend in turn played dumb.

"Yeah... moving on, you should prioritize protein-rich foods like eggs and meat, eat plenty 3 to 4 times a day, which should be enough. Regarding the exercises, I'll give you a spreadsheet that I received when I started exercising."

Then Ryan grabbed a book that was under the couch. This surprised Kayden, he didn't expect Ryan to pull a book out of thin air. He passed the book to Kayden, the name was "The Way of Bodybuilding". It looked ancient, almost like it was from the last century.

"This book has a step-by-step of free exercises to do, in the beginning, you can do them here at home, but with time you will need more specific exercises to increase your strength, it will not help to do thousands of times the same exercise, you will need it."

Ryan taught Kayden a few more basics, but there wasn't much he could talk about on the theoretical side. He offered to help Kayden in the morning every day but asked in return... soda. The same one he crucified a few minutes ago. Kayden liked the drink but knew that certain "sacrifices" were necessary.

The next day, they found themselves in the same clearing where Kayden started his exercises, and the first sentence Ryan said was, "Today is a beautiful day to train until you die, isn't it, Kayden?" With a devilish smile, their day began.

After 6 months...

Kayden had been training for 6 straight months without a day off. At first, it was painful. Every day he would wake up with pain in all parts of his body, even in places he had never thought could be painful.

Now he could easily run a few kilometers without tiring too much. Doing push-ups no longer became impossible for him either. His body slowly got used to the exercise and the large amount of food he introduced into his diet.

His muscles weren't yet apparent, but there was a slight indication that Kayden was exercising. He noticed that when he finished practicing his exercises, it was a little easier for mana to circulate through his body. According to Ryan, the knights would do several sets of exercises and then circulate the mana in their bodies in a specific way to increase their rank.

Kayden discovered that Ryan was on the cusp of the 4th realm and hoped to move into the 5th before he turned 14. It was interesting to see the knight class, with each passing day Ryan grew bigger, both in height and in muscles.

So far he hasn't found any classes that are capable of overcoming his body's limits, nor has he succeeded in finding his "path". As I was thinking about that, the teacher in front was explaining what would come after finishing elementary school.

"There are 3 levels of universities after basic education, they vary from the 1st to the 3rd grade and have great differences between them, for example, in the 1st-grade academy you finish at 18 and must already enter the labor market of society, it offers qualification only for basic jobs, without much remuneration or opportunities."

As she spoke, the teacher showed on the blackboard some jobs related to this level of education, they were store attendants, electricians, builders, and other jobs that did not require a high level of magical knowledge.

"Then there's tier 2, which most people aim for, where you can try jobs in the army, you can try your luck as a hunter or become an alchemist. The possibilities are limitless here, the difference is that here you end up in your 20s. The pay for most high school college jobs is good enough to easily support a family with a good lifestyle."

Again he demonstrated professions on the blackboard that fit this university. This time, those classic novels like Alchemist, Hunter, and Warriors appeared. But there were also a few others like teachers and doctors.

"Lastly, we have Grade 3, this one is only for the elite of the elite in our realm, less than 1% manage to get into it. When you finish this university, you will be 25 years old. The jobs are the same as at high school, the difference is that you will always have priority in everything, you get a small government card called the Golden Card, with which you can use various government devices for free. Normally, people who leave it arrive at the job market already employed and receiving a very high salary."

The teacher demonstrated the same jobs, only this time she showed only famous and rich people. As if to emphasize the difference between the faculties.

"The requirements for the first and second are very simple, in the first you just need to be in rank 1 to 3 of the apprentice level, in the second you will normally be between 3 to 6, but here you must perform some additional tests depending on the place you are in. who chooses."

As he spoke, a chart appeared showing the percentage of people in each of the colleges. In the first, there were about 55% of the population, in the second 44.9%, and in the 3rd degree there was such a small number that it was not even shown in percentage, it was just <1%.

"At the last academy level is not a requirement, but only those above rank 6 can think of entering and even then there are some additional tests of ridiculously high difficulty. I do not recommend that you dream too high, choose a high-end level 2 college if you are confident or only do the basics of level 2. I believe that most have the potential to pass at least the worst of the worst of level 2."

As he said that, he glanced at Kayden. It was obvious that he would only be able to pass a level 1, his progress in almost 1 year was the same as all the children, but that was for now, the moment the other students started to struggle, they would leave Kayden dozens of kilometers back.