CHAPTER 37: THE TEACHER IS ANGRY AT DAMIAN?

There were ten people with body-enhancing affinity among the new recruits that came with Damian. He was one of them, obviously.

They were all taken to the place where the body-enhancing teacher gave his classes—a huge open room with a soft mattress covering the entire floor.

The teacher in question was a middle-aged man with a tall, muscular body. He was intimidating, especially with the scars running across his arms and chest.

When the new recruits gathered there, for some reason, he instantly looked toward Damian. Damian had no idea why. The teacher glared at him with a ferocious intent.

"Welcome, all of you," the teacher said. "I’m your new instructor, Randal."

"You can say I’m your most important teacher, because I’ll be the one teaching you the magic you’ll use in combat, and how to fight demons. But there are other teachers in the academy who will help you with things just as important for your survival."

The academy had instructors specialized in solo and group combat, wilderness survival, demonology—so the recruits could learn about the types of demons and their abilities—and more. There was a lot more to becoming a hunter than just raw fighting ability.

After the early introductions, Randal explained how his classes would work. He said that all hunters had to train their bodies—but those with a body-enhancing affinity had to push even harder than the rest.

"All hunters need a strong body to fight demons," Randal said. "But because of your affinity, this needs to be one of your top priorities."

One of the recruits raised his hand and asked why. Randal looked slightly annoyed—he was just about to explain that anyway—but since it was their first class, he let it slide.

"When you use body-enhancing magic, it gives you a huge physical boost. That much is obvious. But if your body is weak, the magic won’t help you—it’ll destroy you from the inside."

"I once met a guy who used a skill that his body couldn’t handle it... and died because of it. His body exploded."

That was pretty extreme. Damian didn’t know any of that because his power came from his system. He wasn’t used to the normal hunter training like everyone else.

After the initial explanation, Randal wanted to see where the new recruits stood in terms of raw physical strength—basically, a fight with no spells or skills.

The recruits were nervous. Sure, the entry test had a fight with an officer, but that was just to show their abilities. This time, Randal was actually going to fight back—and they would get hit.

Randal scanned the group, then pointed at Damian. "You there, you’re first."

Something felt off to Damian. Randal had been staring at him strangely the entire time he explained how things would work. And now he was the first to fight?

"Why is he picking a fight with me?" Damian wondered.

Damian thought maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe Randal was just acting like he normally did, and didn’t have anything personal against him.

Well, once the fight started, Damian wasn’t so sure anymore.

They stood in the middle of the room. The other recruits stepped back a few paces, making sure they wouldn’t get in the way. So far, everything looked normal.

But the moment the fight actually began, Randal dashed toward Damian, practically disappearing and then reappearing right in front of him. Without warning, he punched Damian in the stomach, sending him flying across the room. Blood spurted from Damian’s mouth, forming a small pool on the ground.

The recruits watching the fight were shocked. Each of them wondered when it would be their turn to face Randal—and if he’d be just as merciless with them.

"Get up," Randal said. "Show me what you’ve got."

Damian got up, of course. But he felt hopeless against Randal. The man’s speed and strength were on another level, and Damian was pretty sure Randal wasn’t even going all out. That was the huge power gap between them.

Still, Damian couldn’t just stand there and take hit after hit without trying anything. He wanted to prove he had guts. So, he dashed toward Randal.

His movements were decent. The recruits watching were surprised by how fast Damian moved. They knew they couldn’t match his speed. That realization sparked something inside them—no one wanted to be left behind looking weak compared to Damian.

Damian reached Randal and tried to punch him back. But Randal easily saw the punch coming. He grabbed Damian’s arm and tossed him to the ground.

Then he started lecturing the recruits. "Never attack without thinking, like this recruit just did. You need to plan your moves and look for the best opportunity in combat."

Lying on the ground, listening to that, Damian was really pissed. Not just because of the lecture, but because he simply couldn’t win against Randal.

Randal was basically toying with him. Some might’ve acted dumb, but Damian knew his place. He got up and said, "Can I surrender?"

There was no shame in it, especially since Randal was going way too hard on him for some reason. Damian preferred to surrender than be used as a training dummy to explain things to the others.

Randal looked surprised. He thought for a moment and then said, "Of course you can. This is just a small test, nothing serious. You can step aside. I’ll call the next recruit."

Damian didn’t say a word. He left the center of the room and went back to where the other recruits were.

Up to that moment, he was pissed at that Randal guy, but it didn’t seem personal. Maybe Randal was just like that—harsh on his students.

But when the next recruit stepped into the fight with Randal, things changed. Randal didn’t go hard on the student like he did with Damian—didn’t punch him in the gut or toss him around.

No, it was clear Randal was going easy on the recruit, even pointing out a few things he could improve, giving some compliments too. Damian couldn’t believe it.

"What the fuck did I do to this guy?" Damian thought.

He didn’t say a word about his frustrations. That would only make things worse. With time, he knew he’d find out the reason why Randal was acting like that...

Randal’s class lasted the whole morning. During lunch, Damian met with Mitra and Curt. He didn’t share his problems with them, though. They had just met.

Mitra and Curt looked excited. Clearly, their classes had gone way better than Damian’s.

"My teacher is just a cool woman," Mitra said. "She’s done research about demons on another continent, and she’s planning to go back there in the future with some students. I want to work hard to get a spot!"

Damian was curious about that. Apparently, this teacher had done research on a continent with little to no civilization, but a massive number of demons. She believed that was the place where the first demons showed up long ago.

While Mitra was having such cool classes, Damian got beat up by his teacher. What a difference...

That afternoon, they went to the library to get their first manuals—basic books on breathing techniques and some skills. They were only allowed to grab the elementary stuff. The librarian was there to make sure of it.

Speaking of the librarian, he glanced at Damian when they walked in, but didn’t say a word.

Damian was excited to get his hands on his first books, but at the same time, he wondered if he’d even be able to learn the techniques written in them.

"I want to get those demon hunting missions as fast as possible," Damian thought.