An Extra’s POV

"There is no need to feel shame."

The Head Warrior, Brutus, approached the fallen Billy and stretched forth his hand.

"You did well for your first battle. You possess powerful Skills and the potential to surpass me." For the first time ever, something was tugging at the corners of Brutus' face.

It was… a smile!

Brutus was smiling, and it was a very warm grin.

"That is why you need training. So, what do you say… Grand Knight? Do you wish to grow strong and defeat me one day?"

The hand of the Head Warrior remained outstretched as Billy looked at it with widened eyes.

Following Brutus' words were a round of applause. It started with Lucielle, followed by Adonis, and before long… everyone was clapping.

'For me? They're clapping for me?'

Billy's face shifted slightly as his widened eyes bulged even further as he noticed a particular girl clapping as she smiled.

'Alicia is also clapping? She's even smiling at me!'

It made him feel immensely happy. The experience just now had humbled him, but this… this had now raised his spirits.

From a trembling form to a smile, Billy returned his gaze to the Head Knight and nodded.

"I wish to grow strong!"

Billy reached out for Brutus' hand, and the Head Warrior pulled him up with relative ease.

Both warriors stared at each other with a measure of respect and honor attributed respectively.

It was like a new bond had been forged—one between a mentor and his protege.

"Good. I look forward to your training."

*******

'I see now…'

Rey smiled as he observed all that happened from beginning to end.

'Our Skills are only as effective as our mastery over them, and our Levels. It's just as Lucielle said.'

A Level 1 A-Tier Skill user would never be able to defeat a Level 10 B-Tier Skill user.

'I think this much is fair. Also, there seems to be some kind of power cap. It's likely that the B-Tier Skill will stagnate at some point, while the A-Tier one will keep improving.'

Also, Rey theorized that a Level 1 A-Tier was no doubt going to defeat a B-Tier of the same level.

the end, it's just

calculating everything, and observing that their real training was about to begin, Rey decided to give it

become stronger… and

by his classmates, the

and despises

all his seemingly overpowered classmates, Rey could already

well… I

***********

[A Week Later]

"Huff… huff…."

breaths escaped the lips of the students

as a football field, the Beta students were

off as five

now… it

"Huff… huff… haaa… haaa…"

breath already, despite only passing the fifty lap threshold. Others were sweating profusely, but

wanted to

up, and were barely hanging

It was Rey.

What am I doing

as average as he could. That was why he was pretending

himself to sweat, and even his steamy

exhausted him in the

are undergoing tougher and more

first day, the students were divided into two groups—Alpha

all the immensely talented and powerful members

were a

I didn't make the cut. In everyone's eyes, I'm as

fact, he could argue that they thought he

made to improve on our foundations, while the

the curriculum of the Beta group involved two

and

Magic yet!' It pained Rey to the depths of his soul, but what could

to

A-Tier students talking about training, and

students learning Magic because that meant they would

immensely attractive in his eyes, but that wasn't his priority

the Skills!' His eyes widened as he

to outrun

naturally awaken more Skills if we practice hard enough and have enough

what vexed him most about this training. It was

physical stress very quickly. The first few days were

Stats of the rest of his classmates, but

should be learning

now, he couldn't