Finally, the train came to a halt. One by one, the compartment doors opened. Michael waited for everyone to leave before he left the train last. When he came to the door, the scenery before him took his breath away.

  "Wow" Nightmare exclaimed,

  Unlike Michael who meditated on his way, Nightmare was looking at everything through the window still when he saw the place with nothing in front of his eyes, the place looked a hundred times more stunning or more.

  For Michael, the Mazeroth castle immediately reminded him of Hogwarts. Of course, the castle was unique in its own way. Now that he stepped outside the train, he was able to see more and more students who seemed to be of the same age as him. He could see almost every fantasy race such as elves, dwarves, humans, orcs, and beast-men. The elves were standing in a group away from the other races while the dwarves seemed to be cursing at the elves for some reason.

  The tension between the two races was visible. Almost every single one of them was familiar with them. The elves mostly carried a beautiful snowy owl in a cage. Contrary to the elves, the dwarves were standing beside various breeds of dogs. Michael smiled inside seeing dog breeds such as husky, german shepherd, and bulldogs in this world. Some of the dogs however had wings and pointy ears.

  Taking his eyes off the dwarves, he noticed the growling faces of orcs and the beast-men. Orcs were the bodybuilders of this world. Their bulky muscle mountain physique itself terrified many humans. Despite their terrifying look, the orcs were a peace-loving race. Only a few tribes such as Dular's tribe advocated war and violence. According to Gaya, the orcs preferred to live in peace and prosper through trade routes with nearby kingdoms. The orcs were the only powerful race in the world who did not have their own kingdom. Almost all the orcs had a raccoon with a long bushy tail sitting on their shoulders.

  Among the humans, he was standing last beside the half-elf. Each and every man and girl in the crowd carried an exotic rare familiar. The dragons were said to be a rare race yet he could see a bunch of dragons flying around like flies.

  Some of the dragons radiated a noble aura, their demeanor, the way they looked at the others, the shininess of their scales, simply, those dragons stood out.

  Edith and Victoria were standing in the front. Since Michael had no idea who they were, he paid little attention to them. His full focus was on the half-elf and the majestic castle in front of him.

  "Why are we standing here?"

  "Where is that giant?"

  The elves began to show their discontent with waiting. Only the elves were daring enough to be like this. The rest of them were glad to be a part of Mazeroth, unlike the elves. The more he saw the elves, the more he realized the assholeness of the elves. On top of being racists, they seemed to be lacking patience.

  Michael looked around his surroundings. They seemed to be in the training grounds because the grass field was neatly pruned and he could notice pitches resembling cricket pitches.

  The cultivation level of each individual surprised Michael. None of them was stronger than him. Only one girl seemed to be on the same stage as him. With the experience points he received from the reapers Gaya killed and the ninjas he killed back in Hades, he was able to reach Core Strengthening stage level 4. He was the strongest among them and the girl piqued his curiosity. However, curiosity wasn't enough for him to go to the front and talk to the girl. He had more pressing issues to take care of. In this world full of surprises, it was logical for someone else to be stronger than him at this point in his life. It would take him decades to be the strongest of them all.

  "Silence" An authoritative voice sounded from above them. All the students looked upward and saw a group of four descending. The leading figure was a young man wearing square glasses, behind him were two girls and a youngster who showed his chiseled body and magazine-worthy abs.

  The gray-haired young man wearing glasses was in silver armor that fit perfectly on his body. He carried a heavy sword on his back. Just like Michael, this youngster too had a short haircut. The blonde-haired girl behind the young man looked cold, stern, and unsympathetic. The other girl whose black hair flayed in the wind had a warm smile on her face. She seemed more friendly and very approachable than the other girl.

  Currently, the four of them slowly descended onto the ground. Unfortunately for Michael, all of them were Core Formation level 10 cultivators. While he was in the Akilan Realm, he did not want to stand out. The attraction would hurt his search for the dark elf in the tree. He simply preferred anonymity in Akilan Realm.

  Do you want to read more chapters? Come to p a n d a - n ovel,c.o.m He never expected that he would be the strongest among them. He could however hide his cultivation level with the help of the system but that would definitely raise red flags if someone tried to perceive his cultivation level, especially the professors. The other option was to lower his cultivation except if they used powerful arrays, his real cultivation would be exposed and result in unnecessary complications. Therefore, Michael mingled with the crowd, staying at last. Since the half-elf was a thief, he too naturally stayed behind.

  Nightmare wrapped his tail around Michael's neck as he stared at the other dragons in wonder. He had never met his species and he was curious about the other dragons.

  "Welcome to Mazeroth. I am Elliot Watson, the head prefect" the youngster carrying the heavy sword proudly said. He adjusted his glass before continuing,

  "Shall we? " Elliot looked over his shoulder at the tall bulky youngster behind him.

  The students including Michael did not know what the four of them were planning to do. Soon, he found out when a hot airbrushed past them. The heavy sword which was in the sheath a second ago was now in his hand. Even Michael failed to notice as the youngster moved too quickly, faster than blinking an eye.

  "As expected," Elliot nodded. He then turned his gaze back at the new students,

  "Listen to your prefects and don't taint the proud name of Mazeroth. If you do, I will take care of the matter myself"

  Then the four of them took off leaving the students confused. Only a few students could guess why they came. The hot air brushed past them was Celestial energy. Elliot checked if there was an imposter amidst them. Although the odds of forging the teleportation scroll to Mazeroth were near zero and no one had managed to do so, it was customary for the head prefect and the student leaders of each specialization to conduct a search when the new students arrived.

  Michael felt a major deja vu looking at the disappearing figures of the four students. It felt like yesterday he saw Alex, Adam, Celina, and Sadie at the heaven's gate competition.

  As he was looking at them, he felt the half-elf moving his hand through his coat. The half-elf was daring to pickpocket Michael. He could tell the half-elf was highly trained by the way he was moving his hands. Too bad the half-elf was trying to pickpocket the earth's number one hitman and the deadliest man.

  "Your trick won't work on me half-elf" Michael whispered to the half elf.

  The half elf's face instantly became paler.

  "You need fingers to break open those space rings you stole. Don't make me break them" he whispered to the half-elf with a smile on his face. To others, they were like friends having a nice chat. The half-elf shivered after he heard Michael. He had no idea how the human next to him found out about his trick of breaking the space rings. It took him years to come up with a rune hack to break open the space rings.

  "There is that giant"

  "Someone should teach him the concept of time"

  When everyone saw Gilrine walking out through the door in the courtyard, the elves began to bitch.

  "Welcome welcome to Mazeroth"

  "Someone already said that, now lead us to the sorting pillars without wasting our time anymore" one of the elves rolled his eyes. His arrogant demeanor drew everyone's attention including Michael's. He was one of the elves who beat the half-elf earlier on the train.

  Gilrine's grin shrunk,

  "Sorry, now if you follow me," Gilrine said, clearing his throat to disguise the embarrassed look on his face. Despite his look, Gilrine seemed to be a soft-hearted man.

  The elves followed Gilrine first as the others followed them behind. The half-elf tried to speed up his steps,

  "Try to escape and ill tell the elves what you did to their stuff"

  His words stopped the half elf in his way.

  "I don't know what you are talking about," said the half elf.

  "Nightmare" Michael gently nudged Nightmare's chin as he leaped onto the half elf's shoulder. The half-elf almost shouted and swatted away Nightmare but Nightmare's razor-sharp teeth stopped him from doing so.

  "Walk with me," said Michael following the crowd.

  The half-elf realized he had no choice but to follow him because the man walking in front of him was the strongest of them all. He made an amateur mistake by not checking his cultivation before trying to pickpocket him.

  However, he did not have to worry for long as the professors would strip away their cultivation after the sorting ceremonies. The students would only be allowed to use their cultivation during certain tasks and assignments.

  "Hey, little dragon" the half-elf smiled at Nightmare,

  "You're either extremely lucky or unlucky" the half-elf couldn't guess whether to laugh or cry hearing the dragon.

  "What's your name by the way?" asked Nightmare,

  "Wilkas"

  The half-elf sighed, giving the dragon one of his aliases.