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Markus sprang up from his bed again and rushed over to the desk in his room. He wanted to check his belt satchel once more, to make sure that everything he had prepared was in place. After shuffling through its contents and inspecting the satchel's integrity, he sighed in relief and returned to lay down on his bed.

He closed his eyes and tried to relax his mind, in search of sleep. Tomorrow would be the first day of the apprentice tournament, and Markus was in a state of panic and excitement.

It had been exactly two semesters since he entered the tutelage of Master Larks. During this time, Markus had maintained his diligence in both practising magic, pushing his cultivation forward, and keeping a steady grade in his studies.

Of those goals, he had managed to reach the Late stage of the Mana Condensation realm and had broadened his knowledge base with regards to basic magic, as well as the novel modular spellmaking his Master had developed. Concerning the latter, Markus had become proficient in cooking up different spells at a moment's notice through intuition. He still faced difficulty in recollecting the appropriate targetting and ranged subroutines, however, his Master suggested that he carry along a cheat sheet to glean off of during the fight. Markus was concerned about the practicality of holding a piece of paper during combat, but he didn't have a better solution for his predicament.

Finally, with regards to his grades. Markus had surprisingly risen above the ranks and entered the upper leagues of academia. Usually, his grades floundered in the 50th percentile amongst his cohorts. But in the recent assessments, he had managed to clinch a few high scores and stabilised his position in the upper 95th percentiles.

The boost came as a surprise at first, 'Was I always this capable?' He would constantly ask himself.

Maybe he was. Most of the time, he had to worry about escaping the clutches of his dedicated bullies. On top of that, there was always a subconscious bug at the back of his mind gnawing at him and making him feel inadequate.

Apart from all of that, he also found that recently his mental faculties had improved quite significantly. Things that he found hard to memorise had become trivial. His thought process had also shifted such that he was now able to rationalise concepts that made no sense to him before. Markus wondered if this was his latent talent blossoming after he had unburdened himself.

This was because after studying under Master Larks, a lot of his worries had diminished almost magically. He could now cast Tier-1 spells and stand his ground against his bullies! That was all theoretical, though. His Master taught him that it was never a good idea to retaliate against bullies using their own medicine. Violence and despair was a neverending cycle; he may triumph through force now, but it would only come back to bite him in the future.

The bullies may be subdued through his superior strength, however, they would remain discontent and persistently try to sabotage him in every turn. Markus then posited whether it would be better to thoroughly crush them with immense power.

"What good would that do? It will only make everyone fear you," Master Larks retorted at that time.

But that was also good! Isn't it better to be feared than loved?

"Respect built purely through fear is like a well filled with highly poisonous water. And respect built solely on love is like a well with very sweet and nurturing water. In the first case, no one would mess with you, but you will always remain lonely and isolated. In the latter, you have the entire village depending on you. But if you run out, the same villagers wouldn't think twice before shutting you down and forgetting all about you."

That profoundly confused Markus. If both had their weaknesses, what was he supposed to do?

Teacher Jeeves clarified by elaborating on that metaphor, saying, "You become the poison and the antidote. By that, I mean you should become a well that contains water that is sweet and nurturing, but at the same time is a poison to those that drink it. The moment they stop consuming the water, they all die."

Although morbid, it made sense to Markus. He took these teachings to heart and attempted a different strategy in handling his bullies.

Markus leveraged his superior learning capacity and offered free tutoring and support to his bullies. He didn't bring this idea up straight to their faces, though. Through ingenious subliminal suggestion, he ingrained this thought into their minds. With his changed aura and presence, it didn't take long for the bullies to succumb. Sure, he had to get beaten up a few times, but it was all worth it in the end!

And then, through a steady carrot-and-stick process, he altered the implicit food chain and moved up the hierarchy. After tasting the praise from their parents following their improved grades, his bullies became dependent on Markus.

After that, it was all smooth sailing. Markus made sure to not reach beyond his limits; he was satisfied in maintaining the status quo. He was confident that he could subdue more people through this method, but he recollected his Master's teachings.

"A tree that grows above the forest's canopy has to weather the capricious storms by itself. It's good to be outstanding, but you must always be wary of your own limits, and the limits of your surrounding."

Markus realised that if he persisted and ended up becoming the de facto "boss" of his cohort, it would just add more problems to his plate. It was best to remain low-key and focus on achieving his goals.

And his greatest goal was to achieve an outstanding victory in the apprentice tournament, which was starting tomorrow. A lot was riding on his performance, and to maximise his physical, and mental state, Markus had decided to go to bed early. However, his turbulent thoughts had made it difficult to find peace.

KNOCK KNOCK

A flat series of knocks interrupted his distraction. Markus sat up in his bed and called out audibly, "Who is it?"

"It's us, Guy Larks and Teacher Jeeves!" A familiar voice answered.

Markus' eyes widened in excitement. He jumped up and rushed to open the door.

"Master! Teacher Jeeves! What brings you here so late?" He asked while guiding them into his room. He cleared up the chair next to his desk and brought it closer to his bed.

"Late? You do realise that it's only 6 o'clock in the evening, right?" Al chuckled as he sat down on the chair. Guy assumed his seat on the mattress and added, "Did you have dinner? And sit down."

Markus nodded and respectfully sat down on his bed, midway between his Master and Teacher Jeeves.

"I ate an early dinner. I was planning to go to bed early so that I'm fresh and ready tomorrow."

"Hahaha! Don't be so stressed, my boy!" Al said mirthfully. "For your Master to remain in this academy, and have a future in the teaching profession, all you need to do is win the first match."

He added the last bit to assuage some of Markus' stress. Al continued, "Speaking of the matches - there will be a few changes in the format. Due to the large number of students involved in the tournament, they've decided to run the preliminary matches parallelly in order to finish all of them on the same day tomorrow. The winners from the preliminary matches will move on to the quarter-finals the next day. The semi-finals will be held the day after and in the end the finals will be held after a day's break. They are going to release the match-ups tomorrow morning, including the field where it will be held."

"Al's right, Markus. You shouldn't pressure yourself over this match. We've both worked our best. You just have to apply yourself to a level that satisfies you. You must also try your best to showcase your skills and capabilities. Don't hold yourself back! Who knows, maybe you'll catch the attention of a famous teacher in the audience and enter their tutelage?" Guy chimed in.

Markus vigorously shook his head and retorted, "No matter who takes an interest in me, Master, I will never leave your side!"

Guy smiled bitterly and waved his hand, "Now, now. Let's not make sweeping statements this early. If better opportunities come your way, you HAVE to take them."

The atmosphere was getting a little depressing, so Al changed the topic of discussion, "Oh right! The reason I dragged your teacher here today was to give you this."

Al reached into his satchel and retrieved a hardcover book. It was leatherbound with a metallic frame and had a vibrant blue mana gem at the centre of both sides.

He handed the book to Markus and explained, "It's an enchanted artefact I made - it's called a grimoire. Think of it as an early congratulatory gift! All mages own grimoires like this, except this one has special enchantments. It is enchanted with spatial magic. So you can feed it as much paper as you want, and you can retrieve it by flipping through the book while recollecting key details from the page. If multiple pages have content similar to what you envisioned while flipping through it, then it will pull all of them out."

Markus quickly returned the grimoire towards Al while saying, "This... This is too expensive, Sir. I can't accept this."

Al pushed the grimoire back into Markus' hands. "I made it especially for you; I insist that you take it. Consider it an early congratulatory present! I was hoping to spectate your matches in person, but my 2-star Beast Taming qualification examination is next week. I've handed a recording artefact to your Master so that I can watch your matches after I return."

Markus caressed the grimoire in his hands and retorted apprehensively, "But isn't it a little premature?"

"It's a foregone conclusion. I've seen how capable you are. I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't confident in your success. Even your Master thinks so, right Guy?"

"That is correct. I believe in you, Markus. So don't work yourself up too much." Guy supported.

The three chatted for a few more minutes before Al and Guy stood up to leave.

"Alright then. Good night, Markus!" Guy greeted as he stepped out the door.

Markus hugged the grimoire and shrunk into his mattress. He closed his eyes once again and waited for sleep to wash over him.