Stepping out of the vehicle, Lucius stared at the massive circular structure in front of him with genuine awe. The building was dome shaped and almost completely made of glass, allowing the afternoon sunlight to pour through its enormous surface.
Its sheer scale was difficult to ignore, even for someone who had already spent the past few days being exposed to the extravagant architecture of the Noble District.
"Come on," Bruce said as he walked ahead without waiting.
Lucius followed him, and they immediately passed through the automated doors into a spacious reception area. The receptionist looked up from her station, but the moment she recognized the man walking toward her, her expression changed completely.
"Master Bruce?" she exclaimed in shock.
She stared at him for several seconds, clearly struggling to understand why someone of his position had appeared at the training facility personally.
"I would like to use the VIP quarters for my student," Bruce said with a knowing smile.
The woman immediately flinched and glanced toward Lucius, confusion written all over her face. "Master Bruce is an academic instructor?"
Bruce simply nodded before flashing his identification card. The woman’s eyes widened as she looked between the card and Bruce, her confusion only deepening.
How could one of the board members of the Ainsworth Group reduce himself to becoming an academic instructor?
It was the kind of thing that would have sounded ridiculous if anyone else had told her about it.
"Right this way..." she said after recovering, quickly stepping out from behind her desk.
The woman led them toward an elevator, but instead of selecting one of the ordinary floors, she pressed a large golden button positioned beneath a transparent cover. The elevator immediately requested verification, and she placed her identification card against the scanner. A soft chime sounded before the golden button illuminated.
Lucius watched the process with curiosity. "I didn’t think there were VIP areas even amongst Guardians. I thought everyone would be trained equally."
Bruce laughed out loud and shook his head as the elevator doors closed. "There is no such thing as equality in this world. In this academy, only two things can decide your future: your talent and the quality of your instructor. The greater your talent, the more likely you are to attract a higher quality academic instructor, so they both work hand in hand. As the first Dual Talented Guardian in our country, even if I refused to take on this task, several famous instructors would have approached you already."
Lucius slowly nodded as he considered the explanation. He could already see how the system worked. The academy might pretend to give every Guardian an equal opportunity, but talent determined who received attention, and talent attracted better instructors. Those instructors then provided better training, which produced stronger Guardians.
It was another hierarchy built around ability, only dressed in a more respectable name.
While Bruce spoke, the receptionist subtly turned her attention toward Lucius, stealing another glance at him without making it obvious. The curiosity on her face was almost impossible to hide. She had probably heard the rumors surrounding the first Dual Talented Guardian in America, but seeing him standing beside one of the Ainsworth family’s most influential members was clearly something else entirely.
Ding!
The elevator doors slid open, and Lucius stepped inside the VIP training area. His eyes widened almost immediately, and for the first time since entering the facility, his expression carried genuine childish excitement.
The ceiling was almost entirely transparent, allowing him to see the sky and drifting clouds above them. Sunlight poured through the glass and illuminated the enormous training chamber, making the entire place feel almost unreal. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
His gaze dropped toward the floor, which was covered with thick padding designed to absorb impacts. Across the enormous room were several pieces of training equipment of different sizes and shapes. Some resembled ordinary exercise machines, while others looked like advanced weapons testing equipment.
There were reinforced targets, strange mechanical devices, weight systems, and several pieces of equipment Lucius could not immediately identify. Coming from a mine where his greatest piece of equipment had been a pickaxe, the sheer amount of technology left him rather curious.
"Alright... Let’s begin. I have a board meeting by six and a hot date by eight. I don’t have much time to spend on you," Bruce said, walking farther into the room.
Lucius turned toward him and raised a brow. "I’m guessing it’s not the same woman you met yesterday."
Bruce chuckled mischievously. "Of course not. I have money and fame. Wouldn’t it be a waste if I settled for just one person while I’m still young and handsome?"
"I can’t comment on that, but just know I don’t disagree with you," Lucius said with a mischievous smile.
Bruce laughed as he walked past him and headed straight toward a punching dummy positioned in the corner of the room. The dummy had a humanoid shape, with a reinforced torso and limbs designed to withstand powerful impacts. Where its eyes were supposed to be was a small red screen that displayed the force of each strike, while its lower body was connected to a thick metal rod anchored firmly into the floor.
"Alright... Let’s get down to business. I need to gauge your strength, so go ahead. Give it all you’ve got," Bruce said, sounding genuinely curious now.
Lucius nodded and assumed a fighting stance. He planted his feet firmly against the padded floor, clenched his fist, and threw a straight punch at the dummy with everything he had.
Bang!
The machine shook violently from the impact as numbers began climbing rapidly across the red display. They continued rising for several seconds before finally slowing down and coming to a stop.
1500 PSI.
Bruce stared at the number for a moment before rubbing his chin with a contemplative expression. "Ooh... Not bad. Not bad at all."
"It’s not impressive?" Lucius asked.
Bruce shook his head. "No, it’s actually absurd for a beginner to possess such a level at the very start. A lot of people with Enforcer type talents usually start off with only eight hundred PSI. I’m just disturbed by the numbers. It’s absurd to have such a high starting point. If your regeneration and second talent are just as frightening, then I don’t think I did you justice by rating you S+."
Lucius blinked in surprise. The casual way Bruce spoke about his strength made him realize just how high the standards for Guardians actually were.
"So how do we check the quality of my regenerative talent?" Lucius asked, sounding considerably more eager than he had when they started.
Bruce reached into his pocket and pulled out a small penknife with a blue edge. "Hold out your hand, please."
Lucius frowned and hesitated.
Bruce raised a questioning brow. "Why are you hesitating? Your wounds are bound to heal."
Bruce’s face twisted in disapproval. "Don’t be ridiculous. You worked in the mines for over five years. You are not a stranger to pain."
Lucius immediately jerked back and raised a questioning brow. "Well, I was forced to endure that pain to survive, so forgive me for not choosing to go through more pain now that I actually have a choice."
Swish!
Lucius blinked in surprise before slowly lowering his gaze toward his chest. A deep cut had appeared across his shirt, and blood was already beginning to seep through the fabric. His eyes widened as the pain registered a moment later. He staggered backward, instinctively gripping his chest before dropping onto one knee.
"You should have just held out your hand," Bruce said casually as he pulled out a stopwatch and started the timer.
"Fuck you," Lucius hissed through clenched teeth, but Bruce did not seem to care.
He stepped forward, grabbed Lucius by the shoulder, and helped pull him upright enough to examine the wound. His eyes remained fixed on the cut as the blood continued flowing.
"I dug the blade no deeper than an inch into your body, and considering the rate at which you are healing, it’s probably going to take an hour or two... Impressive, but nothing too crazy," Bruce said in a dull tone.
Lucius’s twisted face stared at Bruce with a mixture of pain and disbelief. "How can you tell just by looking?" he gasped.
"Because I have an IQ of five hundred. We don’t see the world the same way," Bruce responded as naturally as though he had just stated his height.
He rose to his feet and began walking toward another part of the room.
Lucius’s jaw dropped, and for a moment, he completely forgot about the burning pain in his chest. "You are lying, right?"
Bruce approached Lucius’s kneeling figure with a bag in hand. He stopped in front of him, sat down, and dropped the bag onto the floor.
"Why would I lie about something like that?" Bruce asked casually as he unzipped the bag and began pulling out several objects. One was a ball of metal, another was a ball of rock, another was a ball of wood, and the last was an Aether crystal shard.
"It’s not possible for you to have a five hundred IQ!" Lucius argued.
"First of all, I feel offended. Secondly, would you believe me if I said my sophisticated mind has something to do with my family talent?" Bruce raised a brow.
Buzz!
Lucius’s eyes widened.
It finally made sense why he could not sense a thing from Bruce. His seemingly ordinary appearance had completely concealed the true nature of his ability. If Bruce’s mind was genuinely enhanced to such an absurd degree, then his intelligence alone could be considered an insane talent, one that should be rated Special Authority at the very least.