The boys’ dormitory was in Building 3, not far from Grace Bennett and her friends’ Building 6. The only problem was that the road between them was rather rough. This was all because the school was under construction: half the road between the two buildings had been dug into a trench, and the other half was piled with the dirt and rocks excavated from it. It was easy to imagine how difficult it was for Ethan Bennett to pull his cart along such a path. The things on his cart fell into the trench countless times. The trench was actually quite deep, but for Ethan Bennett, jumping up and down was no big deal. Still, by the time he reached Building 3, he looked like a mud monkey.

Feeling a surge of emotion, he finally found his dorm room. The door was already wide open, and inside the four-person dorm, there were already four people, though two of them were parents.

Ethan Bennett, covered in dirt, walked in. At a glance, he saw that the dorm actually had its own bathroom. Overjoyed, after eighteen years of using public toilets, his dream had suddenly come true, and it was impossible not to feel excited.

The four people in the room saw that, although this classmate was a bit dirty, he entered with a sincere smile, which immediately made a good impression. One boy came over and offered his hand, saying, “Hi, I’m Eric Brooks. We’ll be classmates from now on.”

Ethan Bennett quickly reached out to shake his hand. “I’m Ethan Bennett.”

Another boy smiled and nodded. “I’m David Thompson.”

Ethan Bennett nodded and smiled as well, then let out a sigh of relief. He had been worried that his roommates would be as unusual as he was, which would have been inconvenient, but now it seemed that these guys couldn’t be more ordinary.

After that, there was the usual small talk about college entrance exam scores and such. Ethan Bennett had come to register by himself, which naturally made the two parents sigh and take the opportunity to scold their own kids. Ethan Bennett listened with a polite smile, when suddenly his expression changed—he sensed an aura coming from the hallway, getting closer and closer.

Before he could react, a boy was already standing at the door. With wild, arrogant hair and a cocky grin, he was looking at the name list posted on the door.

Just as Ethan Bennett was silently hoping he wouldn’t come in, the boy stepped inside and loudly introduced himself: “Hey everyone, I’m Brian Young.”

His presence was overwhelming; Ethan Bennett had never met anyone like this before. Ethan Bennett had always thought that people who practiced the arts around him would deliberately restrain their aura. But this boy, on the other hand, was so brazenly exposing his aura for all to see. Was he doing this out of ignorance? Or because he was invincible?

Ethan Bennett had never actually fought with someone who practiced the arts, so he had zero real combat experience in this area. He couldn’t judge the relationship between aura and strength, since everyone’s aura was different. Ethan Bennett understood this was because everyone practiced different techniques. Take himself, for example—even if he let his aura out as flamboyantly as this boy, it would never feel quite so ostentatious. But that didn’t mean he was weaker, because as far as he could tell, this guy hadn’t even realized that he, too, was different.

Brian Young extended his hand to each of the three in turn, finally reaching Ethan Bennett. When Ethan Bennett reached out to shake, he immediately felt that flamboyant aura trying to enter his body through his fingers. Startled, Ethan Bennett instinctively let his own aura meet it, but at that moment, the other’s aura quietly retreated, and their hands separated. Brian Young gave him a meaningful smile.

Ethan Bennett was extremely frustrated—he knew he’d fallen for the other’s trick. He could only blame his own lack of experience. In fact, this was his first direct contact with someone like this.

He hadn’t expected that, among the few classmates he’d just met, there would already be two unusual ones: Grace Bennett and Brian Young. In his twelve years of schooling, he’d never encountered even one in his class before. While Ethan Bennett was lost in thought, Brian Young was already chatting enthusiastically with the other two students and their parents. Sure enough, he was as proactive as his aura. Ethan Bennett silently packed his things while thinking about this.

After a few more casual conversations, everyone went out to do some shopping. David Thompson and Eric Brooks were each led by their parents, and Ethan Bennett, wanting to avoid Brian Young, slipped out quickly while Brian Young was still packing.

He went to a supermarket outside the school to buy some things, and more importantly, to get a SIM card. On the way, he called Ryan Hughes and Claire Foster, but only exchanged a few words with each before hanging up in a hurry—Ethan Bennett had already noticed that, as soon as he left the mobile service center, someone was following him.

He suddenly turned around and saw Brian Young’s wild hair and cocky grin. He made no attempt to hide, and was waving at him.

Ethan Bennett knew there was no point in hiding anymore, so he waited for him to come over and asked, “Why are you following me?”

Brian Young smiled and said, “Oh, nothing. When I see a master, I just get the itch to spar.”

Ethan Bennett said, “I’m not a master.”

Brian Young replied, “You’re too modest. If you can hide your aura so I can’t sense it, your level is no lower than mine.”

Ethan Bennett said nothing, but Brian Young continued, “But when I was hiding, you didn’t notice me either. Heh, looks like we’re evenly matched!”

Ethan Bennett ignored him and turned to go his own way, but Brian Young quickly caught up, saying, “Come on, let’s have a fight. What’s the harm?”