The three of them were precisely, Bran, Tara and Theo, the bastards that tried to use him and then kill him like some bug.

Unfortunately he did not see the shock and panic he expected on their faces when they saw him, he saw only slight confusion and curiosity.

‘Oh, they didn’t recognize me…’

“Hey, guys, did you miss me?”

“Who might you be?” Bran asked looking nervously between him and senior Ron.

“Oh, don’t tell me you don’t recognize me anymore, I your fellow apprentice, Esdras. Did you forget me so fast? That makes me sad…”

Esdras shook his head looking hurt that they didn’t know him.

“You…” Tara pointe at him and her voice shook. Bran’s eyes were about to fall off his face, he stuttered, “no, that can’t be right, I was sure you, you… you were in there when we—”

“When we accidentally, collapsed the cave because we didn’t realize how frail it was.” Tara quickly intervened. She recovered in record time.

“Oh, it was an unfortunate… accident. I am sure you were troubled by what happened, alas I was lucky and escaped barely.”

Esdras had no intention of accusing them of intentionally trying to kill him, because he knew just how hard it would be to prove something like that.

But… he already laid down the web that would lead to their doom.

“Now, are you done yapping?” Senior Ron asked and the three of them stiffened, in their shock they forgot where they were.

“We’re terribly sorry, senior!” The three quick bowed.

“You’re not sorry enough, yet. Trust me on that.” Senior Ron ominously said.

“you came earlier than I told you to come but I let that slide since you said the monsters were dealt with. You told me that Esdras Varthos was dead and yet he’s very much alive. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

“We really thought Esdras died, even if he wasn’t crushed under the stones and rubble he was bound to die without any air. And it’s also true that we kill off all the monsters in that area, I swear my words are the truth.”

Bran, the level 4 apprentice came forward to speak on behalf of the group. After all his talent and achievements so far gave him some leeway.

“Oh, really?” Ron asked rhetorically, “this is a goblin’s ear. Besides I told you guys to come back only four days later regardless of the results, and you failed to follow my orders, three strikes. One might think that you’re taking me as a joke.”

The room got much colder suddenly, the fireplace was blazing but it was as if it wasn’t.

“Tell me, Bran, are my words a joke to you?” Ron asked sofly.

But Bran the other two were trembling like trees in a storm, “no, certainly, n-not—”

“Kneel.”

“What?” Bran asked raising his eyebrows.

“… do I have to repeat myself?” Ron muttered.

Suddenly Bran was slammed into the ground violently out of nowhere, his nose was broken by the noise it made. This was due to Ron’s magic, it was so fast they couldn’t react.

The other two knelt immediately.

“From now on the leader is Esdras, you will be sent back to suppress the monsters again in four days. You will obey his every command without question and if he were to be dissatisfied with any of you, you can expect to spend two weeks in the Ironfrost cell when we return to the tower.”

“Yes, yes, senior. Thank you senior.”

Esdras had a smug smirk the whole time, the three of them didn’t dare to look up, naturally this was only the beginning. He didn’t just want them punished, he wanted them to disappear from this world.

Naturally his role as the leader in the upcoming task was very favorable to him, it was something that he didn’t expect. Good fortune is for good people indeed.

Esdras gave them a final look before he excused himself and returned to his quarters.

He spent the rest of his time meditating in hopes of getting this hard part over with. The earlier display of magic left him excited, that move was like lifting a finger to Ron.

Tomorrow the rest of the apprentices were going to return and three days after that they had to head back and suppress the monsters, this time for a longer amount of time seemingly.

This was good news for him, as the leader he could assign the bastards the hard work, while he cleared the dungeon in secret. And look for a way to dispose of them.

Esdras main source of power currently was a Vigor knight, but he had already, supposedly, reached the apex of what could be achieved.

However Esdras disagreed, after all he was already stronger than Calvine who was supposedly at the end too. He did that by increasing his stats of Physique and Vigor.

Through this he had a guess as to what was holding back this class, it was Vigor. That’s right, it was the very thing that gave the class it’s power that also limited those who chose this path.

It’s because when people awakened Vigor treated it like mages treated mana, the more the better. It was not a completely mistaken thought.

But this way they ended up neglecting something else, Physique. The source of vigor was the body itself to begin with, the right method was to train both, the physique is the actual priority.

That is because even if you increased the amount of vigor you had you wouldn’t be able to put it to use properly. In fact it could become a burden on the body.

So, from that understanding thanks to his martial talent he predicted that the next stage foe Vigor knights came after three conditions were met.

The first was the, growth of the body and vigor to the point where vigor enveloped the entire body like blood. Currently his vigor amounted to half his chest.

The second was that it was no longer necessary to channel Vigor to use it, instead every move contained Vigor, even just walking or eating. It has to become as natural as breathing, all while being in control of it.

Finally to breakthrough into a higher realm then one must compress all that Vigor into a compact form, like a core.

So the next realm should be called, Vigor core.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep