Brat nr. 3's (Kenji's) POV
I have just returned from the bowels of hell itself. I left this academy with a mindset I now realize was no different from an overconfident child and returned 2 hellish weeks later a mature man. I felt confident in my survival skills, as I had traveled on the road before, but those experiences were nothing compared to surviving on that mountain.
I was nearly eaten by both man and beast as we were both starving and freezing in the cold and chaotic weather of the Equestrian Mountain range, as our only momentary respite running for our lives was granted by our boss after he accomplished every man's dream of slaying a dragon. He then went on to give a lecture on letting one's reputation run wild. Looking back on my experiences in that place and how pathetic we must have looked while we struggled to survive. It gave me some perspective on my life.
I have been oh so arrogant in the past. Before being crippled, I believed I was the number one talent under the heavens, and after I lost that confidence, I believed myself to be the most miserable man on earth. However, that was so narrow minded of me.
When I first saw the boss use the power I once had without even being a cultivator, I thought he was my ticket back to the top. But never did I come to consider the hardships he must have faced to get to where he was.
As he made me climb up the cliff I fell from, time and again my mind began to ponder. What if our positions were reversed. If that madman had lost everything, and had to start from nothing, what would he have done? Those were my thoughts as I saw my life flash before my eyes, time and again, as I kept falling from a height, I was sure would be the end of me. But each time I would wake up on the ground without a scratch with the boss standing over me, ordering that I climb back up that cliff using nothing but my bare hands, in the pouring rain. It wasn't until I reached the top and let out a cry of victory that I finally comprehended the lesson he was trying to teach me. As the rain stopped and the sun started shining over the horizon, an indescribable sense of elation and self-satisfaction swept over me. To build yourself up from nothing but your own efforts and succeed, there is nothing quite like it.
He once told us that the land he hails from is a living hell compared to here. And just looking at how he slew a legendary beast so easily, I might be inclined to believe it. I can't even imagine how someone could survive in an environment where you needed to be capable of slaying a dragon just to survive. If anything, the scars on his body seem rather light for someone who lived through that. No wonder the boss didn't break a sweat as he casually walked through that mountain of death. It must have been child's play compared to what he was used to.
By the time we finally returned, all the worries, all the regrets, and frustrations that had been hanging over me just seemed so silly. What do I care if I can't cultivate, when the man I'm learning from is a mage who can wrestle a dragon bare handed. Even my former master and father couldn't do that, with such ease.
If there is one thing I worry about, it would be if he would be willing to take me in after this year. I heard he was only hired to teach us until the start of summer vacation at the end of May. If I can't gain his approval by then I might never see him again.
It was then as I stepped back into the academy a new man with a new goal. I need to become my boss's disciple.