He leaned in and his horns touched hers for a moment, "Thanks mom..... I just hope that I can live up to the expectation. Everyone who talks about the First Awakened say that they are some of the most powerful and most heroic people in the galaxy. I'm not crazy enough to think that I am on that level or even close to it. But I hope I can reach it someday now that I'm counted amongst them."

Cinderella speaks up and pouts, "To hell with other people's expectations. Live your life how you want to Augie. The only thing that matters is that you live a life that you can look back upon and smile at."

Her husband raised up mug of beer in agreement, "Amen to that. Worrying about what other people think only stress you out. The only people whose thoughts you should worry about are the people who mean something to you. And as far as I know that just means everyone in this room right now."

Augustus smiles weakly but he does genuinely appreciate it, "Thanks guys. Not just for the kind words but before supporting me for this long. It means a lot...."

Cornelius blankly states, "That's what family is for. We support each other. Together.... Always and forever."

They all repeat the final phrase as it was the motto of their family, "Together. Always and forever."

Feeling a bit more relieved everyone finally got into their seats and began having a beautiful dinner. There was nothing fancy it was still delicious. And a dinner with one's family was more impactful than all the riches in the world. It was something Augustus cherished deeply, and something he will miss greatly.

By nightfall he found himself outside of the city limits after deciding he needed a space to train his new abilities. He decided to go to the place where his teacher who has spent the last century and a half training him in practically everything he knows when it comes to combat lives. He ended up at the barely maintained or used building known as Heromaker Training Academy. There his teacher made a promise that he could train students in every form of combat to eventually become some of the strongest in the land. But barely anyone actually was willing to pay the tuition to get in because no one really knows or cares for the teacher and his combat methods. 

His teacher was a man who was called, Korrii Gang'Gang. He was a pure blood goblin from the planet of Pandakyra. Pandakyra was the third planet to be affected by the Player Plague nearly 300 years ago which meant that his master was a Player as the name of the curse implies.

His teacher is a master of all forms of combat due to three skills that he has called: All Combat Expert (Legendary-B), Legendary Teacher (Legendary-A), and Nurture the Future (Mythic-A). His teacher has said that he has more skills but they all happen to be either Normal or Rare rank and are not above Grade C.

Having read his master's skills before to understand why his teacher made the school, Augustus was already familiar with what they did. All Combat Expert made him an actual expert in all forms of combat and the higher it's grade the more powerful he would be in a fight no matter which form of combat he chose to use. With his rank being B he was essentially strong enough to kill 100,000 men by himself. Legendary Teacher made him an exceptional teacher who understood perfectly how to teach each individual student to make them learn and grow in the most optimal way possible making the student more successful a lot quicker. With a grade of A for the scale it meant that he could teach students things faster and have them learn it better than even what he could teach them. And Nurture the Future made it so that anyone that he teaches would end up becoming twice as powerful as what they would have without his education and the better they did at learning from him the more likely they were to grow even from there. The higher it's grade is the more powerful those who learn under him can become. And with a grade of A it could make any student that has learned from him 10 times more powerful than what their normal limitations would allow for.

However even with this being public knowledge most people didn't know him and didn't trust his skills. Because of that his academy is considered mediocre and most of the people who actually decide to pay the relatively small amount of money to attend are few and far between.

Augustus started learning here about a decade after the traumatic incident on the space ship. He was the third student to ever learn from the academy. Over his time that he has attended this place even to this day there is only ever been a total of 50 people that have chosen to learn from here.

Augustus himself was a special case as the master does have the skill to appraise other people's innate talents and affinities with one of his weaker skills. When Augustus was appraised his potential was registered as a 1 across the board for everything which is the lowest his master's skill can appraise someone and he had no affinities for anything. Despite that his teacher did not see it as Augustus being so weak that he was unable to help but instead saw it as a potential to help Augustus become more of a jack of all trades. That's why Augustus is so skilled at essentially every weapon that he's ever touched and why he is able to use magic, ki, psionics, and spiritual powers. 

The last time his master appraised his abilities a year ago, Augustus had an overall 50 in everything and he had a minor affinity for everything. A 50 was still considered weak even by his master's standards as it can go all the way up to 1000.

At the time it made him feel like he barely made any progress until his master pointed out that by being able to manipulate magic, ki, psionics, and spiritual power and having an affinity for all of it even a minor one meant that he could use them to buff himself considerably to keep up with other people. And he has learned multiple buffing abilities that improve almost every aspect of him over the years.

In the fight earlier that day, he even assumes that what he did when fighting the monster was subconsciously activate all of the buffs that he knew in a fit of anger. Watching the footage he saw aspects of different spells and abilities that he has taking effect. To him this meant that his master was right and that he could reach extreme levels of power by combining all of the different abilities and spells that he's learned over the last 150 years. Even if they were all pretty weak, together they were pretty strong.

His thoughts and memories are interrupted as he finally reaches the front door to the academy and to his surprise it opens for him. All of the students that he has gotten to know over the years are standing there waiting for him, and his teacher is in front of them opening the doors for Augustus to enter. 

This causes Augustus to stop and be confused by what's going on. His teacher smiles up at him and then uses his innate Goblin racial ability to power up and even grow from the 4ft tall rather average built middle-aged man to a near six and a half foot tall super jacked warrior. 

His master was dressed in graduation robes that he only wore when those at his academy pass the final test and are considered graduates. Professor Korrii adjusted his glasses and slicked back his shoulder length blue hair. The purple skin goblin man stared him down with bright blue eyes that seemed to pierce into Augustus' soul.

"Finally you are here. I knew after what I saw happen today you'd be here to try and test out some of your new skills or to gain wisdom from someone like me. As you can see everyone is gathered and you know what that means," blurted out Professor Korrii.

After seeing his teachers attire and looking at the fellow students he realized that what was going on was a graduation exam. And not just for anyone but one for specifically Augustus.

Augustus remarked in confusion, "Teacher! Please tell me that you're joking! I'm not ready for the graduation exam!" 

Professor Korrii responded with enthusiasm and great vigor, "That's where you are wrong August. Seeing you on the news today and how you defeated that monster to become the First Awakened of this world I am very certain of your readiness even if you aren't...... But I understand if you need a bit of time to adjust to some of your new capabilities. Especially from what I saw when the cameras caught a look at your character sheet. Hahaha!!! Only fit for a student of mine! Now..... To the practice field!"

It wasn't more so a request more than an order that Augustus had to forcefully comply with. Before he could even say anything several of the students came out with smiles to walk him or rather drag him to the practice field. The practice field itself was roughly three times larger than your standard football field and it was a wide open space where the teacher would use magic to manipulate metal robots to simulate combat or to use as targets and various other things. 

Upon reaching it he saw nearly a thousand of these machines in the practice field where there are usually roughly 50. The only time there's ever that many is for the graduation test. However there were some off to the side. Clearly meant to be test dummies to help Augustus get a clear sense of his new skills and power. Augustus also took note that there were several instruments brought out and set up which is customary for the graduation test as the other students will perform the graduation test song which is essentially an ambient melody that plays to inspire the person taking the test to fight harder.

The professor after getting everything ready moved many of the dummies that were in place for the graduation test far to the back out of the way. He called over 10 testing dummies that would be used to help Augustus get an idea of what his current skill set is like with his new capabilities from becoming the First Awakened of this planet.

"Now August..... I want you to start with the first offensive spell I ever taught you. Simply aim at one of the targets and let's see how it is compared to the most recent time I had you do this same demonstration a week ago," instructed the professor as he looked over to Augustus making it clear that this was happening even if he wasn't ready for it.

Augustus after accepting that this was happening let out a sigh and took a moment to compose himself. Once he got everything in his mind studied and focused his stance changed.

Augustus cast Minor Pyro Manipation. It was the most basic of basic fires and was the first spell that he ever truly learned. Though it could be used for other things it can be used for combat. However it's output is so pathetic that the best it can do is start a campfire or give someone first-degree burns. It required such a tiny amount of mana that it barely cost Augustus anything to cast. He shaped it into the form of a dagger no bigger than your standard kitchen knife. Though the spell allowed for him to manipulate the flame in up to a 5-ft cube of space at most having it in this specific size and shape made it easier for him to aim and fire properly. 

Then he selected the target that was the closest to him and sent it flying at it. As the dagger impacted and the flames ignited and spread across the target to his surprise it cause an explosion equivalent to a fragmentation grenade getting set off. This startled both him and a good majority of the students watching. 

Professor Korrii smiled with pride and stated, "Amazing isn't it? The difference in power that you now have. When I had you do this scene test a week ago to see your progress you are able to leave a noticeable singe on the targets torso enough that it would most likely give some pretty nasty first degree burns on any person you might hit with it. But now you've blown up my test dummy with the same spell. Go ahead and test out some of your other capabilities with the rest."

Realizing that coming here he was hoping to get some practice into gauge his new capabilities anyway; this situation ended up being perfect. With the graduation test and some of these dummies to practice on before it he can really get a idea of just how far he came along.