Max recognized the voice and went to open the door.
Creak~
As the door opened, a beautiful girl in the academy's white uniform appeared in his view. For a moment, Max didn't want to move his gaze away from her fairy-like face.
However, he quickly collected himself and asked, "Do you need something?"
"No. W-what would I need from an inner disciple like?" Eliana was flustered upon seeing the look In his eyes and quickly said, "I heard that you've returned. So, I came to pay you the promised Mana stones."
After saying this, she brushed the light blue colored ring on her figure lightly, and 350 Mana stones appeared in front of her, which floated toward him under her control.
Max noticed the ring on her finger. It was a spatial ring with the same function as a spatial bag but more convenient to carry and would also look good when wearing.
He calmly waved his hand, and a wave of Mana enveloped the stones. After that, they vanished in thin air.
"Oh?" Eliana was surprised. "Have you started to enhance your Mana already?" She asked.
"That's right." Max nodded. He wasn't surprised that she could tell because one could extend their Mana out of their body only when the quality and power of Mana had surpassed two-star level.
Max didn't know this before but coincidentally found out when he was experimenting with his Mana while traveling back to the academy.
Eliana gazed at him deeply and then nodded, "Good. Keep working hard."
"Okay. I'm going then." She said and turned around to leave.
However, Max suddenly called out and stopped her.
"Would you like to have dinner with me? It will be my treat."
Hearing him, Eliana scoffed in her heart, 'Just because you have become strong, you want to get close to me.'
However, she was puzzled when she turned around and noticed his expression because she could tell that he didn't seem to have such intentions. His eyes were clear, and he had a faint smile on his lips. Unconsciously, she stared at him for a few seconds as if in a daze.
"You'll pay?" She asked after coming to her senses.
"Yes." Max nodded calmly.
"Okay then. Let's go." Eliana agreed since she hadn't eaten anything yet and was hungry. If he wanted to treat her, she wouldn't say no to a free meal, and if he had some other intention, she was capable enough to beat him up.
Just as Max was about to step out, he noticed his condition and said, "How about you come inside and wait for a while?"
Eliana creased her brows, hearing this. Max saw her expression and pointed toward his clothes, "I was cultivating just now and am too sweaty. I can't go out like this with a lady such you, right?"
Only after he said, this did she notice that he really was sweaty. But after hearing his last sentence, a faint blush crept on her adorable cheeks, which she quickly hid, "No need. I'll wait here. Just be quick."
…
After half an hour, Max and Eliana were sitting inside a restaurant, having dinner while talking. Being a gentleman, Max had offered Eliana to order whatever she wanted to eat.
He had expected Eliana to say he should order what he wanted since this was the usual response of the girls back on earth, but to his surprise, she nodded and ordered the most expensive dishes without hesitation.
"So, when did you join the academy?" Max asked, trying to break the ice.
"It's been four years now," Eliana replied and continued to eat with no intention to converse with him.
Seeing this, Max stopped wasting his breath and focused on the delicious dishes in front of him.
After they were done, Max paid the bill, which was 150 Mana stones. When he was paying, Eliana noticed his expression, which was as calm and casual as before. This surprised Eliana.
She had ordered so many expensive dishes on purpose because she wanted to see his stiff expression when he paid the bill, but it seemed her plan had failed. This caused her to be frustrated inwardly.
'He must be feigning indifference.' She thought. After all, even she, as a core disciple, couldn't afford to spend so much on a single meal while he was just an inner sector disciple.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" She asked after leaving the restaurant.
"Can you tell me about the inter-academy competition in detail? I mean the strength of top ten contenders etc., that might be helpful." Max asked.
Although she had told him In the sun feather city that he needed to be at least a mid-stage three-star mage if he wanted to get a rank in the top ten, he didn't believe it was this difficult. That's why he wanted to know her reason for saying this.
Eliana darted him a side glance; she could guess what he was thinking. She shook her head inwardly and said,
"Even the weakest disciple from the top ten academies would be at the peak of the two-star realm with at least half of their Mana covered to three-star level and a powerful spell that could easily harm someone in the three-star realm.
So, you can imagine how difficult it would be to get into the top ten. Someone in the early stages of the three-star realm wouldn't be confident enough to say that he would be placed in the top ten. That's why I said you should be at least a mid-stage three-star mage. And if you want to be ranked higher, this alone wouldn't be enough, and you would need to have some powerful spells.
From the three-star realm onwards, only the quality of your Mana, strength of element, and powerful spells and how skillfully you can use them differentiate you from the masses. Unfortunately, most of the disciples lack in these aspects, forcing them to mediocrity." She sighed at the end.
Her words surprised Max. It seemed that she wasn't sure whether she would be able to perform well or not. He sighed audibly, "It seems I need to work harder."
Eliana glanced at him but didn't say anything; her initial opinion of him had changed after finding out that he had already started to enhance his Mana.
