With an additional Summoning Core, Michael could get one more 1-Star Summon every day. There was even a low chance of obtaining a 2-Star Summon. The only thing he had to do was use Extraction on the Summoning Core!
However, Michael also knew that his progress wouldn't be fast now that he became a Tier-1 Lord. Others would advance from Peak Tier-0 to Lowest Tier-1, and they were likely to obtain more points for their progress than Michael.
After all, Michael could only advance to Low Tier-1 from the Lowest-grade if he were to put everything aside and join his small army to fight day in day out for a whole month. That was how much energy the War Rune required to advance to Low-grade Tier-1. The higher the grade, the more effort and energy required.
Furthermore, Michael promised himself to build an unbreakable foundation.
He chose to disregard the 1st prize of the competition, even though Michael would love to obtain one more Summoning Core. He had other plans to execute.
And while he was deep in thought, Michael didn't even notice that the spaceship began to shake, or that the spaceship harbor's ceiling separated. Michael was too distracted to notice as the spaceship set off. Only when they accelerated did he sense that something was amiss.
The spaceship accelerated and it shot high in the air, while inertia almost slammed Michael hard into his seat.
At that point, Michael's eyes were fixed on the window in his small cabinet. He looked outside to witness Elyra's surface growing smaller in the distance. Slowly, the majestic celestial body was unveiled in its full glory. The majestic planet Michael called his home revealed its magnificent terrain, from the jagged peaks of mountain ranges, and the vast oceans covering most of the planet's surface, to the smooth curves of expansive plains.
The hues of Elyra's surface captivated Michael as the planet grew distant.
After a while, Michael felt the pressure lifting off of him just a little. He was not pressed into the seat anymore as the gravitational force pushing him down diminished.
Michael's hand reached out to the seatbelts, but he stopped midway. He knew that it was not yet time to release the seatbelts.
His gaze moved back to the window, where he witnessed a scene of unparalleled beauty. The inky blackness of space stretched out infinitely, dotted with countless shimmering stars. They all shone brightly making it look like a blanket dusted with stars, forming a magnificent cosmic tapestry.
Glimmers of distant galaxies, wisps of nebulae, and celestial clouds, revealed the immense cosmic forces shaping the universe.
As the spaceship glided through space, Michael saw a few glistening comets passing by. They looked small and harmless, but that couldn't be more wrong.
In this vast expanse, Michael and the other freshmen were the only things that were truly small and harmless. They were but a small speck of dirt in the vast expanse of the universe, a witness to the wonders of the infinitely big universe.
Once again, Michael was reassured that his dream of traveling through space and everything he had done so far was truly worth the effort. Traveling to space was a reminder of the sheer beauty and vastness that existed beyond the boundaries of Elyra.
It shook Michael's entire being and rekindled his adventurous spirit!
After gliding through space for less than twenty minutes, the feeling of weightlessness deteriorated. The inertia generator had been activated, artificially creating inertia inside the spaceship. The weightlessness of space was nullified.
The crystal watch rang, and a notification popped up in front of him the next moment.
[Inertia 1.5x the gravitational force on Elyra has stabilized. During the next 30 days, inertia will slowly increase to 3x gravity than Elyra to train the body and make it regulate to the gravity on Kelta. You may remove the seatbelts now.]
'Inertia three times higher than in Elyra…' Michael made a mental note and nodded his head.
He removed the seatbelt and got up from the seat.
Michael figured that it was time to make a plan and find out which lessons to attend in the next 30 days, and how to make the most use of the Saphirelake Military Academy's Network.
Freshmen had only an ordinary access rank to all the facilities of the Saphirelake Military Academy. This included the spaceship's shop, the Network System, and so on. Even if he procured Saphire points – the currency used in the Saphirelake Military Academy – it was not possible to procure everything Michael wanted to obtain.
He opened the Academy's Network and researched a few particular topics to determine how valuable the ordinary access rank was.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the ordinary access rank was slightly worse than the Golden Membership access of the Bartholomew Network.
'If I upgrade my access once or twice, I should be able to find out more about the old languages…probably…' Michael concluded, feeling more or less certain about his plan.
Improving his access to all facilities could be done by various means. Either, he had to secure a place for himself in the freshman rankings by getting the best grades, or he could use Saphire points to upgrade his access grade.
The former seemed easier because Michael had yet to find a way to procure Saphire points. Thus, it was time to leave the cabinet and move to the central hall where all Instructors, Professors, and Staff introduced their lessons and curriculum to the students.
The students could sign up and receive pointers from their future instructors, and professors.
Michael didn't rush to reach the central hall. He walked slowly, allowing others to pass by him while he carefully inspected the interior of the Dekalos-class spaceship.
Michael wasn't sure when he would be able to get such an opportunity the next time, and he wanted to make the most of it. It was not as if the instructors would run away, either way.
After satisfying his curiosity by walking through the hallways of the Dekalos-class spaceship, Michael reached the central hall.
Most freshmen had already arrived. There were a total of 1500 freshmen from Elyra, yet it looked like the central hall was not even half full. It didn't seem crowded, at all. That was mostly because bigger groups of freshmen had gathered around a few particular professors and instructors, while the minority surrounded other instructors.
Interestingly enough, there were even Combat Instructors, and Professors giving non-combat lessons where not a single soul had gathered.
Michael had yet to find out what he could learn from the respective instructors. He slowly made his way through the central hall, patiently watching the demonstration videos that were being shown on big screens to help the students understand what the Instructors' lessons would look like.
Michael didn't allow anyone to rush him. He made a few notes about particular lessons, watched their videos with great focus, and asked a bunch of questions before he walked to the next instructor.
After two hours, Michael was almost done. Only the three Professors surrounded by more than a hundred students each were left. The three Professors were talking to each other, not minding the crowd around them.
'Should I just squeeze my way through?' Michael wondered for a moment before he disregarded this idea. One of the three Professors left was Alice Zenovia. He wanted to ask her for pointers, but it was not really his intention to become one of a few hundred students.
The next 30 days were important, and Michael wanted to use them to build his foundation. A good foundation required great focus, and effort, which included that his teachers should be able to focus on him and immediately point out whenever he made a mistake. That way, wrong movements, and mistakes were fixed before they could turn into habits. That was crucial. After all, habits were hard to kill once imprinted into the mind.
'Having the entire focus of a Combat Instructor should be great. But then again, most Combat Instructors have a requirement of at least two, or four students, otherwise, their lessons will be canceled.' Michael thought while his eyes moved across the combat instructors.
He halted in his tracks when he saw a familiar face. It was Silverian Schild, the Combat Instructor supervising the Real Combat assessment. He was staring at Michael while standing pridefully in front of his empty stand.
Nobody wanted to join his course, however, that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. On the contrary, he seemed to be relieved to not have students swarming around him, asking questions.
Michael recalled having watched the demonstration video in Silverian's stall. It was a terrifying demonstration where four students fought against each other fiercely while wearing heavyweight combat suits that had 'weight' enchantments engraved upon them.
Oddly enough, Michael wasn't bothered by the thought of wearing heavyweight combat armor.
He felt that it might actually be the best for him.
Michael had noticed that Berserker Physique worked quite decently with the additional pressure of 1.5 times the inertia weighing down on his body.
The issue with Silverian Schild's lesson was something else; four students had to sign up minimum for the classes to be conducted!
Nobody wanted to sign up, and Michael didn't have anyone to ask and sign up with him.
After all, he didn't have any friends.
'To think that something like this will hold me back…how pitiful…'
