In the Faculty Block,
"How many students do you think will enroll in your course this year, Professor Neyman?" A man in his thirties asked as he picked up some books.
"They changed the grading system a bit, but I don't think it will make any difference," Neyman said.
"I heard it was because of Asher Greville's score that they implemented this a year earlier than planned," his assistant said.
"It's useless. I met that boy when he was younger, and I can confirm that his intellect is way higher than his peers," Neyman replied, but his assistant looked doubtful.
"Well, but this will surely be beneficial to boost the rankings of those students who are academically gifted," Neyman said.
This new structure was made so that students who were not practically gifted at combat and mana-related abilities could compete equally among others. Even though society only praised strong people, there were still people like Tom Gylip who were gifted in a unique field.
Neyman supported this cause for many years, but the idea was rejected, as, at the end of the day, only strong hunters could defeat dungeons and maintain peace.
"Well, it's not like many students are interested in Runic Theory anyway, and among those who will join, there aren't many that will excel in Rune Arts," Neyman replied as he looked at his assistant.
Despite being hard to learn, a person still required a certain amount of talent to excel at Runic Arts. Learning it was impossible if you didn't have the knack for it. And that was the reason many people stayed away from Runic Arts.
It was better to waste their time learning another course that could help them somehow, even if they failed.
"They don't understand that learning under you is a privilege only a few get," his assistant replied instantly.
"I am just an old man; even in the Artisan's Association, there are still a few more that are better than me," Neyman replied as he laughed a bit.
'But those old geezers don't even like teaching others,' the assistant thought.
Neyman smiled at his assistant as his thoughts were visible on his face.
"When should I schedule the first class?" the assistant asked.
"Do it one week after the Auction," Neyman replied.
***
In a temple-like building in World Academy,
A particular silver-colored flower was present on the ground shining brightly, but only one petal was left.
The flower started withering as the last petal fell on the ground, and after a second, it dissolved into the ground.
The ground started shining, and an intense mana wave flowed from that one spot, covering the whole floating island.
In Ranker's Dorm,
Asher had just completed his training as he came out and sat on his sofa.
He touched his ID Bracelet, and the Course Selection screen popped up in front of him.
Asher knew what subject he would choose already, so he didn't need to waste time like others.
He touched 5 Subjects on the hologram, and they got added under his name.
Duel was the permanent subject, so he needed to choose at least 5 subjects. His first two choices were obvious. As his main elements, he chose Space and Black Element classes.
And Space Element had a 7 rating on the difficulty score out of 10; for Black Element, the rating was 6.
Both were elements that needed a lot of practice and knowledge to master them.
These classes had strict criteria that only allowed those with their affinity to join that class. Even the Fire element only had a difficulty rating of 6, similar to the other elements.
His third choice was Runic Arts, as he wanted to learn more about them. It was a necessary step he needed to do. Runic Arts had a difficulty score of 8.
His fourth choice was Spell Weaving, which was a class that only those who wanted to improve their talents as a mage would attend.
It was a standard class for all mages, so its difficulty rating was 6, which was similar to classes that taught elemental magic.
His fifth and last choice was Beast Mastery, which was the advanced version of Beast Theory. Typically most people would not choose this subject as it was on the easier side, but it was the best one for Asher.
Although not sure, Asher knew that this course would have a slight change, and Monster Hunting would be introduced as part of this course.
And many students who wanted practical experience against monsters would enroll in it. It was done immediately in his previous life, but he was sure they would change this course to a more practical one in a month or two.
He confirmed his selection as he didn't need more than 6 subjects.
As he was about to be done with this selection, Asher felt a huge mana wave going past him.
"Is it done?" Asher looked in a particular direction.
[Host is experiencing an Artifact's effects]
[Identifying the changes....]
[Mana density around the environment has increased by 20%]
Everyone on that floating island could feel the increase in the mana density as the air got easier to breathe, and their bodies felt refreshed.
Normally such effects could only be gained inside special rooms that were made with mana-gathering runes, but the famous SSS Rank artifact that only World Academy possessed could do this without any runes.
Asher looked at his ID Bracelet as a few notifications appeared on it.
<Attention! The mana density has increased, so there is no need to panic about it>
It was a standard message for the first years who would be experiencing this effect for the first time.
<In case you are feeling dizzy, make sure to visit the medical facility>
Many students could not handle this sudden increase, so to help them, they were called to the medical facility to get certain medications that helped with mana circulation for a short time.
<Auction Announcement: The Auction will be held tomorrow>
<There will be no classes tomorrow, and those who are attending the Auction should know that the Trade Center will open the day after tomorrow>
It was a simple announcement to inform students about the Auction, as the Trade Center was closed a week before the Auction, so that sudden transfer of GP was impossible.
******
Tom entered a room as three doctors were operating on Dane and Kai.
"Are you sure we should stay awake?" Dane looked at Tom.
"Don't worry, they will not cut you open... probably," Tom replied.
"Wait, but you can just make us faint," Dane looked back at the man standing near him.
"Sir, we don't need to cut; we can destroy the tracking chips by sending certain mana waves," the doctor replied.
"So I will live with a broken chip inside me?" Dane looked at Kai, who was lying down quietly.
"Dane shut up and let him do his job," Kai glared at Dane.
"Don't worry, Sir, your body will destroy the chip once it becomes useless," the doctor replied.
It was obvious that A Rank hunter's body would be different from an unawakened human's. They just needed to destroy the mana casing around the chips, and Dane and Kai's bodies would get the job done.
Tom came out of the room as he looked at the tracking pattern he had copied from the information he got from the chips.
"Will they work inside Mana Crystals?" Tom was not sure, so he was experimenting with different things.
Asher had given him a clear objective, which he needed to complete within weeks so their plans could go forward.
Tom went into his room so he could tweak the tracking chips more perfectly so they could work around potent mana crystals.
"Oh, right, almost forgot to check on the footage," Tom muttered as he opened a particular footage of the building.
"So the route is still the same," seeing that nothing had changed, Tom continued his work.
******
In the Student Council Room,
Tyrone entered the room and saw Raelyn talking with Kevin and his friends in a hologram.
"I will talk to you guys in a bit," Raelyn said as she cut the call.
"Raelyn, you have the funds of all Student Council, right?" Tyrone asked.
"Yeah, apart from their personal GP, I have enough GP for the last bids," she replied.
"Well, did you get any information about the ranks of the artifacts?" Raelyn asked.
"Not much, but I heard Leon was trying to loan GP to Asher Greville," Tyrone said as he observed the expression on Raelyn's face.
"Haha, why is that guy getting so concerned about a mere first-year," Raelyn said, but Tyrone didn't believe her.
She was the one who was keeping tabs on Asher Greville the most since the day Asher had injured her brother Kevin in a 1v20 duel.
Raelyn stood up and took out a few artifacts.
"We will put these artifacts for the second years, so you can go submit them," Raelyn took out a few artifacts.
