The month passed in a flash and it was time for them to go to the academy. They had already received their cards five days before.
They took the cards and made their way to the academy. When they reached the entrance on the 1st of September, they were greeted by a confusing sight.
There were around 1000 people in the entire yard in front of the academy. Both of them distinctively remembered only 67 people had passed all the tests, but there were almost 1000 people in the yard.
Leo quickly scanned the entire area and realized that almost everyone was a 1st Circle Aura Knight. They weren’t the same people who had taken the test alongside them.
All of them were strong enough to get past all of the rounds. There were also multiple 2nd Circle Aura Knights among these people.
After around 30 minutes of waiting, someone finally came out of the gate. It was Asher.
“Hello, students of the Eldridge Aura Knight Academy. If you are here, then you have chosen to attend the academy. You will be given one of the best educations in the entire empire here! You will receive a formal welcome inside!” He said.
Even though his voice reached everyone, it was very clear that he wasn’t shouting. Leo guessed that it was a similar technique to what mages did.
Everyone followed him inside the academy. For the first time, Leo could see all of the academy in its full glory.
He could see massive buildings made out of marble on the sides of the huge walking paths that lead to the heart of the academy. In the center, there was a huge building that they were walking to.
It was a magnificent structure of elegant spires and arched windows. Its gleaming glass domes reflected the sunlight, casting a kaleidoscope of colors across the surrounding landscape.
As they were walking to the building, Leo noticed the arenas that they had used to conduct the tests for entering the academy. They were still 5 minutes away from the main building, which showed how vast the academy was. It took them 20 minutes to walk from the entrance to the main building.
When they got to the main building, everyone marveled at the building. As they entered, they realized that they weren’t alone.
The inside of the building was a large hall below a glass dome. There was a podium on one end and seats filling up the rest of the hall. There was another set of students inside the building, already seated.
There was an old person on the podium, waiting for the students. He spoke, drawing attention to himself.
“I see that the Aura Knight students have joined us. Please, take a seat,” he said.
Leo’s eyes widened when he looked at the old man. He was emitting a faint bit of magic, but for some reason, Leo wasn’t able to sense exactly how much magic he had. There was some sort of power that was shielding the man’s body from being seen through.
He immediately looked to the side to see if there was something wrong with his own perception, but he could still see through everyone else like normal. This was including the 4th Circle Mages standing to the side behind the old man. So why was he unable to see through him?
Leo came to the conclusion that the old man was stronger than a 4th Circle Mage, which made him the strongest person he had ever seen.
As he was thinking that, Marcus pulled him into a seat. Leo was standing in a stupor and Marcus snapped him out of it.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked him.
Leo shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Welcome to Eldridge Academy! All of you here are the first-year students of our academy. You will hopefully spend the next three years together. We are an academy with a long history of providing amazing education, but you all aren’t interested when I talk about boring things like that. So I will come straight to what I expect from all of you.” He started speaking in a slow voice.
“You will all need to work hard to become powerful Aura Knights and Mages. Out of everyone here, only 200 students will be receiving the resources provided by the empire to academies. This will be decided by the New Student Rankings. This ranking will include both Mages and Aura Knights. For now, there is already a ranking based on your results in each test you took when you entered the academy.”
Everyone was listening intently. When they heard that Mages and Aura Knights were being clubbed together, the commoners were slightly discouraged. This meant they were being pitted against nobles, which was very dangerous. Leo was more interested in seeing what his own ranking was. Was he even on the final ranking?
“Now, the rankings will change every month based on challenges. You can challenge someone on the ranking by using a challenge. You can buy this ‘challenge’ from the academy’s point shop. This shop will not use Starcoins, but a special currency unique to the academy called points.” The man explained.
“You can earn these points by staying in the rankings as well as finishing missions provided to you by the academy. You can find these missions in our Mission Hall. You will be properly compensated for these missions through points.
Now, don’t think these points are useless. These points can also be used to rent Aura Techniques and Spells as well as training manuals. You can even buy magical herbs and pills. The points are just as valuable as Starcoins, but you can only earn them inside the academy.”
Everything he said was very appealing to the commoners and mages equally, except for the challenges. The point system decreased the advantage that rich people entering the academy had.
However, the problem with the challenges was that very few people were going to be able to challenge the mages without fearing that something would happen to them. This was basically advantageous to the nobles.
“And finally, to make sure that the academy is giving an equal chance to everyone, this academy does not consider your status outside these walls when you are in it. Whether you are a noble or a commoner, if you make a mistake, you will be punished.”
Leo raised his eyes at those words. These words helped solve the problem that the challenges raised. Since the old man was a mage, he was expecting a noble that didn’t really care about commoners. But the man’s words were pretty revolutionary. It essentially gave the commoners the courage to get onto the rankings.
“But with all the serious things aside, I will now tell you what I hope from you. These are the best times of your lives – your youth. Enjoy it. Make friends. Don’t try to consider whether a person is worth being your friend. Make memories that last in the years that you stay here. It’s just as important to enjoy your life as it is to train to become stronger.” He said.