Chapter 7

Derek, despite the slim chance for winning the bet now, did his best looking for Aizen. He wandered around the field, looked at the possible hiding places at the buildings, but he did not even find his shadow.

Ultimately, he was about to give up when from the corner of his eyes he saw a boy standing around, and looking at him. Normally, this was something that wouldn't have gained much attention from him, but with him looking for Aizen, he instantly turned towards him and to his surprise, he saw Aizen standing out in the open, looking at him with a gentle smile.

Derek's eyes widened and his mind stopped processing things for a moment, and this time, not even his experience helped him. Just a moment before, he had been looking for Aizen from hell to high heaven, and right at the moment he had been about to give up, he saw Aizen appear out of thin air in front of him. Derek could have sworn that he had looked through the place Aizen was standing at before.

As Derek was trying to process what had just transpired, he saw Aizen take one step towards him, and then another, followed by another one. Step by step, Aizen walked up to him and raised his hand, as if greeting a long – time friend, and with that same gentle smile on his face, he put his hand on his his shoulder as he said, "Time's up, Derek."

Only after hearing his voice did Derek snap out of his thoughts, now catching up to the reality that no matter how he did it, Aizen had won the bet.

As if guessing his thoughts, Aizen's smile changed from a gentle one to a happy one as he said, "Now time to pay up. Show me that paper. Oh, also, tell me how you came to know about those students, will you?"

What Aizen had done was to hide behind a pillar of the building and make Derek not pay much attention to that particular spot. And once Derek had gone past that spot far enough, he went out of his sights, and stayed that way till time was up. Once time was up, to create a bigger impact on Derek, he once again went near him, used his ability to make him overlook his figure, and then appear in his vision, making it look as if he had appeared out of thin air.

This made it look like Aizen's tier 1 ability was very strong, however, the reality was different. Aizen's tier 1 ability was a dual ability, which worked in two ways, seed and fruit. To activate the ability, Aizen's mana had to come in contact with the target, after which, he would either plant a seed into the target or place a fruit there.

Once a seed was plated, Aizen could send suggestions into the target's mind continuously, as long as he was close enough, like he had done with Derek. However, if the target's mind was strong enough or if the suggestions went against the target's core thoughts, it will either fail or distort the target's personality. The other method made the target follow Aizen's orders by deceiving their senses into believing that it was their brain who was issuing said orders, however, this method would only work for a brief moment, like with the pouch boy.

With his face twisted in an irritated expression, Derek said, "Fine. But not here. Let's go to my dorm room. Follow me." With that said, Derek started walking away, not even bothering to check whether Aizen agreed with his proposition and was following him, or not.

As Aizen followed behind Derek, he noticed that he was being led to the area that existed in the middle of the area that they were allowed to move in. Moreover, unlike his dormitory that was a three floored building having many small rooms, Derek's was like a town house.

In the house, there were two bedrooms, one kitchen and one bathroom, along with a small garden surrounding the house. Moreover, the house was properly furnished with wooden windows covered by cloth curtains, the kitchen having a table and water facilities, and the bedroom having a study table and a bed that came with a sleeping mattress and bedsheet. Completely unlike his room, that was about half the size of Derek's bedroom, having a small window as a light source and nothing more than a wooden bed, this one without any mattress of cloth in the name of furnishings.

As Aizen was comparing the significant difference in status between both of them, he heard Derek's voice answer some of the questions that were arising in his mind.

"Do you know how lucky you were to place in the middle ranks at the time of last tests? Those who ranked below the middle ranks were employed as slaves here. They don't get to study at the academy – do you know what that means?"

Derek said to Aizen as he started making tea for himself, but stopped midway to add more water to the kettle when he remembered that he wasn't alone now.

"I can guess, but still, do enlighten me. Oh, I drink mine extra sweet."

"You've had tea before?" Derek asked Aizen in bewilderment, focusing more the latter statement. Derek himself had only come across tea when he had entered the city, as it was sweet, pleasant to the tongue, and most importantly, it was cheap here, making it affordable for him even with the meager money he had gotten from his position as the first in the camp.

"Well, I've heard of it. They say it's better the sweeter it is. Anyway, forget about tea and answer me."

Derek nodded his head, and turned back to make tea while talking, "In here, not being in the academy means that you've lost half of your future. Academy doesn't recruit disciples, nor does it conduct entrance tests. Apparently, it's because the place was made to cater to much greater number of students, and unless the number of students exceed that number, the admissions will be open ones.

But that is only on the surface. Academy's tests include those camps, your history, like what you were doing before coming here, and the like. Overall, they can find out everything about you, no matter where you are."

"Wait, you mean those slave traders were working for the academy?" Aizen asked Derek as his eyes unconsciously gained a dark gleam in them.

However, Derek shood his head. "They don't work for the academy, but rather, they just provide the academy with merchandise. What do you think happened to the ones who were below middle ranks in our camp?"

At his words, Aizen stated the conclusion he had arrived at the moment Derek talked about slaves and ranks, of course, after taking a small moment to make it look like he had just arrived at that conclusion, "They were sold to other people by the traders?"

Derek nodded his head and continued, "The slave traders just provide merchandise. Those who are top quality are taken by the academy as its students, and those who don't make the cut are taken by the other professions out there. Like house cleaners, blacksmiths and the like. But they're only the ones who work on the surface. Arena fighters, test subjects and the like, those are the places where those with bad luck end up at.

Anyway, if you're a commoner and don't get into the academy or are expelled, that's nothing much to worry about, you just have to find a different career. But if you're a slave and are not accepted into the academy, your life has a very high chance of turning into hell. And when you were captured, you were clearly at the bottom. That's why I said you were lucky to have made it to the middle ranks before the selection, or who knows where you would've ended up.

But enough of that. You wanted to ask how I got to know about this paper right?"

Derek asked, to which Aizen just nodded his head while making his mind not pay attention to the anxiety that had appeared in his heart at being made a slave and sent to dark places. Aizen knew that a slave's life could be very bad, especially if the said slave was either incompetent or just not that talented. After all, there were hundreds who could replace them.

After receiving Aizen's signal, Derek continued, "Ranking at the top has its benefits, one of them is getting information, and the other is money. Do you remember how each of us had a different guard assigned to us, who told out information and life at the camp to the buyers, well the one who was assigned to me had a different task.

My purchase was confirmed the moment I ranked first, and instead of explaining my camp life to the buyer, the guard explained some things about the academy to me. The division of grades, fate of others, the slave business and the dealers at the academy. I don't know why they told me about the first three, but the last one clearly was useful to me."

Derek continued telling about how he had gotten that money, what was told to him about the topics and what he had done after his admission was confirmed. Aizen's thoughts on the other had were split into two, one paying attention to and digesting all the information that Derek was providing him, and the other focused on is thoughts about how some guards of a slave trading group were able to not only find details of the fighting styles, strengths and weaknesses of so many individuals, but how their system of doing that was extremely efficient.