Chapter 8

After a while, Derek had finished explaining all that he had learned from the slave traders about the academy to Aizen, and then he got to the main topic – the paper slip that he had bought.

"The guard had said that I should definitely get this paper slip as it will provide me with tips on how to survive in the academy and how to progress faster. I had asked him about why he was telling me all this, and his answer was that their credibility will increase along with my scores. Basically, the higher my scores in the academy, the greater the chances that their products will be bought, and although it disgusted me to no end, I still ended up buying that info as the academy will help me in the end."

After hearing of the things from Derek, Aizen nodded his head as when he had bee working for the kingdom of Arcadia, he had also kept himself in check and continued doing the things he was asked for, despite how unpleasant it felt.

"And then before you could look at what was written in there, I came along, right?" Aizen asked, to which Derek nodded his head calmly.

Placing the teapot on the table in the kitchen, along with two cups, Derek gestured for Aizen to take a seat and said, "Let's look at it while having some tea."

Aizen just pulled a chair and sat down, while Derek poured tea in both their cups. Afterwards, they continued drinking their tea in silence for a while when Derek put down the cup and pulled out the slip of paper from his pocket.

It was rolled up like a scroll, and was about ten centimeter long and five centimeter wide. The both of them looked at it, and there were only a few points written in small, scribbly, but still readable handwriting.

Aizen started reading the points written on it while devoting a fraction of his mind to analyzing the information written on it.

"First, awaken your mana as soon as possible." read Aizen while thinking how it was a point that he would have agreed on any day.

Every person, whether rich or poor, fat or skinny, newborn or old, have mana in them, whose quantity varies according to their body's affinity with mana. However, the mana in their body is distributed throughout their frame, kind of like how water is present almost every part of the body, and is also of dormant nature, which in layman's terms simply means that they can't move their mana around.

When a person awakens their mana, they get a sense of it, how much mana they have, where it is concentrated, and with enough practice, they become able to manipulate it.

Aizen, the previous owner of the body, had not awakened his mana, thus making him unable to grow as fast as he could have, but had still been able to unconsciously tap into its power, thus making it possible for him to not only stay in the camp, but also climb to its middle ranks. This alone speaks of the capabilities of mana, which makes almost everything possible.

Aizen had a great amount of experience with mana, from strengthening his body parts, to casting spells, to sensing mana and the like, but he couldn't display his complete abilities in this body, as while sensing of mana depended on soul, it still moved through the physical body. And Aizen's current body, was just like a forest that hasn't been cleared to make a road.

"Second, never miss a day of earning academic credits."

On this, Aizen was almost stumped, as he did not have enough information about academic credits. Turning to Derek, he asked, "Do you know what it's talking about?"

Derek, having heard Aizen read the point out, knew that the latter was asking about academic credits. Looking as though he had just remembered something, he said, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. Academic credits are basically your currency to learn something, attend a lecture or anything of the like. Basically, anything you do inside that main academy building will cost you academic credits, these academic credits.

The outside, the food, the entertainment, laundry, clothes and the like will cost you normal money. Basically, Academy doesn't really put much thought into how their students are living, as long they are, and they continue to earn academic credits. I've also heard that once your credits go below a certain point, you'll be expelled."

Aizen nodded his head, as this was a valid enough reason to try to earn as many academic credits as possible.

When he was in Royal guards, he had come across some interesting pieces of news, one of them being that though the techniques of academy's students were of lower grade than theirs, the proficiency they displayed with said techniques was much higher than the soldiers of both Kingdom of Arcadia and Crown's alliance.

Apparently, the academy had an artifact that allowed its students to practice a technique in real battle like conditions, without putting them in danger of course, and this allowed their students to get better at techniques much faster than the trainees of other kingdoms.

Now, for some, it might not be much, as they can also train their technique to the same level by practicing it repeatedly, but the reality was different. Field experience was a hundred times better than practice. Practice can make you closer to mastery, but just practice will never be enough, you need to have a challenge. Moreover, such challenges help in awakening soul abilities, which are much more desired than mana capacities or spells.

Aizen also had noticed that the proficiency of Academy students in their techniques was much greater than their other counterparts, but by the time he had experienced it first hand, he had found a method of gaining battlefield experience by himself.

Aizen looked at the third point, and what he saw made him do a double take.

"Third, Get a job. ASAP."

This point was written with a great emphasis, especially the last four alphabets 'ASAP' made it feel as if out of all the tips, this was the greatest one. After contemplating for a while, Aizen understood the reason as well.

Humans are social animals, this was something that Aizen believed from the both his heart and mind. Even if you feel better being alone, like to be alone and can take care of yourself, you will still have to come in contact with someone else at many a times, and there will be many times when you will require services of other. And to avail those services, you will need money. Hence the job.

This also made clear to him why the students would share their experience and insights with someone in exchange for money when the competition in the academy was supposed to be extremely severe. They were just making some quick and easy money, which would allow them to put more effort into overcoming the competition.

This became all the more important when it was clear that the academy will not provide you with the basic amenities of clothes, food and shelter. "Wait." Aizen said as his mind suddenly came up with a thought. "Who paid the rent for my room?"

Hearing his question, Derek looked as if he had suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. The rooms are free for 1st grade students, but after that, you'll have to pay."

Hearing the question Aizen thought of all the resources the academy will have to waste on the first grade students. They didn't know how to use mana, they wouldn't provide academy with money, and even the academic credits were something that the academy was providing students with, almost for free as the students didn't give academy anything in return for it.

Aizen returned to reading the slip, which had only to points remaining to be read, and those points weren't something that Aizen could come up with a good answer for.

"Fourth, try to stay in the academy for as long as possible."

"Fifth, try to befriend an upper classmen as soon as possible."

The fifth point, he could understand as having an acquaintance in the upper echelons almost always helps you, no matter which walk of life you are talking about. However, it was the fifth point that made him confused. 'Try to stay in the academy for as long as possible'. The point talked as if the academy was trying to expel the students.

However, after thinking for a while, Aizen came to the answer that it might really be a worthy tip when he recalled how he had heard about the intense competition at that academy. If it was really as tough as he had heard, even though the rumors did not contain any exact details, the academic life would be like a grinder against a stone.

Those that persisted would emerge as diamonds, and those that failed, will break down. It was also this method of consistent training that made the quality of academy's elites much more superior to the other powers.