Dark Forest Academy (2)

Daron looked over at Doug's, Patrice's and Charles' paper and noticed that Doug had written 'Level 3', while Patrice and Charles' had written 'Level 2' in the talent column.

'So, I'm guessing talent goes from Level 1 to 5, possibly 10. Doug does seem to have more potential than Charles or Patrice, so the higher your talent is, the more gifted you are. Or at least, that is how it should be.'

Quickly analysing the situation, and remembering how much time he spent on trying to get even a single point of mana, Daron gritted his teath and wrote 'Level 1'. Having absolutely no mana when starting this meant he had zero talent. And it was likely that this talent would not change with time.

'Why am I so unlucky with Mana?' He asked himself in self-pity

[Because your soul is not from this world. Unlike Internal Energy, which is held within the body, Mana is held within the soul and used by the body.]

'Huh? How come you never told me this?'

[You never asked Master.]

'… Never mind. Just tell me everything that you know about mana while we fill out the form'

For affinity, Daron also sighed before writing 'Fire'. He should not reveal the gold-coloured dragon and the white coloured unknown power of Sirious to anyone, while the black space was something he would use as his most signature in the future once he was strong enough. Exposing his secrets too early would not be useful.

'Sirious, if they end up wanting to do a test again, can you prevent stuff from happening like last time? Just restrict the information gained to only Level 1 talent and Fire affinity?'

[Yes.]

'Okay.' Daron was rather satisfied with how Sirious would now also be able to trick the testing paper, not thinking about how Sirious was able to do it now.

…

"Hmm. Douglas. Come forward" The middle-aged man said as he pulled out the first page of information that he had received.

"You guys will have 2 options. You can either let my pet pick an appropriate professor for you, or you can choose one for yourself. However, the former is at no cost, while the latter is paid. You need to pay 2 magic stones for every 10 minutes you spend thinking and searching for a professor."

"Pet! I mean, I would like the first option Instructor." Doug said without hesitation, but ended up missing out on a lot of his words the first time he spoke.

The middle-aged instructor nodded and extended his hand, from which a tiny snake slithered out, and once again, Daron felt immense hatred for that snake. Not fear nor anger for any particular reason, just irritation for that snake to even exist.

After frantically controlling his emotions, he continued to observe what Doug would be going through.

The tiny snake that was bright red in colour with yellow spots on its body, moved rather swiftly despite in body size only being as long as Daron's arm, and climbed onto Doug's head, before sticking its tongue out for a moment or two.

"Not bad, water and nature affinity. Talent of 3? Good, good! You can choose Mr. Tong as your professor."

"Alright, Doug, get up and stand to the side. Next!"

After a while, it was finally Daron's turn, and he chose to pick his own professor, directly handing over 2 Magic stones to the instructor. Although Sirious said she could misdirect scanning from the paper, she was not sure when she saw the snake in action. This caused Daron to instantly change his decision from allowing the instructor's pet to choose for him, to using the 6 magic stones the Old Man gave him, plus the 4 magic stones he had looted off the people he had killed in the two weeks through the journey.

"Alright. You have 10 minutes. Here is a list of all the instructors within the Dark Forest Academy." The middle-aged man said as he pulled out a thick book with at least 30 pages to it, which did not see, like much to Daron, until he turned the book open to see lines and lines of tightly packed words. The number of instructors within the Academy should at least have reached 300.

"Oh, but only the first 90 instructors are present within the Academy and are free to teach. Get on with it. You have 10 minutes."

Daron shrugged in his mind and within just 3 minutes, he had finished reading glancing through all 9 pages including all those who were available.

'Check for those who teach fire magic, and know about Space magic.'

[Scanning. No matches found.]

'Check for fire, and any of these: Space, Nature, Poison, Earth, Wind. Metal.'

[Multiple matches found: 34]

'Show them in that order, since as we go lower in the list, the worse my affinity with those elements.'

[Professor Krog]

[Specialisations: Fire, Nature]

[Remuneration: 3 free lessons per month]

[Requirement: Must assist in one experiment per month. Cannot be declined]

-----

[Professor Lesno]

[Specialisations: Fire, Nature]

[Remuneration: 5 free lessons per month]

[Requirement: Must assist in only a single experiment. Just one, and then you are free. Isn't that a great deal?]

As the list went on, a suspicion was ignited in Daron's heart, and he quickly made a decision with his eyes closed and spoke to Sirious.