Chapter 16 - The Academy (1)

"My apologies headmaster." Duke Allflame descended down onto the ground as he spoke. "I didn't think he'd have a warp scroll and didn't bother to cast a space distortion field."

"Sigh... It's not your fault my lord. If I had been able to subdue him myself, he wouldn't have been to escape." Rodrick replied. "What's done is done, let's quickly resume the examination and finish this off."

"I'll stay here this time lest something like this happens again." The Duke retracted his mana as the giant pressure had been lifted from the surrounding area.

"My thanks Duke." Rodrick quickly bowed before shouting. "We'll resume the examiniation! Please go back to each position you were at prior to the mishap. To all the children who had been sent to the infimary, we'll have a backup examination a week from now!"

"You." Rodrick pointed towards Shin. "Follow me.":

Everyone quickly walked back to their spots after being reassured at the prescence of the duke.

Shin also followed Rodrick up to the podium before quickly noticing a small crowd of men who had been chained up and were being escorted by a few examiners.

It seemed there had been others who had been subdued during the short chaos.

Shin stood before the table as Rodrick sat down before speaking. "Let's get the brief thing out of the way first, tickets?"

Shin pulled out the now crumpled pieces of paper he had recieved before handing them to Rodrick.

Rodrick's eyebrows lifted up as he stared at Shin and thought for a moment.

"Right." He then nodded before speaking. "No wonder you were able to dodge that attack. You're almost at the peak level of initiate. This explains a lot."

He then fell silent for a moment before continuing. "Alright Shin. Lemme explain the academy to you. The academy has 2 different 'sections'. The first is for initiates and below where we teach the basics. The building you see before is where we train all initiates. The second section is for Meisters but it is not located here but in various locations."

"Not here?" Shin was shocked at the fact that this giant school was soley for initiates. How many were here?

"Starting from Meisters, it's best to face real battles so the majority of them opt to join a force and battle in their miniature dimensions. These are lower dimensions filled with monsters or demons that the various forces managed to link a portal to and use it as training grounds for their seedlings and a source of raw materials." Rodrick explained. "You'll learn more about it in the future, for now let me explain how the initiate training program works."

There was currently over 7 thousand initiates in the academy. This wasn't due to them recruiting thousands each year but rather the fact that only a few managed to climb up to the meister level each year.

The rate at which the initiates ranked up to the meister level was much slower than the rate of recruitment and this caused the academy to expand over and over again before they started to limit their recruitment.

10 years.

This was the time alloted to each initiate before they would be removed from the academy. They would be able to further pursue becoming a squire after this but many simply learned that this path was not their on by that time and simply went onto do other things as their living.

There was also an internal ranking system made through non-fatal battles which any student of the lower rank could use to challenge a higher rank student once a month.

The higher rank student only had to accept one challenge a month and this kept a cycle of competition between each students.

Each year, the top 100 students would get to battle between themselves in the arena where the top 10 would be rewarded depending on their rank.

"The top 10 also get to join one of the major forces if they so are willing to choose you to join them as well." Rodrick added. "And with their support, your future will be slightly easier at the least."

"I see... May I ask when the next tournament is?" Shin asked.

"It's always near the end of the year so there's plenty of time." Rodrick chuckled as he continued

"For now, please sign up here with the fees."

"Oh right." Shin remembered at that moment and took out a small letter.

Rodrick recieved it and read it before nodding. "Right, a recommendation from Baron Silverwing. Alright, your fees are waived. Here's the information regarding your room. There are 4 classes that are required and 2 others that you may take if you wish to, all other time you have is free time."

"Thank you." Shin recieved a piece of paper with information written on it as he read through it.

"Now, let's talk about the attack we just had. The man seemed to have been going for you and didn't even seem to know your father either. I assume it's a personal grudge of a sort?" Rodrick questioned him. Regardless of the matter, he still had to investigate.

"Well... I'm not sure. But I think I know where the man had come from." Shin replied.

He then continued on about the experiences he had a few years ago regarding the abduction and the lab. Stories about the kind of experiements he had gone through and how he had just been left alone in the middle of nowhere one day.

"Hmm... This does indeed sound like something the dark mages would do... Alright. You can go for now but please do bear in mind others may visit you for further investigation. I'll write the report to the best of my abilities but excuse us as this is an important matter regarding the safety of our students." Rodrick conluded as Shin nodded.

Shin then returned to Baron Silverwing before giving him a brief explanation of the talk he had with Rodrick.

"Well, congratulations Shin. Come, let's go shopping!." Baron Silverwing smiled with a giddy face, almost seeming to have forgotten the incident that had just happened.

Shin, however, noticed Shila's cold gaze from afar before quickly following up Baron Silverwing who was heading towards the gate to find a carriage to the shopping district.