HOPE FOR THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD IT.

***In the Continent 'Eclipse of the Oceans'..

***The Upper Sector of the Outskirts..

***Clingford's Martial Academy..

..

 After stating and proving the purpose for his visit, Navi was finally let through the gates while being escorted by the female guard.

 Navi is not given a tour of the Academy grounds but the little he've seen while following the female gaurd is up-to-par with his imaginations. The main training grounds he encountered as he as soon as he enters is over six foot beneath the floor surface.

 There are sets of stairs all around the training ground with different disciples in official martial robes performing their martial forms in Unison.

Arranged in neat rows and columns, these martial students are covered in sweat, dirt and pride as they made sharp noise backing their powerful movements while Cultivation Masters walked amidst them for inspection.

 *HAH!*..

*HAH!*..

*HAH!*..

*HAH!*..

With each uniform sound, the disciples change their poses in harmony while mirroring each other seemingly without the need for thoughts.

 Beside this below ground level training ground lies another row of several dozens of martial students with their legs crossed in meditative positions while keeping their eyes closed.

Completely unbothered by their background noises, these specific set of students breathes calmly and stealthily as they practiced in a ground-zero level of harmony though not with each other but seemingly with the world.

Tearing his curious gaze away from the outstanding martial scenes he is witnessing, Navi dutifully follows behind the female guard who soon drops him off in front of a small and neat traditional building.

"Registration is done inside.", The guard casually says before walking off as she os completely uncaring about Navi's next steps from there on.

Navi is also completely unbothered by the knight as he walks straight into the building without any form of hesitation.

The insides of the registration building is nothing but a 10ft-by-15ft room that's poorly illuminated by sunlight.

In one segment of the open room lies a simple couch with a brown parlour table in front of it while on the other end lies a fancy wooden work-table with piles of documents messily placed on its top.

A high chair lying behind the messy wooden table as well as rows of cabinets on the upper walls with Registration tags tells Navi that he is in the right room.

Still inspecting the room, Navi hears a faint sound. By the side of the messy wooden table is a small sliding door.

*Ruggle!*..

*Ruggle!*..

The sounds of flowing water comes from the other side of this sliding door followed by a loud relieve sigh.

The small door soon slides open as an old man with wipes in his hands walks out happy while humming a soft tune.

The man's movements and hums pauses midway as he notices the new addition to the room. His face twitches mechanically in slight embarrassment that someone has heard his private bathroom business.

This embarrassment quickly gets expressed as anger.

With a deep growl, the old man tosses the wipes in his hands away as he asks in anger.

"Are you a pervert?!.", The old looking man asks with pursed lips as he eyes Navi's figure from up to down with an irritated glare.

"I just got here for registration.", Navi responds calmly while under the intensity of the Old man's glare as he redirects the uncomfortable question.

The old man hold his tough gaze for an uncomfortable while before maturely swallowing down his some of his embarrassment as he walks to the chair behind his work table.

"Can you afford the bills or are you just here to waste my time?.", The man asks with a growl still in his tone as he takes his seat.

"I need to know what I'm getting into first.", Navi responds while keeping his tone calm and polite as he walks forward until he's just in front of the Old man's work table.

Clearly too lazy to go on lengthy explanations, the old man shuffles through the messy documents and books on his table where he soon finds an information slip on registration.

About to give the slip to Navi, the old man pauses then asks with raised brows, "Can you read?.".

"Certainly.", Navi responds calmly while the Old man allows himself a small nod of approval.

He gives Navi the slip containing the academy tuitions and their programs as then he waves Navi towards the empty couch by the wall of the room.

With a polite bow to the feisty old man, Navi takes up the slip to the couch. He puts down his Hikers bag on a side of the couch and takes a seat.

 *Flip!*

Navi begins to read through the slip in his hands while the old man turns his focus the documents on his desk.

A couple of minutes passes and it becomes more and more evident that the old man is just pretending and he has absolutely no work to do or rather.. no work he wants to do.

Dropping the meaningless act, the old man gives a nonchalant long yawn as he rest comfortably into his chair while slowly turning himself left and right repeatedly.

Navi ignores this childish act as he scroll through the Slip where he sees all the tuition plans the academy offers.

Plans for those who have not detected mana is completely different than for those who have and even those who fall in the same category have different segments.

As someone yet to detect mana, this segment is obviously for him. The first tier in this segment grants Navi access to four hundred normal lessons per year, thirty elite lessons and ten practical experience lessons.

 Navi does not know much about the lessons being implied though he can already make a rough mental guess that normal lessons are just as they are called - normal - while elite lessons are more than a grade higher and with more benefits.

The Tier Two of this segment grants Six hundred normal lessons per year, seventy elite lessons, Twenty-five practical experience and fifteen practical experience lessons as well as twenty free passes to Tier One Mana Chambers!.

It was a lot more in comparison to the tier one but the price for booking it compared to tier one is almost three times as much!.

The Tier 3 holds limitless access to normal lesson, limitless access to elite lessons, Fifty-two practical experience chances as well as One hundred passes to a Tier One Mana Chambers and seven chances to tier one mana pool!.

Although very lucrative and attractive, the price of Tier 3 booking compared to tier one is eight times as much!!!.

The price for tier one tuition is forty bronze pints!. In the Upper parts of the outskirt, this money is an above an average man's one year salary!!!.

Ten rumen equals one pence and one hundred pence equals One bronze pint!. Ten pence is enough to feed a family of three for a day so One bronze pint is enough to feed a family for ten days.

About Fifty bronze pints would feed and cater for a family of three for a year and here, it's just the tuition fee for tier one of the most basic segment!.

Outrageous!.

With no change on his expression, Navi looks at the price of Tier two tuition package which says..

One hundred and twenty bronze pints!. Navi almost swallows a mouthful of saliva even though his face remains calm.

 The Tier Three is even more outrageous with a sky high tuition fee of four hundred bronze pints per year!.

Navi's eyes lightly trembles as he looks at the figures before him. No wonder they called the academy a place of hope only for those who can afford it.

It turns out that hope is very expensive.

..

..

AUTHORS NOTE: MARTIAL IS USUALLY USED TO REFER TO PEOPLE OR WEAPONS THAT HASN'T BROKEN INTO RANK ONE. E.G;- *MARTIAL DISCIPLE AND *MARTIAL WEAPONS.

THE ONLY EXCEPTIONS ARE *MARTIAL ARTS THAT'S IMPORTANT TO ALL RANKS AND *MARTIAL MASTER.