Academy Points

The next morning, Rachel spotted Ling in the hallway heading to the Class E classroom.

She debated internally whether to greet him or not or if she did, how to deliver her greeting was also her concern.

Skeptically, "M-Morning, Ling," she decided to greet him. After all, they were classmates.

Nobility is nobility and a commoner is a commoner. There was always a gap between the two. Ling was a Stronoff and she was from an unknown family.

Nowadays, only a few people haven't heard of how great the Stronoff family is, especially because their Stronoff Armory was well-known for producing mind-breaking equipment.

So Rachel's greeting stammered a little. She felt a little embarrassed, but Ling looked like he didn't notice it. He returned her greeting with a simple response.

"Yes, good morning too, Rachel."

Rachel secretly sighed in relief.

As they headed to their classroom, he noticed her silence and the difficult expression on her face. As though something was bothering her.

"What's wrong?" Ling asked curiously.

"Uhm, I didn't expect you to be in that situation. I mean the shelter where you're staying."

Yesterday after their class, Rachel came with him to his shelter. Although he told her there was no need for her to wash his uniform, her insistence won in the end.

When Rachel saw his shelter, she was in disbelief. She didn't expect that his shelter would be like that.

"Well, they said it's just temporary."

She felt bad for his stead. However, it was admirable that he agreed to live there despite the circumstances.

"I hope they'll find a vacant room for you to stay in as soon as possible." 

"Yeah, I hope so," Ling nodded.

He wondered if his situation is what bothering her.

Glancing at him, he looked relaxed, but Rachel thought Ling was probably just hiding his discomfort. After all, most nobility didn't like staying in cramped and smelly places. They were used to extravagant and clean surroundings.

Unaware of her thoughts, he suddenly asked, "What do you think is our class for today?"

"Uh, right. I heard we're having magic training in the Training Room this morning."

Training Room?

Ling couldn't believe how the development of the story moved faster than the original novel.

Sometimes later,

In the Training Room, a wide white room interior, Instructor Al stood in front of the students of Class E.

"Alright class, I know you're aware of this already that academy points are as important as money inside the academy. However, what if you run out of it? What will you do?"

Hearing that, Rachel tensed up. Her attention rose to a peak. Of all the students there, she was probably the one with the few academy points left.

Upon hearing the instructor's question, a sudden murmuring and whispering came from the students. They were worrying about it too. There were only 100 points that the academy allocated to each one of them. No matter how they thought about it, this amount would not be enough. However, how indeed would they gain academy points? The academy has yet to address it.

"Alright listen carefully as I would never repeat myself. There are numerous ways to gain academy points. One of them was to get high scores in any exams. The top leaderboard students will also get points, so it's very important to maintain your ranking as well…"

The students when they heard it, the expression on their faces turned extremely grim. They were the Class E students, the bottom tier among all classes. Do any of them have some confidence to get high scores in the upcoming exams and put their names at the top of the leaderboard? The answer was obviously 'hopefully'. They could only hope for miracles to happen from the bottom of their heart.

Contrary to them, Rachel was so excited, after all, she was a rare case. She has the protagonist's plot armor. Her name was on the number one spot on the Academic Exam. At that moment, her eyes lit up as her fighting spirit grew stronger from within. She secretly bowed to ace the upcoming exams.

"I must get those points…" Rachel said firmly to herself.

Hearing it from her, put a faint smile on Ling's face, then he opened his mouth and said, "But, with your current points, can you even survive before the exams?"

After his words, Rachel fell silent with an expression of helplessness.

But as if adding salt to her wounds, Instructor Al also said, "The exams will happen every 15th and last day of each month. And the leaderboard will reset every semester."

With that long, Rachel would definitely die of hunger before it. She felt like her soul was slipping from her body at that moment.

"Ugh, so even if I aced the upcoming exams and remained on top ranking in the leaderboard, it would still be useless if I could not survive till that day…"

Hehe.

Ling chuckled at her words.

"Well. I think there's another method, in which we could earn points faster and more frequently than the first two mentioned."

"Really?" Her spirit suddenly returned.

Although he was sure of it, she told her, "Well, I hoped there is. Let's continue listening to the instructor. I think he has still more to say."

Just as Ling said, Instructor Al has more to say.

Seeing the students whispering and murmuring their displeasure, he opened his mouth once again. "Alright, don't fret, that's not the only method to get academy points. As I said, there are more ways to get them."

The students widened their eyes in excitement once again.

"So, what are the other methods?" One of the students asked while knitting his brows. He looked like an impatient type of person.

"The other methods are to win a duel competition and to complete some mission."

"Competition and Mission?"

"Yes. The academy will hold competitions between students. Every time you win against your opponent, you'll receive a reward. That reward is of course academy points. On the other hand, in the main building lobby, you'll find a mission board there. You can get a mission there. And once you complete the mission, you'll get a reward as well."

"Nice! Competition and mission suits me perfectly. I think I will have more chances of completing a mission and winning a duel than getting high scores in exams!" One of the students exclaimed in excitement.

The others too showed similar reactions.