Darkening (1)

Days passed peacefully and it was already November, time for the midterms.

The previous days were the same as always, I went to school, got along with Alicia and Angelica, evaded the main characters, and continued to get 1st place amongst the first-year students to brag about it with mom.

I did the occasional appraisals of many, mostly high-ranking heroes and the queue was now at almost 10k requests. Ray was also able to sell the orb to the elves while also making a relationship with them, of course, he had to give me half which totaled 43 billion RP.

I truly wonder how these elves have so much RP but it is probably due to the black market. Which is accessible to all races, including demons.

[Elegante], also started to increase in popularity as it became known that the best appraiser in the world, wore those clothes. Which also ended with me getting some profit.

Currently, I had [60,213,521,231 RP], which would mark me as one of the richest in the human realm.

Anyways with that out of the way, midterms were starting soon.

The midterms would actually be live and everything that the students do will be shown to the whole human realm.

This is not because the people want to see it or because the Round Table requested this but it was more of a way to show the world that the academy had created such heroes with their teachings and make their position stronger in the human realm.

This was also an opportunity for students to show their potential and possibly get scouted by some guilds.

And this will also mark the third attack on the main characters that will finally make the academy increase its defenses against the demons.

The midterms consist of two areas, the academic one and the physical one. They are pretty much explanatory but you only need to know that the academic area is just exams and the physical one is going to be duels amongst the students.

You only really need to pass one of the two areas but should still try to pass both if you can. Although I'm confident in my academics, the only issue that I have would be the duels.

The reason for that is, that I had stopped training with Monica, and also even though I attended all the training classes, I really only increased my stats a little bit.

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[Name: Keith Devans]

[Overall Rank: E]

[Strength: E (Potential: B)]

[Agility: E (Potential: B)]

[Endurance: F to E-(Potential: B)]

[Magic: C+ to B-(Potential: S+)]

[Inteligence: A- (Potential: SS+)]

[Luck: C+ (Potential: Unchangeable)]

[Charm: C (Potential: Unknown)]

[Talents]

-[Magician]

-[Telekinesis]

[Martial Arts]

-None

[Skills]

-[Truth Eyes]

-[Avid Reader]

-[The Hawk]

-[Spirit Communication]

[Artifacts]

-[(S-)Glomer's Gloves]

-[(S)The 40 Knives of Shi]

-[(SS-)Detective John's Hat]

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Only my endurance and magic increased by one substats in the last 2 months.

Although depressing, it was not too bad considering that most students in the first year should be ranked G+ to F+.

While Arthur should be E+ by now, thanks to his high potential rank.

Although I do have my telekinesis and artifacts like the hat and my gloves, that I could probably bring inside.

If you consider that all of my skills and 1 of my artifacts are pretty much not for combat, then you might notice that I'm pretty weak.

I could also not use Baggy as he might kill the other students by accident.

So I'm pretty much just a strong mage and telekinesis user, but that should be enough.

The winter break starts from mid-November all the way to January. This is not because of something unique to this world but because the author of the novel had an event planned for Christmas and increased the duration of it.

Meaning that only 2 weeks remained and today was the midterms exam.

It is just a pretty long exam that contains 400 questions and we are given 10 hours to finish the exam with small breaks in between the 10 hours.

That was what was explained by Monica a few days ago but I didn't really know much as the author only said that Arthur failed his academic exam but demolished the enemy in the physical exam.

I entered the classroom yawning and saw that everyone was nervous, which was to be expected as if they failed the exam, they would be getting demoted to a lower class and other students in the classes below might take their spots.

As always Monica came into the room and handed a huge stack of papers to each student.

She then explained everything relating to the exams and duels. The only thing that mattered was that the participants and opponents of the duel would be decided at random. which is a lie.

The truth behind the duel participants was decided by a demon contractor that was in a high position in the academy.

He picked all the main characters to fight on the first day of the physical midterms and due to that, every single one of the main characters on that day had to be in a locker ready to participate, all of that only for every other student participating that day to be a contractor that would mark the start of the midterm incident event.

Snapping me of my thoughts was Monica clapping her hands and saying to begin.

As always I breezed through the exam while others struggled.

After two hours I was finally done, I handed in the papers and left.

Every single classroom and student was probably being streamed live on tv, while I do stand out if I finish that fast, I didn't really care.

I wanted to live this life as I want and being able to use a cheat skill on exams is the most satisfying thing in the world.

Now that I was done with the exam it was time to go check on the duel matchups that should be posted on the official page of the academy.

[First Day - First Year - Matchups]

[Arthur Drajar vs Keith Devans]

[Ciel Light vs Jalar Kamir]

[Noel Sea vs Aso Embers]

...

"What!?", I shouted in surprise.

Why is my name in the first-day participation and not only that but versus Arthur, well it didn't matter if it was against Arthur as we wouldn't be fighting against each other either way.

But being put on the participants for the first day only meant that I was being targeted as well.

Considering the fact that I'm the only S+ appraiser and not only that but someone young, it wouldn't surprise me if the demons considered me a threat that might be able to appraise SS- artifacts.

Although Arthur is indeed the only SS future ranked hero, unlike Arthur, I can help boost the power of all humanity overall thanks to my appraisals.

After all, artifacts are essential for all three races, and the more your know about artifacts the better you will be able to use them, thus increasing your power.

Sigh...

I'm so dumb, I had enough money to live without worries with mom and Emma but I took the stupid appraisal job just to have a good income when in the end, I already had a good enough passive income coming from [Elegante].

If I wasn't greedy for money then all of this wouldn't have happened, goddammit.

*Crash

I kicked a trashcan and only then was I able to calm down, it was probably also due to my hat.

After thinking about it for some moments, I can probably just fake sickness and don't come tomorrow for the exam.

The incident would then cause all the media to focus on that and the academy would have no choice but to also deal with that problem.

Making my absence be forgotten and I could keep myself safe.

Sigh

But now that I think about it, I really need the teleportation skill fast. Not because I will be attending the attack but because I might be attacked one day.

So with that in mind, I immediately headed for the Branch.

...

[District 1 Market's Round Table Branch]

As usual, I dragged Ray with me to his office.

And sat on the chair.

Not failing to meet my expectations, he asked me what I wanted.

"I want my teleportation skill, now"

Ray noticed my serious tone and also put on a serious expression.

"Right now?", He asked.

"Yes, I will probably be in danger soon enough and will probably need it"

Ray then pulled out his watch and started to search for something, it was most likely something in the black market.

"I can get you a teleportation skill right now, but it will only allow you to teleport in a 50-kilometer radius and can only be used once a year"

"Anything better?", I wasn't expecting much but it was better to ask.

"No, the other teleportation skills are in the auction, while I do hold the top spot for one, it will probably take around another month to be obtained"

"No, that's fine, that will do for now"

Ray nodded his head and before I knew it a book was in his hand. He noticed my confused expression and explained that they use teleportation skills to send items to customers.

I took the book.

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[Warp]

(Description): Allows user to teleport within a 50-kilometer radius, can only be used once a year.

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Just like he said.

I opened it, got the skill, and walked home.