Academy [2]

2 weeks passed in a flash as many hopeful youngsters began preparing for the upcoming Nexus Event. Even if they weren't able to enter the top 50 and receive any rewards, there were plenty of ways to gain recognition during the event.

Although the only major powers were the empires and guilds, there were many smaller powers subordinated to these behemoths that used the event for recruitment.

Doing well in the tournament would always net gains, and even those who weren't recruited gained experience that would further their progress on the path to strength.

These 2 weeks were largely uneventful for Damien. He had spent the entire time on Zara's back, only stopping when she wanted to rest. He had been constantly running simulations in his head about how to advance his vector control during this time.

His research on personal vectors had also increased by a large margin. With this, he could speed up his already fast regeneration rate, naturally increase his speed, and do many other things without using too much mana. By the end of the 2 week period, Damien spotted a city in the distance.

This city wasn't nearly as large as Aurora but was larger than Archdale, making it a large city in its own right. This was Zenith City, which was an extension of the academy. The population of this city was solely the students that attended the academy.

As they arrived closer, Damien decided to walk the rest of the way. He wasn't at the academy to learn or advance himself, he was only there to receive the recognition he needed for the Nexus Event in 6 months.

While the academy did have a period where they held examinations for the yearly entrance of students, that time had long passed. Rather, there was a separate examination period whenever the date of the Nexus Event was announced.

For this purpose, there were 2 huge buildings on either end of the city that were used to examine those students that wanted to join.

The sky around this building in front of Damien was crowded with various tamed beasts that were being used as mounts by higher class individuals and the ground wasn't visible under the sea of people present.

The traffic shocked Damien as he wondered if both buildings had such a large influx of people. It seemed he truly underestimated the hype that came with this event.

Since Zara had already returned to his shadow, Damien decided to just be patient and wait in line. This was an especially grueling thing for him, who had been moving constantly for the past two and a half years.

Patience wasn't a virtue he was aligned with in the slightest. Luckily he still had many simulations to run to pass the time. Damien closed his eyes and moved with the line as he pondered.

Every once in a while, the space around him would fluctuate and bend, causing those in his surroundings to give him a wide birth.

They were confused as to why someone who looked and dressed like some young master of an influential family was waiting in line down here instead of in the sky, but they weren't brave enough to question it.

The reason the space around him was fluctuating was that Damien was working on expanding his range.

His vector control was mainly used in defense simply because he didn't have the range to affect an enemy's vectors when he wasn't in direct physical combat. The distorted space was a manifestation of his efforts as his power began to disperse and concentrate.

It wasn't until almost 6 hours later that Damien's turn finally came. Luckily, the examination building was open 24 hours a day so they could efficiently deal with the influx of people.

The building itself was divided into 5 floors with many private rooms that were meant to test 10 individuals at a time. This added up to around 50 people per examinees per turn. The fact that it took Damien 6 hours to get a turn even with this number showed the astonishing amount of people participating.

As he entered the room, he saw 9 other people that he didn't bother to pay attention to. Damien was single-minded in this regard. Maybe this was the reason why he had rarely interacted with people who weren't attendants during the 4 months he had spent on Apeiron.

Once everyone was present, a middle-aged man entered the room and scanned the examiners with indifferent eyes, causing them to bow their heads in respect.

Well, all but one of them. However, the man didn't care much. He was used to arrogance, and it wouldn't be long before the kid was shown his place.

"Alright, you lot. Line up single file and come forward." The man said as he took out 2 stones from his spatial ring and placed them on the table in front of him.

"These are testing artifacts. The one on the left shows your age and the right shows your level. Come up and say your names before placing your hands on these stones one at a time. Everything else comes later."

The examiners followed his instructions and Damien, being the last to enter the room, went to the end of the line. Soon after, the first person went forward.

"H-hello senior, my name is Alex Hale." The kid said as he put his hand on the first artifact. Quickly, it glowed as the number 30 appeared on the stone. Next, he put his hand on the second artifact, which showed the number 50.

"Alex Hale 30 years old Level 50. Alright, go stand in the back and wait for the rest." Clearly, the man wasn't impressed by the results. Although the kid was above average, he was nowhere near close to being a genius. "Next!"

"Ava Trunks 25 years old Level 51"

"Wendell Ray 34 years old Level 43"

"Alan Wright 22 years old Level 57"

Slowly but surely, the other 9 individuals in the room finished their turns. Damien was honestly surprised about the ages and levels of these people. 2 of them were still at 1st class even though they were close to the disqualification age for the event.

However, not everyone could level up like Damien. Not even including his leveling speed, the speed by which he raised his physical stats was nothing less than heaven-defying. It was natural that most people would take many years to reach his level.

Even supreme geniuses like Katherine had been training since they were young. If anyone realized that Damien reached his current level in 2 years, they might even kill themselves from shame.

Finally, it was Damien's turn. The examiner honestly wasn't expecting much from the youth in front of him. He'd been observing the reactions of the people in the room, and this youth seemed to be surprised even by those at the peak of 1st class.

Annoyed, the examiner rushed him on. "Alright hurry up and tell me your name so we can finish this."

Damien hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should just give his surname like he did when he was adventuring, but ended up deciding against it.

First off, this was a school. It would just be weird to use an alias here. And second, he honestly stopped caring. No matter what, people wouldn't find any information on him before he arrived at Archdale, so there wasn't a reason to worry.

"Damien Void." He said as he placed his hand on the first stone.

Quickly, the number 19 appeared on its surface, surprising everyone in the room. It seemed that he was by far the youngest out of them all. However, their surprise wasn't even close to being over.

Just as he finished with the first stone, he did the same with the second stone. Instead of an immediate response like those that showed up for the others, the stone shuddered for a while before it could show his level.

He could feel a foreign energy invading his body which was most likely the method the artifact used to measure his level, but it was quickly devoured by his physique. Damien had almost forgotten about this specific quality since it barely showed itself anymore.

He devoured plenty of beasts for one reason or another, leading to his physique constantly receiving energy. However, the invasion of this energy seemed to stimulate it.

The stone began to glow, but soon, cracks began to appear on its surface. Damien was slightly panicking. He had never needed to control his physique nor had he ever found a method to do so.

In the next second, however, the commotion calmed down and the stone once again began to glow. Luckily, it seems his physique was satiated once more.

If the other examinees were surprised by his age or even the phenomena that occurred when he touched the stone, they were so shocked they almost fainted when they saw the number it portrayed.

Even the examiner's eyes widened in shock as he struggled to get the words out of his mouth.

"D-Damien Void Age 19 L-Level 75."

Damien was halfway to 3rd class.