Chapter - 24

But settings those aside, I still have something I am confused about.

" What was the reason why everyone were giving me cold glare when I asked if killing was allowed?"

Unexpectedly when I asked about it the system asked me another question.

[Do you remember what you found out about the Academy in the internet?]

'Most of it.'

[How many people got selected this year?]

'Five thousands.'

[How many people are there in second year?]

' How many?'

[1000 in total.]

'What? What happened to rest of them? Did they all got disqualified?'

[ A little more than half of them were disqualified.]

'I don't get it. They took all the best candidates from worldwide and disqualified most of them the next year. Whats the point? Won't it be better to have more students?'

[Competition. The Academy makes the students compete for 1000 seat. And the rest will be disqualified. ]

'The number doesn't add up. 1000 passed , a little more than half were disqualified. What happened to the rest?'

[They all died.]

' What?'

[Once you are disqualified you will never be enrolled in the Academy again. In order to secure a spot in the top 1000, the students backstab, betray and some time even kills each others without any hesitation. And the Academy even creates the suitable environment for the students to do that. In this Academy more students died by their fellow classmates than monsters. Its a very sensitive topic. Everyone knows it. But there is no way the Academy will let such information be available in internet. That's why you didn't find it.]

'This is completely messed up. Why would they even do that?'

[ To create the best heroes. Its like a necessary evil. ]

'But what's the point? Those who are the strongest 500 will surely stay on top 500. They won't need to fight for it when their spot is secured . But those that will kill each others will be always weaker ones.'

[The Academy is a place where even once in a hundred year's prodigy dies. Because the Academy creates such environment for them to make the students even stronger. Imagine you are in rank 2000. If you could somehow get rank 1's watch and take all of his points even after dividing it with 50 more people you will surely get inside rank 500. So the higher your rank is , the higher the chance of you being targeted .]

'I see, I understand now. It's a highly sensitive matter. To others, my questions may have seemed like provocation, making me appear foolish and insensitive. Even I would think I was an asshole.'

I must have seemed like someone openly declaring, 'I'm going to take you down,' in front of everyone. But there is no use crying over spilled milk . Instead I tried to focus on what's infort of me, three different status windows.

-----------[ Blue System - Quest Path ]-----------

[ Emergency Quest Complete: The Duel Challenge ]

Rewards:

- Low rank Inspection card × 10.

-----------[ Green System - Free Style Path ]-----------

Main Weapon Selection: Sword

Rewards :

1. Sword Mastery: Increase damage with swords by 10%.

2. Parry Technique: Learn to parry enemy attacks, reducing damage taken .

3. Sword Dance: Unlock a special sword technique that deals area-of-effect damage to surrounding enemies.

-----------[ Green System - Free Style Path ]-----------

First Time Encounter : You have chosen your main weapon for the first time.

Reward : Weapon Storage.

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-----------[ Red System - Level up Path ]-----------

[Opening status window for Level up Path]

Name: Kardama Drogo

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Affinity: None

Strength: 12

Agility: 8

Vitality: 9

Magic: 20/20

Ability: (Sealed)

Skills: Resilient Aura (Temporary), Sword Mastery (Temporary), Parry Technique (Temporary),Sword Dance(Temporary).

[Level up Progress:]

Current Level: 1

EXP: 0/100

Next Level: 2

[Skill Tree:]

(Sealed)

---------------------------------

At that moment information flooded into my mind. 'Mind' could be the wrong word. The system directly transmitted information about the Parry Technique and Sword Dance flooded into my brain. It's different from how I did it myself using my ability . I felt that unlike before where only my mind received the information, this time my body become adapted to it well.

As I absorbed the information about the Parry Technique and Sword Dance, I felt a rush of excitement. It was like unlocking new moves in a game, each one making me feel more capable. The Parry Technique seemed straightforward, like learning a new defensive move. And the Sword Dance? It sounded like a cool way to attack, all fancy and fluid.

I also came to realisation that just fighting doesn't give me any EXP points. That means I need to kill to get EXP.

At this moment the teacher said,

"And there's something called a 'Status Window,' which lets you see your stats,"

This part grabbed my attention.

"When you guys have your first breakthrough you will no longer be called a mortal. After the breakthrough you will be a 'F- Ranked Awakened'. And when you say 'Status' a holographic display will appear that only you can see. And this looks something like this."

In the big screen behind Mr.Luke a Status window was displayed. The colour, text and design was different.

{ Name : #####

Job Class : #####

Element Affinity : Fire (High : 81)

Rank : F-

Strength : F

Agility : F-

Stamina : F-

Intelligence : F-

Mana Capacity : F-

Ability : Heat Nullification. (Current Rank : F)

Skills : Fireball (F Rank) }

'Eh? That's nothing like mine.'

[The status window that awakened people get are similar to the one from blue system . They can tell when two people have the same rank in strength. But they wont be able to tell who among them has sightly more strength. But you can calculate even the smallest differences in stats with red system.]

'What's the point of knowing my exact stats if other don't know their own. How am I gonna compare mine with them?'

[Use 'Inspection' talisman.]

'Oh right. I haven't used any yet. How do I use it?'

[Look at the target and think about using it. You should be able to do it after a few tries.]

The highest rank we have in this class is rank 3. Lets use it on her.

I pretended to look at the whole classroom and tired to use it on rank 3. Then her status became visible to me.

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[ Name : Zara Scarlett.

Age : 15

Gender : Female

Affinity : Ice (High : 92)

Strength : 18

Agility : 19

Stamina : 19

Intelligence : 19

Mana Capacity: 1080/1080

Ability : (Not unlocked yet),(???)

Skills : Ice shield ( F Rank ), (Unable to detect),(Unable to detect), (Unable to detect)...(???) ]

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'Woah! What's all these stats. All of her stats are higher then mine. And why can't I see some of it?'

[ 'Inspection' talisman' can't value something that is of higher rank than them. If you can't see it, then it ranks higher than your talisman's rank.]

'Makes sense...'

[But I didn't expect you to successfully use it on your first try.]

I felt a sharp gaze on my back and turned to find rank 3, Zara Scarlett, glaring at me as if I'd committed a grave offense. Unknowingly, I gulped, feeling the weight of her intense scrutiny.

Others began to notice, so I quickly averted my gaze.

'She definitely noticed that I did something.'

[Oh! Forgot to mention. The talisman is of the lowest rank. People with keen senses can detect it.]

'Damn you. Should have told me that before. I would have used it on someone weaker.'

I'll need to be cautious using it in the future.