Chapter 21: Value.
Monday came, and Alseace went to the main hall where all the students gathered for the portal training. He looked at thousands of students inside the big hall, from the third-year up to the seventh-year students.
Since he wasn't a part of them, he stayed on the side in his training uniform. A black tactical suit with protective gear to cover his body. Julius said that the training uniform was worth $100,000 and that it had decent water and fire resistance.
He looked at the different colors of the tactical suit based on which year the students were in. Yellow for the third year, blue for the fourth year, green for the fifth year, red for the sixth year, and black for the seventh year.
"I didn't know you were going to participate," Cleo approached Alseace in her green training uniform.
"Instructor Julius wants me to supervise the training. Since I'm going to join the Emissary, he wants to see if I'm capable of protecting the students," Alseace answered with his arms in his suit's pockets.
"Hm... are you familiar with the dungeons and fields inside a portal," Cleo asked.
"You can say that. I have been inside a portal hundreds of times," Alseace nodded his head.
Alseace could feel the cynicism, disgust, hatred, and anger gazes pointing at him. And the reason was because of the person he was talking to. He wondered why so many of them hated Cleo.
"I see. I hope I'm going to be on the same team as yours then. As you can see, some of these people behind me really want me dead inside there," Cleo replied as she ignored the gazes. "So, if I don't come back, you know that I'm dead!" Cleo jokingly said with a smile. "Anyway, I'm going to go back to the line since all the instructors are here already. See you later," Cleo left and went back to the line.
Julius stood next to Alseace, and everyone's eyes were looking at him because they were curious about who he was and why Julius was with him. Alseace then asked if there was a student that had decided to join the Emissary, but Julius shook his head because all the students wanted to be in big guilds. Wealth was the only thing they were after, and they didn't care about becoming an Agent.
"Anyway, that guy's the principal. Gratya replaced his position in the Emissary. He was busy with work and just now he came back to the academy," Julius said and nodded his head up to the man walking up to the podium with a cigarette in his between his index and middle fingers.
A man with gray medium-length hair in a black turtle neck shirt underneath the red suit, Estian Forger, an S-Rank Agent from the Emissary. His starter skills were [Value] and [Weak Point] which was rare for a Candidate to be chosen and gifted with two skills.
"Good morning everyone," Estian said and looked at everyone. "This is going to be the first portal training this semester, and for the third-year student, this will be your first training, so please listen to me carefully," Estian continued with his laid-back personality.
The speech was so short that it felt like Estian was sick of explaining it once every year. But thanks to his charm, all the girls didn't mind listening to him since he looked so handsome.
"Now, it's time to roll the dice," Estian smiled as he opened his arms.
Everyone was given three virtual dice and there were 216 probabilities and which also meant there would be 216 teams in total. It was either a group of 5 or 6 and once one of the probabilities reached 5 or 6 matches, that probability would be removed from the dice.
While everyone was busy rolling the dice, Estian sat on top of the podium with his legs crossed as he smoked his cigarette. He used his [Value] skill that allowed him to see someone's value in numbers. All the value of the students in front of him was between 60 to 400, and that was so low. He once checked Elenoir's value, and it was 4,369 while Mihangel's was 4,361.
Estian enjoyed his smoke, and when he glanced at Alseace who was standing next to Julius, he dropped his cigarette in disbelief. The value that he saw was baffling to him and made his jaw drop. Alseace's value was 19,908.
"(Who's this kid...)" Estian jumped down from the podium and walked toward Alseace as he kept staring at him in disbelief. "(He must be Alseace LaRoze... the one that Katya and Gratya mentioned...)" Estian looked at the value on top of Alseace's head.
Alseace glanced at Estian and realized that he might have looked into his value based on the expression he made. He wondered how much value that appeared above his head, but by the look of Estian's expression, that was enough to tell his value was beyond belief.
"You must be Alseace LaRoze, correct? It's nice to finally be able to meet you. My name is Estian Forger, sorry for the late introduction since I have been busy dealing with my work as the Emissary," Estian offered his hand for a handshake.
"It's my pleasure to meet you, Principal Estian," Alseace shook Estian's hand as he kept staring him in the eye.
Estian could tell by how firm Alseace's grip was, and he was no match for him.
"Well then, I think you should roll the dice to see on which team you're in," Estian pointed at the watch on Asleace's left wrist.
Alseace looked at his watch and saw a dice symbol on the screen. He pressed it and saw the three dice roll on the screen. The result was 2-5-1, and he belonged to the 104th team. He looked at the projected screen and checked how many people were on the 104th team, and there were already 6 students including him.
"104th team... 2 fifth-year students, 1 fourth-year student, 2 third-year students, and 1 seventh-year student which is you," Estian said as he looked at the composition of the team. "Oh, you're quite lucky to have them on your team," Estian pointed out the names of the fifth-year students.
Alseace looked at the names and he was surprised when he saw Cleo's name on his team, the other one was Edgar. He couldn't believe that from all those probabilities, he would end up with those two.
"Remember your role," Julius said as he looked at Alseace.
Alseace nodded his head and then went to meet with his team.
Cleo was being avoided by the rest of the team including Edgar because of the rumors. Alseace was wondering how bad the rumors were that even third-year students were avoiding her.
"Looks like my wish came true," Cleo said with a huge smile on her face. "Should we form a Group now?" Cleo asked the others and ignored the way they looked at her.
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Group's Panel
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1. Alseace LaRoze (Lv.6)
2. Cleo Fengrim (Lv.21)
3. Edgar (Lv.19)
4. Alwin Kennig (Lv.11)
5. Zia Metuza (Lv.9)
6. Gilden Miles (Lv.8)
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Everyone looked at Alseace and was quite shocked that his level was the lowest even though he was a seventh-year student. The average of the seventh-year students' level was 20 to 30 since they all had been trained in the Academy and monitored by the instructors inside the dungeons.
"Now! Since every student has joined a party or a group, it's time for you to choose which dungeon or portal you want to go to! All the leaders please come to the stage!" Estian said as he looked at every group in the hall.
Cleo glanced at each one of the group members and said, "Should we vote on who's going to be the leader? Since I have a bad reputation here, I'm out of the option." "I believe Zia and Gilden are also out of the option since they're third-year students. The only ones left are Alseace, Edgar, and Alwin," Cleo pointed out as he pointed her index finger at the three of them.
"I don't think a level 6 Candidate should lead us," Alwin said as he glanced at Alseace and mockingly scoffed at him. "Don't you agree?" Alwin looked at Edgar.
"I don't care, just hurry up and vote for the leader," Edgar said as he sighed and crossed his arms.
Cleo voted for Alseace immediately, and it shocked Edgar because he wondered why she was so attached or attracted to Alseace. Zia and Gilden voted for Edgar since he was the second highest in terms of level. Knowing it was impossible for Alwin to win, he voted for Edgar as well.
Edgar went to the stage with all the team leaders to pick a portal in East Dasmein. It took quite a while until he came back with a paper with a QR code. He showed the code to everyone and used their phones to check the location of the portal.
They were surprised when they got a D-Rank portal, and the only monster that they had to deal with was a warg. A wolf-like hog monster that moved in a pack like wolves, and they were as big as a liger, agile as a wolf, and fast as a cheetah.
"I think this is wrong. We should tell Principal Estian about this and ask for another portal," Alwin looked at Edgar and the others.
Edgar agreed and went back to the stage to tell Estian that something might have been wrong.
"Wrong? No, it's just that you're unfortunate to get that one. You will be fine since your instructor is strong enough to ensure your team's safety," Estian said as he looked at Edgar.
"Who? Instructor Harth?" Edgar asked.
"No..." Estian paused as he shook his head. "Him," Estian pointed at someone in between the crowd.
Edgar turned around and looked at where Estian was pointing, and the person he pointed at was Alseace. Edgar immediately looked at Estian with a confused look and said, "Him? He's level 6, and I don't think he can protect himself in there."
Estian already knew about it from Julius since he told him everything about Alseace. He was surprised, but his [Value] skill wouldn't lie to him, especially after knowing that Julius lost to Alseace.
"You want to make a bet?" Estian asked with a smirk and his right eye was covered by his hair. "Just trust me. I can put my name and even Julius' name on stake here," Estian put his hand on Edward's left shoulder.
Edgar looked at Alseace as he nodded his head with understanding. "If something bad happens, I'll take your words and make sure you'll suffer," Edgar pointed out, and then walked back to his team.
"How scary..." Estian chuckled softly.