Chapter 10: Ceremony and Rewards

In the spatial rift, the enormous fireball went under the divine realm, and night had fallen.

The fireball was a massive spell formation given to every student by the government. It enabled the creation of a semblance of climate in the spatial rift so its inhabitants could live.

Such a formation was extremely expensive, and students were required to return it to the school once their divine realm exited the rift.

Of course, that's a story for later.

In the novarian tribe, several hundred novarians gathered in a circle around the altar. Half were fighters; the rest were either too old or too young to fight.

Nevertheless, there was no distinction among them as they all joyfully celebrated the tribe's victory.

It was undoubtedly the deadliest war the tribe ever faced, but they had witnessed the absolute power of their god. This fact alone was enough to stir the entire tribe.

At the center of the tribe, next to the altar, there was a massive pile of corpses, towering fifteen meters high.

There were snakes, kobolds, lizardmens, and dolphinmens. Around them were carefully arranged the corpses of the novarians dead in war, or at least what remained of them.

As for the sperm whales and sharks, their corpses were stored outside the tribe because they were too massive.

Young novarians were often seen climbing the bodies to boast to their friends, while adults cut large chunks of meat to share with their comrades.

The celebration continued for a long time. At one point, the novarian chief appeared near the altar and gathered the tribe.

The novarians quieted down and slowly surrounded the corpses of different races.

The chief waited for everyone to calm down before speaking.

"Today, our tribe experienced the greatest war in its history. It was indeed a great victory, arguably the greatest since the creation of our tribe, but it's not only that. We lost hundreds of our comrades before managing to triumph over the enemy, and we must praise them. We must thank their bravery and courage. We must be grateful to them for sacrificing their lives so that we can enjoy ours tonight."

It wasn't the novarian chief speaking, but Liam, who had once again taken control of his body.

Even the novarian children, who didn't understand everything he was saying, remained silent, felling the solemn atmosphere.

Novarians might be simple-minded, but even beasts had feelings. They all fought together on the battlefield, and seeing the corps of so many of their kin made them sad.

"The Great Lord of the Azure Abyss has witnessed their sacrifices and is ready to lead them to their eternal rest. Today, we dedicate this offering to our god. May he witness their piety and courage!"

The novarians began to pray. The song was different from the usual prayer. Anyone could hear their sadness and grief as their belief grew stronger.

After some time, Liam's ghost appeared in the air. He didn't say anything and simply waved his arms. Two huge light pillars fell from the sky, covering the bodies of monsters and novarians.

When the light faded, there was nothing left.

But it wasn't over. Seventy-three small light pillars fell on the evolving novarians.

Liam spent 910 faith points: 10 for each mortal and 100 for each apprentice warrior, completing their evolution in seconds.

As his ghost disappeared, faith links began to strengthen again. Looking at his believers, Liam laughed with joy.

He now had 8 fanatics, 76 devout believers, 213 true believers, and 98 pan-believers.

Most of pan-believers were still children, so he wasn't too worried. They would have plenty of time to convert.

In terms of strength, he had 3 warriors, 95 apprentice warriors and 297 mortals, including about 150 children, totaling 395 novarians.

The tribe's strength had at least tripled, and its potential had become incredible.

Furthermore, he would get 100 000 faith point every day from now on; more than twice than before.

Satisfied, Liam left his divine realm and opened a channel channel.

…

A few earth hours later, he was back in the school courtyard.

The atmosphere was no longer as calm as before. Everyone was stressed, and tension hung in the air.

Even Liam felt his hands becoming sweaty.

The wait wasn't long, and soon the director teleported onto the stage. As usual, he didn't waste time and started his speech right away.

"First of all, congratulations for completing your exam. Everyone managed to overcome the first wave, and the lowest score is 53 points. The first-place managed to repel four waves and a part of the fifth, winning with 1206 points."

Students immediately started making noise, astonished by this enormous score.

Liam wasn't that surprised. He never hoped being first.

Calculating in his head, it seemed that the first-place had a divine spell allowing him to restrain the three second-order beasts while his people killed the others.

If the novarian tribe had its current strength before the test, Liam was confident he so, or even better.

However, there were no "ifs" in life, and since his strength had increased so much after the test, the troops of the first-place had also become stronger.

"It seems I need to work even harder…"

Liam thought.

The director didn't let them get distracted and clapped his hands.

"The overall ranking will soon be displayed behind me. The top hundred will go to Elite Class 1. Up to two hundred, you'll go to Elite Class 2. Up to three hundred, you'll go to Upper Class 1, and so on up to six hundred, who will go to Upper Class 4. Up to seven hundred, you'll go to Regular Class 1, and so on up to a eleven hundred, who will go to Regular Class 5. The rest will go to Regular Class 6."

When he finished speaking, he teleported elsewhere, and a huge holographic screen appeared in his place.

Liam anxiously looked at the board and began searching for his name from the top.

1: Sarah William || 1206 points

2: Karl Vandome || 974 points

3: Yuri Levandovski || 927 points

…

38: Miranda Smith, Liam Alder, Mario Barito, Andrew Miles || 756 points

42: …

Liam let out a sigh of relief. He had entered the Elite Class and was even in the top 50 of his school.

Amidst the tears and cheers of his classmates, Liam headed to the south side of the courtyard, where several small booths were located.

He placed his hand on a recognition plate, and a hologram representing his profile appeared in front of him.

He clicked on several tabs and soon reached the menu for the exam rewards.

He clicked "accept," and a trapdoor quickly opened on the table. Liam didn't take the time to look and put the five pearls that had just appeared into his spatial ring.

As he was about to teleport home, his watch beeped. He had received a message from his former head teacher, Mr. Alard.

Mr. Alard mainly took care of first-year students. He followed his class for the first month of the second year, and then the classes were reshuffled, and students naturally changed teachers.

Liam gave up the idea of going home and looked at his watch.

"Liam, come to my office as soon as possible. We need to talk about the incident that occurred during the test."

Liam sighed as he looked at the message. He would have preferred this matter to end with the drowning of the kobolds, but it seemed that reality would catch him up sooner than expected.

Except the courtyard, the walls of the school buildings were inscribed with anti-teleportation runes. Liam headed towards the second-year building and went up to the third floor.

After walking for a few moments in a long corridor, he stopped in front of a door with the sign "Mr. Alard."

Knock knock

"Come in."

With his teacher's invitation, Liam entered and closed the door behind him.

Turning around, he didn't see the kind teacher he had known for more than a year but the stern face of the deputy director.

Liam unconsciously tensed. The deputy director was known for his severity throughout the school, and anyone who landed in his office never came out well.

For the first time in his life, Liam saw him smile as the deputy director indicated the seat in front of the desk.

"Relax, young man. I didn't come here to punish you."

Liam nodded and sat down, waiting for the deputy director's words.

He put his elbows on the armrests of the chair and crossed his hands, looking at Liam for several seconds.

The longer he waited, the more Liam began to stress. Even though he had always been calm, he was standing in front of a real god, the same type of person as the ancestor of his family.

However, even though his back was soaked in cold sweat, he tried not to show it and to appear calm.

Of course, the little tricks of a low-tier superior being could never fool him, but despite that, he couldn't help but cast an appreciative glance at him and decided to stop wasting time.

"Tell me, young Adler, do you know what is most important for an educational institution?"

Liam raised his eyebrows. Of all the questions he had anticipated, this one was definitely not among.

He took a few seconds to think before answering, uncertain.

"Good teachers?"

The deputy director smiled.

"Qualified teachers are indeed necessary to maintain good grades and give students a taste for study. However, it's not the most important thing. The thing that really matter is our reputation."

The man paused and uncrossed his arms.

"A good reputation attracts both good students and good teachers, who will then make the school reach a higher position. A good reputation is very long and hard to earn. On the other hand, losing it is very quick."

The deputy director projected a hologram representing the scene in the boarding room of the palace, and then quickly summarized it.

"These two guys won't say anything. After all, they can't afford to offend true gods. However for you it's different. You have a real god to support you if needed. If you speak, and if rumors spread out that our employees are being harassed at work in front of our eyes, leading to mistakes during exams, our reputation will take a hit."

"It's not much and won't change anything for most of our students, but it's enough for two or three of our best students to decide to leave our school for another. Yet it's those students who make our ranking in the area."

Liam nodded. He roughly understood where the deputy director was going with this.

The man smiled and took out two items from his spatial ring: a pearl and a crystal.

"From what I saw during the test, your divine realm lacks a stable ecosystem. This golden pearl contains millions of various seeds, as well as many eggs of small fish and insects. In a few years, your divine realm will get a solid ecosystem."

"And it's not the only interesting thing. This pearl is also very special; although it contains a lot of things, as they are very small, assimilation is very fast. In other words, the divine realm only takes about one local year to be able to merge a new pearl."

Liam's eyes widened of surprise. Such a pearl was the wish of all beginner gods. As for the duration of a year, he didn't care. It was just a about eight hours on Earth.

Seeing his excited look, the deputy director's smile widened.

"It doesn't stop there. As long as you have some birds to spread the seeds, the ecosystem will slowly extend to newly added territories in the demi-plane. At worst, you can also do it yourself, although it will take quite a bit of faith energy."

The deputy director then took the crystal and placed it in front of Liam.

"I think you've heard of this, but I'll remind you anyway. A demi-plane has no spiritual energy. Generally, before becoming a plane, it's just a big rock protected by a spatial wall; life almost never appears there by itself. It's only when it evolves into a plane and joins the main void that it generates spiritual energy; enhancing the growth of plants and animals and slowly improving the rules of the plane, making it more resistant."

He paused and pointed to the crystal on the table.

"All this is possible thanks to this stone. It forms when a demi-plane evolves into a plane. It's the true heart of the plane: it contains its origin and its laws. If it is removed, the plane will eventually lose all its spiritual energy and collapse under its own mass. Only planets can withstand the extraction of their origin stone, but generally, life beings don't survive long."

"This origin stone is from a lower-level plane. You can choose to melt it into your divine realm, but it also has other uses. I think you follow the path of cultivators, and it's been at least a year since you reached the peak of the Transcendent realm. Personally, I advise you to use it to increase your own strength and reach rank 8 as soon as possible. Of course, you can ignore what I just said, but the elite class will soon make a little trip to strengthen students' divine realms, so it would be almost a waste."

The deputy director stopped and looked at Liam, impatient to know his answer.

Liam, of course, was eager to accept, but he knew that there were no free meals in this world.

"What do you want me to do?"

The eyes of the deputy director split into two moons as he smiled, taking out a contract and a pen from his spatial ring.

"Good answer. All I want is your silence on the matter. Not even a word. As long as you sign with your real name and the laws of the universe witness it, you can directly leave with the pearl and the original stone."

Liam didn't waste time and took the pen.

"Where do I sign?"

…

As Liam left the office, the air shimmered behind the deputy director, and Mr. Alard appeared. He had been there from the beginning and had heard everything.

"Frank, why did you give such a precious thing to this kid? I understand about the pearl; it's easy to get dozens of them if we take to time to do so, but an original stone is very precious, even for demigods."

Frank, the deputy director, smiled mysteriously as he looked at his old friend.

"Did you notice, Steven, even in front of such a treasure, he was able to keep his calm. At his age, could you have done the same?"

Mr. Alard shook his head.

"Exactly. Moreover, remember the test. Whether in terms of military strategy or believers training, he has a vision that his peers don't have. Even without real support, he managed to achieve one of the best scores. This kid has huge potential, and as long as he doesn't fall along the way, he will surely become a powerful god."

He looked Mr. Alard with a playful smile.

"Just take it like I'm making a bet."