Around one week has passed since the medal ceremony and the talks about it have died down. It  was expected to happen as humans have a fickle nature. They get bored easily and need something new, something fresh which this world had and delivered.

 

Well for one the emperor didn’t forget about it and was racking his head to eradicate this problem of cultists. He had sent several diplomatic missions to the Romanov empire trying to get their support on it and alongside prepared several extermination groups from the knights and elite guards soldiers.

 

The sole job of the extermination groups was elimination of cultists that were hiding inside the Von Astrom empire and they had been given some special authorities and privileges to complete their work. But there had been explicit orders as to not harass a civilian before getting concrete evidence.

 

As to how much is that followed remains to be seen. On Akira’s side one of his biggest problems has been solved with Ivan feodor finally formalizing the scholarship offer that allows him to get a fixed allowance every month and some extra if the situation demands to be.

 

And now he could finally get some new gears, new weapons and a ton load of potions for his next dungeon dive which he has been keeping at bay. 

 

He was thinking all this while sitting in Mr.Woods class who was going on with the same mana application theories and their practical application to which he had no desire to focus on.

 

His entire last week was spent in the library learning all the things which would be taught in the next six months. At first he was just going to prepare for the next few weeks but somehow his mind was able to learn everything he threw at it.

 

This surprised him as back on earth he was above average in studies but nothing that could distinguish him from the crowd and yet here he could not only read at extremely high speed but also retain whatever he had read.

 

“Akira, why don’t you solve this problem?” Mr. Woods said and pointed at the smart board.

 

He stood up from his seat and went towards the board. After reading the question and analyzing it for a while he quickly understood that this was a mana consumption theory problem which could be solved easily.

 

Actually the theory regarding this question was not taught to lower sections keeping in view of their lower aptitude as most of them would not be able to grasp the underlying critical principles and it would only demotivate them. 

 

The sole purpose of throwing such questions in the lower sections was to find students who were of higher intellect but limited by their physical strength. It has occurred quite a few times in the history of the academy that genius students were restrained due to their lower ranks.

 

And it also gave an impetus to the C, D and E sections that even if they don’t have higher strength they could advance by their intellect though in the end they could only achieve so much when compared to their counterparts who had bigger fists.

 

Akira finally completed the problem on board and looked towards Phillps who quickly nodded and told everyone that it was right.

 

The students knew that this question was not just another question but an opportunity to progress further and all of this made another impact on their perception of Akira as earlier even though he got the 13th rank in semester most of them thought he had cheated or used any other means.

 

But they can’t really defy what was right in front of their eyes can they? Of course there were several like Ryle who still didn’t believe it and thought that he was cheating somehow but their numbers were dwindling.

 

“You can go back.” Mr.Woods told Akira.

 

“Okay I will be going for a while so you guys please solve today’s assignment.” He further said and left the classroom.

 

Akira came back to his seat and went back to his thoughts of getting some new gears for his next dungeon dive. He could feel it in his bones that he was just an inch away from the fourth tier and needed only a few hours of unabated killing to achieve that.

 

As to why he was so keen on jumping to the fourth tier? It was fairly simple, first he needed to catch up to the ones in the A and B section. They were the cream of the first year and now that he was not restrained in monetary terms getting to their levels was slightly easier than before.

 

Second, after his fight with cultists, especially the puppets, he came to understand that even though his strength was third tier, his combat skills were a far cry from it. His swordsmanship was the elemental one taught to all the kids when they are young and his close combat was even worse, it relied purely on instincts.

 

And instincts take time to develop, they are honed by repeated life and death battles, by constantly being on alert for the next danger, by perilous times and strong waves not by an easy life which he was living. Back on the earth he never took any martial arts classes and here too he was using previous Akira’s elemental training plus the experience he earned by playing this game.

 

A swordsmanship style was a must thing to learn if he wanted to refine his fighting prowess and add the firepower. Now in this world swordsmanship or any other skill could be learnt under two methods, the first was to take tutelage under a master which would take anywhere from one to ten year.

 

Second was to get your hands on a manual of the same and integrate it into the system so that one can learn it by himself and also get to know his progress regarding that. Evelyn, Richard, Drake, Alexandria, Lily and the others have chosen this path as this was more suited for them.

 

While others like the members of Dark Swords, Ichinose, Aurora, Laura, Amelia etc have chosen to train under a master and it had benefited them a lot so neither of the two methods were better or absolute.

 

The bell rang indicating that it was the break and most of the students started walking towards the cafeteria, Akira too went there and sat on one of the empty tables.

 

‘Sigh’

 

“Why does it have to be this complicated? Couldn’t the developers just make one method of learning instead of giving us options?” He said to himself.

 

“What’s wrong?” Albert asked after seeing Akira’s slouched face.

 

Over the last week Albert had been regularly eating with him in the canteen. He wasn’t someone who would talk much but rather keep it to himself and not disturb others.

 

“It’s you huh.” Akira said while looking at the guy who was still as frail as he was earlier.

 

“Uh you okay?”

 

“Yeah.” Akira replied and went on to eat his dish.

 

And silence ensued between them as usual before it was broken by the student council president who quietly made her way and snacthed the red velvet cake that Akira had bought for himself.

 

“It’s so good.” She said, gaining the attention of the other two.

 

But since it had become a regular affair for the duo they didn’t think much about it. Akira would always try to sense her arrival but even after all this time didn’t manage to and he knew the reason behind that.

 

Evelyn’s physique was half dragon, giving her access to Dragonic magic which was far superior to magic used by humans, beastkins and demons only elves could even dare to compare their bloodline or mystic arts with their spells and skills. Evelyn wasn’t the number one of the academy without any reason.

 

The Dragonic lineage gave her numerous other benefits too like her physical constitution was better compared to even the beastkins, her bloodline was already the best this world could give, she could transform herself in a real dragon which greatly enhances her attribute and the best thing was that she had was her background, no one in their right mind would provoke the monster her father was.

 

“Hello mi-miss president.” Albert was comfortable around Akira but against others he wasn’t so comfortable.

 

“Hmm.” Evelyn replied and went back on devouring the cake.

 

After a while she looked over to Akira who not for once had looked at her and said in a coquettish voice,

 

“Akira-kun what did you think about my offer?” She also moved near to him so that their shoulders were practically an inch away from each other.

 

Thinking about her ‘offer’ made his brows twitch and a frown developed on his face. He couldn’t help but go in flashback to that very unlucky day.

 

Flashback

 

It was the second day after the medal ceremony and lecturer’s had already announced that today was a combined physical training day where all the sections of first year would be assembled and trained together.

 

Well that was supposed to happen but in actuality Laura and other trainers had left the students to train as they pleased. This of course applied to everyone, even the ones in Laura’s intensive training program.

 

“Richard, I challenge you to a duel.” Drake’s voice slashed the crowd.

 

“Do we really have to do this? I was hoping to fight with Alexa.” He had already fought with her and was mesmerized by her weapon control.

 

“Haha, so you accept that my sword is more powerful than your spear.” He said and brandished his sword.

 

“Now you have done it, come on I will show you.” 

With that began the battle between two greatest prodigies of the era which of course attracted the attention of everyone else present there. The crowd had already been segregated into different factions so it was easy to guess who they would support.

 

The ones who had no factions also went ahead to see the fight as they hoped to learn something from their spar. Akira had a passive look on his face as to him it was going according to the plot of the game so he decided to move somewhere else and practice his spells.

 

Now that most of the crowd had decided to watch the spar between the number one and number two of first year, many other places in the mana simulation complex were free to use. He decided to head towards an empty practice room.

 

The practice rooms in the mana simulation complex had different levels attached to them for one there were empty rooms with dummies made of reinforced metal, second there were rooms with moving targets making it perfect for archery, third there were large rooms filled with monsters of different strength.

 

There were also advanced levels made specifically to strengthen one’s elemental affinity and that was what Akira was looking for. He had the true fire skill giving him the purest and most potent fire affinity but it was useless if he didn’t train it.

 

But there was one thing that the residents of this world had not discovered yet, they believed that fire strengthens fire, ice does ice, lighting becomes stronger with other lighting, earth with earth, air in air but Akira knew better than that.

 

“A volcano island might nourish my fire but the ice and water room are actually the best to strengthen it, the protagonist will discover it a few years later but I don’t have to wait that long, do I?” 

 

The inside of the ice and water element room was a barren landform enveloped entirely in ice. There were some lakes but they were frozen due to the minus 60 temperature.

 

“If I want to get complete control over fire manipulation then this place is like heaven but it’s a pity that I can enter this place only three times a week.”

 

He was thinking all this when the sound of another door opening in the vicinity came and he looked over to see a white haired and pointed ear girl going into another practice room.

 

‘Ah, yes her innate skill is that of absolute zero giving her perfect control over Ice and water element. Too bad her bloodline hasn’t been activated making it difficult for her to control.’

 

Aurora wanted to practice in seclusion and that’s why she had arrived here in the practice room to strengthen the ice and water element but she didn’t expected someone else to be here.

 

‘It’s him but why’s here? There was no report of him having an ice element but only a fire element, the reports couldn’t be wrong so does that mean..? She was still in her thought process when Akira decided to move into the room and close it’s door.

 

“Can he have dual affinity? It’s not impossible but for a commoner without any bloodline it is rare.”

 

“Looks like I have to get some more information about him.” She muttered and went in.

 

Inside the barren land where only ice could be seen for miles and miles Akira was treading carefully. The true fire inside him was rapidly draining his mana in order to keep him warm and help to sustain the next six hours inside here.

 

“System, show me the fire manipulation skill.”

 

“Just 29%? Come on, I was expecting it to be more.” He shouted but calmed down after a while.

“I am getting too greedy, aren’t I? Aurora who has been training since childhood had achieved 70 percent control only after the first year and here I already have 30%.” 

 

“Okay let’s continue with the new spell I am thinking about.”

 

He stopped in his tracks and began thinking about the new fire spell that he was trying to achieve. Yes he was trying to create a new spell to use.

 

The spells can be gained by two ways, first is in the dungeon when individuals progress deeper into it and defeat the monsters the system rewards them a new skill equivalent to the monster they have defeated, the second is to create one by clear cut imagination and profound understanding of mana theories.

 

Also you need to have the elemental affinity or an innate skill to make a specific skill. But the success ratio of creating a new spell was abysmal at only 4% meaning that out of 100 people only two would succeed and to make things more troublesome the system could discard it by stating that it’s not perfect.

 

“Come forth Crimson Armor.”

 

His mana cores began pumping insane amounts of mana into the palm of his hands from where crimson fire started to traverse the way towards his shoulders and then to the middle of his chest.

 

Akira had conceptualized this crimson armor spell which would greatly enhance his defense plus the wings on the back would help in giving him flight and increased agility. But even after having adequate understanding of mana theories regarding defense and armor he could only cover his arms and half of the chest.

 

The main problem was the heavy consumption of mana which made the armour almost ridiculous to think in the first place but he knew that it was feasible but he had to make it first.

 

He stayed in the room for the next four hours trying to stabilize and further enlarge his armour and if not for the numerous mana and stamina potions he had poured in during this time it was impossible to stay like that.

 

“System.”

 

 

“Phew! That went well now let’s get out of this place or I would really freeze to death.”

 

He came out of the practice room and went to the battleground which was still crowded by students but they were focused on honing their craft meaning the spar between those two must have ended.

 

“Okay everyone you guys did well. Now train more and get ready for the mock dungeon run that will happen in the next week.” Laura announced. She had gone out in the beginning but came in sometime ago and gave pointers to everyone which helped them a lot.

 

Akira was standing in the crowd when a student council member came towards him and said,

 

“Hello I am from the Student council, the president has called you for urgent matters.” This guy was cannon fodder in the game, nothing special to remember about him.

 

“Me? Are you sure about that?” 

 

That got the attention of everyone as getting called by the student council was not a simple thing right?

 

“He will be there, you can go.” Laura told the boy.

 

“Very well officer Laura.”

 

“What was I saying? Yes the dungeon run, it is mandatory for everyone to take part in that. You can either go along with your team or you can do solo.”

 

“Since it’s a mock dungeon, the mana simulation complex has a special room for that. Once inside your aim is to kill as many monsters as possible and reach the end of it. You will be ranked accordingly and the scores would be added to your next semester grade card.”

 

“Class Dismissed.”

 

Akira was going towards the student council room but stopped when Laura stopped him in his tracks.

 

“Are you interested in joining the student council?”

 

“What??”