Chapter 42: End of the Class Competition

The class competition continued until evening.

After a couple more matches, the top ten were decided as planned, ending the competition. Having won all his matches, Ain naturally included in the top ten, whereas Hugo stopped at the top twenty after his defeat against Marius.

At this moment, Teacher Turner stood in front of the students, gaining their attention. “With this, the class competition has concluded. The students who made it into the top twenty and top ten will receive their rewards tomorrow morning.”

“Now, let me talk about the competition. I believe you’re already aware of how well you performed. Whether this was your first experience in battle or not, I want everyone to learn from what you’ve seen today.”

“For spirit tamers, combat is inevitable. That is why it is essential for everyone to familiarize yourselves with it.”

“To make it easier for you, there were no other spectators here today. But this will not be the case for the interclass competition in a month. Although participation is voluntary, I highly encourage you to participate.”

“Not only will you gain experience, but you’ll also receive various rewards based on your performance.”

After reaching this point, Teacher Turner paused for a second before continuing. “As spirit tamers, only studying and training behind closed doors is not beneficial. You’ll need various forms of experiences to fuel your growth.”

“So, starting tomorrow, attendance will not be mandatory. You have the freedom to choose whether you want to be here or not. But you have to remember that you’re still responsible for all the exams.”

“And as I mentioned this morning, going forward, the spirit gathering array will be active during our training sessions. Take that into consideration.”

Spell arrays were a luxury to most students. Spell arrays were constructed by array masters using runes and special techniques. They could produce various effects, such as the Spirit Gathering Array, that could gather spirit energy, increasing the spirit energy density in its area of effect.

Hearing this, all the students fell into deep thought. Ain was no different. He had become increasingly aware of the inefficiency of attending the academy five days a week.

Unlike most students, Ain usually didn’t require guidance in his training or studies. If he did ever need guidance, he could just stop by. Moreover, this would allow him to free up the time he usually spent on his commute.

As for the other class periods, Ain wasn’t too concerned. As long as the class materials were available to him, with his innate talent, studying was far from an issue.

Soon after his announcements, Teacher Turner dismissed the class. Ain and Hugo made their way out of the training hall. “Ain, I just realized that I didn’t see many students using their innate talents during the matches.”

Hearing Hugo’s statement, Ain thought about it for a while before replying, “Did you use yours?”

“Of course, how else did you think I managed to hit the mechanical bird from afar?” Hugo replied.

“But to us, it didn’t look like you used your talent.” Ain continued with a smile.

“Well, it’s hard to tell… oh!” Halfway through his sentence, Hugo came to the realization and said, “So they might’ve used their talents, but we couldn’t tell most of the time.”

“Possibly. From what I know, most innate talents aren’t suitable for combat, so there is no point in using them. But since this was many students’ first fight, it could also be their lack of experience that they couldn’t incorporate their innate talents into the fights.”

“Hmm, makes sense.” Hugo nodded with understanding before continuing with a hint of mystery, “Do you know what Marius’ innate talent is?”

Ain shook his head, “No, do you?”

“Haha, I actually found this out a week ago. His innate talent is A-rank Lightning Affinity. That’s why he contracted a lightning-attribute mechanical spirit pet.”

“No wonder his attacks were so powerful.” Ain replied as he thought back to what he had learned.

Affinity-type innate talents were all B-rank or above. They increased a spirit tamer’s affinity with certain attributes, augment the spells and skills used by themselves or their spirit pets.

Among combat talents above B-rank, they were the most common. Their ranks depended on the magnitude of the affinity they granted, with the lowest rank being B-rank. Of course, the rarer the attribute, the rarer the relative affinity-type innate talent.

These innate talents also decided a spirit tamer’s attribute preference in their meditation techniques, and contracted spirit pets. Ain could be sure that with Marius’ wealthy background, it was likely for him to practice a lightning-attribute meditation technique.

Amidst their conversation, the hoverbus station soon came into view and the parted ways. On his journey back home, Ain thought back to the rewards he would receive the next day, prompting him to bring up his hololink.

Before today, he was aware of the Essence Heart Pills. After learning their effects, Ain decided to purchase a few more. But after a few minutes, he looked away from his hololink and fell into thought.

There was a reason why he hadn’t seen them in any of the stores on Cyberspace or in the city. The main ingredient for the Essence Heart Pills was a rare spirit fruit. This caused their supply to be limited and required special channels to purchase.

Ain’s only source was the academy, but even they only offered them as rewards, and not for sale. With this information, his excitement faded, and Ain decided to keep an eye out for more information.

…

The next day, Ain sat up straight as Teacher Turner entered the classroom. As usual, he glanced through the class for a few seconds before speaking. “Good, everyone is here. I’m sure some of you are excited so I’ll get that out of the way first. The rewards for the class competition have been issued. You can go to the school store to claim them when you have time.”

With this short announcement, he briefly took attendance before sending the students to the training hall.

Ain, Hugo, and a few other classmates all made their way to the school store. Emil, Ain’s defeated opponent, and Marius, who defeated Hugo, were among them. As soon as Emil saw Ain, he snorted with disdain and turned away. Marius on the other hand ignored everyone and walked ahead, leading the group.

Ain didn’t mind Emil’s behavior but glanced at Marius’ back before turning his gaze away. He remembered Marius’ expression when Hugo’s Spirit Blast struck the mechanical bird. This fellow student wasn’t as aloof as he made himself out to be.

After some simple procedure, Ain left the school store with a small bag in his hand, returning to the training hall.

Soon, Ain was seated for his meditation training. He considered leaving after receiving the reward but decided to stay and experience the effects of the Spirit Gathering Array.

After training for a while, Ain reached a conclusion. With the increased spirit energy density in the training hall, there was only a slight increase in his meditation efficiency.

This slight increase could easily be offset by the time he would save from not having to commute back and forth from the academy.

But of course, the Spirit Gathering Array wasn’t useless. To Ain, its greatest value lay in spell practice and skill practice for the spirit pets. With the increased spirit energy density, one’s spirit energy recovery rate would also increase, allowing for one to practice their spells and skills for a longer duration.

As soon as the morning session concluded, Ain informed Hugo and returned home. In the end, he still decided against staying any longer. He would only stop-by periodically.

Just like that, an hour later, Ain had returned home. He placed the bag with the rewards to the side for now; he wanted to deal with them later. He summoned Nox and allowed it to play with the cat.

After a quick meal, he retrieved a book from under his bed and sat in front of a table.

The book had a vivid green color, similar to a leaf, with golden trimmings on the edges. When he held it in his hands, he could sense faint spirit energy fluctuations.

The book was untitled, but Ain was aware of its content. This was the spirit master inheritance his mentor gifted him before leaving. Ain had been busy with spirit academy and training, so he had ignored it so far.

But now, not only was Ain already familiar with his training, he also didn’t need to attend the academy daily. This allowed him to finally have enough time and energy to begin his studies as a spirit master.

This was another potential source of income for him, so Ain was very enthusiastic. After preparing himself, he finally opened the book. The book’s pages were filled with inky text, and furthermore, it seemed to be handwritten.

Before intently reading it, Ain briefly flipped through the white and sturdy pages. Although they weren’t numbered, he estimated that there were fewer than two hundred pages in the entire book.

His mentor had mentioned that this inheritance could allow him to become a Grade-2 Spirit Master, so Ain was confused at seeing so few pages. But Ain didn’t dwell on this matter for long, he trusted his mentor.

With all his expectations, Ain returned to the first page and began reading through earnestly.

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