“First, let’s talk about yroup. You are Css 101, sisting of the 2est students in the first year. Css 102 includes students ranked 21-100, and it tinues simirly, with Css 103 having students ranked 101-200, and so on, up to Css 111.”

  “Being in a higher-ranked css es with signifit advantages. You’ll have access to better facilities and receive more credits. Credits are the currency of the academy. Everything—food, training equipment, and even specialized facilities like gravity chambers—costs credits. While food is retively cheap, advaraining resources be quite expensive.”

  “Here’s how credits are distributed monthly:

  Css 101 receives 5,000 credits.

  Css 102 gets 3,000.

  Css 103 receives 2,000.

  Css 104 gets 1,800.

  Css 105 receives 1,600.

  Css 106 gets 1,400.

  Css 107 gets 1,200.

  Css 108 receives 1,000.

  Css 109 gets 800.

  Css 110 gets 600.

  Lastly, Css 111 receives 400 credits.”

  “Even 400 credits are enough to live fortably, but with limited credits, you won’t be able to use many of the academy’s advanced facilities.”

  Emily paused briefly before tinuing, “One important thing to note is that your css isn’t fixed. You rise to a higher-ranked css. Though, for you, that doesn’t matter since you’re already in the best css. What does you is that it’s also possible to lose your pd drop to a lower css.”

  Her words made the css grow noticeably more serious.

  “To determine your rank, there will be optional exams at the end of each month. During these exams, you challenge someone from a higher-ranked css to a duel. If you win, you take their rank, and they drop to your rank. The person being challenged has the right to either accept or refuse the duel. If they accept and win, they will receive 50% of the challenger monthly credit allowance as a reward.”

  "Okay, now that we've covered the topic of credits, does anyone have questions?"

  She waited a few seds before saying, "Yes, Victor?"

  The one named Victor was a young man with short brown hair and brown eyes. He asked, "We’ll receive credits, but whely will we get them? And how does buying things work?"

  Emily answered, "The credits will be added to a bracelet you’ll o collect from your dorm. But hold on—I’ll expin that in more detail shortly. As for making purchases, instead of using a credit card, you’ll use your bracelet at the checkout."

  Once she finished speaking, she sed the css for more questions. After a few seds of silence, she tinued, "No other questions for now? Then I’ll move on to other importaails.

  "As you likely already know, you’ll be living in dormitories on the academy grounds for the duration of the school year."

  "The dorms you’ll live in will vary depending on your year, whether you’re male or female, and, most importantly, your student rank. First-year students live in separate dorms from sed, third, and fourth years to reduce the ces of bullying by stroudents."

  "Even within the same year, the dormitories are divided. First, there’s the Worm Dormitory, which houses students ranked 501 to 1,000. It’s the rgest dormitory, with individual rooms that are holy quite small.

  " is the Snake Dormitory, for students ranked 101 to 499. The rooms are suffitly sized and moderately luxurious."

  "The third is the Basilisk Dormitory, for students ranked 21 to 100. These students enje, luxurious rooms, and, more importantly, a meditation room equipped with a low-grade Aura and Mana tration array."

  "And finally, we have the Dragon Dormitory, where everyone in this css will reside. It’s reserved for the top 20 raudents. The rooms are enormous and resemble luxurious penthouses. The key feature is a training room that doubles as a meditation room, equipped with a mid-grade Aura and Mana tration array."

  "And that’s everything about the dormitories. Moving on to the opiiforms and bracelets."

  "These two items will be waiting for you in your dorm room, which is assigned based on your rank. For example, if you’re rah, you’ll be in Room 8—simple and logical."

  "As for the uniform, it’s straightforward: you’re required to wear it at all times when outside your room. You must always have your uniform on. Otherwise, you’ll face fines, and those add up very quickly."

  Some murmurs arose in the when she mentiohe uniforms.

  Emily sighed as she looked at the css. "I know wearing a uniform all the time be annoying, but it’s the rule. pining to me won’t ge anything—I don’t make these rules. Holy, I agree it’s a bit unnecessary, but it is what it is."

  "Let’s move on to the bracelets. As I mentioned earlier, they’ll be in your rooms. You’ll wear them on your wrists, and they’ll fun like a smartphohey hold your credits, allow you to make payments, and also serve as your ID and room key. So, don’t lose them. Without your bracelet, you won’t be able to enter your dorm room."

  "The only exception is today. Since you don’t have your bracelets yet, you access your room by presenting your ID card.”

  She addressed the css, "For those of you who didn’t catch everything or simply want more details, there will be a small booklet in your room. It tains everything I’ve just expined, plus additional information about the bracelet, the uniform, the rules, and, overall, everything you o know about the tral Academy."

  Gng around the room, she noticed that while most students appeared to be paying attention, some were clearly pretending. She decided to say something that would surely grab their focus.

  "I know what I’ve been saying might be b to listen to, but it’s necessary. Now, I have o thing to cover before I let you go for the day!"

  At her words, even those who were feigning attention immediately perked up, their i now genuine.

  Satisfied with the shift, she tinued, "Now, for the final topie of the most important—the schedule!"

  With a wave of her hand, a stack of papers on her desk floated into the air, distributing themselves ly to each student.

  Mikael grabbed the sheet that nded in front of him and exami. It sisted of several stapled pages. The front page dispyed a list of subjects, each with a checkbox beside it, while the subsequent pages provided detailed descriptions of the courses and their schedules.

  As the students looked over their papers, Emily resumed speaking. "These are your schedule sheets. Make sure to read them carefully because your choices will have a signifit impa your future. Don’t take this lightly! Oh, and for those w, there’s a pencil in your desk. Also, don’t fet to write your the top of the sheet, or it will be useless."

  "There are many subjects to choose from, but three are mandatory: Ranker Path, Dungeon Exploration, and Duel. Beyond these, you take as many optional subjects as you want, but be careful—make sure the schedules don’t overp. You don’t want tister for a course you won’t be able to attend."

  "And that’s all I o say. Take your time to decide before handing me back your schedule. I’ll be here for the few hours, so there’s no rush. That said, don’t take too long—I o collect all of them by the end of today."

  Mikael quickly wrote his the top of the sheet, then skimmed the list of subjects. The three mandatory ones—Ranker Path, Dungeon Exploration, and Duel—were listed first, followed by a variety of optional courses: Array Creation and Manipution, Artefact Refi, Aura Style, Botany, Doctor, Enter, History, Mage Foundation, Mage Specialization (further divided into Fire, Water, Wih, Lightning, Shadow, Light, and Space), Smithing, and Stealth and Assassination.

  "Fuck," he muttered under his breath. ‘All of these subjects are iing. I want to take them all! But I ’t… No, seriously, the only course that looks slightly unappealing is History—and even that might teach me something useful. Damn, I o narrow it down.’

  He spent some time deep in thought. While he pondered, he noticed a few students already handing in their schedule sheets.

  ‘Already?’ he thought, frowning. ‘They clearly didn’t spend much time thinking about it. Well, that’s their choiot my problem—I o foine.’

  After carefully sidering his options, Mikael finally decided on the courses he wao take. To be absolutely sure, he gave the descriptions o review before finalizing his seles.

  Subjects Descriptions

  Ranker Path:This css covers everythied to the life of a Raopiclude how to rank up, uanding the differences in talent levels, iing into society as a Ranker, and various other subjects relevant to the Ranker’s path.

  Dungeon Exploration:This course focuses on dungeons, discussing their formation, assembling the right teams for exploration, uanding different danger levels, identifying monsters found within, and other reted topics.

  Duel:In this css, students will regurly spar with one another. Beyond sparring, they will also learn bat teiques and how to utilize their aura or mana effectively in battle.

  Optional Subjects

  Array Creation and Manipution:This optional course dives into the meics of arrays: how they fun, how they are created, and even how to design your own arrays. The course also covers the necessary materials aed teiques.

  Aura Style:This course, while open to everyone, is practically useless fes. It focuses on aura applications, teag students how to develop their own aura styles and fighting teiques.

  Mage Foundation:While open to everyohis course is rgely irrelevant for warriors. It covers the basiana manipution and how to use it to create ral-type spells. his course exclusively covers ral spells. It is reeo either plement this course with a Mage Specialization or switch to a specialized mage course ter in the year.

  Mage Specialization: Wind:This specialized course delves into the application of wied magic.

  After double-cheg his choices and ensuring his schedule didn’t have any overps, Mikael stood up, walked to Emily’s desk, and pced his pleted schedule sheets on top of the growing pile from other students.

  Emily g him briefly but said nothing. Mikael left the aered one of the Academy’s vast corridors.

  irely sure where to find his dormitory, he sulted a map on the wall and followed its instrus.

  After a retively long walk amistd the occasional students that passed beside him, he exited the gigantic building and found himself in a courtyard. Strolling through the magical atmosphere of the courtyard, he arrived at a building that was modest in size—at least pared to the rest of the Academy.

  This building was structed from exquisite marble stone, ated with goldeails that gave it a pure and regal ambiance.

  Standing before an stylish door, Mikael noticed there was no handle and paused, momentarily fused.

  o the door, he spotted an advanced-looking blue ser. A thought struck him, arieved his ID card, presenting it to the ser.

  A blue light emerged from the ser, enveloping the card. After a few seds, a meical voice sounded: “ID firmed. Wele, Mikael Angelini, to the Male Dragon Dormitory.”

  As the voice fihe door automatically swung open. Without hesitation, Mikael entered, not waiting for the door to close behind him.

  The interior of the dormitory resembled a five-star hotel. However, already aced to the Academy’s opulence, Mikael ignored his surroundings.

  He followed the dorm numbers until he reached room number 4. Here, he entered a ser simir to the o the building’s entrance. Repeating the same process, he held up his ID card.

  After the ser processed his ID, the door opened with anreeting: “Wele, Mikael Angelini, to your dormitory.”

  Satisfied, Mikael entered his dorm room as the door closed behind him.