Alex was not the first student Adil saw in his life and the reaction of this boy in front of him was too obvious.

“Disappointed?” The old man asked.

“A bit.” Alex honestly said, “In the place that should’ve been the cradle of the knowledge in the empire I was kind of hoping to learn about some advanced stuff.”

“You just arrived!” Adil laughed, “What makes you think you are ready for it?”

‘If anything, I might be late – considering this is my seventh life.’ Alex inwardly sighed.

But out loud he said, “I understand. An educational facility has to have proper methods and standardization, otherwise the place would be a mess. I guess this will have to do for now – I’ll try to find an inspiration within these books during the next year.”

“If it’s an inspiration you’re looking for, then you are looking in the wrong spot.” Adil said pointing at the half empty shelves at the wall.

Seeing Alex furrowing his brows, saint explained, “You’ll be taught the rules of the academy tomorrow, during your first lecture. But since you’re here, I might as well tell you now some of the things you need to know. So, as you might guess, every student periodically has to pass a test. First one is – to write an essay regarding your cultivation experience, at least ten thousand words long, twice a year. If it’s bad – you might get thrown out as well, so you better try hard.”

“Oh, so you mean I can get an inspiration from what my fellow students have gone through.” Alex immediately guessed what the old man wanted to suggest, but it did feel weird that he, a person who was basically almost a century old, had to learn from kids.

“Indeed. Maybe you’re not a lost cause after all.” Adil said, “Every being we meet in our lives is our teacher, no matter the age, gender or the social standing, or even the species! We have to keep our eyes and ears open to learn! And don’t give me that skeptical look … otherwise I might learn it from you! Bad habits are contagious, you know?!”

The old man joked, but Alex was not skeptical at all. A sudden realization struck him – here, in the imperial Academy of saints, four generations of geniuses came before him and wrote down their experiences. Similar to him they also were at the very beginning of their road of cultivation and, probably, had similar problems and difficulties.

While it was unlikely to find revelations on deep existential subjects, previous students definitely worked with the soul particles. Obviously they would never write down their techniques, but Alex was never after those! He didn’t intend to create the soul brand yet, but was cultivating hard to increase the amount of the soul particles to worked with! The rest, including the questions about reincarnation, could wait. His main job was to absorb as much information as he could – there was no telling when a crazed saint would decide to kill him.

“Thank you, your sainthood!” Alex slightly bowed towards the saint, “You are wise!”

“Hmph!” Adil theatrically harrumphed, “You sound surprised!”

“Not at all!” Alex smiled, “Is there a limit of what or how much I am allowed to read on this floor?”

“No. As long as you pass the tests, you can basically live here.” Adil joked, but Alex actually intended to do so.

His idea was – information first, practice second. He could always practice, even in the next life, but the lack of information kept driving him crazy.

“Alright!” He joyfully said, “Then starting tomorrow I’ll frequent this place.”

Seeing that the boy intended to leave, Adil asked, “Aren’t you interested in the rest of the tests?”

Alex stepped in his tracks, “The rest?”

“I already said, the two essays is only the first one.” Adil laughed back, “You are as impatient as the rest of the youth these days.”

‘F*ck!’ Alex cursed, ‘Apparently not only the gender, the age of the body also influences my mentality!’

“I’m sorry.” He said, “What other tests will we have?”

“That’s better!” The saint contently nodded, “Actually it’s only one. Every six months one has to complete and win ten combat challenges – no matter if you are the challenger or the one being challenged. Obviously it’s mostly a formal rule to make sure you guys keep practicing hard. Then there is the last test after you finish your studies here, but that’s only five years from now.”

“And what would that be?” Alex curiously asked.

“You will be able to pick a task or multiple tasks and will have to successfully complete those to officially graduate another five years later.” Adil explained.

“That’s not a test. That’s work.” Alex laughed back.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Ye, it kind of is.” Adil actually blushed.

Alex really liked the old man and chatted for another half an hour, and only then left. He didn’t chat only for fun though – when leaving Alex already had a plan for the upcoming ten years! What he saw here so far impressed him enough to think of ways to make this place his permanent residence for the rest of the current life.

After taking a breath of a fresh air, Alex went for a walk around the Central peak, but few minutes later came back to the library. No matter where he went, the whole place reminded him of a formation he had seen before, but in order to remember he wanted to take a look at it from above. Coincidentally the highest point of the academy was the towering building of the library.

“It’s not possible to sneak in.” Adil’s voice startled Alex from his thoughts as he jumped from fright.

Turns out the old saint was not only a funny guy – he had remarkable skills as well.

“Trust me, I know that.” Alex said with a sad smile.

He already came to that conclusion when he first arrived here and confirmed it a minute ago.

“I don’t want to sneak in – I want to sneak up!” He honestly said.

There was no reason to play games with the saint since he had been discovered. In fact, he already expected that – being a saint the old man definitely had some superhuman abilities and if one of them was to monitor everyone in the library, he could as well monitor its surroundings if the place was empty.

“Not possible.” Adil said.

“I disagree.” Alex smiled back, but Adil shrugged.

Ignoring the old man’s reaction, Alex continued, “Tomorrow I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse. I just have to think a bit if getting up there is worth it.”

A couple of lives ago he worked at what basically was the cardinal’s library, therefore he knew what academy lacked. In addition he was certain Adil knew it too, but Alex had to think first if he was ready to enslave himself for a period of time to just get up on the tallest building to have a look around. His intuition screamed ‘yes!’, but he forced himself to hold back for now since there was no actual proof.

After saying goodbye to the old saint, this time for real, Alex went to the eatery and had lunch. Afterwards he dropped by the administration office and requested from the surprised elder there ten challenge permits and set the challenge time. Few minutes later with the permits in the pocket he happily went back to his residence and meditated for the rest of the day and through the night. He turned out to be correct – knowing the ‘right’ people was always convenient and even though it was a lucky coincidence he met Adil, other people might describe it as a fateful encounter.

The next morning Alex woke up before the sunrise and jogged down to the river to wash up. Unfortunately it was too fast and unruly for a swim, but the cool water coming from the mountains was refreshing enough. Afterwards he went to the training grounds and among other things, practiced the Bond’s style for a bit.

As expected right after the sunrise his other fellow students began to show up. Surprisingly the first one to arrive was the girl Alex already forgot about – Mathilda’s twin. Luckily she only snorted in dissatisfaction after seeing him and began to practice a bit further away. The other people who came were also the hard working types and practiced alone.

Approximately an hour after the sunrise when the training grounds bustled with activity, arrived the elder whom Alex met yesterday in the office. Annoyance was written all over his face, but Alex ignored it and invited him over to his spot.

There, on the ground, he earlier drew a circle few meters in diameter that somewhat resembled a small arena and the moment elder came over, Alex shouted, “Anyone for a friendly spar?”

Most of the students were done with the warming up exercises and since many were quite competitive, quite a few responded. Alex quickly explained the simple rule of this challenge – the first who steps or falls out the circle has lost and the elder would act as the judge.

His performance at the stone during the entrance exam caused quite a commotion and there were many who intended to show their superiority by beating him up, thus the main difficulty of this endeavor was to maintain the order and to persuade everyone he would only have ten spars.

Alex asked every challenger to sign their name on the permit he got yesterday, then after they stepped into the ‘ring’, with a quick dash – palm strike combo pushed them out. Ignoring the unsatisfied challengers, the judge called out the victor and in a quarter of an hour Alex was done with ten fights.

Some of the other students also sparred a bit and Alex’s fights didn’t seem out of place except for him having the judge present. But even though the others considered it an unnecessary burden, Alex was done with one of the exams he had to take every half a year – to win ten challenges. How to quickly solve this part the next time after six months he didn’t know yet, but was certain he could come up with something.

Before the breakfast Alex one more time took a stroll around the Central peak checking the surroundings and finally succumbed to his instincts. There was something strange about this place and to find out what it was exactly he needed a higher vantage point in order to take a look around. The distant mountain peaks were too far and the library tower was the only choice. Thus Alex decided to make a deal with the old saint.

Adil was not surprised to see him, in fact, Alex got the impression the old man was already waiting. After hearing Alex out, Adil straight up refused his offer, but a half an hour of passionate bargaining later they came to agreement – Alex would copy hundred essays the previous first-years had written for the opportunity to spend a whole day on the top of the library.

“Nice doing business with you.” He smiled towards the saint, but Adil theatrically made an unhappy face.

“You have taken advantage of this old man.” He said with a sigh.

“Ye, right! Have you ever written anything in your life? Do you know that words have several letters? And the sentences consist of many words? You have made me your personal slave! To write every single letter copying a hundred essays! I’ll be older than you before I get on the roof!” Alex pretended to be upset in return.

Both stared at each other, but after a moment began to laugh displaying their actual mood.

Theoretically Adil did use Alex for free, but the academy was obviously short on people who would do such menial jobs like copying books. Printing was not yet invented thus copying by hand was the only option. But if one took into account the bad quality of paper and ink, everything that was once written had to be copied in a couple of decades. Only the works preserved in special conditions could remain readable for a century or more and Alex learned that already back in the Holy empire.

But what Alex gained was not only the permission to get on the roof. Unofficially the old man took him under his wing and would act as his patron in the future. If Alex didn’t badly mess up, from now on he had a backer and he knew from experience that sooner or later everyone needed someone to rely on. And saint Adil was not only smart and pleasant to converse with – if his combat skills were as impressive as his movement or sensory abilities, the old man was a terrifying killing machine!