“What just happened…” Even Liana decidedly used a softer tone instead of her usually strong-willed voice. Everything just happened far too weirdly for her to properly understand everything.
Liam tapped Liana’s shoulder and whispered, “Arin got a Perfect Clear.”
“I know that! I was talking about how he did it!” Liana crossed her arms and stared at Arin who was casually taking in the attention as if it was natural. Numerous eyes were locked on him as he did so.
Professor Ferial closed the book in her hand. This action also caused the screen that was directly above her to disappear. “Well then Elliot, you had a good view of everything that happened. You go explain everything that happened back there. In any case, class dismissed.”
She got up from her seat and immediately started walking off. “Also Arin, well played. I wonder how they’ll react tomorrow when we do this all over again. Though that doesn’t matter as much now since you already got a Perfect Clear first.”
After saying her piece she raised her hand to signify that she was leaving. Right after, everyone immediately propped up questions towards Elliot. The end was just far too questionable.
Noah was still dazed as he had been played. “Heh… ha… haha, I should’ve paid more attention. Well-deserved loss on my end. I’ll be taking my leave now. Though that won’t happen the next time.” Noah glanced at his leg and shook his head, feeling dumb.
Noah also left the classroom to let everyone else ponder what just had happened. He didn’t seem as devastated as Elliot, in fact, he looked rather enlightened. It was as if he couldn’t wait to analyze what happened.
Now there was only Elliot left to answer them. Although they could ask Arin, they didn’t want to have their bodies sent to the clinic against their will. They tried to crowd him but Alclair was there to defend him.
As Alclair forced the majority of them away, he could feel the aftereffects. He tried to force them away using a bit of his strength but he couldn’t muster it to the degree he wished to. “My… I feel weaker than normal. It feels as if what happens after getting healed in the clinic.”
Elliot nodded, “It seems like dying inside the Trial won’t be the end but you’ll have to suffer weakness for the day. The more I learn about how the academy works, the more I’m amazed at how they could do something like this.”
Seeing all his other classmates desperately wanting to know what happened he finally relented, “It’s only my guess but it seems as if the symbol we drew on our bodies was the source of all our power. Our initial guess that one needed to die wasn’t completely true. From the corner of my eye, I saw Arin cut Noah’s leg off and siphoned the power inside it.”
“And with such power coursing through his body.” Elliot glanced at Arin, who was waiting by the door. “He took us both in a blink of an eye. Noah was supposed to be the protector of the obelisk but it seems like whoever possesses the power of the moon was delegated as its protector. As soon as we both died, the trial deemed that Arin had succeeded in his task. This wasn’t an outcome I had expected but one that I’ll have to keep in mind in the future.”
After hearing Elliot’s explanation, the mysterious fog clouding the entire situation was finally lifted. They finally understood that in the end, Arin pulled one over everyone else and managed to grasp the highest score. Though, as much as they wanted to gain a similar score, they had to admit that this was far too intense.
If anything, they would rather do what Barlot did had gain an easy Completion Rate of 91%. Although this wasn’t a Perfect Clear, this was more than enough to satiate their ego. Those who had thought that being a Solver would be easy were immediately drenched with a cold dose of reality.
They had thought that Seal Academy was far too brutal in raising its Solvers but after officially seeing what a trial held, a Maze-level Trial, the category that signified the easiest difficulty that it could have, they all understood that this was a necessity. With how much there was needed to have even a single Perfect Clear, the nurturing method of Seal Academy made sense.
Instead of growing one hundred semi-skilled Solvers that would generally get a Completion Rate of 40-60%, they would rather grow an absolute prodigy that could get a Perfect Clear. After all, the disparity between rewards as the Completion Rate got higher was just far too vast.
In this trial’s case, the reward would’ve been metal and ore. If one had a Completion Rate of around 60%, which was the general percentage that most of the students achieved, they would be rewarded with 50 kg of materials. This would be an assortment of random common metals with an extremely rare chance of getting better quality metals.
If one say, had gotten a Completion Rate of 91%, which was the one that Barlot had achieved. They could be receiving 220 kg of materials with a guaranteed portion of 11 kg of rare materials. The sheer difference was completely absurd. As for 92%, it would be 240 kg of materials and a guaranteed portion of 11 kg of rare materials.
As one could see, the sheer difference between the rewards was just far too immense. Now to understand just how excruciatingly valuable a Perfect Clear was, the reward would be completely ludicrous. A Perfect Clear would give 1000 kg of materials, 500 kg of which would be rare materials and 1 g would be delegated as an extremely valuable material that anyone in the city would desire to have. This one singular gram of extremely valuable material was called, Essence.
This Essence was the very same material that was used in Essence Capsule that increased people’s constitution. From this one could finally realize the sheer value of Essence Capsules, to get a singular gram one had to get a Perfect Clear which was well beyond the capacity of any normal person.
All this information was relayed to everyone in the classroom in their next meeting. As for now, Arin went up to Elliot and started a conversation.
“You’re decent. Decent, if you stronger.” Arin gave Elliot a few words of odd… praise? Elliot didn’t know how to take this at all. Arin didn’t mock him nor did he put him down, he merely left some parting words before leaving.
I might need to go visit those two. Arin walked away in the direction of his two lackeys.
He walked the halls with an empty expression on his face. He was pondering about the steps he needed to take to reach the next level. He desired to battle talented foes, those that gave him an opportunity to break through to the next level.
On the way, he saw a student with glasses being surrounded by four menacingly looking students. They held the kid’s bag over him, laughing at him as he tried to take it back.
It was completely acceptable to be robbed and bullied here after all, if they didn’t want to be treated like that then they needed to start improving themselves.
One of these bullies saw Arin from a distance and didn’t like how nonchalant he was. He actively went over to block Arin’s path, forcing him into this scenario.
He observed Arin’s looks and saw that there seemed to be something valuable hiding within his pocket.
With his eyes filled with greed, he tried to tackle Arin from the front. It was clear what would happen at this rate.
Sensing how predictable these non-combatants were, Arin reached out his hand and grabbed him by his hair. With overwhelming strength, he slammed him towards the wall, creating a small indention.
Anyone would stop there but not Arin, he kept the student he slammed on the wall there as he kept dragging him. The greedy student felt his face burn as the rough surface of the walls was dragging parts of his face along. A very long and bloody line was formed as Arin walked through the hallways.
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One of the bystanders even felt that this was too far, “H-He learned his lesson. I think… that’s enough.” She held her arms as she tried to speak up. Even though she knew what kind of place this was, seeing this was just far too much.
His actions had already proven his stance, creating an extremely negative reputation all over the school. Looking around him, people were starting to gather up. Even the bully’s friends didn’t dare try to help him out. With such an obvious monster playing with him, friendship didn’t matter at all.
Arin no longer pressed this greedy student’s face towards the wall and let him go. One could see that his skin and muscle were no longer there. Even his bone structure was sanded down to the point that it was difficult to recognize him.
After letting his hand go, he walked off with no one there having the guts to stop him. The girl who spoke up felt as if her world was about to end. She collapsed on the floor as Arin’s pressure was just far too menacing for her to handle.
Soon enough, a white-haired girl ran to the scene in a frenzy. “Where’s is he?” Fiona tried to aid the poor lad who decided to mess with the wrong person.
“Miss President… he left.” The girl on the floor was on the verge of tears. She pointed at the unrecognizable fool by the wall. “He’s the one that was dragged along the-” Unable to handle it any longer, she vomited on the ground. This wasn’t something that she would usually do. The accumulated stress and tension did it for her.
“No time to waste.” Fiona quickly ran and dragged the injured student into a clinic. Her actions were so swift that no one could even see her shadow after she moved. After dealing with that, Fiona quickly came back to comfort the young brave girl.
They only blinked twice and the young man was gone and Fiona was already back. Her speed was genuinely terrifying to the point that they wondered how such a frail-looking maiden could have so much power.
“You did well.” Fiona offered words of consolation to her. She quickly left, trying to make up for the time she had lost.
Fiona saw that Arin was actively trying to make himself the villain. Being the self-proclaimed strongest while taunting the entire academy. It could only look bad on him. “Arin… just what are you trying to do?”
After gaining the notoriety that he had built up, he needed something to filter out the waste from the gems. This way, only those who challenged him were the ones who had any ability.
This small encounter made him think of what he needed to do. He needed to refine his senses so that when the academy started giving out Combat Techniques, he would be able to quickly adapt to it. The day that the academy does so is when competition truly starts getting fierce.
“They usually give it after a month has passed by. I see, they’re trying to make the students understand the severity of what a Trial is and make them realize just how valuable these techniques that they would be given truly are.” Arin analyzed the school events that would surely happen.
“Even my father hasn’t taught me anything. I wonder why that is.” There must be some kind of hidden secret or agreement preventing people from breaking the status quo. “Then again, those lackeys in that Syndicate didn’t use anything peculiar at all.”
Remembering back when he caused the nobodies of that syndicate to cower before him, he had easily forced his way through them. Their lacking bodies must’ve meant that their Essence Capsules were taken from them but that didn’t completely explain why they didn’t use their combat techniques.
“I’ll learn about it sooner or later. It’s bound to reach my hands at some point.” Arin finally managed to reach Robert and Patrick’s room. He blatantly opened up the door without any regard or respect for the professor currently standing there.
The same jovial professor stood there with his signature smile. “Hmm? Here again?”
Instead of the previous bloody appearance of the room, it was now much more neat with the students quietly watching the big screen in front of them. With Arin’s blatant appearance, their attention was immediately changed and placed on him.
“As much as I would be interested in seeing what happens, I’m afraid I cannot let you…” This jovial professor looked to the side where one other person finished up the trial.
“Jacob Hyster, Completion Rate, 40%.” He was slightly glad that this was the result. “Good, a score much higher than your peers. Although this trial is leaning more on the simple side, progress is progress. It’s already your class’ second day trying to solve this trial and you all have made extensive progress.”
The contrast between Professor Ferial’s disgust at someone reaching a Completion Rate of 60% and this jovial professor’s glee at his students achieving a Completion Rate of 40% was too far apart. Arin had no idea whether it was due to the difference in their trials or their expectations.
“I’ll leave if you can tell me why Professor Ferial’s so gloomy at a Completion Rate of 60%.” Arin needed to find this part out.
“Professor Ferial, you say… If I recall correctly it’s The Moon Runic Ruins. It’s quite a tricky Trial if I do say so myself. Its difficulty rises exponentially as one gets up to the higher echelons. If I have to compare that trial and the one my students are currently undergoing then that 60% would only be a measly 15%.” The jovial professor smiled and took his time to answer Arin’s question.
This let Arin understand that there was much more complexity behind the Completion Rates. Higher doesn’t always mean that it was better.
“Worry not, Arin. It rises drastically as 90% in your trial would already be a Perfect Clear in this trial. Now I’m really curious, as the biggest troublemaker of this batch, how did you fare?”
“I’ll be waiting outside.” Arin followed through with his word and obediently waited beside the door. He crossed his arms, he was going to patiently wait for them to finish.
This was slightly out of character for Arin with how straightforward he was with what he wanted. As crazy as was, wanting to fight against everyone to grow stronger, he still had some common decency to keep his word.
His goal with these two was to grow their strength as his representatives. Their strength was nearly perfect for what he wanted. They were strong enough to be able to handle themselves yet not strong enough to be candidates for his growth.
If he recruited the strongest people then he would not be able to grow at all. He needed to ensure that his greatest competitors would grow alongside him. It was a difficult balancing trick but if he wanted to grow as fast as possible then he needed to do it.
Robert had the speed and agility to be his messenger, running all around the place to take control of key points. As for Patrick, he was more similar to him, he could act as the main contender against everyone who wanted to mess with his messily made force. He also served as a good measuring stick, those who could beat Patrick would be people that would finally deserve his attention.
Although it seemed as if using two people to deal with everything was too little manpower, Arin had other plans for that.
In a few weeks from now, people would finally start to exponentially grow. If this era of school right now was merely the prologue then by the time it came for people to learn Combat Techniques would be the introduction. At that point, Arin didn’t have the confidence to completely rule the school single-handedly anymore.
With this in mind, people would finally show their true light. There wouldn’t be any need to have so many people at that point.
If anything, this was the time when the true gems started to shine. Those superior to the rest would finally show their true colors, outshining those dregs around them. It was safe to say that the current three factions in the first batch would definitely not last, except for Elliot’s since it had Fiona’s backing.
There were a few odd gazes from the side but nothing that truly lingered. A few greedy eyes quickly calmed down after hearing what happened to the poor chap who decided to mess with Arin. His patience finally paid off as he heard two names finally be called out.
“Robert Imon, Completion Rate 57%.”
“Patrick Versat, Completion Rate 63%.”
Right after having their names be called out another unfortunate soul was reminded of their true natures.
“Warren Ighos, Completion Rate 0%.”
After his name, five other names were called out and their Completion Rates were also 0%. It was safe to assume what happened.
“You traitors! Why did you do that?!” Warren’s voice screamed out as he raged. He had never expected that two people would go against the plan and decided to screw everyone over.
“Tough luck. You shouldn’t be so trusting towards others.” Robert sneered. He and Patrick were standing together, ready for another bout of combat. He wasn’t afraid of the results after all, it was clear that both of them possessed power that their entire class wouldn’t be able to handle.
Patrick kicked Warren in the stomach, sending him flying through the room. “Shut up. It’s winner-takes-all all. If you’re angry then do something about it.”
Hearing this, Arin smirked. “Their personalities are as rotten as I expected them to be. Selfish and greedy. Good. Exactly the types of people that I like being around since they know that strength topples everything. Makes it really easy to make them do what I want.”
In this scene, the jovial professor intruded with a slight laugh, “Ohoho! Warren, lad. Don’t be so furious! Besides, what they said is the truth. Why do you trust everyone so easily? You should learn to be cruel to others since cruelty is the name of the game.”
Warren wanted to rebuke their professor yet when he finally recalled once more what kind of place Seal Academy was, he kept it in. The predators win over the prey, the strong devour the weak. Everything was set up so that the prodigies grow while the weak get taken advantage of.
“Don’t look so joyful you two, as I recall, that boy Arin wanted to see you. He’s waiting outside.” The jovial professor let everyone in the classroom vent out at them. Although the students couldn’t do anything against the pair, they had solace in knowing that they would be faced with a genuine monster.
“He’s… here again.” Robert sighed. He had already accepted the fact that he was dragged along against his will.
Patrick started walking over, the traumatic experience of being at the mercy of this monster was still vivid in his mind. “Let’s get this over with.”