When the instructor called out for the third-ranking student, Elizabeth, who was next to Lucia, stood up and began introducing herself.
"Elizabeth Arks, as a spell caster I'm at the intermediate mana sea stage. I'm also a B- rank warrior."
Elizabeth copied Lucia and raised both her hands, she did a quick chant and on her left and right hands, a layer of rock appeared and covered them like gauntlets. Circling around her right hand were wisps of fire and atop the palm of her left hand was a small wind tornado.
"My main attributes are fire, wind, and earth. As you can see, I've mastered triple-casting. I look forward to my time here with all of you."
'B-, that means she's a rank below Lucia and 4 ranks below me, but 3 elements... how talented,' Cecil thought.
The combat ratings that the academy used started from rank D all the way to rank S. There were also plusses and minuses in each rank. So, with Cecil being an A rank, it meant that Lucia, who was B rank, was 3 ranks below him and Elizabeth, who was B- rank, was 4 ranks below him.
Combat ratings didn't really matter though since it would only take into account a person's warrior combat prowess. It had nothing to do with a spell caster's combat level. In fact the two were separated since during the entrance exam, the instructors couldn't really test the student's magic combat level since it would require the student to unleash the highest tiered spell that they could cast.
Obviously, this wasn't allowed to happen since just a tier 5 spell could literally blow up the exam rooms and cause them irreparable damage, but just like how a warrior's combat prowess was ranked, a spellcaster's magic prowess also had their rankings.
For spellcasters, their magic prowess level could be divided into 10 tiers. Tier 1 being the weakest and tier 10 being the strongest, a spell was also categorized the same. An initial level spell could be Tier 1-3, intermediate spells Tier 4-6, and advanced spells Tier 7-9. Tier 10 spells would mostly be the forbidden spells or extremely strong original spells.
A spell caster's magic combat level was determined by what tier spell they could use instead of their mana cultivation stage because while a person's mana stage could be high, their comprehension might be low which makes them unable to comprehend and use higher tier spells. Unfortunately, things didn't work in vice-versa because a person who has a low mana cultivation stage will still be limited by their mana, making them unable to cast higher tier spells even though they might know how.
Mana is required to cast spells, so even if you had good comprehension and in theory, knew how to cast a certain spell, it was all useless if you couldn't actually perform it. A spellcaster could try, but if they push themselves beyond their limit and fall into the Zero Mana State, it would likely spell the end for them if they were in an actual battle situation.
The Zero Mana State was, like its name, a condition where a spellcaster had completely bottomed out their mana and there was almost none of it inside of their body. Without any mana, they wouldn't be able to cast anymore spells which rendered them pretty useless. The Zero Mana State could also cause the spellcaster to immediately lose consciousness for several days and even suffer from mana sickness. In the worst case scenarios, a spellcaster might even die if they fell into this state.
This was all pretty basic information that Cecil had learned from his time taking lessons from Mrs. Anna and Mr. Zaqi. There were a lot of pretty basic and advanced things that he knew thanks to those lessons, but there was something from Elizabeth's introduction that caught his attention because he never heard of it before.
'What's triple-casting? Is it what Elizabeth's doing? Using all 3 of her elements at once? If that's the case, is what Lucia doing double-casting then?'
What Cecil thought wasn't technically wrong, but it wasn't correct either. What Elizabeth did was indeed triple-casting as she used 3 elements at the same time, but it wasn't about elements. Instead, it was about spells. Triple-casting referred to how many spells a spellcaster could use at the same time. Just like double-casting, it was a pretty advanced technique.
Lucia had mastered both double and triple-casting, but what she did earlier during her introduction wasn't just double-casting. It was actually penta-casting, 5 spells at once. First, she had conjured a ball of water and fire above each of her hands, that was 2 spells. Then around the water ball was ice and steam, 2 more spells. Finally, around the fire ball was a stream of lava, another spell.
She had used 5 spells altogether when she did her little performance earlier, but no one in class actually realized this. Not even the instructor. Lucia herself didn't even realize it because she just subconsciously 'did it'. There was minimal effort on her part when she simultaneously casted those 5 spells and this was only possible thanks to her family's unique mana cultivation technique which split her mana into different parts, allowing her to store them separately into different cores.
Since her mana could circulate in her body separately, it allowed Lucia to use them separately as well, making multi-casting spells extremely easy for her. The academy's previous headmaster was known to be able to cast 9 different spells simultaneously and this was recognized as the highest possible level for the multi-casting technique, but here was Lucia, performing a penta-cast without even knowing it.
At her young age, she was already half as skilled as the academy's former headmaster. If anyone found out about this, it would certainly cause another stir within the academy.
After Elizabeth's introduction, Instructor Jin began calling out the rankings of the other students. After Elizabeth who was third rank, it continued on with the fourth ranking student all the way until the last ranking student in class S.
Fina was rank 6 while Ainz was rank 9. It irked the proud Ainz since in their group of 5, he was actually the lowest in rank. Meanwhile, rank 4 was a gloomy tigerkin boy who had black fur with white stripes. He was a rare user of both the light and dark elements and was an intermediate mana sea stage spell caster, but he only had a B- ranked combat level.
The rank 5 student was a large giant-race boy who specialized in only Earth elemental magic and body enhancing. He was pretty balanced being an intermediate mana sea spellcaster and having B ranked combat level. Rank 6 was Aquafina who, just like her name, specialized in the water element. She could also use the light element and a little bit of wind element. She was an intermediate mana sea stage spellcaster and unsurprisingly, she had the weakest combat level in Cecil's group, reaching only C rank.
After Aquafina, the subsequent rankers were only at the initial mana sea stage and had either B- rank combat level or C rank combat level. To Cecil and Lucia's surprise, Ainz, who was rank 9, actually specialized in all 4 major elements and had a combat level of B- rank. He was only ranked lower than those above him because his mana stage wasn't at the intermediate level.
After everyone in class had finished introducing themselves, the instructor then went on to talk about all the different facilities the academy had. Instructor Jin also activated a projector-like device that was in front of the class. There it displayed all the different buildings and facilities within the academy grounds.
The stadium that the students were at earlier was also the academy's arena. There they could spar and exchange pointers with fellow students. There was a separate building close to the stadium where the cafeteria was located and to the north was a large library building. The warrior training grounds and mage training buildings were situated to the east next to an enclosed forest where, apparently, students could go inside and fight actual monster. The monsters in the forest were only B- rank and below, however, so Cecil didn't see any meaning to ever go there since monsters that weren't at least a solid B rank were weak in his opinion.
Close to the training areas was another building specially built for the mana forging, mana crafting, magic engineering, and magic-tech classes. Relative to their current position, it was practically at the other side of the campus and from what Cecil understood, the combat classes were supposed to take place over there. It was situated like this to separate where the practical and theoretical classes were taught.
In the classrooms area, where he was currently at with everyone else, was where all the theoretical classes were taught. The practical classes were taught in the large training area since practical classes required a large space since the students would be moving around.
After showing everyone in class the map and labeling all of the buildings and areas, Instructor Jin took the class out to begin a tour around the academy. It was easier for the students to see the campus themselves rather than just having a teacher describe it for them.
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On the way, they also bumped into all the other first year classes who were similarly on their campus tour. Each class mostly had around 25-30 students, so there were 8 first year classes in total. S class, A class, all the way to G class. Other than the S class that had the 25 top ranked students in it, class A to class G had the students randomly placed in them, ignoring their rankings in the entrance exam.
It was arranged like this to ensure that other than the special S class, the rest of the classes were balanced and 'normal'. The students in G class which was thought to be the lowest of the classes wouldn't actually be the weakest one. In fact, they might be the second strongest class this year because there were 6 students that were in the 26-40 rankings in this class.
The tour finished just as it was almost lunch time. Instructor Jin quickly took the class to the cafeteria and it was already bustling full with students eating their lunches and hanging out. The cafeteria building had 8 floors in total and despite all of the space, it still looked pretty packed.
The students were allowed to eat on the 2nd through 7th floors. The first floor was where the cafeteria staff was at, and only on this floor would the students be able to order what foods they wanted from the cafeteria's menu, which periodically changed every day. The eighth floor was reserved for the teachers and staff.
There was a sort of tacit agreement and understanding between each years' students. Floors 2 and 3 were for the first and second year students. Floors 4 and 5 were for third and fourth year students while floor 6 was for the academy's 10 student factions' high-ranking members. As for the remaining floor, Floor 7, it was for the overall top 100 ranking students throughout the entire academy.
Naturally, the overall rankings disregarded a student's year, so even a 1st year student could rank in it, but it has never happened before. The 7th floor was considered one of the academy's holy grounds since only the top rankers could get in.
Anyway, due to this tradition of sorts, no junior year student could go to the top floors unless a senior brought them up. It was said that if a junior was to violate this tradition, they'd be 'disciplined' to not let it happen again. Naturally, this discipline wasn't anything good. At least, that's what the rumors told.
Ainz talked about this small fact with everyone in the group when they were waiting in line. Lucia found it rather distasteful while Fina and Eli already knew about it. Cecil didn't care and was only staring at the moving platforms that brought the students up and down between the floors. Naturally, he thought of them as elevators and was extremely intrigued by the magic circle formation that allowed them to float up and down in the air.
Lunch went by pretty quickly, since this was the first time the first years were on the academy's campus grounds, Instructor Jin, along with the other homeroom instructors, decided to let their students go and freely explore the campus for the rest of the day. They needed to get accustomed to the place before the actual lessons started or else they might get lost when going to their next class.
He also told them that there was no need to go back to the homeroom class since it was over for today. He reminded everyone again to quickly finish registering which selective classes they would take since tomorrow would be the deadline to upload the information onto the academy's database. He then asked all the students to gather tomorrow in their combat uniforms at the academy's stadium by 9 o clock.
After leaving these instructions, he bid farewell to everyone in class S. Everyone was suddenly left there by themselves and it caused the atmosphere to become somewhat awkward. No one wanted to take the lead, not even the princess, Elizabeth. Since it was like this, the students started splitting up into groups and went about their separate ways.
There seemed to be some students who wanted to approach Cecil's group, but then they immediately went away for some reason. Cecil, who was observing this, accidentally let out his thoughts and said, "What's up with them? It's not like we're going to eat them or anything."
"Eh? You noticed it too, Cel?" Lucia replied while smirking at him. "With how clueless you are most of the time, I didn't think you'd notice so soon~"
"Tch... Lulu, I'm not that oblivious."
"I wonder about that..."
There was a pouty look on her face after she said that. Fina, who was watching their usual exchange, spoke up and said, "Well, it's not that they don't want to approach us, it's just...some of us here are...somewhat unapproachable?"
She sneaked a glance towards Elizabeth and saw that she too had a helpless look on her face. Obviously she hinted that it was their fault. Lucia, however, turned to glare at Ainz before saying, "Tch, it's your fault Ainz!"
Ainz, Eli and Fina were surprised at Lucia's abrupt comment. Ainz, who was called out by her, was at a complete loss. He immediately tried to argue back and justify himself, "How is it MY fault? Don't go around accusing me of something that I didn't do, you brat!"
"What? Isn't it obviously YOUR fault! With how gaudy and pretentious YOU look and how arrogant YOU act! It's no wonder others are too afraid to get close to us! It's like they're facing royalty or whatever with you being with us!"
"""..."""
The three 'royals' immediately turned silent. In fact, Lucia wasn't wrong. Aquafina was a princess of the Neftersea Oceanic Empire while Elizabeth herself was the second princess of the Anglaria Kingdom, and Ainz was from a noble Duke household so he had close ties with the Anglaria Kingdom's royal family. Every student in class would literally be facing royalty if they ever approached their small group.
Lucia then turned towards Cecil who was pondering and said, "Isn't that right Cel?"
"Hrmm... I do kinda agree with Lulu here Ainz... the way you act is a bit too noble and makes you seem unapproachable."
"What? But, it's really not my fault!" Ainz directed his sight towards the two people who were the actual cause of their predicament, only to see them look away.
"..."
"That settles it! We're kicking you out Ainz!" Lucia said with an evil chuckle.
"HEY!" Ainz shouted while his face sported an exasperatedly look.
He couldn't expose the two princesses since that would literally be asking for death, but he also didn't want to take this false accusation that was abruptly pinned on him! He was speechless as well as frustrated. He wanted to say something be he couldn't find the right words to justify himself.
Fina and Elizabeth were surprised when they heard what Lucia said. They wanted to speak up for Ainz since it really wasn't his fault, but the two were interrupted by Lucia's bell-like laughter.
"Ahahaha~ You really can't take a joke, can you Ainz?" Lucia said with tears in her eyes. "You should've seen the look on your face!"
She started slapping Ainz's arm while pointing at him and continued to laugh. The sight of Ainz's anguished face really cracked her up.
"Why. You. Little. BRAT!!!" The pain of having his arm slapped and the humiliation from having lost his composure prompted him to send a fist flying towards Lucia. He only meant to scare Lucia and not exactly hit her, but unfortunately, things played out a little differently.
Lucia could see that Ainz didn't mean to hit her, but she still went ahead and easily caught his fist. She started chuckling evilly before saying, "Hehehe... You do realize I have a higher combat score than you, right?"
Ainz immediately paled when he saw Lucia nonchalantly catch his fist. He felt a chill run down his spine when he saw the red magic circle slowly form around his fist.
"It's a joke! It's a joke, okay?!"
Cecil was chuckling on the side because earlier he had played along with Lucia's little joke, so before Lucia could create a searing tattoo on Ainz's fist he stopped Lucia and said, "Lulu, stop. That's enough for the prank."
"Fine~"
"Anyway, let's go, there's a lot left to see in the academy."
After saying that, Cecil turned around and started walking in a random direction. He took out his MID and immediately started fiddling with it again. Lucia quickly chased after him and started nagging him to not do anything weird with the device. Meanwhile, Ainz walked next to Lucia and began complaining, resulting in the two arguing with each other again not long after.
Elizabeth and Fina were left standing together. The latter opened her mouth after a moment of hesitation and said, "...interesting people we've befriended. Don't you think so, Your Highness?"
There was a smile on Fina's face and she immediately ran after the trio. When she caught up, she pushed Ainz to the side and hugged Lucia's arm before helping her argue back at Ainz.
"Hmph."
Elizabeth scoffed at Fina's way of addressing her, but she chuckled a second later and chased after her new group of friends.