Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was already the last month of school before the holiday starts.

After the death of the Fifth Prince and the resulting shift of power between factions, Principal Gai had lost his backer and his status.

Since he had already offended Calculus – the heir of the emerging superpower – he could only cling to Kairos' legs for help now.

Time had changed, their positions reversed, but the fawning from the headmaster did not fade. If anything, it doubled.

The privileges that Kairos and his group enjoy in the school were not taken away, but rules and regulation that were set by the state cannot be compromised.

By now, who will do well and who will face expulsion has more or less been determined.

Most of those in the Snowdrifts made significant improvements after getting resources comparable to the nobles, but more importantly, it was their efforts that gave them a fighting chance.

After all, nobles and wealthy commoners had been strengthening their bodies with spiritual herbs and pills since young and trained in the proper arts, while they are mostly malnourished children that only survived by working in farms, pubs, or other places since young.

Of course, without the Origin Cultivation method, a foundation technique more powerful than anything Saint Empire has to offer, everything would be in vain to fix their weak groundwork.

However, no matter how miraculous the Origin cultivation is, people's talents vary, and within the hundred Snowdrifts members, nearly thirty of them will be unable to proceed to the third year no matter how hard they worked at it. For those children, their bodies are just too fragile to be fixed in a short time.

Still, they have one more chance by repeating the year, assuming if they could pay the re-enrollment fees; a cost that the Snowdrifts are more than capable of bearing. However, this opportunity is given only once, and if they still are unable to graduate to the third year, or failed in their fourth, or final years, they will have to drop out.

Fortunately, even if they dropped out, the Snowdrifts' business side is there to catch them, incorporating them into different departments of branches all over Gaia.

On the other hand, while they have struggling members, the opposite is also true.

Those that excelled in their group had been steadily climbing the ranks.

Depending on their performance in all the classes and activities they participate in, the students receive points accordingly and will be ranked.

The War Tactics and Commander Course was such an opportunity. Their members gathered the most points individually, exceeding even most upper years.

When their group clashed against another, the battle formation they were in enabled them to challenge superior opponents without fear.

They fought as one like an experienced army. Their teamwork was too far advanced compared to the rest of the academy's cadets, and it saved a few strugglers in their midst.

On the other hand, Calculus' group that is also from the second years had a terrible time. His Maths Team remained the same as the initial numbers they started from, with no more than sixty members.

There were very few that were willing to join them since almost every match their team were the first to exit.

At the same time, despite his members being captured all the time, few were willing to leave the group; mostly thanks to the Devilheart's reputation and generous resource supply that held them together. Of course, despite their group being ranked at the lower rung, the members were filled with high nobles and are all powerful fighters that fit well with his simple strategy of clashing head-on with others.

This situation will go on for the next four years till he graduates. It takes another kind of talent to be able to survive in the academy this way. Incidentally, it earned him the nickname of the Fat Sheep Commander and even his sealing martial arts was secretly called the moneybags cultivation method in the academy.

In the crafting classes, thanks to Kairos, the Snowdrifts had an absolute advantage. Few could compete to the Earl's artisan talents. As long as he had time to guide them, getting the passing score would be easy. Unfortunately, in the academy, the points given are skewed towards combat, so unless they had extremely high scores in their crafts, it would be difficult to graduate just from this much.

There was another change that granted their group the envy of all others.

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As the student president, Kairos had Xuan Xian prepare the training resources in the form of raw ingredients. Every month when handing out the individual shares, he will first process the materials into equipment, talismans, spirit pills, and rations. Though the number of resources depends on the student's rank, the processing depends on Kairos, and thus the Snowdrifts always had the best.

Needless to say, with his ocular and audial abilities, coupled with soul perception that could see the extreme details of his items, the things he produced were all of an extremely high level.

He asked for help from his buddies of course since the job of supplying over two hundred practitioners was quite massive. Unfortunately, there were a few hiccups as he trained them to his standard.

.....

"Everyone, this is the skill for instant scrying," Kairos said one day after gathering his closest mates to create higher level pills.

"I've learned this from Helena... take a pill in your hand, and you can find out what ingredients it is made from. Give it a try."

At once his brothers each took a pill and placed it gently on their palm.

*Drip Drip*

An odd sound accompanied them five minutes after everyone was in full concentration.

They turned their heads towards its origin, and to their shock, they saw tears pouring down Alan's cheeks. His lips slightly trembled, and his eyes red from tears.

"A... A... Alan! What happened, why are you crying?"

"Oh? Didn't you say instant crying? I can do that!"

*Knock*

"Wuuu my head."

"It's Scryingggggg! You heard the wrong word. Besides, why didn't you read the instruction manual?!"

"Oh, I thought if it was something as simple as crying, there's no need to read it!"

Before they could put palm to forehead, a loud whirl jolted everyone. Hot steam exploded outwards from Jim's ears, and he fell face first onto the ground.

"J... Jim?!" Tommy shouted.

"Ehhh!? How did you blow yourself up from a crafting technique...?" exclaimed Edward as he flipped his brother over.

Two pieces of paper were clutched in Jim's hands with the scrying technique was neatly written on it.

"He was practising this? Wasn't it five pages?"

Truly, crafting wasn't for everybody.

....

At the same time, the combat tournament is also reaching its end.

It was compulsory for all to participate, and many had already fallen out of the competition after five defeats.

Because it will affect the number of resources and other benefits that they receive from the academy, everyone did their absolute best.

Furthermore, those that did exceptionally well will be renowned through the empire.

In all fairness, there are those that were out of the contest very early on and did not have the chance to portray their ability. However, when everyone strove for better scores, it is natural that those who are weaker become targeted.

It is Saint Cadets Academy's culture to take special care of the second years during the annual combat tournament. After all, which of them were not suppressed when they were newbies?

Unfortunately, this year, the second years were strange. Extremely strange.

While they ought to be inexperienced and easily exploited by the seniors, these thirteen-year-olds were nothing short of veterans in a fight.

Combat techniques that targeted blind spots or made use of feints often backfired.

And, when the seniors pressed their opponents too hard, these C or D rankers will suddenly jump up five minor stages. A one or two major rank increase could overturn a battle, and it caused everyone to become nervous, not knowing when an easy prey could suddenly turn into the hunter.

Moreover, contract beasts started appearing in their ranks during mid-term, and many students from the Snowdrifts suddenly become tamers. Most of the contracted creatures were from the Black Forest, the Hellbringer Bats, Shadow Crows, Red Pythons, and Grey Wolves.

Some had Dragon Horses which were more suitable for Knight-style combatants.

A minor few even had Cave Trolls for a rather unique reason... that those hideous faces were apparently considered cute with many of the ladies, not only Aisa.

Thanks to the combat beasts, their battles became easier, but as if going for the kill, Kairos supplied them with Elementals as well.

Because the number of Greater Spirits were limited, only the leaders had the privilege to form a contract with one. However, using the Spirit King's emblem, Kairos summoned the Lesser Spirits near the academy.

Those playful Elementals agreed to be summoned for battle in exchange for staying in the Dantian of practitioners. Though the benefits allowing both cultivator and Elemental to grow stronger together were mutual, it was restraining for wild nature spirits.

If not for the Spirit King's Emblem, it will be nigh impossible to bond with them. After all, they are nearly immortal beings that could take all the time they want to grow into Greater Spirits.

The secret was out when people start discovering the respectable number of Spirit Contracts that the Snowdrifts had when in the past, it was a rare thing that these untamed Elementals would bond with humans. Needless to say, it became a source of marketing for joining the Snowdrifts. By now, Kairos had become picky on who to accept into their ranks.

With the Elementals, the duels turn unpredictable and often end with an unexpected turnabout. What could initially a wind elemental martial technique could suddenly become a huge conflagration and swallow up the opponent, or a metal Ki barrier turn electrifying.

If the spirit contractor saved it to the last as a trump card, the opponent would be wary throughout the battle, and still face a great threat at the end thus the victor often cannot be predicted.

The betting organisers were especially thrilled, namely Principal Gai who was the overseer.

As if a token to entice the Snowdrifts, this year the headmaster gave the students an option to bet on their own faction.

Unfortunately, though the Snowdrifts had done well, they were still far from reaching the top fifty in the competition. No matter what, the contract beast and contract spirits are both external aid and could not change the gap of their ranks against the seniors.

Now, only Kairos was left running in the race, and the people he faces are all indescribable monsters.

As the weeks turned, Kairos' commander score multiplied, and at the same time, he had been steadily decreasing his opponents in the fighting competition. Till date, no one had forced him to use more than one move, and now only the top ten students are left.

When Kairos issued hischallenge to the lowest, tenth rank, the entire academy gathered to watch thebattle.