Mordred massaged his temples as he walked, acting as if this action curbed his migraine.
The usage of VR headgear for an extended period is harmful to one’s brain. Much like excessive muscle exercise, his brain, or in this case, his Sea of Consciousness is fatigued, overflowing with new information.
In reality, as the progenitor of wisdom-path and information-path in Morgen World, Mordred was perfectly capable of addressing this issue. If his sea of consciousness is likened to a library, using VR headgear would be akin to an excessive book-buying spree. Eventually, the library would reach its capacity, necessitating time for him to reorganize and catalog the books, while also tending to the older, unnecessary ones.
However, the wisdom-path method in his repertoire is capable of solving this problem, either by hiring an army of new librarians who work on this issue or simply expanding the size of the library. In addition, the information-path methods he had could ‘digitize’ the books, allowing more information to be stored more efficiently. After all, basic education and common sense known to teens don’t take up too much memory space. Unlike Astaroth’s blood-path true inheritance that’ll force him to gradually take it instead of all at once, this new knowledge is significantly ‘lighter’.
Nevertheless, he lacked the justification of being capable of using them.
Thus, despite having no problem whatsoever with his sea of consciousness, he has to act like it has.
“You’ve finished six years of Hartina Kingdom’s mandatory education in four days, that’s not something just anyone could achieve...” Ayame praised as she led Mordred.
For her, whose Violetstorm Empress’s bloodline is optimized for integrating magic machinery onto her body, using VR tech for an extended period isn’t a problem. If Ayame is in his shoes, she might be able to do so in a day. The real problem is the boredom that comes subsequently with digesting a large quantity of information. Not everyone can sit still for eighteen hours a day learning in a 100x time accelerated virtual environment. Reality isn’t a fantasy story where someone can cultivate endlessly for days, weeks, or even years without doing anything else in between.
Besides, the virtual classroom that he accessed through the VR headgear doesn’t guarantee perfect memorization of the virtual ‘books’ that he read. It just happened that Mordred has a photographic memory, thus allowing this to happen.
In any case, the two of them are currently heading towards Twin Helix’s cultivation room. When Mordred saw the familiar door locked with four types of passwords and all sorts of biometrics, he could see that he was not the only one who had been summoned. There were around twenty other youths who had been waiting for Ayame’s arrival, with some familiar faces amongst them such as Kaishin, the caprine beastman, and Nagata, the martial artist.
They tried to greet Mordred, but he could only reply with a nod before Ayame cut them off. “You’re all here, good. Let’s get inside.” She urged.
Mordred followed her footsteps, and the apprentices followed him.
The interior of the cultivation room isn’t too much different from his last visit, the only change being the various technomagi artifacts scattered around the room.
“Captain, I brought them here.” While the apprentices reveal gasps and moans of amazement looking at Yukikaze Shion’s arsenal, Ayame reported to Shion.
At this moment, she’s busy tinkering with a 3-meter-long gunlance whose lance blade currently has the shape of a pile driver. The presence of a small woman working on a gigantic anti-beast weapon is a sight to behold.
The captain turned around to get a brief scan of the apprentice Ayame brought. “Right, there are less than I thought they would.” Her purple eyes stayed slightly longer on Mordred. “All of you here are either grade-A talents or have some circumstances, but you all have the same goal: to enroll at the Ninetail Royal Academy. Do any of you want my honest opinion?”
Shion’s true voice had a childish undertone. Coupled with her height of barely 140 centimeters and petite frame with relatively modest curves, she could pass on as a literal child. However, under her inquiry, nobody dared to make fun or treat her like one.
“Please bless us with your insight, Miss Shion!” A youth draped in black apparel specialized for movement quickly responded. From his eyes glimmering in the highest respect one could ever have in their entire life, it could be inferred that Shion has a great reputation. Perhaps, the Hunter Team responsible for recruiting him has told him about Twin Helix’s captain.
“Well…” Shion touched her chin in a teasing manner, before throwing her faint smile into the drain. “You’re all trash that could never compete with the super elites who got their qualifications for enrolling in the royal academy by themselves.” Her gaze shifted to Ayame. “Have you told them how you can get admission into the academy?”
“Not yet, I’ve been busy…” Ayame pointed at Mordred, a hint of shame flushed on her face for not being capable of fulfilling Shion’s order.
Shion waved her arms, signaling that it didn't bother her. “Just like the other Hunter Academies of Hartina Kingdom, there are a lot of ways for you to enroll in the royal academy. This includes great achievement, scholarship, and special qualification that allows you to be exempted from most of the test. Other than those, you can also ‘donate’ special resources or inheritances through the legal channel, and myriad other ways, but let’s stick to the first three.”
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She continued by using her finger to signify the first step. “Great Achievement means you have to accomplish something beyond your peers. Considering all of you came from frontier villages lacking education and exposure to the world, this is impossible for you.”
Shion raises another finger, “The second method is through scholarship. This isn’t too much of a difference, but considering you have to apply for a scholarship to the Royal Academy and proceed with the bureaucracy, I’m pretty sure you can’t even get through the first screening within the pressing time limit.” She raised the third finger, “In any case, I want you to focus on the last possible way: special qualification.”
Using an information-path artifact on her wrist, Ayame assisted Shion in explaining by visualizing what she said. “In simple terms, if you have special conditions that put your starting line way ahead of your peers, you can enroll in the Royal Academy without having to worry about your test result. The special condition that I refer to is, for example, having a grade-S spirit talent…
Talent, for me, is merely a starting point, but that’s exactly why the Royal Academy decided that all grade-S talents can easily enroll without worrying about their test result. This is because you’ll be entering a super elite environment, your peers would be genetically engineered to have at least grade-A talent and receive specialized education from an early age just to be there. You’ll need all that you can get just to keep up with them.”
While the holographic screen revealed images and some pop-ups that assisted in explaining the pictures, Shion continued. “It’s too late for you to be born with grade-S talent. Of course, my clan knew some talent-granting methods, but that’s something beyond the current me.”
Mordred noticed the moment she mentioned talent-granting methods, some of the apprentices’ eyes gleamed in excitement as if they were already aware of how resourceful Shion was.
“Nevertheless, I have a way to get you enrolled without having grade-S talent.” She paused, smiling. “As some of you might be aware already, my Yukikaze Clan has close relations with the Yamato Clan. We are a clan that worked closely with them so I am authorized in using a special channel to recommend some people that I found interesting.”
Mordred silently nodded, confirming her words.
The Hunter Academy is connected to most countries in Morgen World, and naturally, everything that has the slightest connection with Galatreon has some relation with the Great Archmage. Thanks to the newly acquired geopolitical knowledge of Morgen World, he has become more aware of who Yukikaze Shion is.
Galatreon is governed by the four great clans: Murasaki, Richtofen, Delacroix, and the Arsy. However, there's a secret fifth who handles matters outside the Extreme South, which is the Yukikaze clan.
Naturally, nobody knows that the Yukikaze clan is the secret fifth. However, it is an open secret that the Yukikaze clan has very close relations with the Yamato clan. And, considering each Hunter Academy in the Hartina Kingdom is left to the Nine Master clans to handle, the Ninetail Royal Academy can be considered as the Yamato clan’s playground. With that in mind, the Yukikaze clan has a special channel to the Ninetail Royal Academy.
“Unfortunately for you, every single Hunter Academy in existence does not allow corruption or baseless nepotism. Yes, I can recommend new people, and yes, my connection will help you have an easier time in enrolling in the Hunter Academy, but I cannot put someone unqualified, that’ll be smearing my name. I can get in trouble for that. That being the case, you have to be qualified in your way.” When Shion paused her explanation, the holographic screen produced by Ayame’s artifact revealed pictures with popups. “For example, if you have a special Spirit Trait…”
Letting the apprentice digest what he had just uttered, Shion paused for a brief moment before continuing. “If Bloodline Trait can be defined as your body’s special characteristics or unique properties granted by your lineage, then Spirit Trait is simply the spirit equivalent of that. There are two ways for you to get a Bloodline Trait: the first is being born with it, and the second having a life-alteration surgery. In some aspects, Spirit Trait and Bloodline Trait are not too different, you are either born with it or undergo a special training. With my capacity as an antimage, it’s easier to bestow a Spirit Trait instead of performing genetic engineering.”
She continued, “My cultivation system is completely different compared to the orthodox system of Morgen World. Instead of body-tempering or martial arts, my clan uses… Jutsu.”
The apprentices’ eyes were shining in interest, but nobody dared to interrupt or urged her to elaborate further.
Naturally, she won’t be elaborating too deeply about her cultivation system. Her foundation isn’t purely that of the ‘body’, but also of the ‘spirit’. In other words, her cultivation system is similarly a branch of dual cultivators of body and mind just like a Warmage, but if a Warmage is closer to the ‘spirit’ aspect of the magic, Shion’s Jutsu is closer to the ‘spirit’ aspect of the antimagic.
This secret can’t and shouldn’t be revealed to anyone else as it is no different than telling others her weakness, so she can only elaborate on some of the relevant parts. “Amongst the Jutsu, there’s a branch that specializes in affecting the mind of others- Genjutsu. Through the consumption of special resources, I can activate a Genjutsu that’ll draw your Sea of Consciousness into a special state. If you use that chance as a catalyst to cultivate your spirit, there’s a chance that you’ll gain a Spirit Trait that’ll fulfill the Ninetail Royal Academy’s requirement.” She paused, nudging Ayame to proceed with the plan further.
Dispelling her holographic images, Ayame took out stacks of papers from her dimensional storage. Unlike her usual method, these stacks of papers are not accompanied by prismatic pixels the moment she pulls them out of her dimensional storage. Meaning, these papers are not digitized items.
She gave each apprentice in the room a paper, but Mordred didn’t get any.
Seeing the familiar contract in the hand of the apprentice next to him, Mordred suppressed a faint smile. ‘Turns out, the reason why Sumire’s methodology feels familiar to me was because Purple Fragment had taught her that…’
“Just because I can activate a Genjutsu and give you a chance to acquire a Spirit Trait, doesn’t mean I want to. I have no obligation nor reason to waste my effort in helping trash like you. But even then, I am confident in the prospect of others, since to me, the greatest treasure is not artifacts, but people. However, I am not running a charity and the verbal promise for repaying what I’ve done for you will always be hollow. If you want to enroll in the Ninetail Royal Academy with my help, you should consider signing this Soul Contract…”