The Academy Coliseum was as big, if not larger, than the Roman Colosseum, being able to hold more than 50,000 people. Unlike the weathered Wonder from my past life, this amphitheatre was constructed with modern technology. Several gigantic screens were floating in the air that directly displayed the podium to the audience.
Despite it being early in the morning, several professors and other faculty members were rushing about, to check the final preparations.
On noticing me arriving, some of the gossipy cleaners started whispering amongst themselves.
“Look! Isn’t that Ray Laxon, the Rank C Hero that got into Star Academy through the backdoor?”
“So what if he is the son of the head of the Aurum Guild? How can they let such a person into the prestigious Star Academy, even if it's as a temporary professor position.”
From the whispers, one name particularly stood out to me. I hadn’t had the time to go through all of my newly-acquired memories, so I wasn’t able to properly remember where I had heard the name ‘Laxon’.
The whispers provided me with the answer.
The Aurum Guild.
It was a famous, or rather infamous, name in the novel.
The Aurum Guild currently held quite a lot of power in the human world, being the #5 Guild in the world. It had a contract with many Rank A and Rank S Heroes, and also had access to many high Rank Dungeons.
But this won’t be the case for long. In a year or two, The Aurum Guild would horribly fail in a top-class Dungeon, dealing a heavy blow to its reputation.
While the head of the Guild, Heron Laxon, was dealing with the consequences of this, an article was released on his son making deals with the Fallen, dropping the guild’s reputation even more.
The Hero League finally used all their power to bring down the Aurum Guild and arrest the Laxon family for associating with The Chaos Alliance, executing them later.
Heron Laxon’s son, at that time, escaped the arrest and joined the ranks of The Fallen. Later on, he became one of the primary antagonists Rhian would have to face during his path to kill the Demon Lord.
Looking at Ray’s previous personality, it wasn’t likely he was the son in question. The only other person was Edward Martin, the love child of Heron Laxon.
Contrary to the rumours, Ray did enter the Academy through the proper procedures. And despite being the legitimate son of Heron Laxon, his father held no particular affection for Ray and his sister. Heron Laxon had a typical political marriage with Ray’s mother, Liliana, and thus showed complete indifference to both her children.
Holding no affection for her, he brought in a paramour, Rosamund Martin, and had a son with her, showering the child with all his love.
Liliana didn’t have any sort of infatuation with Heron either. Instead, she used his name and money to become one of the top socialites in modern high society, leaving both her children on their own, with no one to care for them.
I was in no hurry to give up on my new life, having died just recently, and since the article relating to The Chaos Society would be released within a year, it would be best if I distanced, possibly ousted myself from the family as soon as possible.
While I was thinking about the possible ways I could leave behind the Laxon family, the Coliseum was slowly filling up.
The second and third years entered in groups, while the first years nervously joined them, looking around for famous faces. The Guild representatives scanned the seats for potential Top Heroes. Though, of course, Rhian was their topmost priority, since he was from a ‘commoner’ family, with no special connections, and could easily be leased in, unlike the other two top Cadets, since they were already affiliated with their respective families and Guilds.
I went and stood in the section where the new professors were assigned. Aside from me, there was a new female instructor, Miss Anne Stone, a Rank A Hero, and Sir Harris Grant, the professor for Alchemy and a Rank B Hero.
‘If I remembered correctly, in the original novel, one of the new professors was a spy sent by The Chaos Alliance.’
It was never revealed who it was, so I wasn't sure which one it was. Guess I would need to keep an eye out for both of them.
As the Orientation began, I shifted my attention to the podium at the centre of the Coliseum. The Director, Jaoquin Hernando, a Rank S+ Hero, was standing there. You could tell from his strong Aura that he was on the verge of breaking to SS Rank, the rank humanity deemed akin to godhood. Although he was 86 years old, he looked like someone who had just entered his forties.
Mana really was an extraordinary force, allowing a man to defy age like that. His black hair didn’t show a hint of greyness, that used to be common among the men in my previous world.
He began his speech.
“Welcome dear students, to the Star Academy. For the next three years, you will be trained here as the next Heroes, so that one day you can protect humanity and carry it to greater heights.”
“Now, I would like to present to you the Top 3 first-year Hero Cadets. Oh and before I forget, I would also like to remind the Guilds that it is unethical to scout new Cadets until they enter their final year. I request you all to maintain the current decorum.”
After a short applause from the audience, the Director promptly exited the stage.
Replacing him, arrived three students in blue uniforms, issued by the Star Academy. In Star Academy each year was represented by a different colour. Blue for the first years, white for the second years, and the third years were given red coloured uniforms.
All three first years were absolutely captivating. Their looks could have rivalled the best K-Pop idols back in my previous life.
Rhian, with his dirty blonde hair and golden eyes, stood in the front, smiling and waving at the crowds.
“Oh my, look at him. He’s so handsome.”
“I know right? Rhian’s looks can rival even Luke Vestillo’s.”
Many of the girls whispered among themselves. Not that it mattered, since Awakened Beings had sensitive hearing.
Beside Rhian, Luke frowned in the direction where the voices came from, quickly silencing them. Even with a scowl on his face, nobody could deny his great looks, paired with his midnight black hair and eyes, giving him a cool playboy vibe.
Following the other two, Rachel Briar got up on the podium, with a stiff look on her face. Her platinum blond hair, dyed red at the tips, fluttered behind her. Her green almond-shaped eyes, flighted in her sockets, wary of everything. If one didn’t look past her beauty, they would have never noticed the hints of stage-fright in the expression.
As I was admiring the characters my friend had written, my eyes again began to itch. I rubbed my eyes, but the pain continued to persist. It seemed something was burning them and tears started pooling in my eyes. As soon as I thought I was gonna start to cry, the pain went away and my eyes started clearing up.
But not everything had gone back to normal. Three screens floated in front of the main characters.
Name: Rhian Vermilion
Title: Reincarnator
Rank: D
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Stats:
* Strength 3.5
* Stamina 3.1
* Agility 3.3
* Perception 4.3
* Magic Power 4.2
* Intelligence 5.5
* Charm 8.2
Abilities:
* Demonic Dance Sword Art(★★★★★): A sword art created to absorb demonic energies strengthening the user during battle. The sword contains 99 different stances. As the user progresses power is added to the sword. This sword has been widely infamous for killing its user when they did too high a number of stances for their body to endure. [Intermediate Level]
* Heavenly Cloud(★★★★☆): A cloud forms under the user’s shoes increasing his mobility. As mastery over the ability increases, the cloud will allow the user to fly in the sky and develop a pseudo-ego to facilitate in battle without making active decisions. [Beginner Level]
Skills:
* Blood Domination(S): Allows the user to manipulate their own and others’ blood to their own will depending on the magic they have.
* Blood Absorption (S): Allows the user to absorb the memories and powers of a target temporarily by drinking their blood. Every litre of blood allows the user to borrow their powers for an hour.
Name: Luke Vestillo
Rank: D
Stats:
* Strength 3.1
* Stamina 3.2
* Agility 3.7
* Perception 4.5
* Magic Power 4.7
* Intelligence 6
* Charm 8.1
Abilities:
* Flash Dagger Art(★★★★★): Gives complete mastery over techniques that use a dagger, leaving behind an after image with each swing. As mastery over the Art increases, the afterimage will become more clear and separate itself as another entity that will aid the user. [Beginner Level]
* Hand-to-Hand Combat(★★★): Coordinates the body for easy movements and helps the user to use their body to fight more efficiently. Allows the user to easily learn basic martial art techniques. As mastery increases, it will allow the user to subconsciously dodge dangers. [Beginner Level]
Skills:
* Fade(A): Allows the user to completely merge with their surroundings and hide their presence.
* Shadow Travel(A): Allows the user to teleport or hide in the shadow of the target.
Name: Rachel Briar
Rank: E+
Stats:
* Strength 2
* Stamina 2.2
* Agility 2.2
* Perception 3.2
* Magic Power 3.3
* Intelligence 6.2
* Charm 8.1
Abilities:
* Projectile Shooter(★★★★★): Allows the user to master projectiles with more ease. It also allows the user to see the path of their projectiles. With magic power, it will allow the user to create their own projectiles. [Beginner Level]
Skills:
* [Inherited] Dryad’s Blessing (S): It increases the mana replenishment rate of the user if they are close to nature. In a forest, the user’s mana will be almost unlimited.
* Zoom(B): It heightens the senses of the user, allowing them to see miles away and unhindered by most obstacles.
The screen showed me all the stats and different skills and arts that they were practising.
‘Wow! I guess this is what the Appraisal skill does. Isn’t this totally overpowered?’
Most of the Top Heroes hide some of their abilities, as a status screen can only be seen by the concerned party. They follow this unspoken rule, to gain an advantage during battle. This was also the reason why Rhian never told anyone about his 'Blood Absorption' until the mid-later parts of the novel.
'No wonder Appraisal was EX Rank. I should examine it more when I get some free time.'
As I was admiring my newfound ability, the main characters started their introductions.
The Guilds began to take down notes on them for research. After all, a Hero's potential is one of the important factors that are taken into consideration when they are scouted. If a person was given the choice to choose between two Heroes, one with the potential to reach Rank S and the other to reach Rank A, obviously the Rank S Hero will be chosen. There are ways to evaluate a Hero’s potential by examining their Aura and other factors. But these examinations were very crazy expensive and the results only had a 40% accuracy rate.
But since Rhian showed massive promise from the start, Guilds concluded that he has a chance of reaching at least S Rank. Though in the novel, his potential was much higher than that, rivalling even the Demon Lord’s, because he was a ‘Reincarnator’.
Rhian, Luke and Rachel had started speaking on the podium, telling people about their goals and other things.
After their speech, the Director came back on the podium, informing the students what to expect from their classes and other necessary announcements. This went on for an hour and a half more. After that, everyone started leaving the Coliseum. Some of the students' families and Guilds’ representatives decided to stay and look around the Academy premises.
Classes were gonna start from next week, so until then, I was practically free. I decided to go back to my room so I can learn more about mana. Ray’s office was filled with many books on mana theory since he was a specialist in that field. I spent the next couple of days going through every book on mana that I could.
“I don’t know if it’s because I have the previous Ray’s memories, but understanding all these books isn’t that hard.”
Mana was basically another form of energy that could either flow in our bodies or be absorbed naturally from the environment. Such natural mana hotspots were great for training as simply being in that place replenished your mana at a much faster rate.
Ray already had a much higher mana capacity than the average Rank C Hero. It was almost comparable to a Rank B, a magnificent feat. Since I had just finished revising all the knowledge from the documents, including what I could gather from my memories, I decided it was time for some practical experience.
Mana was an energy that flowed in our bodies as naturally as blood. I imagined it flowing through my veins before it gradually settled in my heart. After that, I took a small piece of it and slowly moved it to my eyes.
“Appraisal”
A slight pain tinged my eyes, following which my vision changed. Various screens popped up in front of my eyes.
‘Table from 1000-year old oak wood’
‘Introduction to Mana Theory’
‘Advanced Elemental Magic’
… and many more. Basic information on all the items present in the room started showing up in front of me.
The pain in my eyes from before, must have been because my mana had subconsciously flowed into my eyes activating the skill.
‘Looks like Appraisal doesn’t work only on people.’
I tried to see what more my EX-Rank skill could do. I went around the house appraising everything. Since I was only searching for basic information, the mana expenditure was almost negligible.
The Appraisal could even find hidden items. I found Ray’s sword and a black dagger, which he had hidden in a secret compartment in his closet.
When I used Appraisal I only got basic information about the sword and the dagger.
‘Oblivion Steel Katana - Made from a sturdy ore’
‘Dagger - A small dagger. Good for self-defense’
When I applied more magic to my eyes, the status screen expanded.
Oblivion Steel Katana
Rank: C+
Made from a special ore found in caves with high mana density.
Lightning Dagger
Rank: B+
It was forged using special lightning techniques. Each strike passes a small current into the opponent's body on making contact
The more mana I used, the more information Appraisal revealed. But I had a feeling that the skill didn’t take much mana despite the EX Rank. In the novel there was no one with such an ability to see other people's status screens, otherwise, it would have caused a scandal in the entire human world. So this ‘Appraisal’ skill must be something I got when I transmigrated into the novel.
I went into the office and looked at my reflection in the wall mirror.
“Appraisal”
Name: Ray Laxon
Title: The Otherworlder
Rank: C
Stats:
* Strength 3
* Stamina 3.3
* Agility 3.4
* Perception 5.6
* Magic Power 7.1
* Intelligence 8.8 →5.5
* Charm 7.7
===Memory Synchronisation: 100% ===
Abilities:
* Hand-to-Hand Combat (★★★):
Coordinates the body for easy movements and helps the user to use their body to fight more efficiently. Allows the user to easily learn basic martial art techniques.
As mastery increases, it will allow the user to subconsciously dodge dangers.
[Beginner Level]
* Brahma Sword Art (★★★★☆):
A sword art that was created to create. With each swing, the user can materialise their mana. Upon mastery, the user will be able to materialise mana into their surroundings and change the terrain temporarily.
[Beginner Level]
Skills:
* Appraisal (EX):
Allows the user to check the status of a selected target. The more mana that is used, the more details will be displayed.
I scanned through my status screen carefully again. My Intelligence stats were a bit weird. It seemed like it had gone down when I possessed Ray’s body. Well, as Happy, I was an ordinary person. There was no way I was gonna be able to match the intellect of a genius.
'Too bad his family didn’t appreciate his talent.'
The Brahma Sword Art seemed to be quite powerful too if practised properly. I guess Heron Laxon at least wanted to save face by making sure his ill relationship with his son wasn’t revealed to the public. He gave Ray all the support on the surface, but never really cared what his son did with any of it nor did he pay attention to any sort of talent Ray might have had. This blatant display of indifference must have been his drive to excel in the academic field.
There was a time when to soar his family’s Guild to new heights, Ray proposed to them to open a new branch of potions since Aurum Guild had a famous Magic Item subsidiary business. He holed himself in his laboratory and created new recipes for potions, that which the world had never seen before.
It took him many years and he spent a great number of nights without sleep, focusing on his research. But his father threw his years of effort into the trash without sparing a glance at it. That was when Ray decided to give up on his father and left to teach at the Star Academy. And shortly after, I possessed his body.
It seems that despite not playing any sort of role in the novel, Ray Laxon should not be, in any way, undervalued.
Yesterday, I found a copy of that book in the office, including samples of a few of those potions. They were gathering dust in a corner.
Heron Laxon may not have paid any attention to them, but I was gonna make full use of it. The book had a hundred pages, with a bunch of Potions in it and the method of preparation of each one. Every single Potion in the book was worth a fortune.
I wanted to start making a few of them but sadly some of the ingredients were quite rare. Since classes were gonna start tomorrow, I decided to schedule the potion-making for later.
‘I have already studied up all the things I need for tomorrow's class. I guess I will finally meet the main characters now.’
Whether it's fortunate or not, because of my low position, I was given only two classes to teach this time, one of them being Class Alpha, the class of the main characters.
Well, I guess it is finally time for me to see how much I need to interfere in the novel.