More than half a year after Shiba and Eini joined the academy, the rumors about the so-called holy war between the Cult of the Goddess and the Followers of the God of Fate had already spread through all the country, and of course, the students on the academy had also heard about it.
Shiba was surprised when he heard that the chosen child of the God of Fate was called Gregor, but that wasn't such a strange name since he had met at least five students named Gregor at the academy.
Moreover, when he heard about him, Gregor was already Rank 3, so Shiba just thought that it was a coincidence.
There was no way he would have thought that this disciple was already Rank 3 while he was still at level 9, unable to reach Rank 1.
Moreover, he knew about the curse of never reaching Rank 2, so he considered impossible that his disciple and the chosen child of the God of Fate were the same.
The students of the academy had been ordered to stay away from that holy war, so there wasn't that much information about them.
The rumors about being able to advance a Rank just by joining the Followers of the God of Fate was just too alluring for the students, so the principal ordered them to stay away to prevent that they all left the academy to join the Followers of the God of Fate.
Still, there were some that left, but those were the ones who had lost hope in advancing further on their own due to their old age compared to others on the same Rank.
For example, the oldest student at Rank 2, who was over eighty years old, had left the academy and joined the Followers of the God of Fate, which helped him to reach Rank 3 in one go. However, he was killed on his first battle against the Knights of the Goddess, belonging to the Cult of the Goddess.
After half a year, the holy war had already reached a point that each clash between the two forces provoked many deaths, so the students that had planned to wait and see the situation discarded the idea of disobeying the principal to join the Followers of the God of Fate.
The free power-up looked alluring, but the danger to die was just too great.
The Followers of the God of Fate intended to go to the academy to actively recruit students, but Gregor stopped them after he heard them speak about the academy's most outstanding talents.
When speaking about the most outstanding students, there was no way Shiba and Eini weren't there considering their feats after just joining.
Gregor was sure that the Shiba of the rumors was his master, and he didn't want to disturb him, so he had forbidden everyone to go near the academy to recruit.
The others were quite disappointed because, thanks to the exaggerated rumors, they wanted to recruit some geniuses, and in particular, they were extremely eager to get Shiba and Eini.
Eini was someone who advanced to quick, that they felt that it was the same effect Gregor produced.
After directly reaching level 17, she reached level 19 in just a month, but she had been trying hard to restrain herself since then. She hadn0t expected her speed to be so fast, and the resources to hasten growth just duplicated it, so if she advanced, the effects would need too much time to appear, so she was once again restraining herself.
In fact, she was restraining herself since she reached level 18 two weeks after reaching Rank 1, but she made a mistake and reached level 19.
Since then, she had been very cautious for fear of reaching Rank 2 without noticing if she was careless.
As for Shiba, the rumors about him got overexaggerated when they reached the outside of the academy.
Those rumors said that when he was level 8, he could kill students at Rank 2 with one hit.
That was quite far from what really happened, but that was how rumors worked, so Shiba was seen as a peerless monster.
The rumors only grew worse when his battles against senior Beike spread.
Shiba had asked Beike for help to train, so they battled against each other many times.
Beike had grown quite close to Shiba since both had straightforward personalities and their battle styles were also similar.
Shiba was also someone who didn't mind helping others, so after some time passed, and thanks to being close to Beike, his reputation as a vicious assassin was cleared, and a lot of people went to ask for his help.
That reached the point that people called Shiba the second Beike.
However, on the outside, what the rumors told was that Shiba was as strong as Beike, one of the hundred strongest Rank 4 students despite Shiba being only at level 9.
Seeing Shiba with such a monstrous fighting prowess, the Followers of the God of Fate thought that if he skipped a whole Rank, he should be able to fight directly with those at Rank 5.
Gregor was quite surprised that Shiba was so strong, but he felt that since even he could battle others at Rank 3 thanks to his training speed, it was normal that the real power of his master was above his even if the level was lower.
Gregor had become quite powerful compared to his previous self, but he wasn't allowed to battle directly.
The Followers of the God of Fate felt that it would a blasphemy letting the chosen child fight in those unimportant battles.
They felt that unless the supreme priest of the Cult of the Goddess appeared, their chosen child should remain without fighting.
Moreover, given the talent Gregor was showing, they felt that it would be better if he turned stronger first.
After all, there were even people at Rank 6 fighting. A mere Rank 3 was far too weak, so it was better if he remained as moral support.
Anyway, the Followers of the God of Fate had already spread throughout the whole country. Wherever there was the influence of the Cult of the Goddess, the Followers of the God of Fate would also appear. Thus, there was no way for Gregor to be on all places at the same time, so he mostly remained on the headquarters of the Followers of the God of Fate, which was created in the town where Gregor woke up after his slumber.
Most people in other parts of the country had never seen Gregor before, but once they swore loyalty to the chosen child, they still got the benefits.
After all, there were always people opposing to the Cult of the Goddess, so it was quite easy for new members of the Followers of the God of Fate to appear.
They were quite an informal organization. The only requirements were hating the Cult of the Goddess and swearing loyalty to the chosen child of the God of Fate.
The whole country was in an uproar due to the holy war, but the major powers weren't meddling since neither the Cult of the Goddess nor the Followers of the God of Fate were targeting the places they were protecting.
Originally, the Cult of the Goddess wanted to be far more low-key, but the Followers of the God of Fate forced them to show themselves, so they started to expand without caring for being cautious.
The academy was a place protected by one of the major powers, so the principal wasn't surprised that they were ignored, but he wasn't confident of how much that would last, so he had been paying attention to everything that happened on the surroundings of the academy.
Of all the major powers of the country, his grandfather was the one with less lifespan left, so he felt that the first target belonging to the major powers to be involved would be his academy.
After all, the country was limited in size, and although there were still a lot of areas without the influence of the Cult of the Goddess nor any major power, those areas were so poor that no one was interested in them.
While the principal was worried about the future of the academy, the students weren't aware of it. The holy war was something they heard of, but they didn't feel that would affect them at all unless they had family in the affected areas.
Still, those that cared about that had already left long ago.
The people remaining at the academy had their family living near the academy or weren't worried about their family.
Shiba and Eini were among the ones that didn't have anyone to worry about.
Eini wasn't from that planet from the beginning, and Shiba had never been attached to anyone before he met Eini.
Moreover, the places Shiba had been before going to the academy were areas of no interest, so he didn't need to worry about them.
Thus, Shiba and Eini continued to train with calm.
Eini was focusing on learning and mastering skills since she couldn't advance without harming her growth speed, while Shiba was focusing on reaching Rank 1, but he also spent a lot of time on his skills.
At that point, Shiba managed to master several of his old skills and learned some new ones.
However, the new ones were Major Healing, Water Healing, and Light Healing.
Shiba felt that he already had enough attack power, but he felt that Minor Healing was too weak, so he went to learn better ones after he mastered it.
He wasn't too talented on those, but with Eini's help and the academy's lessons, he managed to learn them.