Alice, Killian and Crystal were given the job of bringing Gilbert to their cultivation group. The main objective of Lux was to prepare a group of powerful friends who were able to defeat the 10 master rank Mages when the time of their attack came.
In the current situation, all the nations had around 700 Master rank Mages and around 10 Legend rank Mages in their nation. 10 legend rank Mages were capable of defeating a 1000 Master rank Mages. So, they were considered very valuable assets for the nation.
As the number of higher ranked Mages was kind of equal in all the nations, the probability of an all out war was very low. If any two nations were to form an alliance then, they could probably wipe out all the other nations.
But, the probability of this happening was very low because all the nations were in disagreement and conflict between each other. This kind of development also hadn't happened in Lux's previous life. No nation was trying to cooperate with other nations even if they wanted to win this war.
The nation of Abeloth had a lot of spies in Wyvern and was very active. They had actually killed most of the younger generation of Mages of Wyvern in Lux's previous life. It was also the nation that attacked him and his friends and killed them.
That was the reason for the downfall of the nation of Wyvern in his previous life. Only him and a few other Legend ranks were there to protect Wyvern at that time, so they were attacked being considered weak. But, they were all surprised by Lux's amazing powers as a Mage which let the nation survive that crisis.
Lux had known about the situation of spies in Wyvern and also in his academy but, he didn't exactly know who they were so he had decided to hide his strength to be the least targeted among all the students. He had decided on not showing his strength until he was strong enough or it was really required.
Lux goes to school as usual by doing some short morning practices. On his way, he as usual decides to wait for Killian but, as Killian doesn't show up so he goes towards school. He becomes worried thinking that Killian had been sick or something.
Lux enters the classroom as usual and quickly looks around to see if Dan had come to school today but he doesn't see Dan. He had wanted to contact and bring Dan to his cultivation group thinking that Dan was very capable and could grow really strong with the proper cultivation techniques.
He doesn't see Dan but, to his surprise he sees Killian already in the classroom talking with Gilbert along with Crystal and Alice. He realizes that he had given them the job of explaining and bringing Gilbert to their group. The major reason for this was because he didn't have a good relationship with Gilbert and had never even contacted him before, so he was hesitant to talk with Gilbert.
As the 3 others had built some sort of relation with him, Lux had given them the job of explaining and bringing Gilbert to their group.
After a while of them discussing, Killian, Alice and Crystal come towards Lux with a bittersweet expression on their faces. Lux was looking at them for a while but didn't know what they had actually talked about to get that bittersweet expression.
"Lux we have a somewhat troublesome situation." Killian said as he approached Lux.
Lux could already sense something was wrong while seeing their bittersweet expressions after talking with Gilbert and was expecting something went wrong.
"Hmm! What kind of troublesome situation ?" Lux questions them.
"We managed to explain the topic of cultivation to Gilbert and it was going well. But, ..." Crystal explains some parts but stops before saying something serious.
"But ??" Lux becomes somewhat confused as to why she didn't say the rest of the information and stopped with a but.
"Uhh, it was all going well until we told you that you were the one leading us. He didn't believe us and told us that he couldn't rely on someone who was even weaker than him." Alice finished the part which Crystal hadn't told.
Lux had already got the thorough explanation of the situation. He had totally understood Gilbert's concern regarding this matter. Even if Lux was placed in such a situation as Gilbert, he wouldn't just blindly follow a person who was considered weaker than himself.
He looked towards them thinking of telling them that it was fine if they couldn't succeed to make Gilbert join but, they all looked like they had something more to say. So, he kept quiet and waited for them to finish their say of the matter.
"We desperately tried to convince him and we settled on the agreement of letting him have a duel with you to prove your worth." Killian finally said after a moment of silence.
"We're sorry that we didn't consult with you before settling on this agreement." All 3 of them apologized at the same time to Lux.
Even for Lux, dueling was a major problem. He had already decided to stay under the covers until he was strong enough to face the spies but a very unexpected situation had been raised in front of him.
The problem was not with dueling itself but, rather the system of dueling in the academy. Dueling between students could be only done in the academy's arena where everyone could see the duel between students. Also, duels outside of special training classes were very rare, so a large crowd of students was to surely gather if they were to duel.
"Hmm, that is a very troublesome situation. I was thinking of staying under the covers and not showing my true skills until some time." Lux tells the 3 of them.
"Huh? So, you are actually not even scared of dueling but it's because you want to stay under the covers and hide your talent ? Hey Lux did you even know about the school leaderboard system ?" Crystal asks in a surprised tone.
It was not only Crystal but also both Killian and Alice who were surprised to know Lux was trying to lay low. The academy also had a leaderboard system which ranked the students. If you could beat the student at a higher rank in the leaderboard than yourself than, you will be ranked at that spot and the person will rank down.
It was actually a really amazing system because the top ranks in the leaderboards received special rewards like the dragon cultivation pills which could help the cultivation of the top ranks skyrocket even faster than the way Lux and his group were training.
If Lux were to get such a pill then, he could make the best use of them as they practiced different cultivation techniques that focused better on their main affinity.
Lux had already forgotten about the school leaderboard system. He remembers it after Crystal asks him if he knew about it.
'Hmm, The dragon cultivation pills are really useful for cultivation. I think after I reach level 80, I will go to challenge the current rank 1 and take the spot for the pills. After all these pills are so rare that they can't be bought even with the largest sum of money.' Lux thinks about the benefits of ranking first.
The dragon cultivation pills were really rare and only about 8 pills were provided by the nation dragon to their King every month. It was distributed really carefully as those were the pills that were required to create legend rank mages. So, it was distributed among the 7 academies in the nation very carefully with each academy getting 1 pill every month.
It helped the capable younger generation to grow faster and become one of the legend ranked Mages in the future. The remaining one pill was given to the nation's best Mage for their growth.
Lux realizes everyone was surprised to hear that he was lying low but, he didn't want to specify the reason and explain everything to them. So, he chose to joke this topic off with some other logic.
"You think that I won't be able to beat everyone in this academy ? If I wanted to even right now, I can definitely defeat the rank 1 of our academy." Lux says with huge confidence.
The 3 of them had known that Lux had a lot of great knowledge but couldn't believe the statement he just made. The rank 1 of their academy was Amelia who, as of right now was a level 20 intermediate. It was the greatest rank anyone in the history of the academy had reached at such an age.
She could already also be considered the youngest person in the whole nation to reach intermediate at just the third year of their Mage academy.
"There you go again joking around with that stupid little mouth of yours." Crystal says in an angry tone. She was actually angry with him ever since yesterday when he was treating Alice so nicely.
Lux couldn't understand why Crystal was annoyed so much after this joke. He always used to joke with her and Crystal used to be annoyed with him. But, today she was annoyed to the point of being angry with him.
"Well think as you like." Lux says without a sign of worry in his face.
"So, anyways I think you should call him to the Dark Energy lake today at night time. Say to him that I will have a duel with him over there today." Lux says again returning to his serious self after a little time of joking.
All the 3 of them looked at Lux thinking he was joking again but, seeing him with a serious expression, they all agreed to the idea of Lux. Later that day, they contacted Gilbert and made him clear of the time and place of the duel.
Gilbert was thinking this was some kind of joke at first but, after he saw the 3 of them talking with Lux and heard that he accepted the duel, he became serious on this matter. But, he couldn't understand why Lux had called him over the Dark Energy Lake rather than just dueling him at school.
'Maybe he is just trying to protect his dignity after losing to me. No!! I should never underestimate my opponents.' Gilbert thought and became determined to respect him opponent no matter who they were. This was actually one of the best traits of Gilbert. He had never underestimated an opponent which let him to grow and become one of the best even in the whole academy.
Gilbert quickly accepted Lux's decision at that place and time after thinking that. He was also ranked pretty high in the leaderboards for a first year. Even with the difference in levels, he had surpassed the higher class students with his techniques and abilities and took the spot of rank 40 in the entire school.
Everyone was amazed by this and they all praised him for being able to beat such high level opponents than him with techniques. So, he was already pretty confident against Lux who was considered to be a level 0 although he had not known if this was actually true or false.