"What? Oh!" Claude smiled awkwardly and pulled his broom aside.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he forgot that he was in front of a classroom. Fortunately he didn't conjure up a spell just now.
He glanced at the timid looking girl and smiled lightly.
At this moment, an arrogant voice sounded, "Hmph! Stand aside, lest you dirty my clothes! I have prepared this for today specifically!"
"Oh my god! Vaun is picking a fight again! With a janitor at that! How shameless"
"Shh! He might hear you. But I agree, his shamelessness knows no bounds."
"Granted, he is one of the school's geniuses. Not to mention, he's also apart of the Elementals. Even if he's arrogant, he has the capital to back it up."
"Here you go again licking his ass."
…
Claude frowned and followed the direction of the voice. Surprisingly, it was the student who he 'copied' earlier—Vaun Terranova!
Having no choice, he backed away even further.
'Forbearance is not cowardice, nor is it submissive.' He said silently in his heart.
"That's right." Vaun flicked his sleeves arrogantly and snorted as he walked inside the classroom.
"Vaun are you gonna shut up or do I need to shut you up?"
At this moment, an ridiculing voice came in from the classroom.
Everyone hurriedly looked inside and found a blonde girl with her feet on the table glancing at Vaun with cold eyes.
Although Vaun felt angry, even fuming, he didn't respond and merely glared at at the girl.
Claude didn't stay any longer and went back to work. As he worked, he didn't forget to go to other classrooms to 'copy' them.
Among the people he copied includes a Fire-born, a Water-born, and a Wind-born. He also copied teachers to gain more knowledge about magic.
As of now, his status panel looked like this.
[Host: Claude Dawnbreaker]
[Aptitude: Genius]
[Dominant Elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind]
[Skills: Intermediate Fire Magic, Intermediate Water Magic, Intermediate Earth Magic, Intermediate Wind Magic]
[Innate Talents: Fire-born, Water-born, Earth-born, Wind-born.]
[Rank: Pinnacle 4th-Rank Mage]
"This should be enough to protect myself. In case of a Beast Tide, I don't need to wait for aid to come to me. I can just use the spell [Windrider] to escape." Claude said quite satisfied as he looked at his status panel.
"Why would you need to protect yourself? Even if a Beast Tide occurs, the city guards are enough to fend them. Furthermore, a Beast Tide is a rare occurrence. In the last five years, only five Beast Tide occured. Meaning only one every year does a Beast Tide happen." At this moment, a female voice sounded in his ears.
"Hmph! It doesn't hurt to be cautious!" Claude retorted, "By the way, why are you here? Shouldn't you be teaching class right now?"
Naturally, he knew this person. She was Alfie, a teacher in Myriad Kingdom's Magic School. She was also the person who gave him this janitorial job.
Alfie looked at Claude as though he was an idiot. She explained, "Today is the inter-school competition. Why else would everyone study hard during these past few weeks? It's precisely to not lose face in the inter-school competition."
Feeling that it was logical, Claude nodded.
"How about you? How's your goal going? I heard that you weren't even qualified to become an Essence Practitioner." Alfie asked, her tone becoming lower as she finished her sentence.
As childhood friends, she knew Claude's ambitions. When they were kids, he would usually boast about becoming a powerful mage when he grows up.
However, he suddenly stopped when he learned that he doesn't have any aptitude in magic. It only reignited a few weeks ago when he started finding ways to cure his ineptitude.
When he heard Alfie's question, he looked at her with a 'pained expression' and said, "I'm actually an already powerful mage!"
Knowing that Claude is merely comforting himself and that she said the wrong words, she changed topics and said, "How about we go and watch the Inter-school competition? Although the result will be the same, with Myriad Kingdom's Magic School being utterly defeated, it should still be a fun watch. We can also see the progress of other schools. I heard that a Dual-born genius appeared in Aizen's Imperial Magic Academy. "
Claude merely nodded and got up. He knew that she didn't believe him.
Sigh, nobody believes the truth nowadays!
If he told her that he was a Quadruple-born and a 4th-Rank Mage, he doesn't know how she would react.
...
The Inter-school competition was held in Aizen's Imperial Magic Academy Gym.
The gym was large and could contain about twenty-five thousand people. It was built similar to an NBA stadium in Claude's previous life, with a large open space in the middle and bleachers surrounding it.
Despite the large capacity, the gym was packed full of people cheering for their respective schools.
The school participating in this year's Inter-school competition was: Myriad Kingdom's Magic School, River City's School of Magics, Runaan's Institute of Magic, and Aizen's Imperial Magic Academy.
Among them, Aizen's Imperial Magic Academy was the most distinguished school, having a heritage of thousands of years. Of course, their school here in Myriad Kingdom is merely a branch, the true Aizen's Imperial Magic Academy is in Imperial Kingdom.
Claude and Alfie sat in the bleachers as they eagerly watched the upcoming competition.
When the emcee arrived at the middle of the stage, he glanced around with a smile. This caused everyone to quiet down.
When everything was quiet, he magnified his voice using mana manipulation and said, "In this year's Inter-school competition, our purpose is still the same—to provide each and everyone a chance to hone their skills by battling with each other..."
The emcee gave a very long speech about the Inter-school competition's purpose, teamwork, friendship, etc. It came to a point where faint snoring could be heard from the crowd.
Eventually...
"I hereby announce the commencement of the Inter-school competition!"