Rio had just exited at the library, returning the scrolls and books he previously borrowed last night. He was on his way to club room.
Indeed, he phrased that right. The club room. Surprisingly, the club got approved quickly without much of a trouble. He didn't expect everything to go smoothly.
If he had a guess, it was most likely due to Director Guinevere and the status of Eugene in the Pendragon name.
Of course, while the club creation might've gone smoothly. Rio had not ever fantasize that his life would be fine after being a club leader, or mentor, for the four geniuses.
As for the matter of mentoring them, It wasn't even a problem to him. He planned to do so in the future if he had gotten the chance, but this club event drastically shortened the amount of time he needed and gave him the opportunities to do so.
With advanced knowledge of magic, unusual ways of improvement and skills of different origins. He will teach them some of those step by step, as for their learning capabilities? Is there even a need to doubt?
Arcuied, despite being an unknown enigma, was even more talented than Eugene. That was an amazing achievement, considering Eugene is the most talented kid in the whole Arthurian Empire right now.
Amber, while lacking a little, compensates with her hard working mentality and knowledgeable mind.
Xiao Long while eccentric and quirky, was a genius of alchemy and potion craft. A profession which has cruel and high requirements. That itself speaks of his talent.
At the matter of talent, how does it get measured?
It was really simple, It gets measured by two factors. Your natural accumulation of magic, and your spiritual sense.
Natural accumulation of magic, as it implies, is how fast does a person's Miracle Core accumulate magic in the surroundings.
For others, it could take a decade, or even longer, just to fill in their Miracle Core with magic to advance in another Rank.
The talented one's like Eugene and Arcuied for example, have faster accumulation. As teens they are already at the verge of breaking through Rank D.
To explain more throughly, a survey inside the whole empire announced a result that most people reach Rank D in their 30's.
However, even if you were a case of the former, someone that has slow accumulation of magic. It could be easily solved with items or products of Alchemy that gives you magic energy. While that was a viable solution, it was still a degraded rank up as most products of alchemy contains impurity in their magic.
Next, is the spiritual sense. He had already explained the basics of it, but in essence, Spiritual sense, is a person's ability to wield magic.
In a more conscise explanation, Spiritual Sense is an imaginary will that allows a person to use magic, and use that magic to affect reality in the form of skills.
A person's spiritual sense differs from one another.
A slow and useless one would take a decade to even wield the most basic skills.
A mediocre one would easily wield basic skills, but struggle on intermediate one's and above.
Geniuses, like Arcuied and Eugene, could easily wield basic and intermediate skills. In fact, the skills they used in the arena could even qualify as a master level skill.
That was how talent was measured. Samantha was most likely kicked out of her heiress position, because her spiritual strength is average.
That aside, he had sensed there were atleast six people following him. They might be obsecure and good at hiding, but with his ⟨Auto Sense⟩ he discovered them quickly.
Rio decided to just ignore them and proceed on walking, not like he had anything to say if he did catch them red handed.
While he was walking, a man obstructed him. Grey hair, shallow and young face. Rio didn't know him, nor did he ever see him in the academy.
"Please, come with me." The man ordered harshly, without room for objection.
"Who are you?" Rio asked, raising his eyebrows in confusion.
"Do not ask any questions, my liege wishes for you." The man replied coldly, as he approached Rio.
"I asked you," Rio quietly said codly as he looked at the man. Just Rank D. Well, he might as well use the next skill he synchronized, "Who are you?"
Bam!
"Ugh!" The man screamed in shock as he fell down, kneeling as he looked at Rio, specifically behind Rio. His body was trembling in sheer fear. His instincts were screaming to back down.
The only remaining thought on his head was to wish for forgiveness.
"It worked suprisingly well..." Rio muttered as he looked at the kneeling man. He used a synchronized skill called ⟨Pressure⟩ It's ability, as it implied exerting amplified pressure to others.
It worked well againts those below his rank, but would probably be useless when he encountered those above his rank.
Rio continued walking down the hallways, the club was near. He had noted the suprised looks of those that were following him. They seemed to have distanced and only occassionaly looked.
—
"W-what was that..!?" The kneeling man muttered in shock. He felt fear, and extreme intimidation. Frankly he was scared of the illusionary shadow behind the professor.
If it was just a Rank C pressure it wouldn't be enough to destroy his will, he was a servant of a Rank B noble for a long time.
But the pressure he felt was different. It materialized at the form of a shadow of the man. He only saw the large maw of the shadow, a gluttunios greed that can never be satiated.
—
Rio opened the door and entered the room. The room was the place where their club took part. He observed the surroundings, he noted that it was unneccessarily large.
There was a large TV, a soft and comfty couch and even a pool. This was more like a hotel than a club, Rio thought as he oddly looked at the place.
"Oh, it's Professor Rio!" Eugene loudly called as he waved his hands, he was sitting in the couch with Amber.
"Awe struck by the room?" Eugene said as he proudly smirked.
"Ridiculous," Rio muttered.
"I agree with you, professor." Amber commented as she heard the low mutter.
"In any case, make your self comfortable, Sir Rio." Eugene said as he stood up and gone to the other side of the room.
Rio nodded as he looked at where Eugene was going. The other side of the room had a lab and small training area at both of it's corners.
Xiao, understandably, was in the lab area. The lab area was covered with hard glass. He was making something in there.
Arcuied, on the other, hand was on the training area. He held a wooden sword as he struck it, directing the sword to a training dummy.
"Well, It seemed that this wasn't entirely nonsense." Rio commented as he watched both of the students train their craft.
He followed Eugene, as both of them approached Arcuied.
Arcuied was too focused to notice that there were two people that was watching him. He only striked, thrusted and slashed. Unaware of the surroundings.
"Hey." A voice called out behind Arcuied as he instinctively slashed his wooden sword in response.
Tak!
It was obstructed by a wooden spear. He looked at the one holding it, and as he expected it was Eugene. He also noticed that his professor was there too.
"Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself." Arcuied said as he bowed apologetically.
"No worries, that's why I brought a spear with me." Eugene replied with a smile.
"Good afternoon, professor." Arcuied greeted as he looked at Rio at the back.
"Mhm." Rio nodded wordlessly as he commented, "Your swordsmanship is good, yet a little lacking."
While he had close to none knowledge of the sword, instinctually he noticed that while it was good it lacked some things. He didn't even know he held instinctual knowledge to noticing things. Even though he knew it was flawed, he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.
"Do you know how to improve then?" Arcuied asked in a hopeful tone. He needed to improve his swordsmanship, he realized there was something lacking. But he didn't know what.
Rio was about to answer, but Eugene intervened.
"Do that later. Now we have professor, let's fight." Eugene said with a smile as he held his wooden spear tightly. Oh, how he was quite excited for this.
"Fine." Arcuied surrendered in approval as he took a step back and held his sword.
"What's my part in this?" Rio asked unaware.
"The referee, or the life-guard. I might accidentally kill Arcuied." Eugene said with a snigger as he mocked Arcuied.
"Yeah, yeah, in your dreams." Arcuied merely sighed in response.
"Oh, sure." Rio replied as he accepted the offer. He was interested in the outcome of this match. These were two key characters in the novel afterall.