Kai made his way towards his seat. As he walked he took a look around and decided to button up his shirt.
He didn't want to do it because he felt like he was boiling alive. But he already was missing his uniform so he chose to try to stand out a little bit less.
He finally found his chair. To his right were three seats. Two directly next to him were taken by two men.
They were wearing the same coloured uniform as the inquisitive woman from earlier. The third seat was currently empty but Kai felt like he knew who would sit there.
The two men looked to be twins. They both had long hair and similar appearance with slight differences.
One had Silver hair, amber eyes and tanned skin with silver eyeshadow around his eyes. The other one had pale skin, golden hair and silver eyes with golden eyeshadow around his eyes.
They both had various rings on their fingers and earrings that matched their respective hair colour.
To his left were six seats that were all occupied. Kai decided to not bother looking in their direction as he could feel them staring at him. Thankfully the twins didn't pay any attention to him and looked to be stuck in their world.
A few minutes later a loud voice echoed throughout the room.
"Please take your seats and remain silent."
As soon as the final word came out the room fell silent as every seat became filled.
As expected the woman from earlier sat in the empty seat to the right of Kai. As she passed him on the way to her seat she glared daggers at Kai.
Kai immediately became baffled about why she'd look at him like that.
'Why is she looking at me like that? Did I do something to her? I don't think I said anything to piss her off... Maybe I'm just overthinking things and she wasn't looking at me.'
Not long later the same voice from earlier once again echoed throughout the room. It was a strong yet elderly voice. It felt joyful yet sombre at the same time.
"Welcome to the Royal Academy. You are all about to begin a journey toward unimaginable power and glory. With the guidance of our world-class members of staff.
Here you will not only learn the most efficient ways of gaining levels. You will also learn the most effective way to defeat monsters, use your skills and how to efficiently work as a team.
The world is an unforgiving and competitive place and this fact is true even here. The top 10 highest levelled students of this year will be displayed for everyone to see around the academy.
The list will be updated in real-time and there is only one way to climb up the rankings once the initial top 10 is set. The way you climb is to defeat someone on the list in a ranked duel.
You can only challenge those who are higher up in the ranking and once you reach the number one spot you are no longer allowed to refuse duels.
Holding the spot of the strongest student is an enormous responsibility. Some will look up to you while others will envy you. There will be grand rewards based on your ranking distributed monthly.
At the end of the year, students will also receive special rewards based on how much they improved. Not only this, but they will also gain rewards based on the spot in the ranking they ended the year on and how long they've held that spot.
This will of course give some students a seemingly unfair advantage in the next year. The gap would only grow between those at the top and those at the bottom. The unfortunate truth is that life is unfair.
You are bound to meet those stronger than you, smarter than you, luckier than you, more prepared than you or any other possibility out there. If you don't want to fall behind then work hard to prove yourself. Don't give up and keep striving for a brighter tomorrow.
Those at the top will more often than not become complacent and lazy, their growth speed is bound to slow down. Only through hard work and perseverance will you be able to catch up and compete for top placement in the rankings!
With these pleasantries out the way, I'd like to officially begin the ceremony of transparency. Please walk up towards the 'Gem of Veritas' once your name is called and place the palm of your hand upon it.
Afterwards, basic information such as your name, age, level and stats will be displayed for all to see. This information will not be updated so it will be up to you to do your intelligence gathering.
Best of luck in the future. I am excited for the future that you all will help usher in."
[Status Effect: Clear-minded]
'Huh? Did that voice cast a skill? That seems dangerous...'
Kai was shocked at the fact that he was given a status effect. It might have been a positive one but what if whoever cast it had nefarious thoughts?
A round of applause resounded throughout the room, everyone seemed to be happy with that long-winded speech. Seeing how no one seemed to be bothered by the status effect Kai chose to forget about it.
{Nix Sunflower}
The first name was called and the woman who blocked Kai earlier stood up and made her way up the steps towards the 'Gem of Veritas'
'Sunflower... Sunflower... hmm. Doesn't ring a bell.' Kai tried to remember what position her family had but he just couldn't. He had a terrible habit of forgetting things that weren't important to him and unfortunately that was most things out there...
Nix walked up toward the gem and place her palm on it. A second later information started displaying from the top of the gem.
[Name: Nix Sunflower]
[Age: 18]
[Level: 29]
__________
Her stats were displayed right after but at that point, Kai had looked away. The stat distribution of others wasn't important to him. He would already most likely forget the names, ages and levels of most of the other students.
He didn't need to also add a bunch of numbers to the list of things he'd forget. Plus the number of stat points invested was most likely going to be the same for everyone. The only thing that would differ would be the distribution.
There might be some special circumstances like his where people have gained stat points through hard work and not levelling, but Kai didn't believe that it would be the case or at least not too common.
Applause thundered as Nix started to walk back to her seat. She glanced at Kai and gave him a taunting smirk which made him raise his eyebrow in confusion once again.
'What does she want with me? Do I already know her or something? No way she is angry about my uniform still. Right?'
"OMG, can you believe that Nix is already level 29? She must be the highest levelled first year by a large margin."
Kai heard some people chatting behind him which should have made him realize that he was overthinking things.
The truth of the matter was simple. Nix thought Kai disrespected her so at this moment she was trying to flex her high level to scare him a bit.
Unfortunately for her, Kai was a bit dense when it came to things like this. He didn't care about any rankings or how strong someone was. He just thought that Nix was a weirdo with some issues.
{Gol Sunflower}
{Sil Sunflower}
The twins sitting right next to Kai were called up after Nix. They both were level 22 and 18 years of age. Kai quickly summarized that everyone here was likely to be 18 so why even show that information?
It didn't make sense but it wasn't important. As Gol and Sil finally sat down it was Kai's turn.
{Kai Rose}
As Kai heard his name he stood up and started walking toward the crystal. Some whispers could be heard if one listened closely enough about the fact that he was missing his uniform. People weren't sure if it was a member of the prestigious and famous Rose family or if it was a coincidence.
Nix had a small almost imperceptible smirk on her face as she thought to herself.
'Haha, I can't wait to see that rude Rose brat embarrass himself. Who does he think he is walking away like that? Didn't even ask me my name after introducing himself. That's just common manners. It's like he has never interacted with people before...'
Completely unaware of the thoughts that were going through Nix's head Kai happily made his way to the gem. Once he did this he would no longer have to pay attention and could just daydream until it was time to go home.
Kai placed his hand on the gem as his information slowly became revealed.
[Name: Kai Rose]
[Age: 19]
[Level: 22]
"Surprisingly not bad" Nix spoke under her nose. She was honestly surprised with Kai's level. It was still far from being impressive but at least the rude brat had some redeeming qualities.
What she saw next however made her eyes bulge out of her skull.
"W-what's with his stats?"
Questions like this exploded around the room. Kai was level 22 yet he had the stats that a level 30 would have.
Kai walked down the stage, completely oblivious to the chatter of other students. He was busy planning the rest of his day after he was done with the academy for the day.
As he walked down the steps his gaze met Nix's whose eyes were large and mouth slightly agape. He thought it would be funny to give the weirdo her own medicine so just as she did moments prior. He too winked at her and smirked in a taunting manner.
Nix clenched her fist and took a deep breath to compose herself.
"That rude brat. Who does he think he is smirking at me like that? Just because his stats are higher. I will show him who the real top dog is."
While Nix was thinking of ways to teach Kai some respect. The latter was busy thinking of the fun he could have in the capital.
_____________________
A/N: This chapter was a bit of an info dump in a way as I wanted to introduce some characters albeit briefly and add some fluff to make the academy more fun/exciting even if we won't spend much time here.
There are 6 more major(ish) characters that I have yet to introduce. They are 6 members of the 3 other ducal houses. I will introduce them in the future but for now I didn't want to spam you guys with new characters especially when they won't be important for some time.
If you've enjoyed this then please make sure to vote with your Power Stones! I believe we can easily get another 50 power stones before the end of the week, and unlock another bonus chapter!