Jake returned home, after enjoying a shopping trip with his friend Thea or should say she enjoyed the trip and he endured it with a pure fake smile. He couldn't do anything about it, as it was his suggestion to go on a shopping trip.
He did so to appease her. He thought that she would forget about the results which she did for a while but they still came up when the shopping ended.
During this shopping trip, Jake came to learn that Thea got an A+ in all theoretical exams, but the combat rating given was A. She is at level 7 but for some reason, she was deprived of an A+ grade.
Jake has no idea how the grades were allocated in the first place to judge whether they were graded based on their levels or not.
Whatever factors they were based on has nothing to do with him. if it was before the exams, he should have thought about that but he never did.
People always think about things only after the fact. They regret on why they never thouht about it and would have done things differently if they had thought that but there is no regret pill.
Whatever is done is done. There is nothing that can be done to change that.
All he could do was to make sure that they would never repeat the same mistakes again.
In the chatter that proceeded with Thea, Jake learned that James Davidson, the one who awakened the SS-class profession and reached level 10 before the exam didn't do much in theory. His highest was C and that too only in one subject. In the other two, he got a D and a D-.
Even though James scored so low, he is not in any trouble. He reached level 10, so he was given S+ in combat.
When Jake heard about this rating, he wondered if he had remembered the grades given in exams, to which Thea clarified.
Since he was the first to reach such a high level, and giving only an A+ didn't feel right, the authorities have created new ratings, especially for him.
Until now, everyone thought that A+ was the highest but now S-, S, and S+ exist, all because of James and for that he would forever be recorded in the annals of history.
From this Jake partially understood how the grades were given. They had nothing to do with how well you perform in the exams.
If you have a good profession with a higher rating and reach a level that can be considered good, then the overall ratings would be based on that, not on theoretical exams.
---
Jake entered Yaros, once he returned home.
He is only at level 10 and needs to achieve another 10 levels before he can rank up. Yes, the first rank-up happens at level 20, which most geniuses and high-rank professions would reach before the academy opens.
The academy would open in a month and before that, it is important for Jake to rank up. Not only that, he wants to reach level 50, which is the limit before the second rank-up.
This would be almost impossible as even reaching level 30 or 40 would be very difficult but Jake has an EX-Class profession and that means he would improve faster than others.
If not for his deliberate act of showing weakness, he would have reached level 10 by the time of the exams. Reaching such a level would definitely attract the attention of everyone, especially the Villain of his life.
He is too weak at this point and has to be low-key but that doesn't mean he has to be low-key once he reaches Rank-3, which is at level 90.
Jake's parents were Rank-4, which means they crossed level 150. What's their true level he has no idea but he knew that they didn't reach Rank-5, which happens at level 220.
The one he wants to get rid of should have been around their rank when they went to explore the ruins with him. Now it has been years since that happened. So there is a high chance that the bastard reached Rank-6, at level 300 and maybe even close to Rank-7, ie. at level 390.
As Jake improves, so does that bastard. So Jake has no idea at which point he can reveal himself truly but once he reaches Rank-3, he would start enacting his plan of revenge.
Jake may fail if he attacks that bastard directly but Jake knew that there are more ways to bring down that son of a bitch and that is exactly what he is going to do.
From the moment he learned about how his parents actually died, Jake has been preparing how to take down the son of a bitch.
He was angry but he was not an idiot to directly confront the bastard, after all, Joseph made sure that he taught Jake everything that he knew.
One of the things that Joseph taught Jake was to never take decisions or actions when in anger or drunk. In either case, your brain would be intoxicated, and the decisions you make in those situations would bite back.
It helped Jake and he didn't act recklessly which would have cost him his life.
Instead of acting recklessly, he learned everything that is there to know about that bastard. He was a friend of his parents and so there was a lot of information regarding him stored at home.
Other things were collected by Joseph before he died of old age.
That bastard has a lot of business in the world. Some are powerful and net him a lot, while some are small and only net that bastard very little.
Jake decided to start from those low-level businesses, which that bastard may have even forgotten that they existed in the first place.
The problem was that Jake couldn't attack the business in the city that he lives in. That bastard was for some reason suspicious that the relic came to the family. if anything happens in this city, then that bastard's mind would turn towards Jake, even if there was no evidence that says so.
So Jake decided to start elsewhere.
Where?
Jake had no idea but he was sure that he would certainly get the chance and he would know then.