"Good morning, the great warriors of Eldoria. I know everyone here knows me, but let me introduce myself as a custom.
I am Adam. The one blessed to be appointed by our great Emperor to look after this planet..."
The Zenith Lord's speech was friendly, like a simple chat between families.
He started with simple praises for those selected into Zenith, and the achievements of veteran runners.
The newbies were in awe, Noah included. It was blood-boiling to hear how Zenith runners became heroes of countless planets overturned by Rift breaks, and how much the outside world respected those from Shooting Stars.
When the topic changed to the dimension break, the venue was already at a boiling point of confidence.
That's when Noah understood why the Zenith Lord had called this gathering.
'He wants to dispel panic among the common populace in Zenith so they can unleash their maximum potential.'
"...Now, after a hundred years, we're welcoming a dimension break." Adam stopped, glancing at the surrounding crowd with satisfaction.
The previous uncertainty was gone, replaced by a newfound confidence.
That's all he wanted.
"I know some of you are thinking about the great loss of a Shooting Star and millions of lives. But what I'm thinking about is our Emperor and His party."
His words contained a raging excitement that, like a contagious virus, spread to the surrounding runners.
"At that time, such a situation was unheard of. Still, our Emperor and His party emerged victorious, ushering in a new era of humanity.
A hundred years later, another such situation has occurred again. But we knew about it beforehand, and we have time to face it.
What do we have to fear now?
Maybe our opponents will be strong, dangerous, and numerous. But wasn't this the same a hundred years ago?
Didn't we still win in the end? I believe this time will be the same. We can—no, we will win.
Another breaking point of humanity is at our doorstep, my friends. What we must do now is welcome it with open arms..."
The Zenith Lord continued for two hours, and most of the time, Noah enjoyed it with the rest of the runners.
Then he zoned out as he felt bored by the obvious propaganda in the speech.
Somehow, the Zenith Lord made it sound like the birth of a new Emperor was near, from them.
He just scoffed at it. Modrich had written that the life expectancy of a Tier 50 runner was in the millions.
Considering that the current Emperor had a lot of time before dying.
When the topic changed to tutors, Noah started to pay attention again. As Kaia had said, a tutor was their leader, and they were absolutely ordered to follow their lead.
They didn't need to worry about tutors giving unfair orders, as every tutor had monitoring devices connected to them.
The tutors would be graded according to certain criteria, which would affect their graduation score.
Noah had no idea what this graduation score was, and the Zenith Lord explained it in vague details. The general idea was that a high graduation score was a plus point for a runner's future.
Not all runners wanted to work in high-risk Rifts; graduation points could help them find safer jobs or even retire with a huge amount of credits.
When the Zenith Lord stopped speaking, it was already afternoon. Most of the runners had tired looks on their faces, but all of them were in high spirits.
Next, the Principal introduced him as Albert Coronado and explained a little about the division of classes.
Then the gathering was dismissed with loud applause from the crowd.
The new runners' syllabus had changed. Now they had four theoretical classes, and everyone was less than excited about this.
Also, they had to select a support class, which forced them to have busy schedules and left no time to run a dungeon.
This wasn't what Noah had hoped for, but he had no other choice.
The academy started at 8 AM and ended at 5 PM. Before or after this time, they had to mandatorily train with their respective tutor for three hours.
Noah groaned at this. He hated the thought of training with that woman. Speaking of that woman...he glanced around.
"Where is she?" he thought, failing to see her. Anyway, he wasn't interested to know about that.
He and Luna parted ways as he wanted to go to market while she had to register at library.
* *
Inside a room, three people sat together. Adam Zenith glanced at the Night Guardian with furrowed brows.
"Are you sure about that? Allowing inexperienced runners for a rift…that's foolish, isn't it?" His gaze flickered to the man sitting opposite.
Albert Coronado rubbed his white beard in contemplation. The Night Guardian's suggestion was good.
But, as Adam said, allowing newbies to challenge a rift before training at the academy was dangerous. They absolutely never wished to have casualties because of that.
"Did runners outside challenge a rift after training from the academy?" The Night Guardian's cold voice sounded a little mocking.
"If outsiders can challenge a rift without prior training and clear it, why didn't our people do the same?
Or do you two think we aren't better than them?"
Adam and Albert fell silent. After a while, Adam sighed.
"Night is correct. Having prior experience in a rift is a good thing for them before they challenge a multidimensional rift.
I will arrange a mass rift run at the end of this month before the dimensional break. In that way, we can also find the result of our training."
"Good.." the Night guardian nodded disappearing from there. Albert looked at her position few moments, then activated a sound barrier.
"What do you think about Night actively coming with a suggestion? I doubt a conspiracy in it.." his words contained worry that might surprise anyone.
The powerful principle of Zenith academy seemed be be defensive about one of the guardians of Zenith!
Adam shook his head.
"I don't really know. It's surprising she even come to event today.
Considering last time she appeared is when those three in Zenith, I doubt someone realy caught her attention."
Albert shivered thinking about poor souls unintentionally attracted by the most dangerous being in the whole Zenith.
"I hope it will be not like that year.." Albert said quietly,