At a quarter before 10 am.
Jill parked the car in the open parking area across the road from the main gate of the academy.
As the top academy in the city, the Cloud Academy's campus grounds alone already cover an area of almost 3 acres or 2 and a half American football fields.
There was a 3-meter wide and 5-meter tall concrete wall surrounding the inner part. Also, there was a 4-meter-tall wall of thick bushes on the outer part, and the open parking lot was even 1/3 of the campus grounds.
Since Jill had to go back to the villa and pick up his wife, he didn't stay long after seeing Zein safely cross the road and enter the main gate. Both Jill and Amanda work as mercenaries who specialize in the securing of both direct and indirect procurement of general products.
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Meanwhile, after stepping inside the main gate of Cloud Academy, Zein was lost in thought.
It's been 10 years, huh?
For Zein, who left the academy to join the mercenary guild after his parents' passing.
He missed a lot of fun memories. Mostly those times with the friends he'd made during middle school and high school.
Unfortunately, he hadn't seen them again after dropping from the academy because he'd been busy as a mercenary.
On that note, it'd be good if I can stay in touch with them this time. I'll need some help, after all.
He then remembered his building. It was on that far-left side.
As he was about to take a step. He heard someone shouting his name, which is quite unique, from behind.
"Zein! Zein!"
"Zein brother!"
Zein looked back and saw two boys waving at him while running slowly.
As they came to him, he finally remembered their names.
Miles Fischer, he was already 18 years old, he had an average build and always wore his fancy oversized eyeglasses.
Jack Galley, this guy was a bit sporty, he's good-looking but his noticeably buffed muscles looked as if he'd been going to the gym 2 hours a day for a whole year now.
These two had been his buddies for 7 years. Miles' father was an early-stage master-ranked awakened who sadly passed away 2 years ago, while his mother is now also a middle-stage master like his mother Amanda.
As for Jack's father and mother, they both became early-stage masters 3 years ago and haven't advanced since then.
At this time, 10 years after the emergence of the tower. The current strongest awakened is still at the middle-stage of grandmaster rank. It's not because of the lack of resources. But the lack of strong forces.
While there were many monsters still surrounding the tower, most of the lower-ranked demon beasts that could allow the awakened to grow stronger were under the protection of the stronger demon beasts, leading to almost a stalemate between the two sides.
Before his return, it was only after someone advanced to the early-stage Lord rank that they were able to break the balance and continuously eliminate the monsters around the tower.
When tens of Lord-ranked advanced, they successfully cleared the demon beasts outside the tower and managed to open the portal leading to the first floor of the tower by the year 873.
At that time, Zein was still at the middle-stage Warrior rank, exploiting his talent before entering the first floor.
The story goes on like that until the year 880, when he became one of the youngest lords at the age of 27. However, there were rumors that the youngest lord-ranked awakened at that time was from the Luan Alliance, at the age of 23.
Anyway, the three were talking about the happenings from the previous day as they were walking to their classroom.
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Upon reaching their room, Zein saw many familiar yet unfamiliar faces, like Marcus and Lana. These two had been in a relationship since last year, and they had hidden it quite well if not for Jack telling him about this on their way here.
Fortunately, Zein still remembered his seat from the old fragments in his memory.
It's the third row, last column. Right beside the window.
When he sat there were still 8 minutes left before classes started, so he surfed the internet to refresh his memory of what might happen soon.
After exactly 8 minutes, the teacher came in and went straight to her desk.
Clair Curtis...
Ms. Curtis was one of the new instructors from last year. Although she's only 28 or 29, she's already an early-stage master and will advance to middle-stage master-rank next year, according to his memory. It was quite the topic even among the young mercenaries at the frontlines who came from Evergreen City. At that time, Zein had just become a warrior awakened.
*slam*
*slam*
"Alright. Everyone, be quiet. I have something to announce." Ms. Curtis suddenly slammed the thick folder in her hands to order the students to focus and be quiet.
"The awakening ceremony will be done in five batches. And the first batch will start in 45 minutes."
"Although the location of your awakening can be anywhere, it's become a tradition for everyone to do it at school so that we can register you all to the Federal Security Bureau Agents that will come to observe the ceremony on the spot."
"This time, your class is among the first batch, so we will now go down to the congregation area behind Building A."
"Come follow me, everyone." Ms. Clair added as she stood up and walked to the door, signaling the students to come out as well.
As they passed by the other classes, some classmates told those, who're still in their rooms, from the other batches about the changes.
When they left the building, they saw other students in line going the same way as them.
Mr. Rocha, their physics instructor, wished them good luck in their awakening, receiving appreciation from the students.
As they arrived at the congregation area, there were a little less than 200 students already seated on their chairs, waiting for further instructions.
After waiting for 15 minutes, they saw some officials walking to their seats by the side of the podium. There were some from the Federal Security Bureau, City Hall's Office, guests from the Military, the heads of the departments of the academy, and there were also some people from other branches of the Federation's various departments.
As the clock neared the scheduled time, the ceremony's speaker finally came up the podium to introduce those officials, which garnered rounds of applause from the students.
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"And now, we will call your names one by one. Those who are called will come toward the awakening crystal near them. Let's start with Kyle Murphy, Joan Silver, Star Johnson..."
With the start of calling the names in the list, ten students stood up and went to touch the awakening crystal.
"Kyle Murphy, talent: C-grade."
"Joan Silver, talent: C-grade."
"Star Johnson, talent: B-grade."
"Allen Windwhisper, talent: D-grade."
"..."
Just like that, after 20 minutes, at least 120 students had already awakened their systems.
"Jared Sanders, talent: S-grade!" This time, the announcer noticeably spoke with a much louder voice.
"What? It's an S-grade!"
"He's the first to awaken an S-grade talent in two years!"
"And he's also a grandchild of General Sanders, the new supervising General of Federal Security Bureau in our Evergreen City!"
"Yeah, and last year, no one had managed to awaken an S-grade. Fortunately, more than 25 awakened their A-grade talents."
"But S-grade is still much better than 50 A-grades, you know?"
"I know, I know."
The students talked with one another after someone finally awakened an S-grade.
For a top academy like Cloud Academy, it's not unusual to have someone awaken their S-grade on the campus grounds; however, last year, literally not a single S-grade appeared.
This time, the officials from the Federal Security Bureau stood up to congratulate Jared with a handshake.
"Congratulations, Jared, your grandfather will surely be more proud of you!" A lieutenant came and congratulated him.
"Thank you, Sir!" Jared proudly said.
Another 15 minutes passed.
After Jared's S-grade awakening, 16 students came up and awakened with their A-grade talents.
"Luna, Luna Evergreen, talent: S-grade!" compared to when Jared awakened his S-grade.
Luna's S-grade was much livelier. Of course, not only because she awakened an S-grade, but also because she was the only daughter of the City Lord. A well-known early-stage grandmaster's only daughter had awakened her S-grade. Who wouldn't want make a connection with such a person?
With the S-grade talent alone, she is guaranteed to advance to grandmaster rank in at least 2 or 3 years.
"Next, from the last class of the first batch. Miles Fischer, Jenny Hill, Jack Galley..."
"Miles and Jack, good luck to you two." Zein wished them luck as stood up and walked to the podium. Miles, with sweaty and shaking hand, slowly touched the crystal.
"Miles Fischer, talent: B-grade." As his system was activated, he first checked what kind of B-grade talent it was.
{| Name: Miles Fischer
{| Rank: Apprentice, Early-stage
{| Title: None
{| Talent: Silver Tongue(B)
{| Skill: None
{| Physique: E-
{| Mana: E
{| Attribute Point: 0
{| Skill Point: 1
{| System Coin:
{| [Quest]
{| [Guild]
{| [Inbox]
{| [Inventory]
{| - Beginner's Random Skill Stone(common)
{| Silver Tongue(B): Can persuade others with ease, gaining favorable terms in trade, alliances, or even diplomacy.
Silver tongue? Should I become a scammer now?
"No way. No way that's the only use of this..." As Miles murmured to himself, he went back to his chair and told Zein about this.
"Silver Tongue, huh? That's actually a suitable talent for businessmen you know. If you want to create your own company, that's gonna be your biggest asset." Zein said as he gestures with his hands that he was in favor of this talent.
"Business? Did my mother had similar talent? Sigh. At least I won't need to worry about losing money in the future." Miles agreed as he suddenly let out a villainous chuckles. He he he