Chapter 185: The Start of the Second Year

Chapter 185: Chapter 185: The Start of the Second Year

Jeremy returned to the academy at noon on the eighteenth day of the new semester.

Completely unlike the bustling atmosphere of the new students, the Anima department area at this time was strangely quiet.

When he returned to classroom 659, he saw that the other four had all arrived.

Evelyn sat in the back row on the left, flipping through a chin-high pile of ancient tomes page by page.

Phoenix sat in the back row on the right, his hood pulled down low, unclear whether he was asleep or awake.

Leon occupied the entire middle row, his legs propped up on the desk.

As for Lucius, he sat right next to the window, exactly beside Jeremy’s usual spot - he had even pulled out the chair next to him.

Seeing him enter, Leon lowered his legs: "You’re back. Are you done?"

"Done." Jeremy walked over to his seat: "The documents have reached the royal family, the Divine Temple, and the Magic Tower."

"That fast?" Leon raised an eyebrow: "Any response from the Tower?"

"Not yet. But probably not much longer."

That "not much longer" turned out to be even shorter than he thought.

That very afternoon, while the group was still reviewing the schedule for the new semester, all five of their Magic Spirit cards buzzed simultaneously.

An official announcement from the academy, marked with a red star - the highest priority level.

[Urgent Notice: Starting this semester, the entire curriculum for all grades will be adjusted. Practical combat courses against Wasteland magical beasts will be elevated to mandatory courses for all students from the second year onwards. Details will be disseminated by the guiding instructors within the week.]

After reading it, Leon whistled: "Truly fast. Less than a day."

Evelyn closed the book in her hand: "Meaning they’ve finished verifying it."

Jeremy nodded.

The three major factions would never act this fast if they weren’t certain. St. Aetherwing Academy - directly managed by both the empire and the Magic Tower - changing its entire curriculum in just one day meant that what he brought back had been acknowledged.

And it also meant that the thing approaching was real.

The other four all understood that. The classroom fell silent for a while.

Ultimately, Phoenix was the one to break the silence.

He pushed his hood up, revealing his blood-red eyes: "So where do we start?"

Jeremy had been thinking about that question the entire journey from the capital back here.

"Realm." He replied: "The condition to open the inheritance is tier four. It contains the Ashbloom Flower seed."

Leon frowned: "Tier four? You’re at Intermediate Stage Six-Star. The fastest would also take three to four years."

"I know."

"Three to four years." Leon tapped his fingers on the desk: "Just in time for my blood pact’s deadline."

No one answered that.

But no one acted as if they didn’t hear it either.

Evelyn was the first to speak up: "Then it has to be faster than three years."

She spoke as if reporting a number, adding no extra emotion. But precisely because of that, it sounded like a finalized conclusion.

Lucius, who had been silent all this time, only now tilted his head over, resting his chin on his hand and looking at Jeremy: "Which path does the Captain intend to take?"

Jeremy summoned the light screen, opening his personal data section.

Intermediate Stage Six-Star. Six skills - three of his own, three shared from Sylas.

"Normally, there’s not enough time." He said: "So we have to take an abnormal path."

"For example?" Leon asked.

"For example, the Soul Crystal." Jeremy pointed at the realm line on the screen: "The instructor gave each of us one last semester, telling us to wait until the blood moon night to swallow it. I already swallowed it. But that was only one crystal."

He paused for a beat: "In the ring the instructor gave us at the seabed palace, there are Holy Water Soul Pearls and Obsidian Star Divine Stones. Both are related to the soul and the sea of consciousness. If we can find a way to refine them, they can possibly be used to expand the soul sea."

Evelyn looked up: "You plan to concoct pills?"

"I don’t know how to." Jeremy was straightforward: "But someone does."

The entire group simultaneously understood who he was referring to.

Leon smirked: "You plan to ask that jellyfish head for help? Good luck."

"Not asking for help." Jeremy turned off the screen: "Exchanging."

"Exchanging with what?"

"I still have a complete copy of all the Mialans documents. A copy no one has read yet - including the Magic Tower."

The classroom went dead silent for a beat.

Leon was the first to react. He let out a chuckle: "You kept a copy?"

"I made five copies." Jeremy replied: "Four have been handed over. The fifth hasn’t."

"..."

Leon looked at him for a few seconds, then shook his head: "That’s so you."

Evelyn made no comment. But a glint of approval flashed in her eyes.

As for Phoenix, he pulled his hood back down, considering he had finished listening.

Only Lucius continued looking at Jeremy, the corners of his lips curving up slightly. He said nothing, but that gaze clearly showed he found it amusing.

"What about us?" Leon asked.

Jeremy looked at him: "You’re different. You don’t need to reach tier four in three years. You need to defeat a person." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"She’ll reach tier five before the deadline."

"I know." Jeremy said: "So you don’t need to win with your realm."

Leon raised an eyebrow: "Then with what?"

"With what she doesn’t have."

Jeremy stood up, walked to the blackboard, and picked up a piece of chalk.

He drew two circles.

"Kathy: Holy Covenant 06, Cryonis Physique, near-absolute Ice element compatibility. Her combat style is absolute suppression using elements. You’ve seen it - one sword cleaving the sea, one sword clearing out dozens of cultists."

He tapped the chalk on the second circle: "But precisely because she is that strong, she has never needed to learn how to fight when at a disadvantage."

Leon froze.

"For seventeen years, she has never lost." Jeremy continued: "As for you, over the past half year, you’ve lost to us no less than two hundred times."

"...Are you comforting me or rubbing salt in the wound?"

"I’m stating the truth."

Jeremy put the chalk down: "Someone who has never lost doesn’t know what to do when everything falls apart. But you do. That is the only thing you have that she doesn’t."

Leon was silent for a very long time.

He had originally intended to give up long ago. Had already calculated his death date. Had considered the three years a debt waiting for its due date.

But that sentence just now made him uncomfortable in a very strange way.

Because it wasn’t words of comfort.

It was a plan.

"...Since when have you been planning this?" He finally asked.

"Since the day you mentioned the blood pact."

"At the beach in the secret realm?"

"Yeah."

Leon leaned his head against the back of his chair, looking at the ceiling.

Three months.

This guy had been calculating a way for him to live for three solid months, without saying a single word.

"...Alright then." He said: "I’ll listen to you."

From that day on, the schedule of Class 659 was completely rewritten.

The academy’s new curriculum was already harsh enough. But what the five of them added themselves was even worse.

At four in the morning, sparring. At eight, attending classes according to the curriculum. In the afternoon, practical combat against magical beasts. In the evening, theory and magic potions.

And every day, Leon had to fight three matches under suppressed conditions - half his magic power locked, one skill sealed, the opponent a major realm higher.

He lost continuously.

But by the sixth week, he started to win one out of three matches.

By the tenth week, that ratio was two out of three.

Griffin still didn’t appear. But in the twelfth week, a message abruptly appeared in the class’s communication group.

[Not bad. But still slow.]

The five looked at each other.

Leon was the one to reply: [Where are you, instructor?]

There was no response.

Three days later, a new training island was granted special access for Class 659. On the island, there were thirty-six magic puppets, each programmed with the combat style of a different Holy Covenant holder in the continent’s top twenty.

The puppet bearing the number 06 stood right in the center.

Leon looked at it for a long time.

Then he stepped into the ring.