Chapter 109: The Starlight Royal Academy
Chapter 109: The Starlight Royal Academy
All 200 participants who were accepted gathered at an empty plaza...
Today's the day that their life as a student of the Starlight Royal Academy begins, and they couldn't be any more excited. All of them were just waiting for the arrival of the instructors and they're good to go.
Of course, Cedric was also here. Just like the others, he too was wearing the uniform of Starlight Royal Academy students.
The uniform's general color scheme was a mixture of white, blue, and yellow. The top is composed of an elbow-length buttoned-up shirt that's mainly white with blue buttons. For guys, they have a breast pocket on the right. It comes with a white blazer with gold linings, bearing the symbol of the Starlight Royal Academy's insignia at the back.
For the bottom, it's white slacks for guys and striped blue and white skirts for the girls. Of course, if some girls aren't fond of skirts, they could also wear slacks like the guys do, the same goes for the boys as well.
The Blazers come with epaulets similar to those in the military. These epaulets change color depending on the student's seniority. It's white for freshmen like them, yellow for those who have survived more than a year, then gold, violet gold, and crimson gold come after in that order. As for the specifics on how to achieve this, only the instructors could tell them that.
The freshmen arranged themselves in a near formation as they waited for the instructors to arrive. Nobody told them to do this but they did so for some unknown reason.
Some students arrived in this plaza at the crack of dawn, others arrived later. Despite that, every single one who passed was here early since the arranged time was said to be 10 in the morning.
When the time came, the instructors appeared silently and unannounced. Seeing them, the students were surprised but quickly caught themselves. There was a momentary silence before Orion spoke:
"Since all of you are here, let's not waste any more time. I shall give you a tour of the Academy today. How much you retain will be up to you. If you forget something, just ask a fellow student instead."
After saying that, he waved his hand and a large portal appeared in the middle of the plaza. Without even looking back, Orion only had one thing to say:
"Follow."
And follow they did. The students entered the portal one by one and arrived at the other side in varying states; some were completely fine, and others needed some time to regain their senses.
Cedric was amongst those who were completely fine. He silently regarded those who weren't fine as people who needed to pick up their slack because he already knew that they would have to get used to this.
"How some of you still haven't got used to spatial teleportation completely eludes me." Orion coldly remarked, "It's as if some of you don't do your part in the monthly Hell Dives."
His reaction was understandable. After all, if all of them were doing their monthly Hell Dives, then they should already be used to spatial transportation. That's how they arrive in the Purgatory to begin with.
"Whatever." Orion snorted, "Let's move along then."
He then turned around and began walking without waiting for the others to adjust.
Cedric along with the group who were affected, started following Orion's steps closely. Soon, they arrived at a wide landscape.
"This is the Central Courtyard." Orion introduced. "If you arrive here using the only method that's available to you right now, which I will explain later, then this should be the first thing you'll see."
"This spot is open for everyone; both students and instructors, even the staff. It's wide enough to accommodate thousands of people at the same time. If you need to unwind, you may come here and rest for a bit. That said, how you spend your free time ultimately depends on you."
Cedric allowed his senses to spread to get the entire picture of the Central Courtyard.
It was definitely huge. It's almost the same size as the Black Thread City, which was insane.
In the middle of the courtyard, there was a large ornate fountain. Its waters were not normal either. From what he could tell, those waters should come from the depths of Treasure Mountain, which is said to be the cleanest and purest water there is.
Surrounding the fountain were statues of the Academy's founders. And just like the waters, these statues also weren't the normal ones.
With his sharp senses and his blooming skills as a Smith, he could tell that the material used to craft these statues was, at the very least, Tier 9 on the scale, which means that they could gain some semblance of spirituality.
The statues were incredibly lifelike, if it weren't for their color scheme, which was the only thing that indicated that they were still statues, he would've mistaken them for a real person.
Of course, given how sharp his senses were, he could feel the spirituality of the statues, he even felt that there was some underlying secret beneath these statues too. However, his senses weren't able to penetrate that deep so he could only let it be.
Beneath the statues were several gates at which students come and go. Everybody seems to be minding their own business. Those who saw Orion with the freshmen either gave them a nod of acknowledgment or bowed at the Instructor's presence.
"See those peaks over at a distance?" Orion pointed out, catching the attention of the freshmen. "Those are mostly the Academy's Towers. You'd spend most of your time within those buildings during your stay here."
"As you can see, it's quite far. Travelling by foot will take most of your time and by then, you'd be extremely exhausted already. These portals exist for everyone's convenience. Each portal here leads to different places within the academy. Use them as much or as little as you want. That's up to you."
"Ah right, fighting is prohibited in most places here." He added, "If you and your enemy can't really stand each other, you can go to the Arcane Arena to settle your differences. We'll visit that place later, for now, we will be going to the Academic Towers."
"Follow."
Although they hadn't stopped walking ever since they arrived here, Orion still ordered them to follow him closely.
He then entered the portal which was in the general direction of the Academic Towers. A clue that Cedric kept in mind as he too followed suit.
Upon arriving at the other side, his perspective was overwhelmed for a brief moment.
'The energy density of this area is insane!' He exclaimed inwardly.
He took a deep breath and felt his body adjusting to the sensation which also partaking in the abundant energy around him. He could feel both his core and the beast egg greedily absorbing energy to accelerate their growth.
'Geez, it hasn't even been a minute since I arrived here yet I already accumulated at least a full day's worth of cultivation.' Cedric exclaimed inwardly again.
The difference was insane, which further proves that his decision to come here was the right choice.
Unbeknownst to him, Orion was silently observing him closely. Inwardly, the bald instructor nodded in satisfaction as he saw Cedric only taking a few seconds before adjusting to this place's energy level.
'A well-trained physique and absurdly powerful senses. He is indeed an anomaly. A welcomed addition to our roster.'
Comparing him to the rest somehow feels unfair. Even Garrick and Isabella were still doing their best to adjust to the sudden difference. And if they were like this, it's way worse for the rest.
Of course, Orion saw all of this. Yet even though he did, he remained silent about it.
He didn't need to pay attention to those who wouldn't last for a year here anyway.
It took some time but eventually, all freshmen recovered from the shock. When Orion noticed this, he spoke once more:
"These are the Academic Towers." He stated, "Like I said earlier, you will spend most of your time in one of these towers."
"As the name suggests, this is where the lessons will take place. We have classrooms for just about any subject you wish to learn. Since all of you are official students of our academy, you will be receiving a comprehensive list of all subjects we have to offer."
"You can enroll in any class you're interested in. You may also join clubs for extra-curricular activities. Since all of you just arrived here, the amount of classes you can attend is limited."
"All subjects have a corresponding Academic Unit. Freshmen like you are given 20 Units to start with. You're allowed to not use all the Units you have but you can't exceed them. Of course, once you're promoted to Sophomores, you'll be granted with extra Units to use."
"I'll tell you this right now. The requirements to become a Sophomore include passing all your subjects as well as the Promotion Exams. Once you fail, that spells the end of your time with the Academy. If I were you, I'd choose wisely because there's no such thing as reinstatement in this academy."
"Once you're out. You're out for good."