Chapter 148 - 147: Credit Ranking

Chapter 148: Chapter 147: Credit Ranking

Gaode busied himself with his own affairs every day in a disciplined and focused manner, maintaining an excellent state of both mind and body.

Eight courses... Anyone who had attended high school knew that, even excluding minor subjects like PE and music, a standard curriculum started with at least six courses. Furthermore, compared to the heavy burden of after-school homework, the courses at Cyrus Academy were much more relaxed, with almost no assignments given.

Going to bed at one or two in the morning and waking up at six... wasn’t this also the daily routine of a high school senior? Not to mention, Gaode had the Leakless Water fruit drink, which could dispel and alleviate his fatigue after consumption. Time passed quickly.

The admission day had brought in twenty-one new students, including a 1st Ring Mage. These events captured the attention of everyone across the academy. Gaode had only enjoyed a brief moment of fame at the very beginning—partly because he was targeted in the cafeteria by Gerry Harrell, the top student of the Alchemy Department, and partly because he had broken the record set by the former dean during the admission task.

After that, he fell into a fixed daily routine: he either cultivated in the Cultivation Building, rushed to various teaching buildings for classes, or studied basic Runes in the Rune Workshop. Aside from those, he spent most of his time cultivating Poisonous Insects in the Cultivation Room. Gaode never took the initiative to meet others, let alone stir up trouble. He acted like an invisible man.

As a result, as time passed, this "lucky guy"—who had entered the academy with the highest treatment using Dean Gavin’s recommendation letter and had been famous for a short while—was soon ignored and completely forgotten by everyone else.

After all, most people were quite rational. Even though many students had once felt somewhat jealous and dissatisfied that Gaode had been admitted with the highest treatment, who would inexplicably target a completely unrelated person and make an enemy out of nowhere, unless they were a special case like Gray Harrell? Everyone was busy; without any deep-seated hatred, no one had the mind to keep a close eye on others.

Not to mention, everyone later learned that the Advanced tutor assigned to Gaode was Jose O’Kenley from the Rune Department, the long-faded Chief Rune Tutor. Immediately, their jealousy vanished, replaced largely by schadenfreude.

Even Gray Harrell seemed to have forgotten about Gaode. Aside from intercepting Gaode once in the cafeteria at the very beginning, he never appeared in front of him again.

In the entire academy, perhaps only Tutor Jose and Tutor Shore could be considered acquainted with Gaode. The former went without saying, while the latter still came over from time to time to check on the progress of Gaode’s Poisonous Insect Cultivation task, allowing for frequent contact.

But regardless of what others thought, Gaode was at least extremely satisfied with his current life. His Mage Level was increasing at a considerable speed. In terms of Rune Science, the number of Level-Zero basic Runes he mastered was steadily rising at a rate of five per day. The Magic knowledge he lacked the most was being rapidly supplemented. The Poisonous Insect Cultivation task was also progressing step by step, and the Origin of the Illusory Thorn Centipede had been fully gathered.

Everything was thriving... except for his savings. 77 Gold Coins and 19 Silver Coins—this was all of Gaode’s current savings.

On the 10th of the Frost Gold Moon, the One Tier Cultivation Room usage time Gaode had previously purchased was completely exhausted. Enduring the heartache of the expense, he once again generously spent 10 Gold Coins to secure another 40 hours in the One Tier Cultivation Room. After this purchase, his savings balance dropped to 67 Gold Coins and 14 Silver Coins.

When the time reached the 17th of the Frost Gold Moon, two things happened.

The first was that Jelica had finally completed her admission task. It took her a total of 43 days, 18 days earlier than the 61-day average time required for those in the Mining Stream to complete the task.

However, this was not surprising. Jelica’s Physical Strength could not compare to that of the male students or the commoner students from ordinary backgrounds. But as a "Second Generation of Magic" and a wealthy young lady, she could continuously drink Physical Recovery Potions for Rapid Recovery of the Physical Strength she consumed each day. This alone was enough for her to easily bridge the gap in stamina and achieve much better results.

Of course, Gaode was not usually that well-informed. The reason he knew about this was that after completing her admission task, Jelica had actually taken the initiative to visit him and purchase his Leakless Water. The 43 days of mining had left the young lady from the City Lord’s Mansion with her Heart and Spirit completely exhausted, and she wanted to use Gaode’s miraculous fruit drink for a reprieve.

After thinking it over, Gaode took a small flask from his already meager supply of the special fruit drink and gave it to Jelica. This time, however, Jelica resolutely refused to take it for free. Left with no other choice, Gaode accepted 10 Gold Coins from her.

Gaode could not help but think that if he could stably produce Leakless Water, he would no longer have to worry about money. However, he also knew this could only be a fantasy. Ever since the first drop of Leakless Water, Gaode had never missed his daily first pull. But over the past dozen days, most of what he received was the guaranteed drop of honey water, along with two batches of ale and one batch of premium honey water. The Leakless Water simply did not appear.

The second event on that day was that Gaode’s Guiding Technique had achieved another breakthrough, ascending to the next level. His current total Mana was enough to support him casting ten Tricks in one breath. He had already achieved half of the requirement for a Third-class Mage Apprentice, which was to cast twenty Tricks in a single breath.

His previous Guiding Technique breakthrough had occurred on the 12th of the Dark Night Moon. There was a mere 35-day gap between these two breakthroughs. Such a breakthrough efficiency could be considered genius-level by any standard.

Of course, this was the combined result of the Leakless Water, the One Tier Cultivation Room, and his improved breathing. It was not an actual improvement of his innate aptitude. These external items and methods assisting in cultivation provided the greatest enhancement for a Mage like Gaode, whose aptitude was neither too bad nor too good. It was much like how tutoring affected students’ grades: tutoring was of little use to exceptional students, and equally ineffective for terrible ones. It was precisely the average students who could achieve obvious improvements through tutoring.

However, since the Leakless Water had not been replenished, based on his current consumption rate, his supply would be entirely depleted in three days. By then, the progress of Gaode’s Guiding Technique would slow down somewhat. Gaode had no solution for this.

"If my aptitude were better, I wouldn’t have to spend so much money on cultivation," he could not help but think.

Just like with studying, from childhood to adulthood, Gaode had watched his classmates spend massive amounts of money on various tutoring classes and so-called famous private tutors, only to still fall short of him, who had never attended any. He did not feel any sense of superiority; he just felt a bit of heartache for the money they spent. Now, Gaode finally understood his classmates’ sense of helplessness.

Did they not feel the pinch of spending that money themselves? They surely did, but they had no choice. With average aptitude, if they wanted to improve their grades, they could only pave the way with money. It was exactly like his current situation.

"Is there any way to improve my aptitude?" This question popped into Gaode’s mind.

Logically speaking, there had to be. Demand dictated the market, and with the Mage system having developed for so many years, there must have been countless Mages wanting to improve their aptitude. Even by pure chance, one or two methods should have been discovered by now. However, even if such methods existed, they were not something a mere Mage Apprentice like him could currently access. He had to become an official Mage first!

A myriad of thoughts swirled in Gaode’s mind, ultimately culminating in a soft sigh. He had to take things one step at a time.

But an even more urgent matter than becoming an official Mage was making money. Even with the extra income of the 10 Gold Coins paid by Jelica bringing his savings back up to 77 Gold Coins, it was obvious that this small amount of money would not last long in Cyrus Academy. At the very least, Gaode did not dare to purchase a Magic Formula right now, fearing that such an expense would plunge him into a financial crisis.

However, it was worth noting that just two days ago, Gaode had learned that Cyrus Academy had a mechanism similar to a scholarship. To be precise, they maintained a credit ranking board. After the end of each academic year, the academy would reward the students ranking at the top of the credit board for that year, in order to support outstanding students and give them more time to invest in cultivation.

Of course, there was more than one ranking board; the academy ranked students separately based on the number of academic years they had been enrolled. This was also very reasonable. For example, completing the final stage course of Rune Science granted 7 credits, whereas the First Stage course only granted 1 credit. If they did not rank them by academic year, the rewards from this credit ranking board would be entirely monopolized by veteran students who were able to take the high-credit elective courses.

However, the boards were not divided too minutely. In total, there were only four ranking boards.

The first was the freshman credit board specifically for newcomers, allowing only students who had just entered the academy to participate. The rewards for the freshman credit board were the most abundant among the four. The new student ranking first in credits for the year could receive a whopping reward of 100 Gold Coins, the second place would get 80 Gold Coins, and the third place would receive 60 Gold Coins.

The second board was for students in their first to third academic years. Compared to the rewards for the freshmen, these were somewhat inferior. The first place in credits would be rewarded with 50 Gold Coins, the second with 40 Gold Coins, and the third with 30 Gold Coins.

The third board catered to students in their third to fifth academic years, and the rewards were identical to those for the first-to-third-year students. The final board was for students who had been enrolled for more than five academic years, with the rewards remaining the same as above.