Chapter 161: West Town Saint’s Academy

There were cities, and there were cities. Some were famous because of their history. Some because of their military. Some because of wealth. Others because monsters refused to attack them.

And then, there was City AF. If City A was known as the birthplace of countless awakened legends, then City AF was where those legends came to prove they deserved the title.

Nicknamed ’The City That Never Slept’, City AF was the financial, technological, educational, and awakened capital of New Liberty. It never rested. It never slowed down.

Even at three in the morning, the streets remained alive.

Cars flowed through multilayered highways suspended above one another like streams of glowing rivers. Holographic advertisements stretched across entire skyscrapers, changing every few seconds to advertise awakened equipment, monster expeditions, luxury apartments, mana-powered technology, and newly discovered Rift resources.

Unlike City A, where buildings generally stopped around sixty floors, City AF reached toward the heavens.

Glass skyscrapers exceeded one hundred floors with ease. Some even touched two hundred. Massive skybridges connected entire towers, allowing pedestrians to walk dozens of stories above the ground without ever touching a road.

Flying drones zipped through the air delivering packages. Awakened police officers patrolled from the rooftops. Every few blocks stood gigantic mana reactors that powered almost half the city.

At first glance, it looked like humanity had already entered the future, but beneath that futuristic beauty, the city never forgot reality.

Towering walls surrounded the entire metropolitan area. Unlike ordinary walls, these were layered with awakened steel, mana-conductive alloys, and anti-monster barriers developed after decades of Rift research.

Every few kilometers stood enormous defense cannons capable of obliterating A-Rank monsters before they reached civilian districts.

The city looked beautiful, but it was also prepared for war. That combination alone made City AF one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

Money flowed endlessly here. Corporations competed openly. Guilds built headquarters taller than shopping malls. Every famous awakened either lived here or wished they did.

Naturally, the strongest academy in the country had also found its home here, though it was going to change soon; let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Far above the bustling streets, beyond parks, rivers, commercial districts, and residential zones, an enormous hill overlooked nearly half the city. Resting upon it like a kingdom watching over its people was West Town Saints Academy.

Unlike Valecrest Collegiate Grounds, whose architecture blended old European elegance with modern education, West Town Saints Academy looked as though someone had stolen a piece of tomorrow and planted it in the present.

The academy occupied an area nearly five times larger than Valecrest. Its outer walls were smooth white alloy infused with mana crystals that glowed faintly after sunset.

Instead of ordinary gates, visitors entered through colossal arches lined with floating crystal pillars. The academy crest hovered in midair above the entrance: A silver phoenix spreading four radiant wings around a blue star.

Below it, engraved in elegant letters, were the academy’s words.

[Knowledge Above Power.]

[Power Through Knowledge.]

The irony...

Almost nobody believed the first sentence anymore. The grounds inside resembled a small city rather than a school. Towering academic buildings reached nearly twenty stories. Glass elevators moved silently along the outside walls.

Entire gardens floated several meters above the ground thanks to gravity arrays developed by awakened engineers.

Artificial waterfalls poured from suspended cliffs before disappearing into rivers that flowed throughout the academy.

Students crossed those rivers using floating bridges that automatically repositioned themselves depending on foot traffic.

Everything looked alive.

The academy itself possessed an advanced mana network that regulated lighting, temperature, security, and even emergency defense systems.

Hidden beneath the campus were shelters capable of housing every student in case of a Rift invasion. Every classroom contained interactive holographic boards. Training simulations could recreate hundreds of monster species.

Combat halls automatically adjusted gravity depending on the rank of those training. There were specialized buildings for elemental users, buildings for support awakeners, buildings for summoners, buildings for beast tamers, buildings for weapon masters, and buildings dedicated solely to mana theory.

Even awakened researchers from outside the academy frequently rented laboratories here. Calling it an academy almost felt disrespectful. It was closer to a university devoted entirely to producing humanity’s future protectors.

Of course, its greatest pride wasn’t its technology, nor its architecture, nor even its funding. It was its students.

For over twenty years, West Town Saint’s Academy had maintained the number one ranking among every awakened academy in New Liberty, and not once had it fallen.

Its graduates occupied positions throughout the military, government, guild alliances, research institutes, and international awakened organizations. Its principal had personally trained multiple national heroes.

More importantly, the academy currently possessed something no other school could boast. Four S-Ranks. Four students standing at humanity’s highest publicly acknowledged rank.

That single fact alone elevated West Town Saint’s Academy beyond comparison. Parents dreamed of sending their children here, governments monitored it, corporations offered sponsorships worth hundreds of millions, and guilds practically fought over graduating students.

Every year, only the absolute elite entered. The weak never lasted.

Morning sunlight bathed the enormous campus. Students streamed through the gates dressed in uniforms unlike any other academy in New Liberty.

White jackets with silver trim, dark navy trousers or skirts, with blue ties embroidered with silver thread. The academy crest rested proudly over every student’s chest.

Some students chatted happily, while others hurried toward early lectures. Many carried weapons openly. Weapons were as common here as school bags. Awakened society had long accepted that classrooms and battlefields were separated only by a few minutes’ notice.

Near the central courtyard stood the academy’s greatest landmark, a massive black monument over thirty feet tall. Four names were engraved across its polished surface, each accompanied by a glowing silver star.

The stars represented the academy’s living S-Ranks. Students passing by instinctively slowed. Some admired them, while others stared with determination.

Many whispered.

"I’ll surpass them one day."

Most never would. Beyond the monument stretched the largest training district in New Liberty, with hundreds of combat arenas, outdoor battlefields, indoor coliseums, and even dimensional simulation chambers capable of reproducing recorded Rift ecosystems.

Students didn’t merely study monsters. They lived through simulations of fighting them. Further beyond, hidden behind reinforced barriers, lay the academy’s restricted zone.

Only professors, researchers, military personnel, and the academy’s strongest students possessed authorization to enter. Rumors regarding the restricted zone varied wildly.

Some claimed captured monsters were kept alive there; others insisted fragments of collapsed dimensions were being studied beneath the academy.

Some believed an SS-Rank relic, something beyond S-Rank, rested somewhere underneath the campus. No official statement had ever confirmed or denied anything, which naturally made students even more curious.

This was West Town Saints Academy, and it would soon be clashing with City A.