Chapter 83: It Begins

Gold...Even mixed among more than four hundred freshmen, it could still draw a person’s attention at first glance.

Victor, who had originally been leaning against the railing of the monitoring area, straightened slightly.

"What is it?"

Cecilia noticed the change in him.

"I just saw an interesting person."

"Who?"

Victor did not answer, but followed that golden glow further to the far right side of the crowd and soon locked onto a girl with almost no presence at all.

There was no one gathered around her discussing anything, nor did she have any high level equipment that could be identified at a glance.

The girl was about seventeen, with dark brown hair simply tied back. She wore the academy’s uniformly issued gray black light combat suit, with an ordinary magic short staff hanging at her waist.

Apart from two basic recovery potions, she did not even have visible storage equipment.

At the moment, she stood at the very edge of a temporary six person team, listening to the others discuss their actions after entering the ecological zone while looking down to check her combat boots, which had clearly already been used for some time.

No matter how one looked at it, she did not seem like someone who deserved a "gold" marker.

[High value investment target discovered.]

[Name: Mia Hart.]

[Age: 17.]

[Level: 8.]

[Life Tier: 0.]

[Profession Status: Not fully formed.]

[Current Potential Evaluation: S.]

[Current Academy Evaluation: Low.]

[Special Status: Profession seed dormant.]

[Some information is affected by the target’s current state and cannot yet be fully analyzed.]

Level eight?

The interest in Victor’s eyes only grew stronger.

A first year student who had already entered Starlight Royal Academy, yet was only level eight.

Even Leah had been level nine.

It was not that level eight necessarily disqualified someone from entering the academy. Starlight Royal Academy’s admissions never looked only at level.

Age, mana compatibility, profession type, and recommendation quotas from various regions all played a role. But after the school term had already begun, the vast majority of freshmen who could enter here had already surpassed level ten.

Even if their talent was relatively ordinary, as long as they completed the academy courses normally, they should not fall too obviously behind.

And this Mia, among the four hundred twenty seven freshmen, was probably among the very lowest.

Victor’s gaze continued downward.

[Investment Advice: Temporarily postpone high value investment.]

[The target’s current development path has not yet formed.]

[Recommended first step: Confirm the nature of the profession seed and the actual direction of compatibility.]

Seeing this, Victor became even more satisfied.

If one did not even know a person’s profession direction, casually tossing over a piece of equipment worth several hundred thousand gold coins was no different from calling a donation an investment.

"Level eight," Victor said softly to himself.

Cecilia, beside him, heard it.

"What level eight?"

"Over there." Victor did not hide the location and only tilted his chin slightly. "Do you know her?"

Cecilia looked in that direction and quickly found Mia. Then she looked at her for quite a while.

"Her?"

"Yes."

"No." Cecilia shook her head. "And do you think I know everybody in the academy?"

"You knew Leah."

"That was different."

"Hmm, okay."

Victor only replied and went back to watching.

Cecilia noticed and could not help but smirk.

"You seem interested in her. Could it be that you find her attractive?"

"Yes."

"You know, you could always... wait, what?"

Cecilia stared at him in surprise.

Victor did not pay any more attention to the stunned princess and returned his focus to the girl.

The Investment Scan could only tell him that this person was worth investing in.

But whether it was worth investing now, what to invest in, and why to invest still depended on his own judgment.

He had no intention of seeing a golden target and immediately rushing down to stuff a million gold coins into her hands, then expecting the System to solve everything else for him.

Moreover, the screening was about to begin.

This was, in fact, the best time to observe a person and determine whether they were suitable for investment.

In ordinary training grounds, people could fake it.

But after truly entering a magical beast ecological zone, it was very hard to keep up the act.

At that moment, the giant countdown suspended above the entrance plaza finally entered its final minute.

[00:00:59]

The originally somewhat noisy crowd clearly quieted down.

Several instructors responsible for the screening stepped onto the foremost platform at the same time. A middle aged instructor wearing black epaulets raised his hand, and his magically amplified voice quickly spread across the entire plaza.

"Final reminder."

"The screening lasts six hours."

"After entering the Third Enclosed Ecological Zone, you may act alone or form teams freely. Killing magical beasts, gathering resources, and completing regional tasks will all count toward your personal comprehensive evaluation. However, deliberate lethal attacks between students are forbidden. Anyone who triggers emergency teleportation will be considered to have voluntarily withdrawn."

At this point, the instructor paused.

The attention of many people in the plaza clearly became more focused.

Because what everyone truly cared about was still what came next.

"Three [Mana Core Badges] have been deployed in different areas of the ecological zone."

"After obtaining a badge, you only need to keep holding it until the screening ends. The final three holders will directly enter this academic year’s academy core cultivation list."

A slight stir appeared in the crowd. Although the rules had been announced yesterday, actually hearing the instructor confirm them again still made many students’ breathing quicken.

What did the core cultivation list mean?

Resources.

Instructors.

Higher level training ground permissions.

And priority access qualifications for some of the academy’s secret realms in the future.

For ordinary students, this was no longer simply an exam ranking, but a true opportunity to widen the gap for the future.

When Mia heard about the Mana Core Badges, she also raised her head.

But after only one glance at the projections of the three badges suspended in the air, she lowered her head again and fastened her ordinary short staff a little more securely.

[00:00:10]

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

The entire plaza fell completely silent.

Leah stood at the front, her right hand gently gripping her casting medium.

Not far away, Ryan Carter had also already raised his head.

And the temporary six person team Mia belonged to finally stopped their conversation.

[Three.]

[Two.]

[One.]

Rumble!

The enormous twenty meter tall magic guided gate in front of the Third Enclosed Ecological Zone slowly rose.

The moist forest air, mixed with the faint bloody scent left by magical beasts, rushed out from within.

The next moment, all four hundred twenty seven first year students moved at the same time.

Some directly burst out with movement skills to seize the initiative, some steadily entered according to preplanned formations, and some stronger students, who had never formed teams from the beginning, immediately left the main force after entering the ecological zone and headed deeper in.

The screening had officially begun.

..

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