[Academy]

The sparring tournament ended with Zaiden being the winner.

After he was healed by the Awakener that the school hired, he was able to defeat his opponent easily. He fought the girl that played Lisa around and paid her back for what she did.

Lisa had also made a full recovery after resting for a while. She was happy when she saw Zaiden defeat the opponent who played around with her easily.

After the tournament, Zaiden went back to the dorm to rest while the girl went in a separate direction. Lily went to the city to get some cake. Shina went to a mall to shop with her family. Lisa went back to the female dorm to get some rest too.

Meanwhile, Ao went to the entrance of the academy to meet someone. She was already waiting for a few minutes now, but the person that asked to meet her had not arrived yet.

"Where is she?" Mumbled Ao.

She tapped her feet repeatedly impatiently as she looked around. Finally, she saw the woman that asked to meet her running from the distance while shouting.

"Ao! I'm sorry! I am late!"

She was Rosa, and she ran as fast as she could without creating a fuss in the neighborhood.

As an Awakener, she was fast. That was why she needed to be careful not to cause some wind.

"You are late," Ao said to Rosa, who stopped in front of her.

"I am sorry for that. I met someone who I wanted to recruit to the guild, so I was talking to him earlier."

"Hmm? You wanted to recruit someone? Who is it?" Asked Ao curiously.

It was famous in Sacred Relic that Rosa was strict when recruiting a new person to join Sacred Relic. However, when she invited someone, that person was always guaranteed to gain success.

"He's a new Awakener who just registered in the guild around two weeks ago. At that time, there was even news about him. Did you hear about Rai?"

"Rai?!" Ao raised her voice in surprise. "Of course, I heard about him. He has S-Rank Sharpshooting Talent. Who didn't know about such an Awakener? S-so, did he agree to join Sacred Relic?"

Rosa shook her head. "Unfortunately, he refused."

"What? He refused? Is there any way to coax him to join Sacred Relic?"

"Yes. He refused because he said that he would make a Mercenary Group. As a way to coax him.. I believe it will be hard."

"Is that so?" Muttered Ao as she looked around. She realized they had received a lot of attention from the students that went out of the academy. "For now, let's go to a nearby café. Tell me about it in detail."

"Yes."

***

[Cafe]

After ordering drinks, Ao asked Rosa once again.

"So Rai will make Mercenary Group.. Let's say that he makes one. Do you think the other groups will allow his group to grow?"

Making a Mercenary group was difficult. It was not a matter of getting commission from the government or guilds, but the competition between each group was strict.

The other Mercenary groups would try to sabotage the new one to crush them before making a name. The reason was simple; mercenaries loved money more than anything. With fewer groups, there was less competition, and the already big groups would receive more commission from the other.

"I believe it will be hard even if he has no support. But, he was confident that he would succeed. He said that he has someone who supports him. From the way he talks, I think that someone is his Master that he mentioned to me."

"Master?"

"Yes. He said that he couldn't contact me for a week because he trained in a mountain and dungeons. His phone was confiscated by his Master at that time."

"Did you know this Master's identity? If Rai, someone with S-Rank Sharpshooting Talent, takes this person as his master, surely this Master is someone amazing."

Rosa nodded her head in agreement. "I think so too. There is only one person who could possibly be his Master with his Talent."

Then Ao muttered seriously. "Atalanta, huh. I heard that she's a mercenary too."

"That's correct. Maybe the reason why Rai wanted to make a Mercenary Group is because of his Master too."

"I guess it can't be helped. If Atalanta is his Master, then it will become something troublesome if we try to force him. Then let's continue with our main topic."

"About recruiting the Academy student, right?"

Ao nodded her head.

The real purpose of Rosa meeting with Ao today was to recruit talented students from the Academy. Everyone in this world had a chance to get Awakened, but some people had a higher chance than others.

Those people were the one who was stronger than the other Non-Awakener. That was why Rosa would find Ao to ask for information about the students every time the sparring competition had finished.

The meeting was a secret from the others. Even Vincent didn't know about this meeting because the main story hadn't started yet. He didn't even write about such a thing happening in his novel.

"The winner this time is Zaiden again."

"As expected of him. He always won the tournament, so we put him high on the list for now."

"Yes. But.. There is a student that you must recruit no matter what. Zaiden will be the second priority of our recruitment." Said Ao seriously.

"Huh? But you said Zaiden is the one who won."

"Zaiden indeed won, but that was because his opponent in third was disqualified. He was stronger than Zaiden, and more importantly.."

"More importantly?" Rosa asked curiously.

"He joined the Waterflow Training Facility three days ago and was accepted by Master in just a day."

"A-Are you telling the truth, Ao?"

Rosa raised her voice in surprise.

Knowing Atalanta's being Rai's Master was not too surprising as he had S-Rank Sharpshooting Talent. However, the Sword Saint was a different case.

A Non-Awakener student was accepted by the Sword Saint in just a day was just absurd. Even Ao needed a month before she was accepted as his disciple, and she was the most talented person among the young generation in Sacred Relic.

"Yes. I was there when he came to the training facility. I must say that I was surprised. He learned everything at a fast speed as if he was absorbing the technique like a sponge absorbing water."

"That is.. W-what is his name?"

Ao smiled at Rosa as if she was proud to utter his name. "Vincent. Vincent Dihart.. He was the one who managed to defeat even Zaiden, the most talented student in the Academy, and become the student of the Sword Saint in just a day."

***

[07:00 PM]

[Dorm, Vincent's Room]

I was reading a book about how to use magic while gritting my teeth. My hands were on the edge of ripping the book into two.historical

The Awakener Store was really ripping me off. I even wanted to rename them to Con Store due to how high the price was.

Even though I gained around fifty grand from hunting goblins in a week, it was pale in comparison to the price of the items in the Awakener Store.

Why not? Because a book about introduction to Basic magic that I bought from the store cost me a hundred thousand USD!

When I tried to look at the higher grade book, I found that the introduction to Intermediate magic cost five hundred thousand USD and there was not a single book that explained how to use Advance magic.

The magic in this world had been divided into four classes. Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master.

The basic magic that was in the introduction to Basic magic was filled with how to make a small fire or a water ball. That was why I called the Awakener Store a rip-off.

They sold something like that for a hundred thousand USD, fuck them. But I still bought it because I needed it.

"This can't do. I can't use something like this in a real battle. I will be branded as a clown if I make a small fire in the fight between Awakeners."

I ultimately closed the book and sighed.

The book indeed served its purpose to introduce magic to beginners. I even gained new knowledge on how to use magic from the book.

It was written in the book about how to change mana attributes and change the mana into a phenomenon in the world, such as fire or water, depending on the attribute.

After knowing how to use magic, I tried to create a small fire from the tip of my index finger. I had some experience in changing mana attributes due to enhancing Faker's Earring and Mask of Deceit, so it was easy for me.

Mana began to move to my finger; it has a fire attribute. After that, I tried to change the mana into a phenomenon, a small flickering fire similar to a match.

As soon as I tried to change it, a small fire appeared on the tip of my finger.

"Oh! This is fun!"

Once again, I realized the cheat of having high-ranked Talent.

I had A-Rank Magic Talent. In terms of Magic, it could be said that I was one of the best because I had Magic Talent and not Fire Magic Talent.

Magic Talent came together with Mana Manipulation Talent and all attributes of Magic Talent. Combined with my Enhancement that also came together with Mana Manipulation Talent, such a thing was a piece of cake for me.

From then on, I tried to use the earth attribute, wind attribute, and water attribute. I successfully did all of them.

Earth attribute was a strange one as it only moved earth or dirt and didn't create something like the others attribute.

I still tried two more attributes: the so-called Light and Dark attributes. Both of them were so rare that only a few Awakeners had them.

Of course, the Main Character, Zaiden, has the Light attribute; it was the attribute that he had since he was born in this world, not the one he gained from his Talent. The Hero of this world also has a Light attribute.

The Awakeners that could use Dark attribute mana were the organization's leader, who tried to stop Zaiden, and Lily, the last heroine. Only those two used Dark attribute mana in a fight. At least, that's what I wrote in my novel.

No other Awakeners were reported to have the dark attribute to fight, as this attribute was usually found in Demons and monsters, the natural enemies of Humans.

That organization has existed since the Awakener Association was established around 50 years ago.

At first, they were just a normal Mercenary Group, but because they even accepted missions from Dark Guilds, they were now on the Association's blacklist as a dangerous organization.

Surprisingly, I could use Light and Dark attributes with no problem. Even Zaiden, who had S-Rank Magic Talent, couldn't use this attribute due to his light attribute.

But I had two Talents that supported each other greatly, Magic and Enhancement. Magic Talent allowed me to use four attributes, while Enhancement Talent allowed me to use Light and Dark attributes mana.

"This is good. I can at least fight Zaiden in the future with this."

The Enhancers also had Dark attributes, but they usually were afraid of it and never used the dark attribute mana to enhance items. So with that as a reason, all enhancers didn't know that they could use Dark attribute mana.

Their minds were already indoctrinated that the Dark attribute was bad and only used by Demons.

There was even an event in the past where a weapon with a Dark attribute made its wielder lose his mind. That was why only a few were brave enough to Enhance an item with Dark attribute, and even so, they had no combat ability as they were full-time Enhancers.

However, I was not afraid to use this attribute. The Dark attribute mana was convenient to use against those with Light attributes.

Why? Because they canceled against each other.

"Great. With this, I only need the Lich's blood before my preparation is completed."

Two weeks.

I was able to get my preparation done before the main story.

After the main story started, I had two things that I needed to do.

Firstly, Zaiden would leave this Academy in two weeks. I needed to go to the first dungeon with him to get a certain item.

Secondly, I needed to create a Mercenary Group. To create one, I need a member. And I already have someone in my mind.

"It's time to make a connection with the Hero."

Coincidentally, I read some interesting news on my phone today.

[The Hero, Chloe, will visit New York to clear C-Rank Dungeon tomorrow!]

As always, my Luck is good.

My lips curled into a small smile as I muttered. "Wait for me, Hero. I will give you the happiness that you want this time."