Chapter 675 - Incentives

"Would you like to redo the test?" the staff member asked, when he heard Magus Ramora's words.

The question should have been easy to answer for Emery, as he would definitely gain better results now that he knew what was to come.

However, Emery suddenly had a gut feeling that rising in the ranks too fast without knowing and finding more about the privileged class would be nothing but sheer foolishness on his part.

Once again, he checked the names of the 99 privilege acolytes. Among them, he found names that he recognized.

[Rank  8 - Zach Talon]

[Rank 15 - Sigurd]

[Rank 32 - Vida Themari]

[Rank 47 - Annara Vairmont]

[Rank 55 - YunXiao]

[Rank 64 - Armand Nephilim]

[Rank 74 - Trish] 

[Rank 82 - Orion] 

[Rank 94 - Roran Harlight]

[Rank 99 - Emery Ambrose]

As he checked his rank, Emery realized his name was still in the same rank 99th, despite him scoring the 68th rank in the test earlier.

Emery glanced at Magus Ramora in confusion. In response, she turned slightly flustered, as she realized her blunder.

"Ahhh!! Yes, yes… I'm sorry, what kind of guide am I to forget explaining this important thing…"

The magus then proceeded to explain that the test rank was just the first step to enter the ranks of the privilege acolytes. His test result of rank 68 didn't mean he would immediately depose those above him and replace their position.

Instead, because he managed to acquire the 68th rank, he now was allowed to challenge all privilege acolytes from rank 68 to 99 - to replace their position and gain the benefits of the related rank.

For example, if he managed to defeat Trish, the girl who ranked first in the first years' ranking, then he would receive her 74th rank, while she would drop to rank 75th.

It was overall quite easy to understand, however, the main purpose of the acolytes here was to train. Hence, there were some rules for these challenges to make sure it didn't bother the acolytes training too much.

When a formal challenge was issued, the acolyte who received said challenge had until the end of the month to make a decision, if he/she failed to come for the challenge, then the acolyte would automatically lose the position.

Magus Ramora then explained the reason for the ranks and the incentive to push all the acolytes to fight for it.

Depending on their rank, at the beginning of the month, they would receive the precious spirit foundation pills as a reward.

[Rank 1-5 : 40 pills]

[Rank 6-10 : 35 pills]

[Rank 11-20 : 30 pills]

[Rank  21-40 : 25 pills] 

[Rank 41-60 : 20 pills]

[Rank 61-80 : 15 pills]

[Rank 81-100 : 10 pills]

There were 12 months for the third year, which meant the first five ranked acolytes would receive more than 400 pills, which priced at 30,000 contributions points each on the shop. That was definitely a big incentive to aim.

Right now, as Emery was still on the 99th rank, he was only eligible to receive 10 pills, all of which had already been given in the silver bracelets just now.

Other than the precious pills, there was also another coveted reward that was fought over so much by the privileged class acolytes. This reward could only be obtained if they managed to stay within the required rank until the end of the year.

[Rank 1-5 receives Divine Art - rank A]

[Rank 6-10 receives Divine Art - rank B]

[Rank 11-30 receives Divine Art - Rank C]

A divine skill was an extremely rare skill that could even cause magus to kill each other for the chance to gain one. Hence, this level of incentive did give a lot of motivation for the acolytes to do their absolute best to climb higher or maintain their current rank.

Emery decided to quickly check the names of those in the top ranks. To his surprise, he found a familiar family name.

[Rank 3 - Eesho Nephilim]

When he saw that family name at the back, Emery let out a slight sigh. Scrolling through the list again to make sure he didn't see wrong, he let out another sigh 

So apparently, there were 5 Nephilims in the privileged class.

[Rank 22 - Jinkan Nephilim]

Then there was also Armand and the other two nephilims, which ranked 64, 78 and 82 respectively.

From the grapevine, Emery had heard that Armand was just someone that was an outer member of the family, so it was somewhat self-explanatory that his rank would be lower. Therefore, he could safely conclude that those two others at the top echelon must be from the inner circle.

As he read more about the competitive rewards, rules and the list of those who made it into the privilege class, Emery's smile turned wider, his body trembled slightly and his heart thumped violently, burning with passion, as his resolve to reach the top rank of the privilege class was embedded deep in his heart.

It was an unexpected feeling. Emery couldn't wait to fight those above his rank and shoot for the highest rank. Even Zach, the dragon bloodline, who was able to defeat him easily was only a rank 8 in the class, which showed how fierce and cutthroat the competition was.

Emery was so lost in his own thoughts about the new class, that he almost forgot about Magus Ramona. As he glanced at the magus, he realized she was still waiting for his answer about retrying the test.

"So will you do the test again?"

Emery gave her a slight smile and said, "No need… I'll do it later."

It was indeed tempting to retry and gain the highest rank he could, however right now, there was not much point in gaining ranks in the test, as it didn't affect his real rank. After all, it only granted him the right to challenge the higher ranking acolytes.

Emery was basically a newcomer from a low realm with almost no support. He thought it was better for him to stay in the low ranks until he had improved the aspects he lacked. He thought that Armand of the Nephilims was already a problem for him. So he should treat these elite individuals extremely carefully. 

There were also 3 more weeks until the time he would receive the next monthly reward, hence there was no point in rushing and challenging people at this time other than just painting a target on his back. 

If Emery did not manage to improve his strength by then, it would be much safer for him to postpone the challenge for next following month. After all, his life was more precious than the chance to earn 5 extra pills.

Now that he had gotten all the information he needed, Emery decided to walk out of the room and leave the place. He couldn't wait anymore to start his training.

He knew what he lacked, but he had no idea how to improve it as soon as possible. He decided to ask the blue hair magus, who was walking next to him.

In elite class 7 there were 5 magus ready to teach and give counsel to the 50 elite acolytes in the class. Therefore, he couldn't wait to know what kind of magus was provided to teach him in the privileged class.

However, Magus Ramona raised her eyebrows, as if Emery had just asked something silly out of the blue. The answer he received from her was no less shocking.

"Teacher? There are no teachers provided here… all privileged acolytes have their own grand magus as their official mentor and they can provide dozens of magus to teach him or her… Don't you have one yourself?"

"....."

Upon hearing such an answer, Emery fell into a stunned silence.. A grand magus master? No, he didn't have one. Did this mean he would be practicing by himself?