Chapter 239 - Competition For Dinner

Deris thought that Rex was just saying whatever came to his mind.

So he went ahead and tried what Rex asked.

He took Rex's textbook which had a pale yellow cover and draw a mana circle using his mana.

A bright yellow circle was formed which seemed rather empty.

Without wasting his time, he started writing the inscriptions one by one. There were 8 inscriptions in total which were taught and of course, he knew only 4 to 5 of them.

For others, he had to take a look at the textbook and then continued.

When all the inscriptions were written, the circle started to shine with bright yellow light.

Everyone except Rex was completely surprised because of the light.

After the light dimmed and ultimately vanished, Deris swallowed a large amount of dry saliva and with little confidence, extended his hand to get the book.

Rex and others kept watching as his hands touched the book. Yes, there was no sign of getting shocked or anything similar.

Deris knew that the moment the intense light was emitted from the circle which wader supposed to happen.

He was confused and after finally realizing that Rex was right, he looked at him.

"Um, why do you think this happened?"

"I did the exact thing as they taught and..."

Before he could proceed, he realized that Rex had mentioned the 8 mana diagram from the textbook itself to be wrong.

He looked at Rex again and changed his question, "I'm sorry Rex, I doubted you. But can you teach me the right thing? I'm not sure what is wrong with this..."

Well, he still had his doubts. 

'Does he really know the correct version?', he asked himself.

Rex then said, "The mistake is so small that everyone ends up neglecting it."

"The spell that you used right now was an 8 mana diagram Luminous spell.", Rex mentioned a different spell entirely.

"Luminous spell?", Deris and Nomoir were surprised when they heard that.

"Yes.", Rex nodded his head.

Basically, the mana diagrams could be used anywhere. There were different types, those that required to be put on things to last long and those that could take immediate effect.

Luminous spells started from Tier 2 with their basic use being blinding.

Right now, the 8 mana diagram for the Luminous spell replicated the blinding light effect.

Deris, Nomoir, and Biyou, all three of them looked at Rex as he started drawing the same 8 mana diagram using his own mana.

He drew it in the air which started to glow with a faint yellow light.

It was similar to what Deris drew earlier, but at the same time, it was somewhat different.

They noticed Rex writing down the same 8 inscriptions as it was on the previous diagram.

After finishing and doing exactly what Deris did, Rex slowly moved the mana diagram towards his book and placed it on it right after which the diagram vanished.

Yes, it vanished into nothingness.

Deris slowly moved his hand and touched the book only to get a slight shock.

He retreated his hand as soon as possible thanks to his natural reflex.

He then looked at Rex and asked, "You and I did the same thing, then why is your spell different?"

Rex smirked and then said, "Did it look like I did the same thing as you?"

Deris turned towards Nomoir and then nodded his head.

He was being honest. He did see Rex inscribing and doing the exact thing as Deris, but how did the effect end up being so different?

Rex then said, "I will draw the diagrams one more time. Try noticing the difference."

Deris agreed and thoroughly checked his textbook while looking at Rex's drawing. He was comparing them. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a single difference, yes, not until Rex was completely done with the spell.

"Wait a second…"

"I think I know what was wrong.", he said immediately after Rex finished his drawing.

"Oh, what did you notice?", Rex asked as he smirked.

"The inscriptions, they are definitely same, but they aren't on the same place like in the diagram.", he said.

Rex smirked as he heard that. He then said, "Absolutely right."

"For the mana diagram to replicate an effect, the placement of the inscriptions is necessary."

"You need to see which inscriptions will be next to each other and which would be on the opposite ends.", Rex explained.

He then gave a long lecture on it. Due to that, the understanding of Deris, Nomoir, and Biyou increased tremendously.

"Holy!"

"Rex, you know a lot!"

"Is it okay if we come to you if we have any doubts?", they asked.

Well, Rex wasn't exactly a good teacher, that's what he believed. So he shook his head saying, "You should go to the teachers."

"They will clarify your doubts."

But after he said that, their expressions changed.

"Rex, you must be from a good place to believe that they will explain whatever we ask."

"They don't even give a sh*t about our doubts.", Deris and Nomoire continued with their chatter and complaints regarding the teachers.

They kept this going for another hour or so.

By this time, Rex was already bored by what they were saying. Thankfully, they stopped.

After that, a bell rang all of a sudden.

'Huh? Bell? Now?'

Rex was surprised because he thought that there were no classes going on the night.

Well, he was right. There were no classes during the night. The bell that rang was the announcement for dinner.

All the students had to gather in the canteen and get what they wanted to eat.

Of course, for all those nobles and royal members, their maids and butlers were doing the job.

As for those that were commoners, they had to go and get the food themselves.

Without wasting any time, all of them except Rex got up and were wearing some coats while rushing.

"Uh, where are you going?", Rex asked.

"Ah, you don't know about this…", Deris then explained the procedure of getting food.

Rex understood and thought that he had to hurry as well.

Well, as soon as Rex walked out of the room, he found many students running towards the canteen.

Of course, a huge line had already been formed in front of the canteen even before the members from the commoners' dorm could arrive.

'What's the rush?'

'They can go slowly right? It's not as if the academy would give foods to only some and won't give to others…', while Rex thought this sarcastically, he was wrong.

As mentioned earlier, the Academy was built to let people experience how the outside world worked. Of course, here too, the rule of 'Early bird gets the worm' would be applied.

If you don't hurry, you won't get any dinner. The same was true with food at other times during the day.

Because of this very reason, many students had already made a line in front of the canteen even before the bell rang and even before the gate was opened.

They slowly started entering as the gate was opened after which another long line followed which comprised the students that were commoners.

By the time Rex and the remaining arrived, almost all of the students that weren't commoners – basically, the princes and princesses who asked their maids and butler to get the food – had got their food.

They were already walking back after which the next people, from lower classes, were being sent one by one.

Of course, they got the food and sat either near the table in the canteen, or went out towards their dorms to eat there.

The princes and princesses were eating either in their dorms or in the gardens.

Yes, small dining tables would be set specifically for them wherever they wanted to eat because their parents were responsible for a lot of funding for the Academy.

Regardless, by the time Rex and his friends arrived, most of the food was over and only the paid ones remained.

Paid ones? Yes, there was a section of food called free food and paid food.

Or to be precise, when the food was in excess, it would be given to everyone equally, but as soon as it gets low, one needs to pay to get more – this was also a rule of the Academy.

The payment had to be made by the points that were stored inside the wristwatches.

Coins were generally accepted as well, but since it would end up causing corruption since the ones that provide the food might keep a lot to themselves, the rule was changed and now, throughout the inner campus, only points were to be used.