Chapter 35: Unexpected fair

Shane decided to apply for an academy, even though he felt slightly uncomfortable about it.

Nevertheless, the support one could receive from an academy was too tempting for Shane to disregard.

Furthermore, Shane was in the opinion that he changed completely and it shouldn't be much of a problem to enter an academy,

Until the new semester would start, there was still slightly more than one month left and Shane would have to meet the requirements in order to be even able to apply to attend an academy.

Because the system awakening started with the age of 16, everyone had a different starting point, ranging from a gap of a few days to months, causing a wide disparity in strength, without considering one's background and other factors.

Reading through the standard requirements stated, Shane, nodded in approval, as they adjusted their demands according to the time one had awoken the system, in order to find relatively talented students amongst average households.

___________________

Cultivation & Body refining stage: Mortal-3+2 ranks*month

Wealth earned without anyone's support: 30 Gold coins+30 gold coins*month

Reduced requirements for - Special body traits, Innate Skills, and blessings

___________________

One could say academies favored younger students instead of older ones as it was much more difficult for someone who activated the system for 8 months to enter an academy compared to Shane, who had only awoken his system a few days ago

Nevertheless, he was astonished that the government was so fair and it was the first time he would agree with his father's decision.

Mankind searched for the cream of the crop and as long as someone was able to meet the requirements, they would be accepted into the first semester.

After that, it was said that the real selection would begin.

While the strong would receive lots of resources the weaker students could only receive the wastages or leave school to heighten their cultivation rank without the academies' support.

Apparently, the requirements were not that difficult to accomplish for Shane, but the second requirement had a hidden meaning.

If one was incapable to earn a certain amount of wealth without anyone supporting them, they were useless to nurture into stronger combatants.

Academies didn't want to waste their resources and if one could earn gold coins by themselves in a short period of time, it indicated their combat experience was either high, or they had already learned a lifestyle-occupation such as a blacksmith, alchemist, runemaster, magic-technician, weaver and so on.

Without anyone's support meant that one defeated a beast either alone or the system would allocate a percentage of the beast's sold price to the 'self-earned' record, according to the combat participation.

Due to this, one could easily investigate how much one earned over the course of time.

In one month, Shane would have awoken his system for slightly more than one month.

As such he was still in his first month because the system counted with full months.

His cultivation and body refining had to reach the 5th Mortal stage, while he only had to earn 60 gold coins which he had long since accomplished.

Shane wouldn't shout out to the world, that he had not only an innate skill but also a blessing, because it was not needed.

Some people might find it out, but there was no need to reveal it.

As such he applied to all academies with his current data about his earned wealth and cultivation and body refining stage throughout the system.

The system would update his cultivation and body refining stage for the next month, while his earned wealth was already ticket as accomplished.

It was extremely easy to apply for the academies and without further ado, Shane closed the PrimWeb human section.

'Well, I won't stay long in school either way' He thought, before opening the store.

His store was once again completely empty and Shane took out the Nightshade flowers he had still left, to place them within the vacancies.

Labeling them with a price, Shane now had 35 [trash] Nightshade flowers exhibited for 9 silver, 12 [Common] quality Nightshade flowers for 14 silver, and 6 [Uncommon] quality Nightshade flowers for 20 silver.

If everything would be sold at the labeled price, Shane would earn an additional 6 gold coins and he smiled faintly.

Now however was time for Shane to purchase a body refining manual in addition to better mana gathering and purifying techniques in order to increase his cultivation speed by a notch.

With 169 gold coins, Shane had enough funds to purchase three [Tier-1-(Bronze)] manuals, but that wasn't what he wanted right now.

Shane only wanted to increase his mana gathering speed by a small amount, while his body refining and the purification process should be faster.

Furthermore, he was also unsure if he was able to increase his techniques' quality once again thanks for [Artemis' Blessing] or if it was a one-time thing coincidence.

Could he increase his techniques' quality once again because of his determination to become stronger, his amity with mana, and nature's blessing? Shane didn't know but his desire to get stronger was more distinct than ever before.

Right now it took Shane almost 2 hours to fill his mana pool with mana while purifying it took more than 5 hours.

He was fine with his mana gathering speed if he only had to supply the purification manual but the purifying period was just too long.

Meanwhile, Shane didn't know how much mana a body refining technique required. As such his mana gathering speed would need a slight boost.

In the end, Shane was convinced that he had to purchase a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] purifying technique with 16% mana purity as its limit.

Compared to a mana gathering technique at the same tier and quality, Shane only had to pay 35 gold coins which was a horrifying expenditure for people without any kind of backing from their families.

Everyone was gathering funds for themselves, even parents from above-average families wouldn't give everything to their children in order for them not to be spoiled.

What was the use if they gave their children everything? Their cultivation would progress fast, but their mind wouldn't be able to adjust to the fast progression, while the youth's combat experience and progress would be shallow.

Even so, 35 gold coins for someone that could defeat beasts within an Intermediate-dimension was nothing.

Shane however, didn't mind other people's wealth and continued his search for a mana gathering manual before he would take a loot at body refining manual

He had still more than 130 gold coins left.

As such, he decided to pick a [Mortal-(Gold)] mana gathering manual for 10 gold coins.

Its quality was only one rank more than the mana gathering manual he owned but it would still amplify his mana gathering speed by a lot.

Furthermore, Shane wanted to try out enhancing his techniques once again because the possibility was still present.

Looking through the body refining manuals, there were just too many and some of them set priorities in enhancing one's agility, toughness, or internal organs, while techniques that refined everything together were the most expensive.

Shane wouldn't use all his remaining 120 gold coins because he had to purchase the items Umbra needed to enhance his quality, furthermore, there was still the chance, that Shane could enhance Umbra's quality once again before they would figure out the path for his evolution.

As such, Shane went with a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] body refining technique, which could further enhance his agility for 60 gold coins to a higher degree.

After purchasing the [Tier-1 (Bronze)] body refining and mana purifying technique in addition to the [Mortal-(Gold)] mana gathering technique, Shane purchased one [Darkness Orchid (Rare)] for 5 gold coins, one baby-fist sized peak tier-1 mana stone with darkness mana stored within for 6 gold coins and 100 ml concentrated blood of an elite staged snake for 4 gold coins.

This left him with 45 gold, he would leave within his status panel for now.