Vale sighed after seeing the amount of Vitality Points taken from him.

[ Name: Kyle Marshall ]

[ Attributes: Strength 29.65, Agility 23.82, Intelligence 51.17, Vitality 24.94 ]

[ Dark Arts: Spell Dispersion Lv4, Ghost Hand Lv7, Incorruptible Body Lv6, Darkness Manipulation Lv2 ]

[ Available Energy: 285 ]

His Vitality went from 27.44 points to 24.94. It was 2.5 points or equal to 250 extractions of ordinary humans.

Headmaster Jean would probably be surprised if he learned that one of his Life Strands has suddenly disappeared.

Nevertheless, Vale didn't think too much of it considering how his current age should only have 3 or 4 Life Strands according to the Headmaster.

Although he no longer has an equal Life Strand with the Headmaster, he still has plenty of them and he would surely have another chance of extracting Vitality Points.

Vale then looked at his shadow where the new Dark Spirit silently entered. He can feel the unique connection he has with the Dark Spirit and knows that he can communicate with her at any moment.

However, he doesn't have the energy to chat with her for now so he decided to just clean up and leave the room.

Vale wasn't sure what to feel at this moment. He felt complicated with the new Dark Spirit in his shadow. Although it was a short time, he felt really connected to that Dark Spirit…

On his way to his room, Vale had many thoughts about his encounter with the Messenger.

'He mentioned that the Glorious Gates was interested in me? He also hinted that I have a familiar scent. What was it?' Vale mused.

If he would make a guess, it was probably due to his Divine Extraction System or his Golden Pocketwatch… or perhaps, it was due to the fact that he died once and almost entered the Soul Society or maybe the Spirit World? Did he get a certain smell of being revived from the dead?

As Vale continued thinking, he had plenty of random thoughts…

'Right… I should've asked him about the Divine Arts or anything related to the Immortals… I gained Divinity from these so-called Immortals or Celestial Corpses after all…'

Velt felt that it was such a shame that he can't have a chat with the Messenger for a bit longer. He was also unwilling to spend another 2.5 points in his Vitality Points for that so he can only think of another way of learning about his Divinity Points and those Celestial Corpses he had seen before.

***

Another month quickly passed after this event and during this time, the first-year students' Elementary Spirit Law class would have their second Spirit Strand Assessment.

This is to know whether their Spirit was strengthened after learning various methods to enhance their Spirit.

Of course, this event brought another excitement among first-year students. This is especially to those at Class 1 who wanted to exceed Vale's current Spirit Strands…

Apparently, most students in Class 1 had come from core families of the Dark Arts Factions. Knowing that an "outsider" was able to surpass their successor's Spirit Strands, these families had gone all out to boost the Spirits of their children…

Some of the students drank Spirit Enhancement Potions, Spiritual Water, or even consumed High-Grade Spirit Pearls and used some other Spirit Boosting Mystical Artifacts.

This is to ensure that their families' prestige wouldn't be tarnished just by a random guy who had come from a declined noble family. 

On the day of the assessment, there were plenty of students and teachers awaiting the results. They wanted to know whether Vale would remain on top or not.

"Maya! You've reached 26 Spirit Strands!" Goldie Forrest exclaimed after seeing Maya's astounding result.

"Incredible… If Vale's Spirit Strand remained stagnant, then you'll have the highest strand." Ana Chalton added after seeing her friend's result.

It was the same for her classmates who started congratulating her. Her achievement was incredible considering how Crystal Ravinie only has 17 Spirit Strands who came in second place in the ranking.

Apparently, even after they used up several enhancements brought by their family, they only managed to increase their strands to about 6 or 8 Strands.

Maya wryly smiled after hearing their praises… She felt complicated hearing all of them.

She knows very well that her achievement wasn't easy.

She spent a huge sum of money to accomplish this… She was also helped by several seniors in the Academy who used up over 130 Contribution Points in order to exchange a few precious items in the Exchange Hall only to offer them to her.

Perhaps, the price she had to pay to achieve this was equal to three Consumable Royal Rank Mystical Items.

It was simply too wasteful considering that with her talent, she can naturally achieve this without those expensive consumables.

Now, because of the pressure that Vale had given her, she had to accept all these offers. She's now bearing the burden of ensuring the prestige of the Main Families…

Unfortunately, because of the sudden and forceful increase in her Spirit, her body has already built up a strong resistance to potions and other consumables related to Spirit Enhancement.

In short, her chances to breakthrough on her future bottlenecks would lower because potions will no longer guarantee their effectiveness due to her early intake.

Although she still believes that her talent won't make her improvement stagnant, she still worries about this a lot since she dreams to become one of the Master Arcanists of the Darkness Arcane Path.

As she was unsure what to feel about her achievement, she soon heard a rumor that made her smile…

'If that's true, then I've won!' Maya's eyes lit up as she immediately went to a Professor to confirm the rumors.

Apparently, it was said that Vale has already reached his limit and could no longer increase his Spirit Strand! This rumor started spreading throughout the Academy…

During his Spirit Assessment, Vale achieved the same result! More than 3 months had already passed and Vale's Spirit Strand remained 25!