Chapter 103 103: Top 3

"And now for the Top 3 of the First Day of the exam..."

The teachers narrowed their eyes impatiently as they waited with anticipation.

"...The Top 3: Eugene Pendragon! The grand noble duke's second son"

Brandon stated loudly, his smile widening as he tapped the smartwatch.

"For their team points in the first day, he, along with his team, accumulated a hefty amount of 1,988 pts+!"

At that moment, the hologram suddenly changed, displaying Eugene's profile, showing a brief clip of him eliminating demons left and right with his elegant artistic mastery over the spear.

The Combat Teachers widened their eyes as they watched the brief clip. The spear moved brilliantly, in each swing and thrust—a show of artistic mastery was displayed.

The Combat Teachers stared at the clip intently. They could catch that Eugene had not yet fully refined his spear mastery... It was still not in the realms of masters. It was like a well of untapped potential, waiting to be unleashed.

At that moment, all the Combat Teachers in the room shifted their eyes—glancing at each other warily. A tense silence descended between them.

"...I'm saying it now. I'm getting this student as my disciple!" a Combat Teacher proclaimed hurriedly, shattering the silence.

"Ha! Dream on! You're not even a master of spear to begin with!" a different Combat Teacher scoffed. "It's obvious the kid is going to me. Among us Combat Teachers, I obviously have the most mastery over the spear. I'm the only one that can raise this kid right."

"I doubt it that a common civilian like you can teach the Pendragon's heir correctly," another Combat Teacher intervened. "It obviously has to be a noble, lest the best student gets lead to astray. If we're talking about nobles...then the best candidate is me."

The Combat Teachers continued arguing shamelessly, not caring of their image as they threw a fit at one another.

The other teachers in the room were speechless. Internally, they couldn't blame the shamelessness and persistence of the Combat Teachers over Eugene. If they had the qualifications—they would also argue shamelessly.

...It was without a doubt that Eugene Pendragon was a top generational talent with a limitless and bright future. The kid could become a Duke in the future—maybe even the greatest Miracle Invoker.

By that thought process, whoever would be the teacher of the Pendragon heir would also be recorded in the annals of history along with the genius noble, their name immortalized in history.

—In short, it was a shortcut to prestigious fame and power in one swell swoop. It was no wonder why teachers would fight over him shamelessly.

The Arcane Teachers sighed, disappointed. They would contest for teacher status too... but alas, they were not fit to teach a Martial Artist student.

In contrast to the admiration and awe of other teachers — Rio was unimpressed from the brief clip, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

What was happening? Why was Eugene's mastery of the spear still the same? It still felt lackluster and insufficient... he had thought the memories or the present he gave would be able to resolve that.

He was sure it was able to resolve it. The only thing left was for Eugene to digest the memories... Rio stared, disappointed. If this was the result of giving out such a present, he couldn't help but be disappointed.

[Don't worry too much.] Faust suddenly chuckled, his voice resounding in Rio's mind. [The kid is a crafty bastard. It's hard to catch, but he's restraining himself on purpose.]

"It's intentional...?" Rio frowned. "But what for?"

[How would I know?] Faust rebutted.

Rio pursed his lips. Well, nevermind that. It was a good thing that the present wasn't all that useless.

The presents were monumental to his relationship with the main characters.

Earlier, he had already decided that Arcuied, Eugene, Amber along Xiao were his first four students in regards to creating his perfect legacy. He wanted to raise them perfectly, without fault.

Rio shook his head, his eyes staring at the hologram.

As soon as the clip ended, the academy's evaluation of Eugene immediately followed and displayed on the hologram, making most teachers nod in satisfaction.

[Leadership: 9/10, Strength: 10/10, Battle Awareness: 10/10, Battle IQ: 10/10]

This time, the lot of teachers weren't as surprised as before. From the reputation of the student, along with the brief clip, the academy's evaluation was more or less what they expected. Three perfect ratings and one nigh-perfection.

"Another impressive evaluation!" Samantha said, staring at the hologram in awe. "I wonder how would the top 1 and top 2 fair?"

"I'm waiting for it too," Rio answered. If there was no accident — the following top ranks would be as he expected it to be. Unlike the other teachers, he already knew the result of this exam until the last day.

"Alright...! Let's move on to the number two spot." Brandon declared loudly, making everyone's attention direct to him.

The teachers quieted down, nodding as they waited in anticipation.

"For the number two spot of the rankings..."

Brandon said, his finger tapping the smartwatch.

"...The Top 2: Arcuied Valens, the current best student in the entirety of the First Year... as for the Team Points; in one day, Arcuied and the team accumulated 2,055 pts!"

The hologram suddenly changed, displaying a different student with snowy white hair and golden eyes. A brief clip of Arcuied was played out—displaying his iconic battle along with his teammates against the swarm of shadows.

The teachers narrowed their eyes in surprise. The best student was number second...? However, the surprise didn't end there. The hologram shifted once more—this time showing the academy's evaluation.

[Leadership: 10/10, Strength: 10/10, Battle Awareness: 10/10, Battle IQ: 10/10]

At that moment, a heavy silence descended on the room.

The array of teachers' mouth opened in disbelief, speechless of the academy's evaluation. In the entire history of Volund Academy, only a handful of students were rated so highly as to all-perfection. In no difference, all of them graduate as Star Alumni's—the best students to grace the Academy ever.

"Uhm..." an Arcane Teacher broke the silence. "Is there perhaps any mistake? This has to be a joke right..?"

"In the contrary, no." Brandon replied, his brows raising. It just had to be a noble teacher that asked—but he was prepared for the questions... since nobles, for the most part, can't accept a superior civilian. "The one that handled the academy evaluation for the Top 10 was both Director Guinevere and Vice-Director Greg. If you want to complain, go ask both of them."

The Arcane Teacher flinched from the names.

"Thought so," Brandon chuckled smugly, his head shaking. "If you have no complaints, just shut up."

The Arcane Teacher reluctantly quieted down, unable to respond.

The Combat Teachers—on the other hand—were more excited than upset from the news. The majority of the Combat Teachers were civilians, it was a sight to see a fellow common man rise through the limitations of the status quo and break the traditions set upon.

***

Rio nodded, his eyes shifting to the hologram. He stared at Arcuied's profile silently. In contrast to others, he perfectly understood why the academy gave a perfect rating to Arcuied. In fact, any less was inaccurate.

...To explain it concisely. A small question must first be asked—how would one define talent?

To him, it was the ability to rise above others without external help. It was the passive ability on which reigns superior to other people. It was a natural born ability.

In Volund Academy, every student was a talent. It didn't matter if it was the lowest of the low in the rankings, they still had a speck of talent in their own right. In a sense, every student in the academy was special in one way and another, but here begs the question... why did the academy still rank other students and expel the lowest of the low?

The answer to that lied on towards the creation of Volund Academy—its purpose to society and mankind as a whole.

It wasn't exactly a heavy guarded secret... but Volund Academy was not created in finding and raising talented people—but rather creating 'perfect geniuses' for humankind.

It was an enormous difference.

A talented person is, at most, someone superior to a few others.

But a perfect genius...? It was the type of person superior to an entire generation. A person that could shape and create a generation—someone that could create and form history with their own name. That was a perfect genius.

And Volund Academy finds and creates these perfect geniuses through several test and exams, each as important as the other. In the exams, they test and focus on the single, key difference between any average talent and a genius.

It was the distinct ability to rise against threats far beyond what they could—the ability to rise through any situations and surpass limitations and the norm.

Rio stared at the hologram silently. Arcuied, Eugene, Amber were all potential perfect geniuses. As for Xiao however...

The admiration and noises of the teachers in the room had quickly exhausted and turned quiet, their eyes shifting to Brandon in the middle, waiting for the last ranking.

At this point, the first ranking team was already indirectly revealed. It didn't take much of a genius to figure out who the best team for the first day would be. And in a logical sense, the first ranking team was not surprising at all.

Most of their shock and surprise came from Arcuied having a perfect rating—in regards to his team being second in the team points ranking, however, was not at all shocking, just a little surprising—after all, the expected first ranking team were a monster team on their own...

"Moving on the top 1! Let's hurry this up, the students are about to meet...!"

Brandon sighed loudly, his hand tapping on his smartwatch quickly.

"...For the best team in the exam for day 1...the Top 1: Kojiro Murasaki! The elite genius of the Murasaki Family, a family specialized in slaughtering demons... as for the Team Points; in one day, Kojiro and the team accumulated a total of 2,600 pts!"

At that moment, the hologram suddenly changed once more, displaying a brief clip of a distinct figure. The figure was a thin and frail male student with sharp eyebrows.

Rio narrowed his eyes, expectant. Kojiro Murasaki...

Kojiro nonchalantly held a katana, unsheathing it as he pointed the tip to a colossal, deformed demon. The colossal demon had multiple limbs, all intact and ready to grasp onto him.

Kojiro calmly stood In front of the demon's face. He grabbed the handle of the katana. Without delay, he moved his body—

—In that instant, he vanished from the screen.

A flash of a blade followed his disappearance. A long drawn strike suddenly reflected in the hologram.

Click—!

A click resounded, the katana returned to its sheath—and in one split second, the demon in the paved path was dead with its heart teared away from its body.

Soon after, the camera returned to Kojiro along with his teammates, nonchalantly walking forward on the paved path, ignoring the demon behind them.

"The f'ck just happened..." A general teacher muttered out accidentally.

Most of the teachers in the room shared that sentiment. It was so fast that not even a blur reflected in the screen, only a flash of the sword and soon after the sight of a dead demon. It was bizarre and mystical.

Rio sighed, partly sharing that sentiment. He couldn't even properly appraise the technique before it finished. In the novel, one of the most feared techniques in the world was the legacy technique of the Murasaki Family.

«Boundary of Yin-Yang» a legacy technique that could be said to reach the peak of magic. The technique recreates yin-yang to reality, reinforcing the sword with the laws of yin-yang.

The specifics of the technique were kept as a secret. But from the novel, it was stated that as long as one reached the peak mastery over this technique, one could reverse death onto life in any being, with no exceptions.

Rio didn't doubt that statement from the novel at all. Just one glance at the Murasaki Family's technique... he could ascertain as much that it operates by using a large amount of magical energy, killing the enemy with one strike.

He could even feel faintly that the technique could also kill him, granted he was unable to dodge the sword.

[That technique...] Faust muttered, his body diving out of Rio's body. [Its...perfection. Whoever made that technique was in the same realm of genius as me. Someone that understood...life and death to its peak and recreated it through the sword. Brilliant.]

Rio was suddenly startled, his eyes shifting to Faust.

[Rio...] Faust muttered. [Rio... you should rob this technique and get caught by the owner of it so I could talk with the man.]

"...What?" Rio asked in disbelief. "Why would I do that?"

[For the longevity and advancement of the Martial Artist Community!] Faust shouted. [...Or, try to poach the kid in as your student so we can talk to his papa or something.]

Rio sighed, suppressing his disbelief. He shifted his gaze to the hologram once more. This time, the hologram displayed the academy's evaluation of Kojiro Murasaki.

[Leadership: 8/10, Strength: 10/10, Battle Awareness: 10/10, Battle IQ: 9/10]

It was good enough. Rio stared at the thin and frail student silently. This student... Kojiro Murasaki was going to be the fifth student for his 'perfect' legacy.