He wasn’t loud, he wasn’t flashy, there was no display of strength or even a portal opening. He was just there, like he always was, but at the same time wasn’t.
But the second he appeared, everything stopped. The loud chattering of the new students, the sound of mana crystals fueling the spatial distortion. Even any birds that flew over the colosseum ceased.
No one was moving, they couldn’t. Not when his presence pressed down on reality like a paperweight on letters.
In comparison to the scale of the colosseum he was tiny, an unassuming figure floating above them.
But everyone knew who he was, there was no guesswork needed, his name echoed inside their minds.
Sylas Starlight.
The principal had arrived to welcome his new students.
He was a tall man, standing over 2 meters tall with long silvery hair that hung behind him like spilled constellations. His face looked as if it was carved by the gods, and his burning golden eyes looked down on the new students with mirth. Inside his eyes, a fine silver ring rotated around his pupil.
His elven ears were longer than the ones of other elves, silver earrings with golden gems decorating them.
He wore a simple white robe with silver and gold embroidery, and on his back was the crest of the academy woven into the fabric. A hand made from gold was reaching towards distant silver constellations that formed an open book.
He had a playful smile playing on his lips as he looked down on the millions of students that all looked up to him with awe.
He opened his arms towards the students below in a welcoming manner.
"Dear new students of the Starlight Academy. I, Sylas Starlight, welcome you to my humble institution. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you too much with an overly long speech; after the 1000th time it gets boring to repeat them."
A light giggle went through the stands below, as the godly charismatic aura of the principal worked wonders.
"From this moment on, you are no longer a commoner, a noble, or royalty. You are a student of the Starlight Academy. When you enter this school you leave your status behind, your debts and your fears. You will eat with people at other points in their lives, you will learn with them, train with them, because here you are all one thing: my students. And as such, I will protect you with everything I have."
The values of the principal were clear: he didn’t care who you were, how rich you were, or how many connections you had. Once someone enrolls in the academy they are his people, his responsibility. And Valerian couldn’t help but respect him for that.
To completely leave behind the political side someone of his strength normally would need to take, and instead embrace the role of a teacher and guide.
’I guess that is the perk of being the strongest, no one can force you into a role you don’t want to.’
"And to celebrate this wonderful day, we will hold the ranking tournament! I can guess what you are thinking. Even if you are last, that doesn’t mean you can’t attend the academy, it just means that you have a lot to learn and that is exactly what you are here to do. And before we begin, I want to tell you all the most important rule here at the academy."
The colosseum went silent again, no one wanted to miss what he was about to say.
"If you want to continue to learn here, there is only one requirement to advance to the next year. Improvement. I don’t care if the improvement is in the form of a higher rank, better mana control, or even an increase in your social skills. Improvement is the only qualification to stay here."
’That’s not so bad.’
Actually, only asking for improvement in any sort of field was one hell of a deal to study at the best institution in the world. But for others, there was now a pressure on them to always improve if they wanted to stay.
The solemn atmosphere in the colosseum was taken away as a jolly expression found itself on the principal’s face again.
"And with that out of the way. Let’s start with the tournament!"
The sudden shift in tone caught many off guard; to some it was weird to see such an ancient and powerful being be so full of expressions.
But Sylas didn’t care for that and wanted to get to the interesting part.
"The tournament for the ranking will work in blocks. Today we have 1,048,576 new students. And to determine the rank one among our newbies, you will be split into 4 groups each holding 262,144 contestants. You will fight them, and if you win you move forward to the next round. And you don’t have to worry about your mana running dry or injuries piling up; after every round your mana and body get put back into their peak. This isn’t a battle of attrition after all."
Arthur, who sat to Valerian’s left, was in deep thought when he suddenly let out a deep sigh.
"So to win, one has to win 20 battles without losing. That seems annoying."
"Then maybe you should lose your first match so you can relax."
Arthur recoiled at the horrible suggestion Valerian made.
"Are you crazy?! If getting a harem means I have to win 100 matches, then I will gladly do that!"
Other students around them who heard this slowly moved away, as they didn’t want anything to do with this weirdo. But the principal just continued.
"And then the winners of these four groups will fight each other in the semifinals, to determine the finalists. Your fights will take place in a subdimension where time flows faster or slower, so that even if your fight takes an hour, the block phase will last for 30 minutes here on the outside. After that, the semifinals and lastly the finals will last for another 30 minutes."
Valerian was excited. After not fighting for the month he spent home, he wanted to stretch his limbs, even if the other students wouldn’t be able to match him.
"So without further ado... LET THE TOURNAMENT BEGIN!!"
The principal clapped his hands and all the new students disappeared from their seats down below. Valerian could feel the space mana around him, but he didn’t fight it and just let himself be teleported.
But before his body left the stand, he could spot someone in the distance. A head of long silver hair, long elf ears, and crimson-magenta eyes that burned through reality.
’She’s here...’
And then the teleportation took him away.
The transition was smooth, similar to Valerian’s teleportations, but during the short moment of shifting places Valerian could feel something off. It wasn’t a bad kind of off, more like the teleportation the principal used was fundamentally different than his.
But no matter how hard he tried to pinpoint where the feeling was coming from, he just couldn’t figure it out. It was like the answer was always half a step away from him.
Valerian shook his head and put the thoughts about the teleportation aside and instead focused on the space around him.
There was a ground, but it didn’t really look like one; everything around him was white, like color itself was removed from the space. His spatial perception was going wild, clearly unable to comprehend the space around him.
Before he could get a headache, Valerian turned the perception off.
’I guess I can’t use it here, no matter.’
It wasn’t like all his strength came from his perception; he would just have to make do with what he had here.
Valerian looked around, and roughly 20 meters away from him was the other contestant he was supposed to fight.
It was an unassuming-looking boy with brown hair and eyes, who also had brown feline ears on his head and a short brown tail coming from his lower back. He had a steel longsword in his hands and was shaking.
’Hmm? Why is he shaking?’
Valerian couldn’t understand it, but others hadn’t spent over a month in the voidwoods fighting experienced veterans a rank above them. And the boy in front of him was a commoner who had never fought before in his life.
’I guess I should make this quick. It will take 30 minutes on the outside, but I want to get through this as fast as possible. It probably doesn’t matter how long individual fights take, my next opponent will finish at the same time as me. And they can’t die, so there’s no reason to go easy.’
The barrier surrounding the academy also worked in this pocket dimension, so the students could go all out without being afraid to die or kill another person.
In between them, writing made from light appeared that was counting down from 10.
10
9
The boy got more nervous, and it didn’t help that Valerian had his hands in his pockets and didn’t even bother to take out a weapon.
8
7
6
The boy readjusted his grip on his sword as his hands became sweaty.
5
4
3
2
He began to channel his mana to instantly attack.
1
Before the boy could even move a muscle, his body was enveloped by the protective barrier and was sent to the medical area, not even knowing how he had lost.
’First down.’
And Valerian’s form disappeared from the pocket dimension to go to the next fight.
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A/N
I decided on the new Seraphine design, I hope you like it.
I also updated her image in the character arts.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
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