Chapter 21: Joining the Nacesai Academy
Yale followed Swordmad in silence; he also understood the meaning of his master leaving the clan.
Yale was happy to see how his master cared about him and as his master also left the clan, Yale felt completely detached from the clan.
However, he felt that showing happiness about something that had provoked a calamity for the clan would make him look like an evildoer, so Yale didnt open his mouth.
Yale didnt care about the clan, but he also didnt wish for the clans destruction nor any bad thing to it. Since Yale left the clan, to him, the Roanmad Clan had become like any other clan in the Nacesai City, completely unrelated to him.
In almost two hours, Yale and his master reached the doors of the Nacesai Academy where there were two guards to block any outsiders from entering.
Of course, the Nacesai Academy had protective spells that would be activated if some intruder surpassed the guards.
The guards werent an impediment to Yale as he had an identity medallion to prove his qualifications as a student, he could enter without any problems.
However, the guards stopped Swordmad from passing as he didnt have any identity medallion.
Sorry, sir. You could only accompany him until this point.
The guard blocked his path, but he wasnt arrogant towards Swordmad. The guard didnt know who Swordmad was so he was careful that he wouldnt offend him.
Furthermore, three days ago was the Nacesai Academy Recruitment Test Day and those who were approved started to arrive at the Nacesai Academy accompanied by their elders. Those elders tried to accompany the kids inside, so Swordmad trying to enter with Yale wasnt anything surprising.
Yale had only missed the test for three days; he would have been very unlucky if he hadnt had the qualifications from beforehand as the Nacesai Academy Recruitment Test Day happened only once every three months.
The guards thought that Swordmad was like any other elder, but the loud voice that resounded a moment later proved that they were wrong.
Let him enter!
The guards instantly moved to a side giving way to Swordmad without any obstacles, they recognized that voice, and they didnt dare to disobey it.
The source of that powerful voice was an old man that was waiting for them inside, he looked towards Swordmad and smiled.
Old friend! I havent seen you in years, but you are still the same as always.
I can say the same about you. People like us dont change that easily.
Indeed, powerful experts like them couldnt easily change as they already experienced a lot and they had mostly fixed demeanor and habits. Furthermore, they had very long longevity, so they stopped aging for a long time ago.
That was the opposite of Yale and other kids of their generation; they were in a period that their appearance and character could change a lot in almost no time.
As long as one advanced in practicing a Path, the longevity would increase, and the aging would slow. However, one wouldnt recover the lost youth.
A Rank 1 Magus had double the lifespan of a mortal; then they would also age at half the speed. However, if one reached the Rank 1 at fifteen years, one would remain with the same appearance until thirty and then began aging at half speed.
And if one reached it at twelve, then it would remain the same until twenty-four, and only if that persons rank wouldnt increase more otherwise, the aging slowed even more.
Thats why in the world seeing a youngster wasnt equal to seeing a real youngster, some fearsome experts looked like teenagers, and they were usually the ones with more potential.
The Warrior path also slowed the aging but in the firsts ranks the rate is vastly inferior to the decrease of the Magus Path.
Swordmad and the academys old man looked old because they were truly ancient and had lived enough to age even with extremely long lifespans.
Furthermore, increasing the power became more difficult the more powerful one was, so even if one managed to have a breakthrough and expand the longevity one would have an old appearance.
You should be Yale; we have been waiting for you. Im the Nacesai Academy chairman; you can call me chairman Sainac. I still need to thank you for your merits saving Ange those years ago.
That old man was the Nacesais Academy chairman, and also its founder, in all the history of the Nacesai Academys only had one chairman.
He was the most powerful and ancient person in the whole Nacesai Academy, and there were only a few comparable to him in the whole city, of course, Swordmad was one of them.
Both have been old friends since who knows how many time ago, but they rarely met.
Sainac was the one who issued orders to spare no costs in Yales recuperation after the incident in the clans gathering, he saved Ange and furthermore, he was his old friend disciple.
Greetings to chairman Sainac.
Yale bowed towards him, as an old friend of his master and the chairman of the academy was something who Yale would show respect even if he werent told to do so.
After Yale bowed, Swordmad spoke to his old friend.
Im planning to reside here while my student is in the academy, is there any problem?
Even if Swordmad knew that his old friend would accept, he at least asked because Sainac was someone at his level and someone he respected.
In fact, no one knew who would win if they had an all-out battle. Fortunately, they had always been on good terms; only a few people in the whole city could imagine how a battle between two powerful experts like them would be.
Of course, Im very happy to let you live in the academy.
The chairman laughed, he was very happy as having another expert at his level living in the academy would benefit the academys overall power.
Swordmad nodded towards his friend remembering how in the past Sainac tried to recruit him to found the Nacesai Academy but Swordmad refused as he had only wanted to focus on his training.
Yale, your situation is quite special. Usually, you should join the classes for which you have the best talents. However, you didnt go through any testing at all so you couldnt know about your talents. Furthermore, there are almost three months until the next recruitment season when you could apply for a test.
Even the academy couldnt test the talents at any moment, they had their methods, but they needed time to execute them.
Yale sighed in relief as he preferred to let his talents remain secret.
Furthermore, in three months his time to reach the 2-star would be used up, he couldnt wait, and the Nacesai Academy test would only work with 1-star mortals.
Chairman Sainac, that doesnt matter, I would like to apply to all the classes.
Of course, Yale was referring only to the beginner classes. The Nacesai Academy separated the students under sixteen years in three grades, a beginner grade from 1-star to 3-star, the intermediate grade from 4-star to 6-star and the advanced grade from 7-star to 9-star.
If one didnt reach the Rank 1 before turning sixteen one would be expelled from the academy, and if one reached the Rank 1, only then that student would become a true disciple from the academy.
Before Rank 1 all was about potential, but one needed to reach Rank 1 to have a future.
Sainac was slightly shocked at Yales answer, there wasnt any norm against it, but few people dared to do it, reaching Rank 1 was a race against time, focusing on ones best points was the most optimal manner.
However, when Sainac looked at Swordmad and saw him smiling as if Yales answer was obvious, Sainac agreed to Yale.
You are crazy at training, just like your master.
Then, Sainac produced a class schedule and a very tight one.
The classes imparted in the Nacesai academy separated into Warrior-focused and Magus-focused.
The Magus-focused classes were for all the normal elements plus poison and healing, making a total of nine different Magus classes.
As for the Warrior-focused classes, they were divided into battle styles: Fist classes, Sword classes, Spear classes, Rod classes and Archery classes.
Those were the five most popular types of battle styles in Nacesai City if one excluded the heavy weapons, those only have classes after reaching the Rank 1 as their power was too destructive.
Aside from attending classes, the students spent the rest of their time practicing on their own.
Each class happened once a day, and as Yale chose to attend all the classes, he would have fourteen hours of classes every day.
Yale, dont forget that you still have to train with me. Even if you are in the Nacesai Academy theres no reason to stop your training with me, but you will be quite busy with the other classes, so I will let you do just one hour of training instead of two.
If one includes Swordmads training, Yale would only have nine spare hours every day, and only if he didnt sleep and used Fasting Pills instead of eating.
Fortunately, Yale had auto-recovery so he wouldnt need to rest as much as others, otherwise he would have no time for training after all the classes.
The classes for the new students would start in three days; you are lucky that you didnt miss the first classes.
Sainac laughed again, and Yale agreed about his luck. He missed the Nacesai Academy Recruitment Test Day, but he was able to enter with special qualifications and even before the new classes started, the results were very good as his experience in the academy would be the same as the other kids but without revealing his talents.
The first year inside the academy the beginner classes would be with the same members that entered the academy in the same Nacesai Academy Recruitment Test Day.
Once one went into the intermediate classes or stayed for more than a year, then they would be mixed in general classes which were bigger than the initial ones.
That way, everyone will have the same start inside the academy, and after a year at most, they would have classmates at a similar level of power based on their abilities.
Swordmad left with Sainac, they reunited after a long time, so they went to drink together while Yale went to see his sister, who he hadnt seen since the Clans Gathering.
The Nacesai Academy was the most secure place in the whole city, and with the powerful Sainac in charge no one dared to break the rules inside the academy, so one didnt need to fear danger from inside nor from outside.