Chapter 52: Overall Satisfied, But Training Never Ends
After announcing the results, the first years were dismissed from the school auditorium. The professors also began preparing for the second year’s class exam, and there was also the third year’s class exam after that, hence classes for all years were suspended for the day.
Leaving the auditorium, Zeke parted ways with Andrei and headed straight to the training facility. To his surprise, there were also a few students who were headed in the same direction as him. These students held expressions of extreme disappointment, their eyes unfocused. A thick, uncomfortable air surrounded them, causing others to keep their distance.
’Depending on one’s performance in the class exam, personal value may drop instead...’
Zeke merely observed them for a moment before moving away.
There weren’t a lot of students around in the training facility, while rare, it didn’t surprise him. The first years just finished their class exam, and the second years and third years were up next. No one would waste their energy training before the exam.
Once Zeke found a secluded corner, he grabbed a sword and closed his eyes. Before everything else, he went through everything that happened in the class exam in his mind.
With his improved strength, he killed multiple monsters over the course of the exam, putting his knowledge into practical use. He settled his grudge with Franz, thereby removing a sore in his life in the academy, and paying back the humiliation he received by double. By the end of the exam, he had accumulated 11,000 treasure value points, positioning him around the Top 20 among the first years.
Overall, Zeke was satisfied with his performance.
He managed to get everything he could with his current strength while sacrificing nothing. He also keenly realized that he reached his limit with 11,000 treasure value points. Any more than that was probably impossible.
By the last hour of the exam, all the classes were already grouping up, except for Class D. All the treasures had been excavated by the end, so attempting to get more would require him to attack or rob other students.
If he did that, maybe he could’ve been in the Top 10... Zeke shook his head. Comparing the risk-to-reward ratio, it wasn’t worth it from his perspective. It wasn’t like there was only one class exam, there was still the next month, and the month after that... but there was also something better than all of them altogether.
’The top 10 in the leaderboards.’
Zeke’s thoughts stirred, recalling the information he had read about the leaderboard. Similar to the class leaderboard, reaching the top 10 in any of the individual leaderboards granted bonus resources and special privileges.
He immediately thought, recalling the class war between Class A and Class B. The top-ranked first year, Diana, directly tore through the Great Spell cast by the second-ranked first year.
Being born in a family of rankers, he knew the significance of a Great Spell. They were powerful skills from mage classes that can raze armies, destroy towns, or even shield against fatal attacks.
Other classes also had an equivalent skill to the mage classes’ Great Spell, referred to as Great Skill. The reason the mages differed was because of a trait unique to mage classes, but the terms were generally interchangeable.
Setting that aside, the power of a Great Spell or Great Skill was evident, but they were also extremely rare.
To be exact, only Orange-quality classes could awaken a Great Skill.
Hence, the caster of the Great Spell, which was Enzo Wraith, had an Orange-quality mage class. This goes without saying, but Diana, who broke that Great Spell, also had an Orange-quality combat class.
’The skill she used to break the spell should be a Great Skill.’
Zeke deduced calmly. Only a Great Skill could defend against a Great Skill.
’So the strongest class in the first year is Orange-quality, that’s good.’
He went to see that class war to precisely see the talent ceiling of his peers in the academy. When he finally saw it, he wasn’t surprised, but at the same time, he was relieved.
’If it’s Purple-quality, it’s almost impossible...’
Red Land was different from Euryon or the other continents, that much should be obvious by now. There weren’t any strict laws here, and people here were as bloodthirsty and cynical as one could imagine.
It wasn’t strange for a person to die suddenly without warning on a random day.
A person didn’t even need to do anything wrong. They could simply be living like usual, but that wouldn’t stop them from dying, since on any random day of their lives, they could be an unwilling target of a person stronger than them.
For example, his classmate Franz.
When Zeke first transferred, Franz had targeted him simply because of ’stealing’ his attention in the classroom. Now imagine if Franz didn’t have a Green-quality class, but a Purple-quality class.
’... I’ll die.’
Maybe others were still not clear about the significance of a Purple-quality class, but Zeke knew very well what it exactly meant.
To be precise, if one of those heavenly chosens with a Purple-quality class were here, then they would be the strongest student as long as no other student had a Purple-quality class. Any one of them could defeat Diana and Enzo combined in under five minutes, and that was him being generous.
"But even an Orange-quality class is far away from me right now, what am I thinking..."
Zeke muttered under his breath, criticizing himself. His class was just a Green-quality class that could get an edge against higher-quality classes by abusing a rare spiritual skill. Even if he was attempting to break into the top 10 in the leaderboard, Diana and Enzo were still far away from him.
A more reasonable, and his actual goal, was the Top 10, Gilbert Augzven.
"... Enough. It’s time to train."
Sensing that his thoughts were starting to wander, Zeke stopped thinking. He looked at the sword in his hand and checked his stats before starting his training.
---
Name: Zeke Crimson
Age: 16
Class: Soul Swordsman (16/1,000), Gamer (Black 0/100,000)
Rank: Initiate 1.3
Striking Force: 1,505 kg
Speed: 26m/s
Spirit Force: 13
Echoforce: 33
Skills: Soul Sword Manifestation (Active 16/1,000), Lethal Strike (Active 16/1,000), Sword Skill (Passive 16/1,000), Gamer Proficiency (Passive 0/100,000), Gamer Attributes (Passive 0/100,000), Gamer Growth (Passive 0/100,000), Gamer Overload (Active 0/100,000)
Techniques: Heart Sword (Active 6/10,000), Starbearer Sword Stance (Passive 10/20,000), Starbringer Sword Stance (Passive 10/20,000), Starpoint Sword Stance (Passive 10/20,000)
---
Over the past days, Zeke trained without missing a day, breaking through Rank 1.3 Initiate and even reaching 33 Echoforce before the class exam. With more skills than he can count in both hands, he reorganized his Gamer Attributes panel and separated the skills and techniques.
His proficiency increased alongside his rank, though it was slower than his progress back when he still had the Gray-quality class.
However, Zeke didn’t mind. For some reason, every increase in proficiency as a Green-quality class felt like a substantial improvement, no matter how little.
He didn’t know the exact reason behind this, but it was most likely related to the quality of the class itself.
Speaking of the quality of the class, he made a few important realizations during his training. Now that he had a Green-quality class, his training was more effective, and he could now exert his body more than usual.
The physique and muscle control of a Gray-quality class Ranker and a Green-quality class Ranker were fundamentally not the same—to be precise, it’s like comparing an ordinary person to a top-tier athlete. Even if the two exerted the same amount of effort, the Green-quality class Ranker was using their body better than the former, hence receiving more reward from their training.
This could be referred to as ’talent’.
As a result of this, the other Gamer Skills finally began to show their strength.
Gamer Growth was a core reason on why he broke through Rank 1.3 within a week, and even reached 33 Echoforce. The skill itself wasn’t related to proficiency, but to his attributes.
A Ranker was a combination of two things: their class, and their attributes.
Class can’t be changed, so most Rankers devote their training to improving their attributes.
Attributes were essential for a Ranker. Breaking through certain ranks required a minimum number of echoforce, which was the combination of a Ranker’s three attributes: Striking Force, Speed, and Spirit Force.
How Rankers improved their attributes varied, but the most common method was through exerting the body continuously; the more pressure put on the body, the more the improvement.
This process can be slow and tiring, but not for Zeke anymore.
Gamer Growth accelerated the increase of his attributes the longer he trained in one session, allowing him to get results equivalent to his efforts. Although he still needed to train continuously, at least now he didn’t need to push himself to the brink of exhaustion just for his attributes to barely improve.
