Mrs. Gilbody who was sitting nearby looked startled by this but figured that it would be hard to control it.
“Hey Ashley, how do I dismount?” Xero asked.
“Pressure both legs down as if you are going to kneel. Do you want me to call the bear?” Ashley asked.
He nodded and she flew off and after a moment, he appeared. Xero explained what was heard and Mrs. Gilbody said her point of view saying she did not trust to life of the students in his hand but when he showed that he could at least control the sword, one summoned for himself, she was forced to accept the fact that he at least had some practice with this.
So to arrive back at the academy with the quickest speed, Xero dismounted and Grunt mounted the pedestal, after doing some tests with the large sword that caused them all to fear for their life he laughed and leveled out before getting his bearings before pressing down his back foot and amazingly the sword broke the speed of sound and turned into a giant blur that tore sky and clouds in two.
***
Within a council room at Everlight Academy the teachers were gathered after the rapid return of the second and third years. The speed of the sword was extremely amazing in the hands of the correct person. To say that it outdid the dragon transport wasn’t a lie. Even if he had 1 hour only, he blasted through the sky and as the timer got near, he switched back to Xero so that he could have a slight rest and to allow the timer to rest.
After returning, the teachers gathered all the markers that counted to kill count and the levels of them all to grade the students. Putting them all within a large bowl like magical item that would analyze and and display the names, the places began to appear.
At the forefront of the second years, without much surprise from Grunt and Mrs. Gilbody, Xero was at first place in both rapid growth under the situation, growth of his familiar and finally the kill count.
“What kind of killing spree did he go through?” One of the teachers asked.
Grunt laughed, “The boy didn’t do anything, the little devil is a killing machine. Not to mention the fact that she was using monster meat from dragon species as a method to have him ‘grow strong’!” He said and laughed.
“Mr. Crack, please do not bring those kinds of unpleasant jokes to work.” Mrs. Gilbody said but she also knew of these moments as Grunt had interacted greatly with the boy during the camping trip.
“But to kill ten level 24, thirty Level 23, fourty level 22 and so many more of the lower levels, how did the animal and monster population survive with this kind of pinpoint hunting?” the teacher responsible for teaching scouts and hunting classes asked.
Grunt grinned, “She has perfect magic eyes. She ‘sees’ mana, magic that affects the eyes don’t work on her, her sense of smell is as keen as a dragon, her hearing is better than a bats and her vision does not permit her to fall to visual illusions. She can ‘see’ the body everything with mana and the world is formed of mana so no one can hide from her eye.” He said.
“So hunting is easy as spotting the mana from the air. It can’t be considered hunting, she is simply looking around for prey.” The principle said.
“Exactly, the imp became rather unruly though, because her power advanced so quickly Xero is far behind her and she somewhat disregards his orders due to her ‘love’.” Mrs. Gilbody said with a sigh.
“Let the boy train, this is but his second year and the start of it at that, the next year will be a good stable time for him to train his own body. Grunt, allow the Imp to laze as she please but train Xero three times as hard. When he develops his skills, it will be more rewarding for him to squash her while she just lazes.” The headmaster said.
“AHAHAH! I love it, that said the girl’s own abilities can’t be underestimated. I went with her once to find a dragon species, she encountered a level 24 Black Fire Drake, with a butcher knife and an elongated kitchen knife she can summon for combat she was able to slice the wings and almost did a preliminary butchering before the beast even landed on the ground.” He said.
The brow of a few teachers twitched.
“It doesn’t matter, those are instinctive skills, for now let us see what the other students produced.” the headmaster said and everyone nodded as they focus once more.
Between all the people, those who did not show sufficient mentality or progress, like Chad and several nobles, were marked for expulsion so they wouldn’t keep affecting the progress of the other children.
As for the people that drew more attention, besides Xero, was Meldie, Univa, the cherub owner and several others who leveled their beast up the most as well as themselves.
These were put to be focused on without actually showing the focus. Like that with the scores tallied, it was wrote down for the semester graduation, which is just a small party but it would not be a happy ending for a number of people.
Chapter 19
Slowly stirring from his sleep, Xero saw the ceiling of his room at Everlight Academy. As his mind starts working once more, slowly a smile surfaces on his face as the events of the previous day flashed in his mind. It was already two days after the return.
***
1 day ago
After coming back, everyone was allowed to rest and relax. Everyone did their own thing from there until the evening were they would have the semester party. It was only the first semester of the 2nd year that did this because it guaranteed that they survived the selection of the academy and would probably never be expelled anymore. It would also grade and rank them based on work grades.
The biggest event thought was the expulsion of the students. During this time there is always someone expelled. These are people who negatively affect the results of other students while not putting their own weights worth into training themselves.
At the dinner party, everyone was enjoying themselves, with Xero being able to obtain some female school uniforms that fit Ashley so that she would not walk around naked with one of his robes.
She was quite irritated since she wouldn’t have his robe anymore but with his orders she put on the uniform that was a snug fit while her tail was poking out from below the skirt.
If not for the robe, her skirt would be lifted. One thing that irritated Xero to no end is the fact that she can put on clothing but she will not put on undergarments and even wants to get rid of the robe because it is hard for her to fly around in it.
Near the middle of the event when everyone had eaten and were enjoying the event, Mrs. Gilbody stood and using her spoon to hit against her metal goblet, the ringing drew the attention of all the students and the room was filled with silence.
“Good evening children, as you know the camping trip was part of your semester score. We have finally finished counting and ranking everyone based off their own growth, the growth of their familiar and the number of beasts killed. This also takes into account the growth, mentally, of each student.” She announced.
Everyone got excited about the ranking because it would be similar to the yearly ranking at the start of the year.
Mrs. Gilbody turned and with a wave her her wand a light shot out of her wand before expanding into a large orb.
In Xero’s mind his eyes were shining as he saw her use magic openly, one should know that humans don’t have magic formulas, if one wanted to use magic, they would need to build the entire sequence to use the spell. That is why spells like mana bolt and fireball were so low leveled, they didn’t need formula since it was simply elemental mana being shot after being compressed.
The orb expanded and within letters began to appear hundreds of names soon form and swam around before it began to settle into an organized manner. What was most predominant were the top 10 whose names were about 3 times larger and visible all over.
Everyone looked at #1 by instinct before turning to look at Xero. Although before the camping trip there would have been people contesting, after Ashley had her sudden burst of evolution she casually hunted level 20 creatures and above and would constantly hunt dragons and beast
s to feed Xero. It wasn’t something the others could casually do.
#2 ended up as Univa, which is expected due to her Blue Winged Salamander becoming a Lesser Sapphire Drake Infant early on. Not to mention, due to Xero’s sudden growth, she forced herself to do a heavy workout program to grow stronger.
From 3rd to 10th, were some lower ranked nobles whose talents were obvious. From there all the way to 50 was a mix of merchant family and commoners mixed with nobles.
Everyone was looking to find there name. Sitting near Xero, Meldie was looking before she gasp. “I’m ranked 39 in the year!” She exclaimed in shock.
“Congratulations.” Xero said.
“But… how!?” She said.
Xero laughed, “Of course you got that far, your Lesser Yin Yang Panda Adolescent, went from level 4 to level 10 without losing either the Lesser or the adolescent. Your strength that was as common as a normal girl became similar to a monster bears, you are able to control that strange type of mana as well. You also became braver against monsters and can turn one of them at level 10 into meat paste with a punch.” Xero said.
The little halfling blushed when he was saying her good points.
“Hey! What is going on!? Why is my name not on this!?” A sudden shout.
Another came and soon almost 40 people were standing with frowns as they looked.
“If you do not say your name within the ranking it means you were expelled, poor growth, poor motivation, obstructing the learning and training of other students or simply out right bullying to suppress their growth. These actions shall not be tolerated. Also your parents have already sent servants to pick you up and your things are already being packed and by tonight you shall be escorted home.” Mrs. Gilbody said coldly.
"I can’t accept this!” Chad suddenly exploded from down the table as his familiar appeared, the 20 cm fire ant had turned into a massive 2 meter long red ant. “My father is a 5th ranked noble of the Kedoth Empire! How can I, his son, be expelled!? Especially when my strength and power rose so much during that stupid trip!” He shouted.
The headmaster looked his way and his gentle expression chilled. “Child, do not humiliate yourself, I have no desire to do anything to you but do not think us old folk will accept…”
“SHUT UP OLD BAG! How can I! A noble! Be ranked below ‘THAT’ TRASH!?” He suddenly pointed to Xero. “That shitty trash who only had a small Imp as a spawn! How can I be ranked below!? How can you old bags rank him first!? Have you all gone senile already!?” Chad shouted.
“Oi brat!” Grunt said coldly from his seat, “Watch your tone. Even you father would bow his head to the headmaster.” He said.
“An old wort filled old bag of bones that has gone senile doesn’t deserve my father's respect. Just a weak old man halfway into his grave.” Chad sneered.
As if suddenly something broke the headmaster lifted his hand and Grunt, whose chair had suddenly exploded, stood there.
“Alright boy, if you believe I am unworthy of your fathers respect then tell you want. If you can remain standing for 10 seconds when I summon my familiar, I will recognize what you said and you will not be expelled. What's more, I will give #1 place on the ranking to you and you will get double the rewards given to the #1.” He said.
Chad’s eyes shine but although he was stupid, he was still a noble. “What are the rewards for the #1 rank?” he asked.
“One demon drake heart, a demon core from the same drake, 10 uncommon mana stones, 100 common mana stones. If you get double, this old man will hunt a drake of similar strength and give you a drake heart and demon heart and 30 uncommon mana stones but...” he said.
“DEAL!” Chad said instantly.
The old man grinned, “... but of course, if you fail, the current #1 will get double your proposed reward, in other words 3 drake heart, 1 demon drake heart, 1 demon core and 60 uncommon mana stones.” He said.
Chad’s eyes became wide.
Before he said anything the Headmaster looked at all the nobles and expelled people, “This is a condition each of you can do if you wish, if you all fail then the rewards will increase for Mr. Null but if even one of you can remain standing for 10 seconds without collapsing, you will get the reward and the person that remains standing the longest after 10 seconds will get 1st place.” He said.
The greed in their eyes shined after saying that. Even if one fails, they were all indignated by Xero’s sudden growth so to remove his reward from him was more than enough and if they could survive they can get even more then him to improve their chances of growing.
“From the looks of it, everyone agrees.” the headmaster said with a slight mischievous glint his eyes as if he loved doing this part. “Since you are determined that I am senile, let us begin, remember 10 seconds.” The headmaster said.
“Just start you old ba…”
BOOM!
From the hand of the old man, a small flame appeared but it quickly spread and grew . It filled the completely empty area behind the headmaster and slowly the beak of an eagle started to appear.
KREE!
The shout of an eagle came from the fire.
Bang! Bang!
Two large clawed feet appeared but by then half of the students that wanted to go against the headmaster had fainted.
Woosh!
A huge set of wings spread out and the flames were absorbed into the burning body of a bright red eagle that stood proudly looking down.
Puff!
The last to fall was Chad who collapsed face first into the ground.
“Take a good look kiddies, this is an example to those with a big mouth. It is because of this that our Everlight academy is as strong as it is now. Never forget this fact that it is because of Headmaster and Feng, a genuine Flame Phoenix, that we can study in peace without having to always battle other academy to show our strength in the lower rankings or be pushed around.” Grunt shouted.
Everyone was looking amazed at the massive flame bird that had folded its wings and looked down at them, than at the old man. The body began to burn strongly once more before the flames seem to turn liquid and flow to the center before the giant bird became a small pigeon sized thing and flew down to the table. All the fire was contained within the body not letting a tiny bit out.
The headmaster pet the head and it chirped, he turned to Grunt and nodded. Grunt nodded in response and clapped his hand. The doors suddenly opened and butlers wearing different kinds of suits walked in and walked around picking up on of the failures and taking them away.
“Now lets enjoy the night, the rewards for each place shall be distributed tomorrow and will be delivered to your room by the time you wake up.” The headmaster said and toasted to the silent room and drank deeply.
***
Xero lifted his body before frowning as he saw the naked Ashley sleeping on top of him. His mouth twitched before he sighed, “Ashley, return to your seal.”
Her eyes shot open and became tearful as her body vanished and was absorbed into his Familiar seal. He stood up and got dressed and after doing a search of the room, he found that there was a magic bag hanging on the door knob so he walked over and opened it. There was a letter tied to the top.
Xero opened it and began to read before he chuckled as the letter came from Grunt telling him to leave the stuff in the bag so that it will remained preserved by the magic in the bag and only after he can beat up Ashley should he pull it out and feed her. The mana stones on the other hand should be used to train his mana pool that was still closed and it showed him how much he should absorb every day before training.
It mentioned to not push Ashley to train so that he can teach her a lesson.
With all that done he pulled out an uncommon mana stone. It was dull blue glowing stone with lots of magic symbols and almost seemed to have a magic formula on it.
“So these are the formula symbols used to make an uncommon rank mana stone.” Xero said as he looked mesmerized at the stone. He could feel the pent up mana and
how the stone was also gathering mana.
Once mana stones reach the uncommon stage, they will regenerate mana but for an empty stone to restore all its mana would take around 2 months without being used but it has enough mana for three people to practice for a week. Of course this is talking about normal people, Xero had all his channels open by Ashley so his absorption speed was many times greater though he wasn’t one to disregard the words of advice from the teachers as it was explained in the note.
Since it was early and there would not be class for the rest of the week, Xero just sat down and putting one mana stone on his left hand, so that Ashley doesn’t absorb the mana herself, he held it and began his breathing technique. Quickly the mana began to surge through his body's channels and he was surprised. Until now, he had used food to regenerate his mana and even his mana pool had grown about ⅓ times bigger than it once was but he still has only a commoners size mana pool. Only by overfilling a certain amount, so that the mana pool will stretch, will the mana pool grow.
The mana rushes up his arm and into his chest where it fills his mana pool and starts to flow around his body.
The method to fill the mana pool required the entire body being full so slowly he filled it until he felt ‘full’ before he started to force the mana into his mana pool. He felt as if something was tearing like ripping paper and after a bit he sighed and stopped filling it up.
His body was very full at this moment and he was energetic and wanted to work the energy off. He put away the bag and the stone before summoning Ashley who was still naked.
“Get dressed, I will be going to train.” Xero said.
She frowned and pouted, “Ah~ master! That is boring~! Let’s go on a date~!” She said hugging his arm.
“No, I want to grow stronger so get dressed so you don’t walk around naked.” He said.
She pouted and put her skirt and shirt on but this time he wasn’t able to get the robe on no matter what he said. She was floating around him like a little fly while being exposed in the air but as a demon she didn’t really care. She would feel better walking around stark naked after all.
My Blind Familiar_The Ash Golem Page 22