100,000

Sam was eating along with others at the riverside, when he saw a middle-aged man approaching them. When he looked at him, he felt quite surprised, not only him even Philip and others also felt surprised. Because, the person who came is none other than the principal of the Starwood academy.

Principal has an awkward expression when he saw Philip and others eating together with Sam as he realized he came at a wrong time. After all, who would like to be disturbed while eating. Looking at his awkward expression, Philip and others exchanged glances as and stood simultaneously.

“We will look for you tomorrow Sam. Good Bye.” They bid farewell and left Sam and the Principal alone. After they left, Sam stood up and invited the principal inside the mansion and took a seat. Then he finally spoke.

“For what do I owe the visit of the respectable Principal?” He asked with a calm voice. Principal hesitated a little and then finally spoke.

“I want you join the Academy.” As soon as he heard the words, even though he expected it Sam still felt quite surprised and confused. Because, no matter how much combat prowess or talent he had, he is still an Acolyte. But the Principal is at same level of the City lord himself. So, it is surprising that he would humble himself by coming here to invite him personally. He then asked with same nonchalant expression. “Why?”

Principal again hesitated a little. After a brief silence he seemed to made up his mind, he said. “Actually, if it was normal time, I wouldn’t bother to ask you to join the academy, but this time this is quite serious. You might and might not know, this year in a few days we have to send a batch of young talents to the Count city as the count is looking for young talents.” Hearing this Sam nodded. He indeed knew this as he heard it from Philip. The Principal continued.

“But there is more to it than what meets the eye. The one who is looking for the new talents is not Count but the Emperor himself.” At this revelation Sam took a deep breath. The Emperor is looking for talents even this remote place. He has only one question in mind. ‘Why?’ As if sensing the question, the Principal said,

“I also don’t know why he is looking for young talents. But the search is happening around the whole Empire. That means the whole Western continent. The main criterion for the selection is not the power but the potential and talent. The news is not privy to the noble families of the city. Even the Count himself didn’t know it. All he knew is that the Duke has asked him to look for talents. I only have this info because, my relative is quite powerful and have notable influence.” The Principal paused again and looked at Sam. He wants to see if Sam gets tempted by the news, but he was disappointed by that same calm expression. Then he heaved a long sigh and continued.

.....

“All the cream of the crop talents will be gathered due to this selection process at the Royal capital in three years. Precisely, for the Princess’ eighteenth birthday. There will be a tournament on that day and those who performed well will be rewarded. That is why I want you to enrol the academy and I will send you to Count city. This will be a great opportunity.” He said and looked at Sam’s eyes only to see a tranquil expression. There is no change at all. Under that gaze Principal finally gave in and said.

“Actually, if the candidates do better, the one who selected will benefit as well. The Starwood academy will be given more resources and opportunities.” Finally, Sam nodded. He didn’t believe one bit that the Principal only came here so that he wants to help Sam get the opportunity. How could there be something so good in this world. He thought for sometime and asked.

“You want me to go on behalf of the Starwood Academy so that you could benefit from it?”

The Principal nodded.

“So, you want to offend the Noble families here and even the city lord?” Sam asked again.

“What is there to offend them? More like they don’t want to offend you. Maybe they might be some bigshots in the city. But they are all subordinates of the Count. If the Count knew that they offended someone with your talent in cultivation as well as the professions, he might come over himself and deal with them. They might even visit you by tomorrow morning to make amends to your relationship.” Principal sneered as soon as he thought of the noble families.

“Okay then. 100,000 spirit stones.” Sam spoke and Principal froze in shock. ‘Did he hear it clearly? 100,000 spirit stones. Why don’t you go and rob someone?’ Just as he was about to reject the idea, Sam spoke again.

“What don’t want to pay? Okay then. I will make a visit to the Mountain lake city and the Misty River city tomorrow and see if they want to pay.” As soon as he heard this, the Principal wanted to greet Sam’s eighteen generations in a single breath. ‘Damn it, I was being too na?ve. I really thought of him as a fifteen-year-old and told him everything and now he is fleecing him clean. He gritted his teeth and reluctantly nodded.

“Okay the, you may leave. I will report to school tomorrow.” Sam bid farewell. The Principal cursed in his heart as he left the mansion.

After sometime Sam took out the weapon he used to kill Carl and others and had a satisfied smile on his face. The weapon worked exactly as he thought it would work. His design didn’t let him down at all. His weapon has made so many people think on how it works as it can transform in to two modes. The answer is actually pretty simple. Sam used the most basic of the fluid mechanic laws and that is Pascal’s law. He just used the principle of the Pascal’s law, which is that the pressure is equal in all directions. This is generally used in brakes of vehicles in modern earth as there are material and fluid constraints to use them on higher levels. But here Sam used the Blood of the beasts as fluid and compressed it with the pistons made by the Golden blood tiger bones. This is one of the toughest rank 2 materials. What he did is to simply place the pistons and compress the fluid and place the bocks in the position. The wedges are the locks which are making them to stay still. As soon as he applied more force on the wedges by moving the Double S symbol, the weapon would expand.

Sam placed the weapon on the table in front of him and then took out a sharp golden object. It is one of the claws of the golden blood tiger. He held one of the nails and started carving on the weapon. After he is done, he lifted it up and looked at the names that he wrote. There is one word on the each of the blocks. On one side, the word ‘Golden’ is written and on the other side ‘Crescent’ is written. Sam nodded in satisfaction as he placed the weapon in the storage. This is the first weapon he created in this world. Just when he entered the Bedroom, he saw a crow enter from the window. At first, he thought it was Yanwu, but soon he realized it was not. Just as he was about to throw it away, he felt a familiar presence and observed the crow closely. There was something tied to the leg of the crow. It was a small piece of black cloth. Sam took the crow in his hands and unwrapped the black cloth. Then he saw a golden feather as well as note.

He immediately recognised the golden feather. It belongs to Yanwu. Then with a puzzled gaze, he opened the note and then read it.

‘Sam, this is Yanwu. Right now, I am in middle of something crucial and cannot come to you for the time being. I am sending this note to inform you that, I won’t be able to make it in the ten days’ time. I will be back as soon as possible, but if possible, make a trip to the “Falcon cliff city”. I just wanted to say that you shouldn’t have to worry about me. I am safe here. Good bye.’ Sam frowned as soon as he finished reading the note. He was worried a bit. Because, someone who could write a note, definitely has to be a human and as far as Sam know, no human can really control the greed of having a saint beast like the Golden sun crow as a pet. Sam didn’t believe humans that much. So, he had to make a trip. But before that he has to find out how to go there. As he thought, he just wanted to go out to fish out info from Philip. But from the dark sky, he abandoned the idea and went to bed. He had to take some rest after all that he had done in the assessment.

Next day morning. Philip made his way to Sam’s mansion early in the morning. The rest didn’t come because, they had to prepare for the first day of school after the vacation. But, does that mean he doesn’t have anything to prepare? Absolutely not. But there are some advantages he possesses as an Elder brother. He took his time slowly walking towards Sam’s mansion, mainly because of the gossip among the crowd. Everyone is talking about the Principal’s visit to Sam’s mansion. He was trying to get some details and when he finally got the news, he just stood on the spot for a few seconds.

The news is that Sam accepted the invitation of principal to join the academy. Then he hurriedly ran over to the mansion and saw Sam slowly walking outside. He directly blocked his way and questioned.

“You joined the academy?”

“How do you know?” Sam frowned. He and Principal should be the only ones who knew it right? Why did Philip have this knowledge?

“What do you mean, how do I know? Everyone in the city is talking about it. Come on, tell me. Why did you change your mind?”

“Doesn’t matter. Let us go.” Sam directly ignored the question and started walking as Philip followed him, seemingly not willing to give up at all.

After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the academy. Sam suddenly remembered something and asked.

“Do you know where Falcon Cliff city is?” Philip stopped and asked.

“Why?”

“Nothing. Just tell me.”

“It is the Count city which our city is under control of. What business do you have there?”

“Nothing much. I just want to visit it once.” The conversation ended. Then both of them walked inside the academy.

Philip left Sam and walked towards his own accommodation. Sam went to the place all the freshmen gathered. When the rest of the freshmen saw him all of them maintained a certain distance. But they cast him weird glances as they whispered. But he didn’t think much of it. Soon some people made their way towards him. They are Jack and Shawn. Melisa is looking at him from a far seemingly hesitating to come or not.

“Hello, Sam.” Jack greeted him. Sam nodded and looked at Shawn who had an awkward expression on his face.

Shawn now understood why Sam kicked his butt so many times. Because he said that he would kick Sam’s butt before with Jack. But at that time, he really didn’t know who Sam is and in a moment of impulse he made some boasts and as a result, he is still feeling sore in the butt. After all, Sam heard that words loud and clear.

Jack didn’t care about his friend’s awkward situation and spoke to Sam.

“I want you to make me a weapon.” He asked Sam directly. Sam lifted his brow feeling a little amused.

“What kind?”

“A sword. I will provide the material.”

“It would be expensive.”

“How much?”

“It would depend on your requirements. But rest assured that it would be a bomb. Are you sure you want me to make it?” Sam asked again with a smile.

“I am sure. About the price. We can discuss later.” The conversation ended. Shawn looked at the two who are treating him like thin air and gritted his teeth. Just as he was about to say something, Principal came. He could only take it lying down.

“Welcome to all the freshmen. I won’t waste the time with pleasantries. I will make quick. First of all. I apologize to Mr. Sam who was treated unfairly yesterday. I have already dismissed the elders from their position. So, you don’t have to worry about them causing trouble.” As soon as he finished the freshmen including Sam were all surprised. Now, all of them understood why Sam came to Academy.

Principal didn’t seem to care about anything and continued. There are mainly four areas in the school. The testing grounds, which you are not allowed to access. The training grounds which you are have full access to. The teaching area and finally the student accommodations. Other than these four areas there are some important buildings which are the library, the mission hall, the credit market. In this academy, everything would depend on the academic credits. You can buy resources through credit shop and you can enrol into the courses you like using the credits. The Credits are not only valuable in this academy but also in any other academy in the whole of the western continent. So, please use your credits wisely. In some time, you will be given the identity tokens which will also be the storage of your credit cards. Initially, you will all be given 10 credits each and you can use them to enrol in basic courses and any more than that you have to earn them yourselves. You can graduate from the academy as long as you break through to the novice stage or you can stay here until you earn 50,000 credits. If you earn 50000 credits you can directly enter the Academy in the Count city to further cultivate. I hope you will make use of time spent in the academy worth it as you will be removed from the academy in four years even you are nor graduated. I wish you best of luck. The senior student will take it from here.” He finished and left without turning back.

He didn’t spare Sam an extra glance. After all, he still owes him a 100,000 spirit stones. Soon, a senior in the academy uniform came. He seems to be of third year as there are three-star marks embroidered on chest of the uniform. He first distributed some cards which are silver in colour.

“These are the identity cards for you. Inject your spiritual sense and mark it, just like how you would do with a spatial storage. After marking it when ever you send a wisp of spiritual energy it will display your name and the amount of credits you have.” The senior explained.

Many freshmen including Sam did what senior said and looked at the features. Sam has a total of 4500 credits in his card. He was quite satisfied with it. After explaining how to transfer the credits which is to tap with another card and direct the number of credits with your will, the senior guided them to the student accommodation. Sam, followed and finally found his accommodation. It is a simple stone house similar to the one he had in the Lava rock village. Sam didn’t care much about it and went inside. There were already uniforms prepared inside. He tried it and felt that it felt that it fit perfectly. He was quite puzzled as how they knew his measurements. He didn’t dwell on his thoughts and came out of the house and walked towards the teaching building along with other freshmen.

By the time he came to the teaching building there are already a lot of freshmen browsing through a big notice-board. That is the list of the teachers and the type of courses they teach along with the cost of course. Sam just took a look and didn’t take another glance. He then went to the library.

The students were discussing on which course they should take and they didn’t take notice of him. But there is a person in elder robes watching Sam’s every movement. Sam slowly made his way to library. When he looked at the large section of racks and books, he felt quite surprised as he didn’t expect the academy in a rural city like this would have this amount of knowledge reserve. Then Sam slowly walked towards all the sections and stopped at a rack named ‘Artisan Section’. Sam came to this section, not because he wants to learn Artisan techniques, but rather he wants to know about the Artisans of this world. Because, the word Artisan has a different meaning in this world from his original world as there are only two types, weapon Artisan and Scholar Artisan. So, that is why Sam is curious about this. Sam took a book titled ‘Who is an Artisan?’ and sat at an empty table. When he looked around, he saw that the number of people is on complete contrast with the number of books. He opened the book and started reading. After a few hours Sam finally had his answers. ｂ𝚎ｄｎ𝚘ｖ𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ

The word Artisan in this world is more or less same as that of his original world. It is just that many people didn’t know about this. According to the book, there are many types of Artisans. Weapon Artisan and scholar Artisan are only two of them. They are tailor artisan, Painter artisan, Golem artisan, Wood Artisan, Puppet Artisan, Jeweller Artisan, Architecture Artisan etc. Then why didn’t the Artisan tower have these categories?

Actually, they do. It is just that in such a long time there are no other artisans in this area that people forgot about them and the staff at the Artisan tower also got used to it. That’s it. In fact, even in the count city Artisan tower he can find many other types of Artisan.

Sam looked at the book and had a mischievous smile on his face.