Many eyes shone when they heard this, for this was what they hoped for, especially those who had barely been able to afford the fee to come here today. Hard work was nothing strange to them, it was the bare minimum to keep their necks afloat and survive in this world.

However, the problem was that in many places. hard work was scorned in favor of social background and finances. This was deliberately set up to keep the poor poor and allow the rich to become richer, preventing any means for a great overlap.

The latter group here naturally frowned even deeper, and some were folding their arms while harrumphing coldly. Nothing this so-called Principal had said since he came here was what they wanted to hear.

"Unlike other institutes, we care less about how much money you have at home in your piggybank and more about your actual talent. After all, Safemoon makes more a second than what any of you would earn in a year, your wealth is but peanuts in our eyes." Elijah spoke coldly.

The arrogant nobles who were displeased were damaged by this as they knew it to be true deep down, yet they were so used to the status quo that they had selectively ignored it and believed that the same would hold true here.

But the Principal had used one line to wake them up with a splash of cold water. If the school didn't need their money, then what did they have to offer to gain favors?

Looking at how Elijah was the only human here and the rest were robots, many mouths dried up. They could not use conventional tactics like lust, bribery, and the like to win a better position, so their minds crawled back to what Elijah said from the very beginning.

Hard work!

Seeing that his message had gotten across, Elijah nodded with satisfaction. "Now, open your minds to the Martin AI. It will scan your brain to gauge your mental powers and possible elemental affinities using a special algorithm we created."

Some unhesitatingly opened their minds to be assessed while most hesitated. After all, who could trust that they wouldn't steal core information directly from their minds or plant some mind-controlling methods?

Elijah chuckled loudly in a very mocking way, which grated on the ears of those who had hesitated.

"If you do not feel safe, you are free to leave. After all, we are in such desperate need of your little secrets that we have created this elaborate city and wasted money building this expensive academy just to trick you oh so important fellows into lowering your guard, what money well spent!"

Many faces blushed at that, the sarcasm and mockery cutting them down to the bone. When he put it like that… well, what could they say? They slowly opened their minds up to be assessed.

YOINK!

Information stolen and stored in a secret cloud of the database, Martin AI, out!

Nobody who ever states ' I respect your privacy' truly means it. Thinking otherwise, like these poor sods who had been convinced so easily, was just toddler-like naivety.

Of course, Martin did what had been promised and assessed their talents. He would then report them to the people in question privately, making their faces shine or fall depending on the grade he had assigned them.

The Ai calculated Talent using current Int vs average Int for their respective age group. Potential was calculated as latent Int vs calculated Int.

Current Intellect was obviously the amount they had quantified at that point in time. Average Int was a fixed number that was calculated using the Int of all known species similar to themselves on their respective home continents.

Latent Int was the maximum Intellect you would have achieved in your life had you never come to the academy, or to put it better, the limit of Intellect you could acquire before you hit your ceiling.

Calculated Int was basically the highest Int you could acquire if you studied and worked averagely throughout your entire stay in the academy, fully simulated by Martin in seconds based on each person's makeup.

In numerical form, Talent = Current Int - Average Int. Potential = Calculated Int - Latent Int.

Talent and Potential were separated into the normal ten grades of F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, EX.

For Talent, F = 0, E = 1-3, D = 4-6, C = 7-9, B = 10-12, A = 13-15, S = 16-18, SS = 19-21, SSS = 22-25 and EX = 26+.

For Potential, F = 0-10, E = 11-20, D = 21-30, C = 31-40, B = 41-50, A = 51-60, S = 61-70, SS = 71-80, SSS = 81-90 and EX = 91+.

For example, the human average at age 13 was 5 Points of Int.

The talent of the Five Apprentices varied. Ash would be an A grade talent, having 15 more Int compared to others at his age.

Reina, who was 15 years old, would have a C grade talent, 16-year-old Jonathan a D grade talent, James was a C grade talent and Anthony was an SSS talent that was just 1 point away from being EX.

It wasn't that Jonathan and co were trash, they were just Andrato's version of top-tier after being suppressed from all sides. It was simply Ash and Anthony who were freaks defying common sense.

Although the talent might have been lacking for the other three, at this point in time, it was impossible for Martin to calculate the potential for any of the five Apprentices.

As such, he was using them as an experiment. Once their tutelage would end, Martin could gauge a means to measure the potential for those who followed his lesson plan for the next five years.

As for the academy, while the resources and materials were miles above what their competitors would dare to use, they paled compared to what Darius had offered the quintet, so Martin could easily calculate the potential for the present fellows using his own algorithm.

They numbered around 200 and they were from different places from all over Fallon. Some came seeking knowledge, some came seeking a chance for citizenship and some were poorly trained spies sent by their various kingdoms and factions to see what this academy was all about.

Their results were out, and the grades were shocking.