A loud knock on a white ornate door was heard. Behind that exquisite looking entrance there was a spacious room. On the sides, there were blue crystals that illuminated it from all sides while the windows seemed to be not letting much sunlight in.

Inside there, various bookcases with various grimoires could be spotted. But the most characteristic item that was there looked to be a large white desk. Behind it there was a person looking over some scrolls, this person seemed quite annoyed at the loud knocking at the door.

“Who is it? I said that I didn’t want to be disturbed!”

“Excuse me Principal, it’s me…”

“Vice Principal?...”

The person behind the desk grumbled while putting the scrolls back onto the desk. Within a few moments, a feminine voice replied.

“You can enter.”

The Principal that was sitting behind the desk was wearing a baggy wizard robe but her head was visible. She had long snow-white hair very akin to a certain Lightning Emperor. Her skin was much darker though but the most characteristic thing about this person were the thin long ears.

“Thank you Principal, you have to help me!”

The woman that looked like your typical dark elf from a fantasy book narrowed her crimson eyes at the old man that came crashing through her door. He even tripped on the carpet and face planted onto the ground. It was clear that something had to have happened as she never saw him lose his composure like this.

“Vice Principal Elobarin, control yourself!”

The dark-skinned woman wiggled her finger around and some sparkles appeared in front of it. A torrent of wind surrounded the fallen man and brought him to his two feet.

“I apologize Principal, but the situation is dire… I have been marked!”

“You have been marked? By who? Who would be powerful enough to put a mark on a mage of your caliber?”

The woman frowned while standing up. She was the principal of this whole academy and also the most powerful mage in it. After her came the vice principals, there were more than one of them around. They were weaker than her but still should be amongst the best in this academy and even this world.

“Was it one of the demons? Did it infiltrate our academy!?”

“No.. it wasn’t a demon…”

The man grasped his chest as he tried to calm himself down. In a few moments, he looked at the woman and started explaining. He told her about the strange boost in Beatrice’s stats during the assessment test. How he tried testing her himself to see if she was one of the demons in disguise and then how he was confronted by a mighty spirit that left a mark on his soul with an ultimatum.

“A spirit you say? How powerful could it have been to do such a thing, a Spirit King?”

The man was finished with his explanation but was still sweating. In a moment he spoke up to correct the person he was working for.

“A spirit king… I don’t think so… I think that spirit was much greater than that…”

“You don’t mean?”

The man nodded while looking at the dark elven lady with a sweaty forehead.

“A Spirit Emperor? Why would a Spirit Emperor form a contract with that student, is there something special about her?”

“I don’t know… but he gave me a message to pass on to you before he let me go…”

“A message? To me?”

The woman raised her brow, not really sure why a powerful spirit like that would even be in the picture. Though magical spirits had their own ways of doing things so this situation wasn’t all that inconceivable.

“Well, not specifically to the Principal. The spirit wanted me to procure a strong summoner for the last test.”

The old man started explaining some more. The spirit left a mark on his soul that could be triggered to kill him. Only if he brought over a strong summoner to face off against Beatrice in the coming test would he be able to get rid of it.

“I’m not sure what its purpose is… maybe it wants to fight a strong opponent?... He did look very ferocious and powerful…”

The elven woman started rubbing her chin while moving over to the old man. She touched his shoulder while concentrating. While using her knowledge she looked at the Vice Principal’s condition. She could see some kind of strange spell being attached to his soul.

She wouldn’t just let someone under her be exposed to something like this so she started casting some spells to get rid of this mark. Though the moment she attempted a removal there was an unwanted reaction in the form of electrocution.

A large explosion was heard from the office of the academy's Principal. This alerted the secretary that was working outside. The young woman quickly ran into the room to see what was going on.

“Principal are you okay! W-What happened!”

The woman was greeted by a partially destroyed room. Many torn up books pages were still floating around and falling down on two people that were down on the ground. Both the Principal and Vice-Principal were twitching around their hair had been electrocuted which made the two look like they had afros.

“Elobarin… get Isilin to test that spirit…”

“Y-yes Principal…”

It took some time for the two to gather themselves but it was enough to prepare the stage for Zhang Dong and Beatrice. The other students were now going through the last test in the same order as previously.

Beatrice was in a side room with some other students. She was clearly getting strange looks from others, no one expected her to be at the top of the class after most of the tests were over. It didn’t even matter how well she did in the last test, she would be getting into the prestigious class with the other high nobles.

‘Don’t mind them, they are just surprised that’s all.’

Zhang Dong spoke to Beatrice that was just sitting there. He had noticed that this young girl didn’t really have any friends here. Even before she started these trials there wasn’t anyone that she spoke to. The only person that interacted with her was that strange roommate but even that one didn’t converse much with her.

She was truly the lonely heroine of this story, and now with him forcing the attention towards her, the other people were aware of her existence. He already knew where this was going and he didn’t like it.

‘It’s okay Mr. Leigong I’m used to it.’

Due to the soul connection that he had with the girl he could see some flashes of old memories. Even in those, she was the odd girl out, mostly hanging out in the back while the high noble ladies like Isabella chatted.

‘Look on the bright side, now no one will be able to ignore you, you’ll be a hot topic in the noble circles!’

He tried shifting the conversation to a better place but the girl just gave out a sigh while grumbling. It was clear that the attention that she was getting was troubling her.

‘I thought we weren’t supposed to stand out so much, Mr. Leigong.’

Beatrice replied in a somewhat cold tone, it was clear that she was on to his hogwash. He couldn’t do much about it, the all-knowing spirit act wasn’t something he was used to. There were too many variables so he made her rate above all the other students by a mile. What was done was done though, the only way to salvage the situation now was to make people fear her.

If not, any two-bit schmuck would try to test her true power. This was the biggest fault with people that liked to hide their true strength. They would be approached by anyone and everyone for any small discretion. He could already imagine Beatrice getting hazed by the higher nobles if they thought they could take her. On the other hand, if they knew that she was able to easily take them out, they would remain in their lane.

“Beatrice Hohenberg please get ready.”

Zhang Dong’s train of thought was broken by one of the teachers that entered the waiting room. The other students looked to Beatrice with interest as she stood up, quite a bit of people were interested in this spirit that could make this average noble girl progress this fast.

‘Don’t worry Beatrice, just summon me and I’ll take care of the rest!’

He called out to her while she got ready. The last test would be a practical one where summons would be pitted up against each other. This was also why he used the vice principal to his advantage. He gave him one order, to get a strong summoner to face off against Beatrice here. If not, he would be fighting a lesser spirit that wouldn’t really be very impactful for his show.

To show off his power he needed the right opponent. If he faced off against a weak spirit like that one snake there wouldn’t really be much impact on it. Only when the hero had the right villain could he shine.

‘Calm down, I’m with you.’

Zhang Dong could feel that the young girl was getting nervous. After walking through a long corridor she arrived at something that looked like an arena. There were other students and teachers to the sides watching them.

‘I’m fine… but why are there so many people here…’

‘Oh? Are there usually fewer people at these events?’

‘Yes…’

A smile appeared on his face as he heard that. This meant that the attention was on him and the girl. He would need to perform well now, from what he knew people were thinking that he was some kind of super-rare spirit. If they thought he was a rarity they wouldn’t hurt the girl that managed to summon a legendary creature.

They would probably try to somehow profit from this event, try to control her first before any kind of violent act would be attempted. He would need to use the time given to progress the young girl further down her path of power. At a certain point even if someone tried something drastic she would be ready.

“Student, Beatrice Hohenberg. Are you ready to be rated?”

“I am!”

She nodded while looking up to the person that spoke out. Zhang Dong looked with her and noticed a peculiar looking woman with dark skin and long ears.

‘Is that an elf? and a dark elf to boot?’

After Beatrice confirmed that she was ready a certain person walked out from behind from where that dark elven woman was standing. There was a spell cast to propel this person forward all the way into the ring.

“Isn’t that Instructor Isilin?... isn’t he a five-star summoner?”

“Why would someone like that…”

People started murmuring amongst themselves after the person performing the test was revealed. It was clear that his little blackmailing attempt worked and they were now facing a more powerful summoner.

With Beatrice on one side and the instructor in a dark robe on the other, the test was going to start. Instructor Isilin was a lanky looking man with glasses and a magic book in his left hand. He waved his right hand on which he had a summoning circle that began to glow. A myriad of magical circles started appearing before the spirit summoning started.

Soon the creature that Zhang Dong would need to face would appear. By the size of the magical circle it appeared that this creature would be quite large. The people moved closer, none of them believed that someone like Beatrice would be able to summon something that could stand against a five star ranked summoner. But soon they would be astonished by the being called the Lightning Emperor Leigong!