The new semester started, and it once again began to turn cold. Like usual, Emmet continued to immerse himself deep in his studies. Visiting the admissions office and checking his points once again, meeting Borokov again and striking up another light-hearted conversation, he was shocked to find out he had earned yet another 33,000 points in just one semester!

Suppressing his initial shock, Emmet realized what had happened. This year, he had been promoted at his job, so his salary had doubled from five points an hour to ten, doubling his cumulative wage. Further, he had also began to take on numerous tasks, each within the range of around three hundred to a thousand points.

However, most importantly, he had also began debugging a lot of advanced level formations. On top of challenging Emmet and forcing him to grow, it also provided him with a large cash flow. Although Emmet took longer to debug these formations, albeit getting faster each time (at this point only taking less than four days to debug a single one), the advanced level formations were theoretically exponentially more complicated and harder to debug, and thus, granted much higher commissions (with a greater percentage going toward Emmet). On average, he had consistently debugged one at least once a week since the start of the semester, so all of those added up, and within a short amount of time, he had amassed a small fortune.

With his new wealth, Emmet immediately got to work upgrading his car and doing improvement modifications. This included adding a level two warding formation, a leap gliding feature, array capabilities, and upgrading the two low grade mana batteries. When he was done, he had spent an entire 8,000 points on it, but even still, had a huge amount of points left in the bank.

Shrugging and unsure of what to spend his points on, he decided to save up. If he wanted to do some big project later, he would be able to afford it.

-------------------

“Phew…”

Maisy took a deep breath, staring intensely at the solid wooden door in front of her. Although the door looked simple, considering who was behind it, it had a great meaning. Stuck on its surface was a little nameplate, inscribed ‘Headmaster: Varale Stinula’ - that one name meant a nearly contested power within the academy.

Knock, knock. Maisy brought her fist up and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Maisy cautiously pushed open the door and peered in, careful not to make any loud noise. “Hello?”

The room was large and spacious, lavishly furnished with a thick red rug and intricately carved furniture. The walls were all decorated with various plaques or displays, giving off an intimidating feeling. In the back of the room, there sat a white-haired old man draped in thick gold-lined purple clothes, working at a large fancily-carved, gold-adorned desk. In front of him was a large stack of papers, so tall they nearly blocked his view. He looked up and scanned over Maisy with dead, steady eyes. “Maisy Harbinger... you’ve finally come. You know, you’re one minute late.”

“My apologies,” Maisy quickly bowed. “I was afraid of disturbing you.”

“Alright,” the old man put down his pen and clasped his hands together in front of him. “I suppose I owe you an audience. You should know, if you weren’t a genius eighth year student, I would never think about doing such a thing…” He eyed the clock. “The clock is ticking.”

“Ah, well…” Maisy began. She quickly moved forward to approach the headmaster and adjusted her stance to be more rigid and respectful. “Actually… I have a request to make… It’s regarding a student.”

“Hm?” The old man lifted his eyebrows.

“Actually, he’s technically not a student,” Maisy corrected herself and continued. “You see, there’s this squire on campus - his name is Emmet. He’s in his second year, and despite his status, he has a talent beyond the imagination. He works for my debugging service on campus, and has quickly become one of the fastest and best workers. Further, with a limited base, not even originally knowing how to read, he has since already achieved-”

“Squire?” The old man’s face grew puzzled.

“Yes,” Maisy nodded. “But this is no ordinary squire. He has a great gift like no one’s ever seen.”

“...so what is it you want?”

“I know the rules. But surely, an exception can be made?” Maisy finally made her request, her demeanor turning serious. “This boy is special. I know that the credit is attributed to me, but he was actually the brains behind Harbinger Complexity Class Equivalency.”

“...”

If Varale Stinula was stunned, it didn’t look like it. He stared at Maisy silently, as if scanning her face for a clue.

“Is that supposed to be a joke?” He finally said.

Maisy shook her head. “It’s true.”

“So a second year squire with no educational background came up with Atistonal-Bakastarian equivalency? Is that what you’re saying?” The old man’s brows furrowed, and he leaned forward a bit intimidatingly.

“It’s what I said,” Maisy didn’t relent, steadily keeping her calm. “I think Emmet should have an opportunity to become a real student. He’s not a noble, but should that really hold a genius back?”

“Maisy Harbinger…” Varale Stinula leaned back in his chair, picking back up his pen. He seemed irked, annoyed even. “Top graduate… constructions genius… Harbinger Complexity Equivalency. You’re talented, Mrs. Harbinger, I’ll give you that. But please don’t get it twisted - it’s not anything I haven’t seen these past thirty-some years. If you think you can get something like that over me…”

“It’s not-” Maisy began.

“Please, don’t come to me with nonsense like this,” Stinger interrupted tersely. He was already looking back down at the paper in front of him, continuing on with his work as if there was no interruption. “School rules are rules, Mrs. Harbinger, you should know that.”

“...”

Looking at Stinger’s no-nonsense expression, Maisy knew it was helpless. Letting out a silent sigh, she bid the headmaster farewell and quietly left the room, closing the door behind her. She couldn’t help but frown disappointedly. Damn Stinger… I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten anything past that old git.

The headmaster nicknamed ‘Stinger’ was famous for being extremely strict on the rules. There were even some famous alumni that had tried and failed to get favors from him. The rock of rocks - if nothing else, Stinger was stubborn.

“I guess there’s the other way...”

Letting out a light grunt, she produced her bag and dug through it, quickly finding a slip of paper with a picture and a few lines of information.

Tauruk Gorulon

Age 13

Year: 2

Ranking: 2367/4000

Residence: 3C, R427

Classes: Basics of Encryption, Primary Barrier Formations

Squire: Y

She couldn’t help but furrow her brows. Already, she didn’t have a very good impression of this student. Over the past year, she had managed to get a general feeling for how he treated Emmet, and it didn’t seem like he was… favorable.