“Why has everyone gone mute after learning about High-grade treasures?” Mehr asked Nora. Sirius also cocked his head to listen. He too couldn’t understand the relevance of such treasures.

Nora looked at the idiot duo with wide eyes. Even if the two friends were terribly ill-learned, imagining that they hadn’t ever heard about the High-grade treasures gave Nora a headache. She tucked a hair strand behind her ear that was decorated with the white lily that Maria had given her, and began explaining.

“There are four grades of treasures. Well, technically five but I’ll tell you more on that later. The lowest grade is, of course, Low-grade treasures. Treasures that can increase someone's strength, help them breakthrough faster or even surpass the limits you were born with. Their powers lie somewhere around the level of a person with the second stage of Heavenly Mana Orb. The second grade of treasures is the Mid-grade treasure, which is somewhere on the same level as the green stage or the fourth stage of Heavenly Mana Orb.”

Mehr raised his eyebrows in response to the explanation.

“At the same level as Green Heavenly Mana Orb?” It was somewhat unbelievable to imagine. He was currently at the Orange stage. Well, stages were somewhat obsolete for him as he had realised that his control of mana was far above the people on the same stage as him. He could easily fold anyone in the Orange stage apart from a few people and even go toe to toe with people in the Yellow stage. However, Green stage was well beyond his capabilities.

A person at the Green stage could very well kill him before he could even realise what was going on. And now Nora was saying that a treasure could give someone that kind of power.

“That’s not even that unbelievable. There are treasures far more powerful than that. Like the High-grade treasures! Their powers are equivalent to the sixth stage of Heavenly Mana Orb, the Indigo stage.”

Mehr’s eyes opened wide at the revelation.

“Does that mean anyone with a High-grade treasure can go against someone of Indigo stage?” Mehr gulped at the possibility. The Indigo stage was the one where possibilities became endless. The material and abstract convened together and brought the person to a new height. The sixth stage was where a person could be regarded as one of the apex existences of the world.

“Of course not. Someone on the Indigo stage can just think about killing us and we would probably die then and there. We wouldn’t even get the time to activate our treasure. Anyway, then there are the Super-grade treasures. They are so rare that the nations would go to war for them. Their powers are equivalent to the seventh and last stage, the Purple stage.”

“Purple…” Mehr mumbled under his breath. He had been expecting it and so didn’t feel too surprised by Nora’s words. Yet, to think that mere objects could hold power equivalent to the pinnacle of humanity. Mehr had met a few people that were at the purple stage. People like Maria Frye, Blake Elmare and Anna Forde. These were the people who could decide the lives of thousands of people on a mere whim. The people at this level rarely move but when they do, it only brings disaster.

“You said there are technically five grades?” Mehr asked.

“Well, ‘technically’ is still a stretch. Many people believe that there should be a grade above a Super-high grade while many do not. After all, there have only ever been three treasures throughout history that surpass the Super-high grade. Their powers are something that people like us cannot understand because, after the purple stage, it is the dominion of gods. Only Stars can reach that level and those three treasures are said to be equivalent to the Stars. These are all legends by the way, so who knows how much truth there is to these words. The things about the Gods get so muddled in detail that some of the books even describe a level above the Stars and a grade of treasures equivalent to that level. But of course, they are just silly myths that eccentric folks wrote to get their names known.”

Nora’s voice only stopped after firing the words rapidly in a single breath. Her eyes would twinkle whenever she talked about things she was really excited about. Her smile accentuated every word she said.

“I see.” Mehr didn’t react too much about the treasures at the level of Gods. When things are way out of our reach, we don’t even imagine ever grasping it. It was the same with Mehr. Even if he was the Star, he was not at a level where he needed to know more about such treasures. He would think about such stuff when he was strong enough to afford to know about them.

Mehr put his thoughts to rest and looked at Willem who was smiling with his index finger open.

“I’m only giving one, you little brats.”

The students went silent for a moment before Fynn abruptly stood up and said, “There are three winners, Professor.”

Willem slowly pulled his hand down and looked at Fynn with his twinkling eyes and sparkling teeth showing, “Wrong. There is always only one Winner. The rest are just well-off followers. No one remembers them. Your life has only started and you don’t understand the world very well, Mr Woodrow. Only one can stand the highest. So tell me, which option do you three choose? Be mediocre and go for definite three low-grade treasures, or take a risk with great belief in yourself and get a chance to win a High-grade treasure. You have ten breaths of time to decide.”

Willem’s voice surprisingly echoed in the cluttered classroom. The students noticed it and rolled their eyes inwardly as they realised that Willem was creating an echo with magic to put on a performance. Well, Willem didn’t seem to mind that the students had already realised and he just stood there with his familiar mischievous smile, giggling to himself.

Sirius and Fynn looked at each other. Sirius didn’t even glance at Daniel throughout the time of ten breaths and only communicated with Fynn. Fynn gave a cursory nod to Daniel and only discussed with Sirius. They soon came to an agreement as their eyes turned sharp and they looked towards Willem.

“Professor.” Sirius said while inhaling deeply, “We will take the second option. How do we determine the winner amongst us?”

Willem clapped while looking at Sirius’ demeanour, “It’s easy. I will give you a task that you’ll have to complete but before that, each of you needs to form a team of three people. I shall tell you about the task when you have decided the teams.”

Sirius looked to his left directly. His eyes sparkled, looking at the person who seemed bored but was listening very attentively. His droopy eyes moved towards Sirius and blinked once before sighing.

“Okay,” Mehr said looking at the vibrant gaze of Sirius. He was also quite interested in what Willem was cooking up. While Mehr didn’t have any negative feelings towards Willem, positive feelings seemed far-fetched as well. For some reason, he had an instinctual reaction not to trust Willem. Perhaps it was due to how Willem looked and behaved, like someone looking for a chance to create chaos. Willem’s mischievous gaze always gave a striking feeling to Mehr.

Sirius looked towards Nora after Mehr gave him an affirmative answer.

“Really?” Nora smiled when she noticed what Sirius was trying to say. In response to her excited question, Sirius also nodded vigorously. And thus, Sirius’ team was decided.

“Professor, would our team members also get a reward if we win?” Sirius asked.

“Why? Do you not even have two people who would help you without any rewards?” Willem raised his eyebrows as if showing his disappointment but the smile never left his face.

“He already has a team.” It was Mehr that answered the question. “I hope Professor Willem can kindly answer the question.”

Willem chuckled, noticing the contrast in humility in the words and tone of the sentence. He didn’t seem to mind as he looked at Mehr and answered softly, “No, the team members will not be getting anything. That reminds me….”

Willem’s eyes sparkled and his smile became bigger as he looked at Mehr. Mehr straightened his back noticing the odd change in Willem’s gaze and gulped unwittingly. He suddenly had a very bad feeling about it.

“Weren’t we supposed to discuss your punishment, Mr Mehr? I hope student Mehr will stay back after the class so that we can have a little discussion.”

Mehr solemnly gazed for a moment at the eyes that seemed to be mocking him and nodded.

“Okay.”

The rest of the class passed by without any commotion. The students didn’t seem too interested to start their study for the day and Willem didn’t seem to care either. He also started joking around with students and started answering whatever questions they asked. The students seemed to love Willem as a professor who never seemed too serious about anything.

The children slowly moved out of the class after it ended, discussing and laughing about the day’s matters. The talk of the task that Willem would give to Sirius, Fynn and Daniel’s teams was discussed enthusiastically. Even the formation of the teams was being discussed, students betting on who would be selected for the teams. Well, Sirius and Fynn’s teams seemed quite obvious.

Everyone knew that Mehr, Nora Sirius, Fynn and Hope were friends, and Adhara also stayed and practised in the same garden as the other five. The two teams would be formed out of these six students. The main topic was Daniel’s team. Everyone wanted to know what kind of team he would create and who the members would be.

It was during such talks that Adhara also walked out of the class. She turned to go to the garden where she spent most of her time training but stopped when she noticed a familiar person standing in front of her.

“Meera,” Adhara said in a dry tone.

Meera Gauras was standing with her head down, clenching her fists and hesitating to speak. She clenched her jaws and flicked her head up. Her eyes were red and swollen and yet, an unwavering determination was visible in her eyes as she bent her back to bow.

“Please teach me how to get strong.”