Miles collapsed onto the ground near Alex. Tutor and the medical team were running towards them. Miles's arms were lying at his side. Black blood was oozing from his body. He couldn’t feel them at all. His energy had been sapped dry, and his body was in pain.

He looked at Alex and saw him looking back with a smile.

“You are a fucking beast!” Alex hardly said. Miles smiled back.

“Pot calling kettle black.” He unhurriedly answered.

They were both too tired to move, and neither had energy in their bodies. Miles lay on his back as he laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” Alex asked with a surprised eye.

“Since you debuted my brand, I won something from this competition. I will let you have the first place.” He said and slowly raised his hand to forfeit, but he could hardly move a pinky.

“No, no. I took first place when we first came to the academy, and never questioned if I am really stronger or not. Since you let me take the first place, I will let you have it now.” Alex said.

“How can that be? You let me have most of the cores in the factory. So we are even for that.” Miles rebuked.

“You wasted precious orb for them, and you even gave me loads of cores.” Alex insisted.

“But—” Miles was about to speak when an ear-deafening voice reverberated in the arena.

“Both of you shut the hell up!” Milosh said with rage. “Both of you are first and second place, and we will draw a lot to give away the rewards. Now go and get healed, morons!”

Miles and Alex’s eyes twitched, but they couldn't do anything about it. An old man approached them with a smile and introduced himself. “Hello, lads. The name is Arlo, I am the Chief of Medicine in the Academy, and will teach you in the second year. So, it wouldn’t hurt to meet now. Now that I mentioned, I will teach you how to use energy to accelerate the self-regeneration of the body. Especially after using body serums, as serum in itself increases the regenerative power of the body.

The theory extends along the old lores. People of old times would think to —”

“Arlo, you old goat. Stop blabbering and heal the damn kids!” Milosh’s voice was heard once again.

“Oh, right. Forgive this old man, whenever I talk about a subject that fascinates me I can’t stop talking about it. It must be because of my great-grandfather, Bernard Smith, a famous historian. He built the history—”

“Sir, please heal the students before the dean gets mad again.” A girl near Arlo said nervously.

“Right, right. My blabbermouth. When will I learn how to prioritize students? It must be my mother’s side causing this…”

Miles and Alex got healed after an hour of lecture and got back to their healthy selves. Except, their energies were still sapped dry, and couldn’t help but feel awkward as they walked towards the Dean’s office.

Number 7 was already waiting there, as she became the third. Number 31 was too injured and had no energy, so she forfeited the battle deciding third place too.

“You guys are lucky. This time the rewards are good.” Milosh said. He was sitting behind the mighty table, looking at the hat in front of him. “There are two pieces of paper inside the hat. Pick one and see your ranking.” Milosh said.

“Why do we need to do so backward? We can just have wristwatches drawn a lot.” Miles said.

“This way it would be fairer,” Milosh said and urged them to pull the papers. Miles and Alex shrugged their shoulders and walked to the desk to pick a paper. Miles opened his and on it was written number 1. Alex showed himself too and it was Number 2.

“With this competition, your rankings can be changed too. So, if you want, you are Number 1 now, and you are Number 2,” Milosh said.

“It is fine, I am used to my name now, so I will stay as Number 2 and I don’t want to move out from my villa,” Miles said. Miles looked at Alex and showed he wasn’t opposing so he shrugged his shoulders.

He said and pulled out three boxes from his desk. “Every year, one of the companies in the city sponsors the newbie fights and gives away rewards for the younglings. And in return, I have to introduce them to you and their offer if you want to work for them. Now, I will talk about this company for an hour.

You can sit down, close your eyes, but under no circumstances can you sleep. Got it?” Milosh said with an exaggerated wink.

Miles, Alex, and Safire, who was now Number 3, sat on a couch and closed their eyes. The body would feel tired after too much energy is used, and a small nap would feel good. Just after an hour, Milosh woke them up.

“Now, the rewards. The Feline Industries sponsored the competition this year and wants to recruit three of you. They will send their agents in the following days. Although companies offer a large number of Merit Points, let me remind you, no one lazing around can stay in my Academy, doesn’t matter how much merit points you pay. You have to contribute one way or another. So, don’t think you can just weasel your ways out by just working with them.

But there is no rule preventing you from joining them if you want to have a comfortable life here.” Milosh said. “Now for the rewards.”