“Miles, Eddie, how are you two?” Milosh ran in panic as he checked their arms.

“We are okay, Dean.” Eddie nodded towards Miles, “The Healer of Cross Family patched us up. We will recover in no time.”

“Good!” Milosh patted the duo's shoulders and looked them in the eye, “This year, we have to crush everyone to show why they shouldn’t mess with us.”

“You don’t believe Cross Academy did this, like the other fools, right Dean?” Eddie asked with a whisper.

“Of course not,” Milosh said with a serious face. “But other academies aren’t as honorable.”

For a second, Miles saw fire in Milosh’s black eyes. And realized that Milosh was also suspicious of the new academy. He always had mistrust towards Mother AI, and one of the biggest reasons why he left the walls was about that. Miles felt this in his time in the academy. Most of the staff would show their dislike when they talked about Mother AI. In his first class, the Tutor was so angry at Mother AI, that she would blame her for everything. Although it was true that the serum Mother AI developed limited the possibility of superpowers humans could awaken, it wasn’t entirely her fault. Other AIs wouldn’t share their secrets, and each only knew what other races could awaken. That was all.

“Miles, you are the leader of the first years. You will assist Eddie to lead the students within the new facility they are transferring the students to.” Milosh looked at Miles who was lost in thoughts. Milosh’s next words pulled him out of his stupor, “I want you to stop anyone from doing anything stupid. Since they are gathering all the students, some of them will try to provoke us to get us eliminated.”

“Got it, Dean.” Miles nodded. He understood where Milosh was coming from. If an unimportant, weak student from a random academy, were to provoke Eddie and had a brawl with him, they would both get eliminated. That random academy would lose that weak member, while they would lose the ace.

“Good.” Milosh nodded contentedly. “Eddie, Miles is your Vice now. Get along.”

“We were saved because of Battle Beast, Dean. All the students respect him already, me included.” Eddie said with a smile.

“Good. You two rest for a while to heal your arms. When competition begins, we will rain calamity upon them.”

————

It didn’t take long for all students to be transferred to a secure facility near the military compound where the competition would take place. The area was divided into 10 buildings where the students of ten academies would stay. Out of ten academies, only 4 were the most prestigious. They were; The Beast Breeding Academy, Cross Academy, Glorious Dragon Academy, and Holy Light Academy. The first two were the best of the best, but the other two were also quite competitive. They were General Tian’s and Orril Family’s academies respectively.

The following five were a bit less prestigious but still had high standings on the walls. Ice Realm Academy- Steel, Stone and Blade Academy- Myriad Element Academy- Legendary Hero Academy- and Norsen Academy.

The first one was General Strankov’s. Although she too had quite a famous academy, it was still a tad worse than the big four. The second was a joint project of the Azari, Mus, and Sachiru families. Their families worked together even before the invasion and carried their good relationship after the formation of Unity. The third academy was also joint, created by multiple families in the capital. The fourth was sponsored by the richest man on Earth, Lemaze. And the last one was an academy created in the north of Unity. Alex’s family was one of the biggest partners but there were some other families who helped with its creation.

The 10th academy that would join the competition was Lares Academy. It was quite new and not many knew about it. When they beat their opponents in the preliminaries, lots of people were surprised by the result. After all, academies needed a foundation as much as good students. But this new academy beat most of the other less prestigious academies. All the influential families in Unity knew how others would kidnap talented kids and brainwash them. No family was free from this sin. Even Cross Family would righteously pull the “saved children” to their side to nurture them. After “educating” them over years, these children would be loyal to the family.

Serzen was one such individual. Although he was one of the best shooters in Unity, he was loyal to the Cross Family because he was saved when he was just a kid. There were hundreds of others in the same situation. Miles didn’t think it was wrong per se, but he still wasn’t condoning such actions.

He wasn’t naive enough to think the families would save the children out of goodwill but he still couldn’t set his mind to his thinking that thousands of children just like Rayen would be taken out of their families just to be used as weapons. He didn’t have the mindset of a hero, but he would still like to be able to help them.

‘Maybe in the future, when I can stand against them.’ He thought in his heart.

It had been decades since monsters first invaded Earth. The old generation had a big headstart and that is why the old goats were much, much stronger than the new generation. But the impenetrable mountain range was stopping their advance for over a decade. And it didn’t seem like they would find a solution soon enough. According to Miles's calculations, he would catch up with his father in 10 to 15 years. That is of course if he couldn’t find anything to help his growth. The fruits he found with Zall and Xavic were natural treasures that helped all creatures to increase the density and amount of energy they could control which in return allowed him to advance faster.

Tower Seeds were also treasures one could use to increase their masteries. Although it was mainly for ultimates, when ultimates evolved, so would energy. He had a seed at the moment, but because of the incompatibility of the type of the seed, he couldn’t use it.

Although he wanted his family to find a way to break through, he also wanted to catch up with the old goats so he could have it his way. He knew it was Mother AI who tried to kill him, he knew the academy was related to her, he knew the leader of the Starve Cleric was alive and kicking, but he couldn’t do anything about any of them.

He once wanted to tell Malcolm and Mercer about Degenhard but he later gave up. It would be too troublesome to explain most of the stuff. He didn’t want to be in the spotlight. For the time being, he decided to watch from the fence.