The books lay before us, with three different names yet all three having the chance to be ‘Librarian’s Diary’. The three was glanced at each other, confused to as which book was the one we were looking for.

I moved forward towards the books and tried to take one of them, suddenly a notification popped up before me.

Welcome adventurer! You must quite confused as to which is the real one. Well I assure you that all three of these are real and were written by me with my own hands. In short, they are the very first edition, all three of them. Now as to which one holds the hint to the map and key, you will have to find out yourself. You may bring with you all three of these books or you may choose any one of these. But to find the answer to the riddle you need eyes that see through all. Solving these trials is something that you have to do so that the God of Wisdom would consider you a worthy vessel. All the best adventurer, may good fortune fall up on you- Adam Gist

The three of us were once again stunned. None us had anticipated such a sudden development. The note from the librarian came as relief to us and so we took all three of the books and then returned to the inn. It was late in the evening and also marked the end of our free time. We had to return to the academy or the three of us might get in huge trouble. We rushed back to the academy and was met by Celia who was standing on the other side of the gate. She was accompanied by other teachers too. Some we recognized while some we did not. The huge gate opened, letting us in. Celia then approached us with a smile, her eyes sparkling!

“Good! With this all the first years are back! Shall we go back to the dorm?”

We nodded and followed her. On our way back she asked us what we did for the last few days to which we explained to her about the adventure guild and also about the skill registration. When the thing about emperor rank was mentioned, instead of looking surprised, her face had a look of happiness.

“Its good to see such a talent like yours in our poor academy, but I suggest you lay low. The other academies do not like being ridiculed.” She warned me, her eyes full of concern.

“I know! Ma’am, is it possible for me to meet the principal tomorrow? There is something I wish to discuss with him”

“Well! Seems like the principal feels the same way! I was asked to inform you three that the principal wants to meet you three by 8 in the morning. He said he will be waiting in his office, so don’t be late boys. Now off you go. Have your dinner and get to bed”

We smiled at the woman who waved her hands lightly as she left us in front of the stairs. We bid he goodbye and climbed up, wondering why the principal wanted to meet us.

---***---

‘Knock! Knock!’

Iudy knocked at the door in front of us gently and waited for a reply to come from the other side.

“Yes” came a manly yet aged voice. Opening the door the three of us entered, Iudy and Davy in the front and me in the last. I closed the door and turned myself to look at the principal. There in front of me sat two persons on either side of the principal’s table. One was the principal himself while the other was a guy in uniform. His collars and sleeves were golden in color and on his face was a pair of glasses, it was Vitrian, one of the only two golden students in the academy. When the three of us saw the guy, the smile on our face disappeared. Our cold gazes fell on the principal questioning him about the current situation.

The principal smiled lightly seeing our tensed nature and waved his hand lightly signaling us to calm down. When he saw us still with serious expressions, the old man gave a sigh and got up from his seat and walked towards us.

“I have called you here because I wanted to tell you something. First of all, let me tell you about the bullying incident. Vitrian here helped me solve the case and we found out that you three were actually innocent and that Miss Aoki and Mr. Lean were the ones in the wrong. It seems her brother had threatened the young boy to give a complaint against you. We will be taking action against Mr. Lean and her brother but as to Miss Aoki, I am believe she has suffered enough”

The three of us nodded. We were not the slightest bit interested in their punishment and so was indifferent to the topic. The principal seemed to notice it ad smiled warmly.

“Now the second thing. I heard that Mr. Zephard was able to successfully create new skills, too a king level skill and an emperor rank spell. Congratulations Mr. Zephard, you have made us proud.”

I smiled at him, “Thank you sir”

“Now to the main topic! I believe you three know about the tournament that the academy conducts.”

We nodded our head indicating that we knew of it.

“And you would also know that these tournament is used as selection process for the yearly academy showdown, right?”

“Yes sir” Iudy replied.

“Good! Every year we conduct these tournament in hopes of finding strong candidates whom we could send to the academy showdown. And every year we train the candidates rigorously hoping that they would at least come on top in any one of the event. Yet every single time our academy students gets beaten so hard that they end up mentally scarred, unable to live on like a normal person could. Some were crippled while others had their mind broken. The authority and even the King of the kingdom turns a blind eye to these atrocities as the other two academy have great hold over the entire human kingdom. Our academy students are treated like garbage all just because we are not strong as them, all just because we are weak”

The three of us remained silent and let the principal continue, we could see moisture building up in his eyes. On the side Vitrian clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.

“Every year new students comes forward knowing the risk of their choices yet hoping they could achieve something but all they receive in return of their hope is despair. I had tried to withdraw from this so called showdown many times only to be threatened to keep participating. The king of this kingdom sides with them and so us weak are not able to break the chain that binds us. That is why I brought a new teacher for teaching swordsman ship hoping that his teachings could help some of the students could break free. But you three, you three I know are way stronger than our normal students and I can tell that you three desire to get stronger as an individual not as part of some group or under some clan. So I and Vitrian here have an offer for you three”

The three of us were shocked for a moment. We clearly understood where this was going. He wanted us to participate in the tournament which we already were to, even if had not asked. The tournament was something I could use to gather more information, I could even search for Nao in the other two academies. But the talk about ‘an offer’ piqued my curiosity. We let the old man continue while we glanced at each other with a smile.

“We will provide you the best training you could get in this academy, with access to all kind of spells and skills. The entire library would be opened for you 24*7. Free access to the training grounds and if required to the tournament arena too. You need not attend any of the classes nor do you have to stay in the academy. You will have access to all the quest the academy has, of course the quest difficulty will be regulated. You will be receiving fee concessions and also will receive a small amount every month as travel expense. You will allowed to leave the city but we will be keeping track off you. In return you will have to…” the principal’s voice trailed off lightly. His sharp gaze fell on us, cold sweat trickled down his face. This was truly a tempting offer, a really overwhelming offer indeed. I understood that this offer was to tempt us into accepting the deal and so I could not help but smile.

“I did not know that our principal was carrying such heavy burden. Alright count me in” I replied flashing a bright smile and then looked at the other two who were smiling too. With this we could accept quests that took us outside the city. This way we could experience different environment and different enemies, a really smart move. Seems the principal and Vitrian had thought things really well. With access to all the academies skill, be it low level skills we would have an arsenal of attacks with us which was indeed a really good thing.

The three of us agreed. The old man and Vitrian let out a sigh of relief, there face gave of a refreshing smile.

“Good! The tournament will be conducted on the eleventh month of the year and the following month we will have the academy showdown. A week has passed and I will have you stay here this entire month and learn as many skills and spells you can. Also, you will be having sword lessons every afternoon. Except for HOLIDAY, for this entire month you will not have any free time. Is that ok with you?”

“Yes Sir.” Iudy replied. The principal smiled and then looked at me.

“I heard that you have something you wish to discuss with me, Mr. Zephard. What is it?”

“Well! I was wondering whether it would be possible to change my name. But I guess that won’t be necessary”

“Why would you want to change your name, young one?” asked a bewildered Principal who looked at Vitrian with a puzzled look.

“You might have heard about the emperor spell. I had made it a private skill and also had the adventure guild advertise it so that my house as well as the academy would get some credit. And so I thought that were this news to reach those other academy they would try to hunt or recruit me either of which I do not want. So I thought I might change my name and my hair color or something.”

“Hm! Very well! In that case I will remove the ‘Calmor’ designation from your name. We will then create a phantom student with the Calmor designation, a small rumor might do the trick. Catching As for your hair color, I believe Celia can help you with it. She knows the ways around alchemy and things. She might have the perfect ingredient to change that eye catching blue to something normal.” The principal teased me a bit with a wry smile.

“Actually I want to change the color of my hair to something that is more eye catching” I replied in a cool tone stunning all the other in the room.

“Why would you do that?” the first to question was Vitrian who could not even fathom the reason behind my proclamation.

But before I could reply, Iudy came up with the answer “Over writing memories, I think”. I could not help but smile, the guy was truly smart. He had already figured out the reason.

“Over writing memories! Ah, I see. So you want people to remember you having another hair color. Now that you mention it, there are already rumors in the city about a blue haired boy who created an emperor skill. The rumor has become viral and it’s going to reach the ears of the other headmasters soon. So by changing your hair color to a much vibrant tone, you are going to make the students believe that you were a different person. But at the same time, there were students who had seen a boy with blue hair. This way a phantom student comes to existence on its own. Brilliant, truly brilliant my boy.” The principal laughed out loud, clapping his hands. His eyes seemed so different from the dead eyes he had on the first day of our meeting. Life had returned to them and they looked more vibrant.

‘Hope truly is a great thing, it could do miracles in no time’ I thought to myself as I smiled gently looking at the happy old man.

“Do you have any particular name you wish to take?”

“Not really. But I would prefer to be called Zephyr Calm”

“Zephyr Calm? Is it not too similar to Zephard Calmor?” the principal asked but this times there was no doubt in his eyes, he was probably expecting some great plan just like before.

“Sir, if it were you, were would you hide a green leaf? In a forest or in a pond?” I asked, with a grin spreading on my face. The old man looked at me, his lips to stretching into a grin.

---***---

The three of us then taken to a classroom in block A by Vitrian. The classroom was just like any other classrooms except for the fact that the class was much larger than the normal ones and also there were some additional things. The class room had a bookshelf which contained various skill books and also books about martial arts. There were three sets of bed with our named etched on it. An attached bathroom and a dining table for three. All our properties had been moved to the classroom, including our weapons and also the three librarian’s diaries. With this we understood that the next few weeks were going to be nothing short than Spartan training. Davy and Iudy seemed alright with it, in fact the two were too excited that their lips could not cease from forming a smile. I on the other hand was having mixed feelings but nevertheless did not complain.

Vitrian then turned towards us and gave us three sets of glasses and asked as to wear it. The three of us wore it and at the same time gasped. We were gazing at Vitrian with awe for there was a yellow aura around him. This was the first time I had seen such a thing and immediately looked at Davy and Iudy. The two had a greenish aura around them. When I looked at their face, instead of surprise I saw a glint of fear in them.

“These glasses are called God’s Eyes. A truly great item. It gives the user a vague idea about the essence and mana levels of the person the user is looking at. The item is a rarity and is off great demand. It’s really hard to find one also really expensive to buy too. As to why we have these with us, you don’t need to know. Seems like the two of you know what these glasses are. Your face tells it all. Did you guys really think that no one would find out? Were you thinking that Itiferth would not have the means to find out the truth?” Vitrian’s voice was cold as ice, his eyes were emotionless. He then turned to me and began explaining.

“The color of the aura that surrounds one depends up on the mana one possesses. While white stands for ones without mana like an alien person on his first day colourless aura stands for those with the highest mana levels like the sacred beasts or so. Between these two extreme there five more colors, each representing a category of mana level. When you look carefully at the colorful aura, you could see that the area near the skin, that is the border between the aura and body has a different color. This color shows the essence level of a person, white, grey and black.”

With a ‘Ding’ sound, a notification popped up before me.

New information acquired

LevellingColorless28-30Blue24-27Green20-23Orange16-19Yellow10-15Red1-9White0

LevellingBlack19-26Grey11-18White1-10

When I looked at Davy and Iudy, I could clearly see the two giving off a green aura and the border between their aura and body was pitch black in color. That meant, the two had a mana level that was at least 20 and a minimum essence value of 19.

I looked at them with dismay. “I remember you telling me that you two were normal but then why do have such high values Iudy? Davy why? What is going on?”

The two looked at me for a moment and then their eyes averted away. All I could hear was them mumbling, “Sorry.”

---***---

guys! pls rate my ff. give me a review too! follow and favourite! show your support so i can keep writing!

guys do read the novel 'Zhan long', i am doing thr editing works for the novel. ;)

oh and in need of a proofreader!

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