Chapter 78: The Rules of Immortality
Valerian leaned back on the bench, making himself comfortable.
"So where do I start..."
"How about the entrance exam? What will it be? A battle royale? A tournament? Or maybe we have to put our hand on a crystal and it will show to everyone what rank we are!"
After pondering for a second, Valerian let out a sigh and prepared himself to disappoint Arthur.
"Oh, my sweet Artie, there is no such thing as an entrance exam."
Arthur looked at Valerian bewildered, who then promptly explained himself.
"The Starlight Academy doesn’t have an entrance exam. It only has a single requirement: you have to be 16 years old to enter. There are no fees or a specific rank you have to be. You can be a beggar or a prince, it doesn’t matter. Everyone is allowed to study here."
Arthur would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little bit disappointed that there was no entrance exam. But after Valerian had already ruined his future as the strongest hiding as the weak, he had little disappointment left to give.
"So that’s why the academy is so big."
"Yes, every year there are millions of students who want to learn here. And it’s not just the Solaria Kingdom. Everyone from every nation or race is allowed to come here."
Arthur frowned.
"But won’t that lead to political issues if two royals of nations that are at war with each other go to the same class?"
"Sure, you are not expected to get along with everyone here, and there are always factions forming. But these factions are tightly regulated so that they don’t involve other students as collateral damage. But yes, it can lead to political problems."
Arthur leaned back on the bench and looked at the other new students that passed by them.
"If I were a prince, I would be scared to get assassinated here. If there are political rivals in the dorm room next to me, I don’t think I could even force myself to sleep."
"And with that, we come to the next big thing. Arthur, ever wanted to be immortal?"
Arthur looked to the side with interest. The comment about immortality clearly piqued his interest as someone who had already died once.
"Yeah, sure. Being immortal would be kind of nice."
A wicked grin found its way onto Valerian’s face.
"Then you are lucky, because inside the academy grounds and the city below, no one can die."
Arthur looked at Valerian with a confused face.
"What do you mean no one can die? And the entire city below? What are you talking about?"
Valerian raised his hand, and a much smaller version of the largest academy building appeared, made from starlight. Surrounding the small building was a translucent light layer.
"All around the academy and the city is a barrier. It was created by the principal, and it technically makes everyone here immortal."
Arthur couldn’t believe it. How can something like that exist? Immortality for millions of people? There was no way something like that existed.
"Well, it’s not ’real immortality’, haa. Did you know that there is frightfully little known about the principal? The strongest being on the planet, the Principal and founder of the Starlight Academy, and an elf without any ties to the elven empire. That’s it. That is all that is known about him."
"That’s it...?"
Valerian nodded. After leaving the Voidwoods and getting directions from Azuriel, he tried to use his status as a prince to gather all the information he could about Sylas Starlight. But no matter how deep he dug or how much money he offered for information, there was nothing. Sylas Starlight was a ghost; it was like he didn’t even exist in this world.
The only reason people even knew that he was so strong was through a few demonstrations, where he single-handedly removed entire nations from the face of the planet. And strangely, there was nothing left behind to pinpoint what he can do exactly.
It was always just that the entire nation would disappear and leave behind a massive crater. After the third nation that disappeared, he was named the strongest, and no one dared to threaten him or the academy.
"While no one knows for sure, there are a lot of theories about him. About his affinities, his exact strength, if he has a unique skill. But the leading theory is that he is a master of Time. Because this barrier that makes it impossible to die works with the time element and not life."
The miniature academy building was replaced by the form of a young boy around 16 years old.
"This barrier is constantly looking into the future, and if an attack that is going to kill someone is about to land-"
The boy made from starlight was decapitated with a sword. As the head began to fall, time stopped and everything froze.
"-it will send a signal back in time and teleport the person into the medical area and pump them with a large amount of life mana."
The decapitated head flew back onto his neck like time was reversing, and right before the sword could hit him, his form disappeared.
Arthur listened to Valerian’s explanation breathlessly. It was unbelievable to create a barrier that can save someone from certain death, and then to have it cover the whole academy, including the city.
"But it’s not absolute immortality. While people like us can’t kill someone here, it can get a little funky when someone at the Ascendant rank tries that. Because it is possible for someone of that rank to bypass the barrier using their will. But we don’t have to really worry about that, because even if an Ascendant rank tried to break in to kill us, they would meet their end before they could breach the protective barrier, as the principal is always inside the academy."
Still, it gave Arthur a bad feeling that it was possible. Even if it would require an Ascendant rank, while they are rare, the world is big, and there are a lot of them out there.
"Wait, wouldn’t I be able to bypass the barrier as well since I can use will?"
Valerian laughed lightly and patted Arthur’s shoulder.
"I love the enthusiasm, but I have to burst your bubble. Even if you try your hardest and utilize all the will you can muster up, you will fail. Will works as a multiplier, but if your base output is so much lower than another person’s, the multiplier won’t do much."
Arthur slumped back onto the bench. It’s not like he wanted to kill someone here, but being told there was no way he could do it even with his will still didn’t feel good.
Valerian stood up and, with a cheery expression, patted Arthur’s shoulder.
"But I have something that can improve your mood."
Arthur’s attention was immediately grabbed, and he stood up.
"While there is no entrance exam where you can show off, there is still a tournament to decide your ranking in the academy."
The gloomy expression from earlier disappeared instantly.
"That’s what I’m talking about! So when is it, and will it be just 1v1 or maybe a death match?!"
Seeing his friend so hyped up, Valerian couldn’t help but smile. He turned around and walked in the direction the other students were heading. Arthur immediately walked with him, having a light skip in his stride, unable to fully hide his excitement.
"It will be a 1v1 tournament, where every student has to fight, and that will decide the ranking."
Arthur’s happy stride stopped as he remembered a detail.
"Wait, didn’t you say there were millions of new students? Won’t this take days or even weeks?"
The thought of having to wait so long just to get the ranking done didn’t sit well with him, but luckily this wasn’t the case.
"Normally, yes, it would take a long time. But luckily our dear principal is a master of time magic, and the whole tournament will only take about an hour."
"What the fuck."
To condense a tournament that would take days into just an hour, Sylas Starlight was truly worthy of the title Strongest.
Valerian looked down at his watch to check the time.
"The tournament should start in 30 minutes. We should go there now."
Arthur nodded, and together they walked to the tournament grounds. But there was one thing that posed a problem: the academy was fucking huge.
There were teleportation gates everywhere to make travel across the academy easier, but still they had no idea where to go. And the signs weren’t exactly helpful, as it took them a little over 25 minutes to reach the tournament place.
It was a massive colosseum-type structure that could hold the entire academy in it. Of course, it wasn’t able to do that just because the structure was big; there were millions of students in each year, after all. Inside the colosseum, space worked differently than it did outside; it stretched and bent to make it possible for everyone to have a place to sit and even have a good view.
So Valerian and Arthur managed to get a seat quickly before the tournament would officially begin. And they didn’t have to wait for long, as out of nowhere, a figure appeared in the air above the colosseum, and the principal entered their view.