Chapter 93 Recommendation
Baird had been living off of Zavier for a long time. Whenever he needed money, he would stop Zavier in his way and would rob him of everything that he had on him at that time.
Zavier had become a sensation worth fearing before he had gone on the mission that almost took his life. The students had been both curious about him and afraid of him at the same time. There was a lot of attention on him for his superior prowess and battle capabilities. Baird at that time had never dared to show his face in front of him for fear that Zavier might return all that he had done to him over the period of time.
Yet as soon as the news of his failure spread, Baird gathered his guts once again. He thought that the lucky period of Zavier was over and he could be exploited by him once again.
As a result he confronted Zavier as he was going towards the class. He blocked his path and started to move towards him in an attempt to push him back towards the corner of the corridor.
Zavier could see the idiot moving towards himself. He didn't show any reaction and continued to stand still as if the person moving towards him was entirely inconsequential, as if he wasn't bothered by him at all.
Baird felt that something was different about Zavier but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Instead his fanatic thinking led him to believe that Zavier was trying to scare him off with false bravado and was actually hollow from the inside as evident from the fact that he had failed his mission terribly.
"Well…Well…look who it is. Isn't this the guy who caused the failure of the class mission?"
Baird put on an intimidating look and started to take heavy steps towards Zavier who was still expressionless.
Baird felt that he needed to do more to break Zavier so he continued talking in a provocative manner.
"Did you think that you had become a big shot by lifting Teacher Valerie using a puny float spell? Hmm…looks like some things really can't change. A loser will always be a loser no matter if he has learnt any magic or not."
Baird was only this precocious because he thought that Zavier's future was bleak considering the mission failure. The school rules stated that those who managed to complete a mission like the one that Zavier and party had been sent out to do would have a chance to be selected by a prestigious institution. But almost everyone was reluctant to accept such a mission. That was because the consequences of failure were the exact opposite. The failure of such a mission would put a huge blemish on the track record of that mage and he would be unable to enter any prestigious institution for learning in the future.
Therefore, only those who had the ability to complete the mission perfectly would take part in it. Moreover, the difficulty of the mission was quite low. One could even say that the mission was just a way for the school to showcase their top students so no one ever failed in such a scenario. But Zavier had done it due to which Baird believed that Zavier was weak.
In fact Baird hadn't witnessed the fight between Shiranui and Zavier earlier. If he had, he would not have had the guts to even stand in front of Zavier at this time. At that time, he had been unable to witness it with his own eyes but he had known the result of the fight which was a loss for Zavier.
Therefore, Baird had come to think that Zavier only knew flashy magic skills and had no power to fight back against him even if he wanted to.
It was not just Baird who had that mindset. Most of the people at the school still thought that Zavier was actually a waste of space that had shone brightly for some time by using some kind of unfair means.
They thought that Zavier had never left the bottom where he had stayed since the first day of school.
Unlike the previous times, Zavier was in no mood for bullsh*t. He was already tired of experiencing the school bullying that he had missed out on in his previous life. Though a new experience, he didn't particularly like this one. He had had enough of this and wanted to set an example.
Previously, he had been tolerating because he had not been able to locate his enemies and wasn't able to distinguish between his enemies and his allies. Now that he was past that phase, he did not need to hide any more. He needed to make sure that those aiming for him would think a thousand times before doing anything against him.
The clone in his closet had been quite busy as it had only one task which was to increase his Mesmer rank in whatever way possible. It had barely left the closet since its inception because of that reason.
Due to its continuous practice and meditation, the clone had finally reached the third level of illusions. He had become proficient in level three illusions to the point that he didn't even need to break a sweat before casting such a high level skill.
Without even a thought he cast the latest level three illusion that his clone had managed to get proficient in.
[Fear Lv3]
[A skill commonly used by illusionists to deal with those who are mentally weaker. The skill induces the target to hallucinate and witness their greatest fear as if it was right in front of them. The effect of the skill will be more enhanced when the mental level of the target is significantly lower compared to the caster. In cases where the difference is too great, there is a small probability that the target might suffer from cardiac failure due to sensory overload.]
[Requirement: A level three illusionist with preferably higher mental capacity. A higher mental strength is necessary to avoid the backfiring of the skill if the target succeeds in breaking out of the illusion.]
[Duration: The skill can be maintained for 10 seconds currently. The duration can be increased by either increasing skill proficiency or by increasing the Mesmer rank or mental energy.]
[Current Skill Proficiency: 1.00%]
In reality, it was quite overkill since students like Baird could hardly defend against level one illusions but Zavier had directly jumped two levels higher.
[Fear has been cast successfully.]
[Target is fairly weak; the effects of the illusion have been amplified further.]
[Target is fairly weak; the duration of the skill has been increased further.]
As a result the bully could hardly bear the effect of the skill and screamed like a little girl while pissing his pants.
The skill worked better than Zavier had expected as the effect didn't vanish even after 15 seconds.
During that time, Baird was rolling around on the ground trying to escape from something intangible. At least that was what Zavier thought that Baird was trying to do. In reality, he appeared to be flailing around on the ground like his whole body had turned into jelly.
Before long, his eyes rolled back and he started to foam at the mouth. The screams that were echoing all around stopped abruptly.
Zavier wondered what Baird might be seeing for him to look like that. It had to be at the level of the monsters that he had seen at the very least.
Zavier stayed long enough to make sure that he wouldn't get scared to death. When he noticed that Baird was in a state where he was unable to even scream due to fear but had enough vitality in him to survive, Zavier made his way towards the classroom.
Fortunately for him, no one witnessed the scene as it was quite a deserted corner of the school.
Zavier had an evil smile hung on his face as he left the scene of crime. He hardly cared about people like Baird who terrified others just because they could. He had already witnessed what these people did in moments of crisis. Therefore, he wasn't even the least bit interested in what became of Baird as he left him in the deserted hallway rolling about in his own faecal matter.
Zavier walked towards the familiar class as if he had done nothing wrong, as if there was no one who was roiling about in the hallway foaming at the mouth because of him at that very moment.
The evil smile on his face had yet to leave and he looked devilish as he made his way back to the end of the classroom where he usually sat. But this time, the person who sat beside him was nowhere to be seen.
This saddened him a little for a moment as he was slowly trying to get accustomed to her absence after he had come back to school.
He shook his head slightly and focused on the fact that he was going to meet her again soon when everything was under control. He was sure that Alissa must also be thinking the same way. The time for their reunion would definitely come soon.
A hanging face was therefore, not necessary.
Zavier calmly sat down on his seat and was able to come back to reality as he thought of that.
Despite his attempts to stay normal, the other students kept staring at him as if he was a character of their favourite show. Wherever he went their eyeballs moved with him. Zavier didn't care about these people but the constant gazes at his back irritated him. Still, he managed to control himself somehow.
Just after his return, the teacher came rushing in right at the start of the class timings. It was none other than his aunt Valerie who had recently warmed up to him.
She was still maintaining her grace and exuded the air of a strict and principled teacher. Zavier on the other hand couldn't picture her like that. Whenever he looked at her, he was reminded of the time when she had jumped into his bed to hug him after they had come back alive from the hellish mission.
Zavier noticed that Valerie was acting differently from her usual self. If it was any other day, she would have begun teaching by now and would probably have hit someone with chalk already to set an example. But today, she was waiting around for everyone to settle. It looked as if she had something to say to the whole class.
"Settle down please. I have an announcement to make today before we formally begin our class."
These announcements were usually important occurrences so there was a flurry of movement before everyone was seated on their positions.
"Since everyone is done, I don't want any further distractions while I announce the names of those students who have received the school's recommendation for self admission quota of the most prestigious universities of the empire."
Although all of them wanted to talk and whisper their concerns to their friends, none of the students dared to move their lips. They already knew the result of such an action as Valerie had never tolerated such an action in her class before. They were bound to be hit by her precision chalk strike if they even thought about doing that.
More than the pain, it was the embarrassment that stopped them; after all, Valerie hardly cared whether they were smack in the centre of the class or not.
Moreover, the recommendations were a huge thing for all the students since it was the one thing that could put them on the fast track of becoming a powerful mage. All the S rank mages who were alumni of their school had received such a recommendation except for some whose talent sprouted later on in their lives.
In fact it was not just their school, institutions all across the empire gave out these recommendations to the most talented students of the institution. Each institution received a requisite number of spots based on the prestige and ranking of the institute in the empire.
Only those recommended by the school would then be eligible to take part in the preliminary tests for early admissions conducted by the universities.
The universities had to conduct such preliminary screening tests despite the recommendation of the schools in order to curb the tendency of the schools leaning towards nepotism whether in return for benefits or just because they felt like it.
Cheating incidents had taken place in the past which had led to embarrassing situations for the universities and they wanted to avoid any such occurrence through any means possible.
Some incidents where powerful families had used their fame and wealth to hoard the recommendations for their family members had taken place in the past which had resulted in acceptance of subpar candidates. Only then did the universities manage to take into the account the lengths that these families were willing to go to in order to preserve their false honor and to care for their family's losers. They didn't have any bottom line whatsoever and were willing to twist the situation to satisfy their ends no matter the cost.
This had caused quite a stir in the past among the universities selecting such candidates which was the very reason that the screening tests had been initiated.
Through such testing mechanisms, universities had the right to select only the candidates who had enough talent and skill to be enrolled into those universities.
Merion High school was considered one of the most orthodox and one of the finest institutes for high school students in the whole empire. Therefore, the number of recommendations that the school had the right to give out was five compared to other institutions that could barely nominate 5 participants at their very best. Not only that, Merion High also had no restriction that the student had to be from the senior year to be promoted to the universities. The recommendation could be given out to anyone as long as they were talented enough to get past the screening tests held by the university.
The announcement was so important for the students that a hush had spread in the class. No one was willing to talk so as to miss out on hearing the names of the selected. All of them were hopeful that their name would be called out and they didn't want to miss out on the announcement just because they were busy gossiping with someone else at the time.
The silence was the answer that Valerie was looking for. Therefore, she took out a piece of paper from a file that she had been holding from the moment that she had taken her first step into the class.
Everyone in the class held their breath in anticipation of the result. Of course there were some who were least bothered about it. They were the ones who knew themselves better than the rest. They knew beforehand that they did not have any chances of being recommended by the school. Some of them had disciplinary issues, some had academic issues and some had trouble casting skills. In short all of them were terrible at one thing or the other. Hence they had no hope and were busy gossiping away in tiny whispers so as to not disturb the others.
Valerie started to read out the names and the students held their breath and some of them even closed their eyes to pray.
"As usual, the school has decided to recommend a total of five students this year for the pre-screening test conducted jointly by the best universities of the empire. Most of these universities have furnished some of the best S rank talents in the past. The school hopes that those of you who have been nominated should also strive to be same if not better than those who have gone before you. I am now going to announce the names of the five students who have been nominated by the school this year. Their names are…Kacie Adams…"
There were a lot of hushed voices as soon as the first name was called out but there were none in protest, as if all of them felt that the first name was as they had been expecting.
Kacie Adams was the perfect student in every way possible. She had everything starting from good looks, academic talent, high discipline score, high moral and ethical standards, excessive magical energy and fine mana control talent. She was the perfect all rounder that any university would give an arm and a leg for. There was a loud cheer from her fans and even those who didn't know a lot about her didn't raise any voice against her. All of them had at least heard about her and her prodigious talent and supreme beauty.
"…Nadia Adams…"
The second name had been announced. A smile appeared on Zavier's face as soon as the name was announced. He had always liked this cousin of his. She was sometimes mischievous and sometimes clingy but Zavier never found her to be bothersome. As it turned out he later found that Nadia was the top sophomore in the school too. She was monstrously talented if she put her mind to it and had extraordinary potential. The whole school acknowledged her prowess and therefore no one protested to her name as well.
Hearing the names of his two talented cousins in a row, he couldn't help but be happy. He had changed his views regarding Kacie as well after the incident where she had come to deliver medicine to him at home.
He had always thought that Kacie had never liked him but that had turned out to be untrue. Kacie had trouble revealing what she felt but she had never hated him or pretended to hate him like Valerie had.
Therefore, he was cheering for the both of them. He felt proud and at the same time he felt bad for the original Zavier since he must have felt very inferior living in that household considering the fact that all of them were such prodigies when it came to magic. Val was such a high official of the empire which was a testament of his power, Valerie was a huge genius who had become a teacher at such a tender age and even his two little cousins were budding prodigies. Only he had no talent for magic. Such a situation could be very difficult to handle.
Thankfully, Zavier didn't have to feel that way since he had the potential to become the strongest out of all of them.
Valerie continued reading the names of the chosen from the list in her hand.
"…Shiranui Yamata…"
The third name on the list was that of someone in the same year as them. She had previously beaten the top student in their class, Dahila. Not one of them cared to remember that she had been beaten by Zavier as well and had only won because Zavier had avoided hurting her.
Now that Zavier had lost his earlier lustre, everyone just thought that he was weaker and that was why he had lost to her.
Despite all the whispers no one could change the fact that Shiranui was indeed an outstanding talent when it came to the quality of magic skills and the fighting capability she had. Other than that her fierce and persistent will probably made up for anything she lacked compared to the other nominees. Even Zavier had to acknowledge at least that much.
"…Dahila…"
Valerie looked towards Dahila as soon as she took her name as she was seated in the front row. Valerie nodded at her in an attempt to congratulate her.
The whole class cheered as this was the first name that was from their own class. Dahila had always been the top of the class so everyone was willing to acquiesce to her.
Dahila grew flustered from the cheering noise and looked towards the back where Zavier was seated. She felt that she did not deserve to be the one who was nominated because Zavier was clearly better than her. She did not even deserve to carry his shoes if his real talent were to be revealed in front of everyone. She felt that the excuse that the school had come up with was very unfair to Zavier whose future path had almost been cut off because of that.
Zavier saw her troubled face and nodded at her with a smile. He didn't want her to feel guilty about it because it didn't matter much to him anyway. He didn't have to study in some school to properly learn magic as he had the best guide available in the world. He was bound to surpass them at some point even if they did get a head start. Therefore, he just gave her a comforting look to ease her troubles.
Now all the heavy hitters had already been named so the class was trying to anticipate the lucky winner who was getting the last remaining recommendation. Valerie was taking a long time in uttering the last name.
It was like she was purposefully doing it to create suspense. But as usual there was no expression on her face that indicated that she was doing it on purpose.
"…last but not the least…Zavier Adams."
A hush spread over the whole class. No one had expected to hear that name. It was the last thing that they had expected. Some voices rose up in protest regarding the last name as soon as they had managed to digest what had happened.
"How can it be him?"
"There is no way that is true…right?"
"Teacher, is there some kind of mistake?"
"Did you really say 'Zavier'?"
There was a huge uproar in the class soon after the announcement because none of them were expecting to hear that name. Zavier had cause the failure of the class mission so how could he be the one to get an endorsement.
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