Chapter 15: A Study Life Getting on Track

After leading the freshmen to familiarize themselves with the classroom location, Abyss dismissed them.

The three of them went to the Academic Credits Office and spent ten credits to exchange for a card that could display their credits in real time.

After that, An Xia and Melva upgraded their Bronze Badges to Silver Badges.

The upgrade required eight hundred Academic Credits.

Normally, freshmen’s credit income and expenses remained roughly balanced, so most students could only gather enough by the end of the semester.

In other words, they would otherwise have to endure an entire semester of the barely edible first-floor cafeteria.

As for why they could not simply have their families send food—

Even if the academy cafeteria’s cooking was poor, the quality of its ingredients far surpassed anything outside.

Only after arriving at the academy did An Xia learn that the largest magical beast breeding facilities in this world were jointly operated by the top-ranked magic academies.

Through magic, they had created a type of beast with no intelligence, extremely high meat yield, and the ability to grow stronger even while sleeping.

Such beasts were not recognized as true magical beasts by the Magical Beast Association, so the academies could sell them without issue.

However, their original purpose was to provide students with high-quality magical beast meat to enhance their strength.

Therefore, the finest magical beast meat from these breeding grounds could only be eaten within magic academies.

Claims from outsiders about having the best farm-produced magical beast meat were almost always false.

Because of the value of such meat, the academy imposed restrictions to prevent students from reselling it for profit.

Each student was allowed only three purchases per day in the cafeteria.

Even so, some students still resold food for money, but the academy did not bother with such trivial matters.

On the way back to the dormitory, Melva asked curiously, “An Xia, what was that spell you used to summon the giant?”

Anders was equally curious.

An Xia scratched his head awkwardly. “It is actually just Spiritual Impact.”

“...” Melva thought of An Xia’s Fireball Spell and said uncertainly, “Did it mutate again?”

Anders recalled the blow Lang Ning had taken and instinctively shrank his neck.

That spell had been completely silent and invisible.

He had fought Lang Ning before and knew how strong he was.

Yet even someone as powerful as Lang Ning had failed to react.

“Hehe.” An Xia laughed, then said with righteous seriousness, “What do you mean mutate? This is called improvement!”

“What kind of improvement looks like this…” Melva was almost too exhausted to complain.

At this point, even if An Xia transformed every spell into something completely different one day, she would not be surprised.

She was already used to it.

The next day, classes officially began.

Anders was assigned to the burly instructor’s class, so his route differed from An Xia and Melva’s, and they parted ways midway.

Upon arriving at the classroom, the freshmen were full of excitement.

Aside from a small number of exceptions, most of them had few relatives who had graduated from a high-ranking magic academy.

Thus, everything at Lance Magic Academy felt fresh and new to them.

“So noisy.”

Melva frowned slightly.

Even though only seven or eight people were talking, their combined voices buzzed like a swarm of mosquitoes.

An Xia thought for a moment, then directly joined their conversation.

With his eloquence and experience from his previous life, he quickly became the center of the discussion, effortlessly blending in and even leading the topic.

However, An Xia suddenly stopped speaking.

The previously noisy freshmen gradually fell silent as well, and the entire classroom became quiet.

After a moment of silence, someone asked, “Why did everyone stop talking?”

“I do not know,” another replied. “I saw that all of you stopped, so I thought something happened.”

The quiet was broken again, and they resumed chatting.

An Xia repeated the same trick.

After doing it three times in a row, someone finally realized he was the one causing it.

After that, no one paid him any attention.

An Xia snorted.

Fine, if they ignored him, so be it. He had already achieved the effect he wanted.

He then turned his head toward the classroom entrance.

There, Instructor Abyss stood with a cold expression, watching the noisy freshmen.

Soon, she stepped into the classroom with her long legs, but very few noticed her presence.

A couple of students who caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of their eyes fell silent, but because of An Xia’s earlier mischief, the others did not take it seriously.

However, as more and more students noticed Abyss, they gradually fell silent one after another.

In the end, the classroom became quiet once again.

“Go on. Why did you all stop talking?” Abyss’s voice was completely devoid of emotion.

Her pale blue eyes swept over the noisy students.

An inexplicable pressure made them lower their heads like turtles retreating into their shells.

Abyss had already memorized every student’s name in the class.

As she called them out one by one, their expressions immediately fell, each looking as if they were about to cry.

“All those I just named,” Abyss said, “will have one hundred Academic Credits deducted.”

A new official always enforces authority with a strong start.

These freshmen had just become the fuel for Abyss’s first display of power.

An Xia covered his mouth and chuckled in schadenfreude.

Melva glanced at him helplessly with her violet eyes.

He really still behaved like a child.

However, An Xia had not even finished enjoying himself when Abyss’s gaze fell upon him.

“Student An Xia, you seem quite pleased, aren’t you?” Abyss said coldly.

An Xia immediately sat upright, as if facing a life-or-death situation.

“Hmph.” Abyss let out a cold, dismissive laugh.

In truth, she had arrived long ago.

She had concealed herself with dark magic, so no one had noticed her presence.

She had witnessed everything An Xia did from the very beginning.

However, in order to suppress the arrogance of the freshmen, she had chosen not to intervene.

Next, Abyss officially began her lesson.

For the first few days, she focused on teaching basic knowledge about magic.

Some students already knew these things, but for most, it was their first time learning them.

An Xia listened with great interest.

This was far more enjoyable than mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

However, when Abyss assigned homework, his expression immediately turned bitter.

Although completing assignments would earn Academic Credits, being once again overshadowed by homework reminded him of the nine years of compulsory education in his previous life.

Truly an unforgettable academic experience.

Fortunately, after such intense training in the past, mere assignments from a magic academy were nothing to him.

While Melva and Anders were still busy completing their work, An Xia had already finished with ease and begun meditating.

A neat stack of completed assignments sat beside him, making Anders extremely envious.

However, in their dormitory, the room in the middle was still empty.

No one knew who would move in later.

After repeatedly drawing in elements with his mental power, An Xia gradually mastered the technique.

Now, he could absorb elements at high speed without causing much disturbance.

Moreover, thanks to An Xia’s method, Anders’ meditation speed also improved significantly.

Each time An Xia meditated, he created a vortex that gathered a high concentration of elements in the surrounding area.

It was practically equivalent to a cultivation chamber.