Tighearna and Magnus were tense as they looked at the result. For the former, the price of failing to join the Academy would be his lost position as one of the heirs of the dark dimension.
Magnus would perhaps have to pay a steeper price, as he offended the dark dimension by defending himself. Not to mention the lock on resources and information he was in a very dire need of.
Even more for Magnus, the loss of control over Earth would mean the total end of his past identity. In the end, he would be some random citizen amidst uncountable people, snuffed out without anyone knowing or caring.
Few moments later, one of them heaved a sigh of relief as tension left their body. The other grew incensed and was about to argue before the old man stopped him.
"Tighearna, what do you think about becoming my disciple?" He said and waited for his response.
Unlike Magnus, Tighearna knew how much authority this man commanded and how much his family had to pay in order to find out.
"Disciple greets master." He said as he kneeled. For him, the decision to become his disciple was maybe more worth it than becoming just an unknown student.
The old man nodded in satisfaction as he looked at Magnus. With the enmity the two had, he would eliminate this pretty talented seed.
Although talented, no one would bat an eye for 1 in 100 student were it any other academy in existence.
He sighed as he remembered the deep ties the Academy has and he left with Tighearna, teleporting Magnus to god knows where.
...
[Magnus]
He could feel the faint connection with his clones, which made him less worry. After checking things out around him, he noticed that he was in a hallway.
Behind him was a wall, so he shrugged his shoulders and walked. The all wooden hallway transformed and soon windows, carpets, chandeliers and paintings made the room livelier.
The sight beyond the window was incredible. Constructs of huge origins dangled in the air.
Ship like vehicles were travelling all over the place and he could see nine suns hanging in the sky. Even a moon was visible as its bright red, dark celestial body sat there.
After walking some more, he found himself at a reception. There stood a lady.
"Welcome. I am one of the caretakers. You can call me caretaker or big sister Lemon. I am in the charge of the entire student dorm you will be living from now on." She said as she introduced herself with a graceful bow.
Afterwards, she took Magnus for an excursion as they walked all around the campus. His situation had been rare, as the duels do not last very long.
With some more inquiries, he found out that a lot of students liked to override the System with an all out duel from the very beginning.
He didn't care much though as he gazed at everything with curiosity. Some passing students even shook his mana reinforced mind from the power they held.
Spooked, but not overly worried, he half listened to caretaker Lemon as she showed him the cafeteria, other dorms and portals leading to various teaching halls.
The humongous place he was currently in was apparently the outer Academy, which housed the family members of inner Academy students.
And was known for its entertainment district. Of course, new students were in the outer Academy as well.
Though it was more of a housing area to get to know each other better from what Magnus had observed.
Even training rooms were hidden behind a portal as a fee was plastered on it. To his delight, it was enchanted with magic, so he understood what it meant right away.
However, after walking for a while, he noticed something odd. Till now, the only staff member he had seen was Lemon, who was still introducing things to him.
"Big sister Lemon, where are the other faculty members?" He asked.
"Hehe, I am the only faculty member in charge of the outer Academy. Here look." She said and took Magnus' hand and shoved it to her boobs.
His hand passed through as if Lemon wasn't there at all. A bit shocked, he tried to understand how he didn't notice that she wasn't there.
"You might be thinking that I am not here, right? Well, I am actually everywhere! In fact, every student here sees 'me' in a different form, adjusted for their race and likings." She said and changed into a bunch of different forms before reverting back.
"So, something like an artifact, spirit?" He asked as few other options popped into his mind, but would require constant mana use if they were a living being.
"Pretty close! Wow, you are not bad." Lemon said as she nodded to herself in satisfaction. They walked around some more and explored the entire outer Academy, minus the entertainment and housing districts.
Satisfied, Lemon nodded her head before she swiped her hand and vanished. In Magnus' eyes appeared a notification.
[The Chronos Academy welcomes you!]
[Student Magnus ______ had been accepted]
Bunch of cards appeared, and soon a couple of screens appeared.
[Status]
[Magnus _____]
[No. 9832]
[Evaluation: Potential top 300 seedling]
[Chrono points: 200]
[Student ID: XXXXXXXXXXXXX]
[Student Leaderboard] (Outer): No.1... No. 2...
While odd, the positions from 1 to 10 were empty as names began to appear on top 11 and onwards.
Curious, he walked around a bit. Time seemed to be a bit distorted, as if he was running a bit faster, which he felt was odd.
By the time he returned to the complex where he would live. He was exhausted, like a dog after a nice run.
It was then when a group of people appeared. He received a bunch of notifications and noticed that the top 10 leaderboards were being filled.
Sometimes the top 1 would be pushed back into a spot as a new person appeared. Their presence suppressed Magnus to the point where resisting left his subconscious.
Luckily, he managed to snap back and sneaked away as fast as he could. With a bit of help from the system, he found his room and locked himself inside.
Maybe the old man hid most of his power, but the pressure was too high. Albeit exhausted, he looked at the leaderboards to see their names.
[Student Leaderboard] (Outer):
No.1 - Enigmatic Witch
No.2 - Space shattering Giant
No.3 - Bone commanding Lich
...
No.10 - Commander Seven Sins Sloth Demon
He could infer quite a bit from the names of the top 10. The one oddity he could see was the gradual increase in name length, but he thought of it as nothing more than a coincidence.
Still, each second he was getting sleepier and eventually closed his eyes and dozed off.
...
An unknown time passed, and Magnus woke up once again. He was much more energetic and to his surprise, leftover from a foreign energy was reinforcing everything.
'Too much is hidden just in the outer Academy.' He thought to himself and decided to wait for the lessons. Because he wasn't the last student to finish his 'exam', the date wasn't set yet.
Today, he decided to walk around the entertainment area until he was once again exhausted. Much to his delight, by enhancing everything, it included comprehension to some degree.
It was like every step had represented enlightenment, as many things became much clearer. He left his room and walked outside.
The 9 suns and the moon still stood in the same position and unless Magnus slept for an entire 'day', it seemed that they were in fixed positions.
Outside the dormitory was a nice park with exotic flowers, which excluded a calming fragrance. After he walked some more, he walked to a teleportation point.
One which took him to the entertainment area. The quiet and serene surroundings were replaced by loud yells as vitality flushed the entire place.
He could see various races from humanoid like animals, something akin to minotaurs and such to a literal cloud.
Most of the currencies around were in chrono points. Foods containing incredible fragrance. Like a drug made Magnus almost buy it.
He decided against it, however, as he still didn't know the value of said points. Most of the 'people' ignored him as he spotted a bunch of beings similar to humans.
To his surprise, elves, dwarves and other races which were under Tighearna's command walked freely around.
The waters ran deeper than he anticipated. He passed by many shops, most of them sold food and drinks.
Some sold weird but fun gadgets, and others had technologically advanced tools. Something akin to a watch was on a glass like display.
[Chrono limited watch | Price: 1 000 000 000]
A slap to his face, but also a clear indicator that his 200 points were worth nothing. If he were to compare this to the prices of luxury watches, there very well might be things worth trillions or even quadrillions.
Above, quadrillion seemed to be a bit too much, as he doubted that even this transcendental place could avoid inflation.
So, quintillions or even sextillions of chrono points should be impossible to achieve. With a better picture of the overall situation, he walked around some more before he intended to return.
The sleepy feeling was back once again, and it annoyed him to no end.
"How did you get in? I smell like at least a million of different origins hidden in your body." A feminine voice said as he heard the sound of someone sniffing.
His body hair stood up as he felt a warm breath on his neck. A bit angry and impatient due to his exhaustion, he wanted impolitely to walk away.
The person before him forced him to evaluate all the decisions in an instant. One of the people in the group of top 10 was now standing before him.