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nStan’s brows raised slightly. “What happened to “Top 25 position is boring”? Huh?”

nThough he was quite surprised, he didn’t doubt Nathan’s power. He was sure if he wanted to challenge even the top one student of Vane academy, his chances of winning weren’t so low.

nHe was more surprised that Nathan was suddenly concerned about the elite ranks. He had always been nonchalant about them, always going on and on about how pointless they were.

n“Huh… nothing, I just want to get into the elite ranks.” Nathan said, still with that nonchalant expression. “It’s not like I would be challenging the top ten, just those below top 20 are enough for me. They are weak after all, so winning against them would be quite easy.”

nNathan wasn’t actually from Vernil city, he came from Zenith, which was actually one of the biggest cities in the world.

nHe moved to Vernil city and also transferred to Vane academy a few months ago, due to somewhat complicated reasons.

nSince Nathan formerly lived in Zenith, he also attended the magical academy in Zenith—Zenith academy.

nCompared to Vane academy, Zenith academy was a thousand times bigger.

nThe former was in a very small city while the latter was in the one of the biggest cities in the world, of course, the difference in their sizes would be incomparable.

nSince it was a well-populated city, the number of students in the academy was also very much.

nDue to this, the competition in Zenith academy was ten times fiercer.

nIt was also why Nathan viewed the students here as weak.

nWhile stage two Elementalists were seen as the top students in this academy, in the Zenith academy, they weren’t even strong enough to get into the top 30.

nNathan was one of the top ten students in his former academy, with an academy rank of 5.

nHis name was very popular in Zenith mainly because he was the highest ranked combat mage; the first combat mage to get into the top ten rankings.

nIt was only after he transferred to Vane academy where he met Stan and they became friends.

nDue to his weird personality and his background, most of the students avoided him like a plague even though he hadn’t done anything to offend them.

nThe only person who didn’t do the same was the orange haired boy in front of him, so it wasn’t too surprising that they bonded quite well.

nStan stared at Nathan with his brows twitching slightly. “Still… isn’t that a bit excessive?”

nGetting into a fight a few weeks before the event wasn’t exactly the right thing to do. Though one might emerge as the winner, recovering the lost mana in a few weeks might not be possible.

n“It might seem excessive, But I just wanna form my own team for the competition, not just team up with some random students.” Nathan said while shrugging.

nBefore today, he had already gathered information on all the elite students of Vane academy.

nThough most of them were stage two Elementalists, there were still a few that had already broken through to the third mana core stage. A few.

nThe ones at the second mana stage posed no threat to him as he himself was a stage three Combat mage, and not just any stage three combat mage but one that was already a little more than halfway to the fourth stage.

nHe didn’t reach his current stage through ‘natural’ means alone but was also assisted by the amount of resources made available to him by his father.

nHowever, most of the efforts made to get to his current strength were his alone.

nThe only ones that might give him struggle were the stage three Elementalists, especially the ones at the top five positions.

nHe wasn’t bothered about him losing mana, he could always recover it by absorbing a beast core.

n“Ohh…” Stan nodded in understanding.

nOne of the aims of the ranking competition was to promote teamwork among the academy students.

nThe participants of the competition would be grouped into teams of five—the number of teams depended on the number of Elementalists that participated.

nThe competition was only a month away and the team selection had already begun, however, only for top twenty five students.

nElite students were automatically the leaders of their respective teams as they were given the choose to choose any five students of their choice and add to their team.

nThe remaining Elementalists that weren’t picked by the twenty five elite students could form groups of their own and register themselves before the deadline, which was three days to the competition.

nWhile the rest who weren’t in any team by then would be randomly grouped into teams by the academy.

nNathan didn’t want to be a part of the latter as majority of the academy students were weak in his eyes.

n“How would you even get them to accept?” Stan asked.

n“You shouldn’t worry Stanley, I’ve got my ways.” Nathan said with a slight smile on his face.

nStan didn’t push it anymore, he already more or less knew how Nathan planned on getting them to accept his challenge.

n“Whatever, so who are you planning on adding to your team?” Stan asked. From the way he phrased his question, it was obvious that he didn’t doubt Nathan’s capability of rising to the elite position of this academy, not even in the slightest.

nAfter all, he knew the strength of his friend the most—he knew how monstrous Nathan strength and power was.

nAlthough he was also quite powerful, he couldn’t compare to the black haired boy.

nHe wasn’t as talented as Nathan and he only recently broke through to the second mana core stage, and that was with the help of the resources given to him by his father.

nHe was a stage two combat mage while Nathan was at stage three; the gap between them was like heaven and earth.

n“I don’t know yet, let’s just wait until then.” Nathan said with a wry smile on his face.

nHe honestly found Stan’s confidence in him quite funny. While he found the stage two Elementalists of this academy weak, he didn’t plan to underestimate them too much either.

n“I’m sure that brown haired Elementalist is among the team members you have in mind.” Stan said.

nNathan’s brows furrowed slightly, he didn’t immediately understand the orange haired boy’s words. ‘Brown haired Elementalist?’ He mumbled inwardly.

nThen it clicked and he finally understood who Stan was referring to. “You mean… Harry?” Nathan asked.

n“Yes. Who else would I be referring to?” Stan said with a shrug. “He’s the only one you’ve shown interest in so far.”

nNathan chuckled slightly when he heard the orange haired boy’s words.

n“He’s strong, so I’ll definitely want to add in to my team if possible.” He replied.

nStan’s brows raised as turned towards the black haired boy behind him. “I don’t know what about him makes you curious, to me he’s just a stage one elementalist… and a very unlucky one at that.”

nStan didn’t share the same views with his friend about Harry.

nEver since that day when he lost that bet to Nathan, Harry had become a frequent topic of their conversations—he was the one always bringing it up though.

nNathan wasn’t the type to show interest in just anybody—the person had to be strong or at least have great potential.

nHe had only met Harry once and he didn’t strike him as someone that strong or powerful so he was curious… why?

nNathan squinted his eyes slightly and then bent his head down a little. ‘Just a stage one elementalist… huh?’ He said inwardly.

nThe news about Harry enrolling as an Elementalist had spread quickly around the academy so it unsurprisingly reached the ears of the two combat mages.

nHowever, unlike Stan, Nathan didn’t see Harry as “ordinary”.

nWhile Stan saw Harry late awakening as unlucky, Nathan didn’t see it the same way.

nThere was this budding feeling inside of him that Harry was hiding his true power… and probably potential.

nHe even wondered if Stan was dumb at times, Harry was the only Elementalist in the academy whose true affinity grades weren’t particularly known; If that wasn’t enough to pique a person’s curiosity, then what was?

nHe had never doubted his instincts as his instincts had never been wrong.

nThe original reason he wanted to rope Harry into his team was to find out his true strength, and at least spar with him.

n“I doubt that Stan.” Nathan replied calmly.

nA weird expression flashed through Stan’s eyes, however, he didn’t make any comment on Nathan’s words. ‘Whatever…’ He thought.

nA wry smile appeared on Stan’s face as he reminisced on his friendship with Nathan.

nEven though they had only been friends for a few months, they were very close and it felt like they had know each other for decades.

nTheir personalities contrasted greatly, yet, it didn’t affect their friendship.

nHe wasn’t ashamed to admit that he benefited a lot from their relationship.

nFrom each of their fights—though it always ended with him getting utterly defeated, he did gain a lot.

nHe was able to refine his skills which made him stronger. It was safe to say that he was almost twice stronger than he was before meeting Nathan. 𝒆𝙣𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝙚𝙩

nSuddenly, Nathan’s eyes brightened and he sprung up as if he had just remembered something very important. “You do know Susan Grey right?”

nStan squinted his eyes slightly and then nodded his head. “The top one student… how could I not know her?”

n“Yeah… she asked me to join her team.” Nathan said as he walked up to Stan.

n“For real?!” The orange haired boy asked in surprise.

n“Yeah… it isn’t too surprising though.” Nathan said with a slight chuckle.

n“Yeah…” Stan replied with a slight smile on his face.

nNathan suddenly walked to the side of the room and picked up a long green bow and arrow that were resting on the floor.

nHe nocked the arrow on the bow and even aimed at the round target in the distance, drawing gazes of curiosity from Stan.

n“So did you accept?”

n“No.” Nathan replied as he drew the arrow back and then released it.

nFwoosh!

nThe arrow travelled in the air for a few seconds before hitting the target.

nHowever, it didn’t land on the black dot at the middle but on a white line close to the round edge.

n“Tsk.” Nathan released a low hiss. “My arching skills sure have gotten rusty.”

nA wry smile curved on Stan’s face. “I would say better than most.”

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