Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 69—Academy Rewards

The rest of the class stared at the leaving students with eyes filled with respect mixed with jealousy.

"I wish I were there," One of them even muttered.

Cole, Bryan, Moses, and the proud kid followed behind Eleanor with steady steps.

They tried their best not to appear too tense or too relaxed, maintaining a steady state.

Their journey across the academy continued under other students’ watchful eyes.

It wasn’t every day a group of students walked behind a teacher in the same direction, and it wasn’t the first time they had seen one today, further intensifying their curiosity.

But some of the more experienced students knew what was actually going on.

It was something that had always happened every year after the freshman placement test.

But even the experienced ones wore a confused expression while looking at a specific student.

It should be known that 1-star reviews are quite rare in the academy, but it is even more unprecedented to see one in the top ten.

"That kid can’t be just a 1-star," one of them said to the other.

Cole and the others felt a bit of pride while they were under the gaze of the other students, but that pride didn’t last long.

About twenty minutes later, they arrived in a part of the academy they had never seen before.

It was somewhere between the combat hall and the cultivation hall.

In front of the building were about three other teachers with students behind them.

The grand total of students in that location ended up culminating in 10.

"So these are the top students in the Freshman year," Cole thought while scanning across the others.

He saw Linda, Lucius, and Cain among them, but the others were people he couldn’t recognize.

Apart from the student and teacher combo, there were other people, which involved the fourth elder, Isaac, and even Wilce.

Upon the arrival of Eleanor’s final set, the teachers and elders didn’t bother saying anything, only directly heading into the building.

The students didn’t attempt to go with them since they weren’t called along, so they could only awkwardly wait outside.

When the adults were finally gone, the air grew a bit lighter as the students finally got the chance to converse.

Since Cole was familiar with some of them, they exchanged short greetings before staying on their own but still closely together.

Some students, on the other hand, were completely lone wolves; they didn’t say anything to anyone, only standing in their spot silently.

"Hey peasant," Cole suddenly heard from somewhere beside him.

He already knew who it was without even turning to check, so he planned to ignore it.

"I am in no mood for this," Cole said to himself.

"How dare you ignore me," Linda said in a louder voice as she stormed closer.

Her voice attracted the attention of the other students in their surroundings, especially Cain, who looked at Cole with squinting eyes.

Cole felt exceptionally uncomfortable under all those eyes, but he could only stand and bear it.

Linda finally arrived close enough to him to speak in a normal tone.

"Why were you ignoring me?" she asked with a slightly annoyed face.

"I wasn’t; I just couldn’t hear you," Cole responded shamelessly.

Linda felt completely at a loss for words when she heard Cole’s response. She had never expected Cole to respond with something like that.

"Hahahah, you are funny," she suddenly burst out laughing.

Cole, along with everyone there, turned to look at her with weird eyes, but Linda didn’t seem to care at all.

"Do you know what we are doing here?" she asked Cole.

"I have no idea," Cole responded.

"Ignorant peasant,beg me, and I will consider giving you some information."

Cole had never really had anything to do with people like this in his life, so he doesn’t really understand how to handle it. He could only do what he felt was right.

"There’s no need; we will proknow soon."

Linda now was the one at a loss for words as she just stood there, staring at Cole.

Cole didn’t bother with her anymore; his eyes were now on someone else.

Bryan was currently happily gabbing with someone. That person was someone Cole had never expected to see here.

For weird reasons, he hadn’t noticed the person earlier, but now he could.

It was the kid; they almost hit him with a fireball on the first day of his arrival, Vincent.

"Hello Cole," Vincent said the moment he noticed Cole’s gaze.

Before Cole could respond, the door opened again, and Eleanor walked back out alone.

When she got close enough to the students, she stopped her steps and said loudly.

"Like we usually do, the academy has decided to reward you all for your efforts with this opportunity."

"This will also serve as an opportunity to strengthen you guys for the dangers that are to come."

A firm expression crossed the eyes of the ones that actually understood what was being said while the others remained unresponsive.

"This is the Forging hall," She said.

"Forging hall, are they planning to forge weapons for us or something?" Cole thought, and similar thoughts crossed others’ minds.

Just like she could read her mind, Eleanor continued.

"Forging doesn’t only involve weapons or tools; the body itself can be forged, even the process of cultivation is body forging."

A look of realization flooded the students’ faces as they understood what Eleanor meant.

"I have to warn you all, the process of body forging is an extremely painful one, more than the one you felt during advancement," Eleanor said.

"So if you can’t withstand it, you won’t be getting enough out of this reward."

Some of the students felt a little bit of hesitation upon hearing the pain attributed to it.

"More than advancing, but I didn’t feel any pain during advancement. I hope I am able to withstand it." Cole thought.

"Since we have gotten that out of the way, you all should follow me." Eleanor said as she turned around.