'Oh, f*ck.' Blake couldn't help but curse because almost everyone was looking at them. It would have been nice if it was a normal time but her action of holding his hand was like adding salt to his wounds.
He was in a rough situation, he received lots of hate for being the number 1 and getting her a lot of her attention, but now her, holding his hands was adding gasoline to the fire.
"What was that for?" Blake had a feeling that Camilla was trying to set him up.
"Wanted you to walk me back to the dorm..." Camilla said as she made puppy eyes.
"…" Blake didn't know what to say, he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad one.
"Why are your eyes so dull, having you been staying up all night." He had tried hiding the signs of his mental fatigue with a smile, but he had underestimated her ability to notice little details.
"Emm…" He didn't know how to tell her he had multiple long naps without putting the unconscious part.
"That explains a little bit about how your speed is outrageous… Seems you are a workaholic." Camilla pondered aloud.
"…" Once again, he didn't know how to explain his cultivation speed without mentioning the concealed space, he wasn't even sure if he was meant to speak, all he did was stay silent and let Camilla's imagination answer.
"What do you think about the ranking system?" Camilla wanted to get his opinion.
"Well, I for one think it's a good system that punishes those that slack, but it will surely lead to an unhealthy competition that will put a lot of pressure on the students." Blake gave his honest opinion.
"You are talking about the effects on others, what of you?" She looked at him with an expectant face.
"It does put some pressure on me, but not that much since only the second position can challenge me." Blake was not sure why she was excited but he knew she could also be a challenger for the top spot and could never trust anyone even if they were damn beautiful.
There were two ways for him to put pressure on his challengers. One was to make himself look confident and strong so as to scare away people.
It was good against the timid once and those low in rank, but he wouldn't be facing timid ones in the elite ranks because everyone there was truly elites and his plan would only make them prepare more and never underestimate him.
That was why he was going with the second which was to look weak and pressured so that his opponents would underestimate making lessen their guard when they went against him.
Just like the first plan it wasn't full proof because it would only work on his first few opponents before the rest would figure it out and prepare. The silver lining was that he would use the time of their preparation to get ahead of them in leaps and bounds after using the beast core to cultivate.
"Well, the pressure wouldn't be that much when compared to people like us." Camilla sighed.
"What's your rank?"
'Oh fuck!' It was at this moment that Blake knew he fucked up.
"Wait, you don't know my rank? You jerk!" Camilla shouted in fury.
'Me and my big mouth.' Blake felt like facepalming for his stupid mistake, but he felt she would interpret it in another way.
'But I am not obligated to know your rank, by the way, am I her boyfriend? Or am I?' Their relationship was a confusing one, with the amount of attention she is giving him, she might be interested in him, but it could also mean he has been friend-zoned.
'Seems this is a universal constant; women are hard to understand.' Blake sighed and decided to stop thinking about the mystery that was girls because the more he thought of it the more confused he became.
Still fuming with anger and unwilling to talk, silence reigned throughout their journey to their dorm.
When they finally arrived in front of the wind griffon dorm, Blake decided to be the bigger person by apologizing.
"First up, I am sorry for being insensitive and please tell me your rank so this won't happen again," Blake said sincerely because he didn't want this escalate.
"I am the fifth rank." Camilla scoffed.
"That's great!" Blake was surprised that she was very close to the top.
"It would have been if I didn't have to tell you!" Camilla stomped her feet as she left.
'Another wrong move… The life of an introvert suits me better because I suck at this.' Blake clicked his tongue and shook his head.
After submitting his selected specializations Blake had a free day to do whatever he wanted. Normally he would have gone straight to the concealed space for more training without a thought, but with what he had passed through in the last two days coupled with his mental fatigue Blake decided to take a break.
He returned to his hot bath and when he was done, he went straight only waking up when it was time to eat, and even after that, he returned to sleep.
The next day Blake woke up with the vitality of a horse, all his injuries were healed and his mental fatigue was no longer weighing him.
He was so happy that he didn't know when he began humming a happy tune and it was because this was the day they were to be moved to the main school.
The reason they were to be moved a day before their break elapsed was that the school wanted the students to get familiar with their environments. No one would want to miss their first class and be on bad terms with their professor right from the first day all because they didn't know the venue.
After breakfast and giving the students some time to pack their stuff, they were warped to the main school in batches.
The first batch was of course the elite class, before the students in the normal.
"One can get used to this." Blake knew the school's way of doing things made those in the normal class feel inferior, but why would he refuse such a wonderful treatment when he knew if given the chance, they wouldn't think twice before removing him.
Those in the normal class were inwardly cursing the school for making them look inferior, but once they came in front of the warp gate that leads to the main school all that went out of their mind, as they adored the beauty of the warp gate.
A warp gate is one of the by-products of forging and knowledge of arrays. The Use of knowledge of arrays is to enable the forger to embed an array that can produce a burst of energy able to cut through the fabric of space and time, and also to embed another one which will compress the distance between the entry point and exit point into a device that will help stabilize the path made.
Opening a warp gate requires precision and zero errors, because of the anything were to cause an imbalance it would cause the path made to collapse, trapping those within in the void.
This is why only those that could open a warp gate without endangering the lives of people were few, that was why entering a warp gate was not like your everyday magical experience because finding one outside important buildings was hard.
Being the first time for most of the students including nobles they were entranced by its mystery.
They all appeared in front of a magnificent castle bigger than any building they had seen before. Even the castle at the center ring of the city couldn't compare to this in terms of size.
They stepped into another warp gate that brought them to the first floor, because the castle didn't have stairs, rather they used warp gates for movement.
All 6 floors of the castle were meant for each year and those that are not in the year the floor was meant for couldn't warp into it.
This was an approach the school used to tackle the cases of seniors bullying and extorting from their Juniors that came over the years.
When they warped into the first floor, the students were stunned by how large the floor was.
The first floor was more than the size of a village. It housed the accommodation of the entire preschoolers, different classes for both the normal and elite classes, their different specializations, and lots more.
Those in the elite classes were allocated to their customized room just like principal Lovren had told them.
When Blake stepped into his room he was stunned by the amount of space it contained. The customized room had three times the space of his previous room and even the bed was a double bed.
"Why would they give a student a double bed? Unless..."