The next day, the participants were once again gathered, but this time there were no other students, and it was only the participants and a few professors, and the Vice-principal.
This time it was for giving out rewards to the participants of the tournament.
“Lisanna Lockser”
The Vice-principal called out participants’ names one by one and gave them rewards. For Lisanna, since she already owned a weapon artifact, she was given Rank-S – boot for increasing her speed.
“Hiro Ernest”
“Lisa Kyelpas”
The rewards were given one by one, though Lisanna was the only one to get the Rank-S artifact. Hiro got a Rank-A + sword which was not worse than the artifact that Lisanna got from the tournament.
The rank of the weapon varied with the contribution to the tournament but the rank of the artifact that someone received didn’t go below Rank-B. Moreover, every artifact was compatible with the owner.
“Zero Elea”
Finally, my name came.
“I have talked about the promise with Professor Mia. You were the greatest contributor to the Ace Academy victory. Here is the key. You may take any one treasure from the treasury.”
( Finally! )
Zero thought. .
He had been waiting for this moment quite a bit. The Art he was going to get was not as strong as his Cryomancy but it was strong nevertheless.
“What?”
“Any treasure from the school’s Treasury?” …
For a moment, the students could not understand the situation properly and then they realized that they hadn’t misheard the Vice-principal.
Participants know the capabilities of Ace Academy Treasury by the prize they received. Lisandra received the Rank-S artifact, but they know that it is not the academy’s highest rank artifact.
That means that Zero just got access to the place where he can get extremely rare and precious artifacts from the Ace Academy treasury. Most of those rare treasures were usually given to the professors who had done an incredible job for Ace Academy.
However, their surprise turned into doubts and that doubt turned into understanding. At first, they were surprised by the opportunity given by the vice-principal to Zero. Then they began to wonder whether it was just them mishearing things.
And then doubts were gone when they remembered the performance that Zero showed in the tournament. It would not be wrong for them to say that they won because of him. He, alone, eliminated the strongest opponent that they had.
“Thank you!”
As Zero spoke, he was on his way to the Treasury. He could not wait to obtain the speed Art that would greatly increase his speed.
“Zero, this is a rare opportunity. Make sure you take time and get a strong and compatible Art.”
Professor Mia advised.
She knows how some kids get too excited and bring in the first interesting toy they see without taking time to explore and get the things that they will like the most.
Just like that, she thought that Zero who is excited would wrongly choose the Art that sounds powerful without really looking at other things that are in the treasury.
And like she said it was a rare and hard-to-come opportunity.
Actually, at first, it was kind of a joke that she suggested to the Vice-principal.
At that time, Ace Academy staff were not very optimistic about this year’s Tournament of Academies because of Omar Noel and other strong students from Arcane Academy.
At that time, Professor Mia saw potential in Zero and thought that he could be turned strong before the tournament of Academies and have him contribute to Ace Academy.
However, she by that time knew quite a bit about Zero’s personality. He didn’t like to stand out or fight.
She knew that Zero did not like to stand out from the fact that he kept his strength a secret that many of the students would flaunt.
He would not show his power even when others provoked him and tried to fight him. From that, she had guessed that Zero was probably not interested in the tournament.
When she was in thought, she met the Vice-Principal who looked very worried due to the tournament.
For others, losing didn’t mean much but for Ace Academy which had been undefeated for two decades, one loss will result in destroying that streak which may spark Ace Academy’s decline.
They talked about the tournament and how it will be difficult to defend the title this time. At that time, Professor Mia said that she knew someone with great potential who might be able to get Ace Academy the championship.
Vice-principal who had only been hearing negative news perked up and listened to her. He at the time easily believed her words without any doubts. It was because he was very worried and could not think properly and also because it was Professor Mia who was saying those things.
It was very rare for her to praise someone because of how talented she is. So, the Vice-Principal seriously listened to her words.
She said that there was someone who was very talented in her class and she might be able to train him well and get to the level of Aces. The Vice-principal assumed that to be Hiro because he knew about Hiro’s talent.
Professor elaborated on how she was going to increase his power, and the Vice-principal thought that the training was too brutal even for someone as talented as Hiro but he didn’t say anything because how can one become a successful person without suffering?
Professor also said that the said person ( Zero ) does not look keen on participating and it would be difficult to have him participate.
She said that wanted to use some kind of reward to lure him. The VIce-principal asked for Professor Mia’s advice as she was more familiar with Hiro (Assumed person) than himself.
At that Professor Mia, half-joking and half seriously, said that if we give him access to the school’s Treasury, he would definitely agree.
The Vice-principal thought for a second and immediately agreed on that.
He thought that if the said person could help keep the two decades of record then it was no big deal. With the dire state that they were in, winning didn’t seem possible and the condition was only if he contributed greatly and the school won that tournament.
Moreover, he thought that Hiro ( Assumed) getting those treasures would be great for Ace Academy as well. He was one of the Ace Academy students and his getting stronger meant that they would get an incredible ally in the future.
Therefore, he promised that as long as the said person contributed greatly and Ace Academy won, he would fulfill his promise.
After choosing the mentor, he learned that the said person was Zero and not Hiro. But he didn’t take back those words because Zero has shown great talent and if he helped the Academy win, he had no problem fulfilling his promise.
And fast forward to tournament time, Zero had contributed the most. In the first round, he helped almost all the Ace Academy students to advance. Although he got unfairly eliminated in the second round, he had eliminated all the strong opponents.
Therefore, he was also convinced that Zero helped the Ace Academy win.
In any case, the fact that this was a hard to come opportunity is not only because she got Vice Principals’ approval, but also because there was opposition to giving Zero access to the Treasury.
Vice-principal agreed but it didn’t mean that he could decide everything by himself. He was not the principal and the decision to grant access to the Treasury was not completely in his hands. He called another professor and asked about the rewards that they would give to participants.
Then came Zero’s name, and many suggested an artifact rank of S- and A+, which was not bad, but he was also of the belief that what Zero did was far more impressive than that of Lisanna in that tournament and deserved better.
He then brought up the thing about giving access to the Treasury to Zero. Many opposed that decision, especially Professor William who said that it was absolutely inappropriate and also that he was not even the winner.
His lackey and other jealous professors also supported him. However, the Vice-principal shut their argument down by reiterating the things that Zero did which helped secure the win.
“But he didn’t even get past the second round!”
Professor William said.
However, this time the vice-principal didn’t have to interfere because many high-ranking professors refuted his point and said that they were not the tournament management team that only focused on the winners but also had to look at the contribution.
They also said that eliminating Zero was some kind of conspiracy and that they got Rank-B dungeon management right as compensation. This was known only to senior professors.
Ace Academy was strong and even The Authority could treat them unfairly without any reason. However, the decision that was already made could not be taken back and there were many reasons for that.
So, to avoid the conflict between Ace Academy and the Authority, The Authority decided to compensate for the damage by giving the right to manage one of the Rank-B dungeons to Ace Academy.
Therefore, Zero not only contributed to Ace Academy’s increase in resources by securing the win but also due to him being unfairly eliminated.
Therefore, they disagree with Professor William’s point. Normally, they would not care about Zero and avoid offending Professor William because of his dad.
Despite this, many professors felt guilty about the unfair elimination of Zero and the compensation was for Ace Academy rather than Zero who is the main victim. Therefore, the most that they could do was to provide him with another reward which was access to the school’s treasury.
With so many professors against him, Professor William and other professors had to keep quiet. Even when their number is large, when senior professors speak, they don’t have much power.
Can a hundred Rank-B voices be equal to one Rank-S? NO, one Rank-S was far more important and influential than a hundred Rank-B.
This was the same situation. What could weak professors do when the strong ones had already decided to agree with the Vice-principal?
Only after all these things happened, was the access to the treasury given. So Professor Mia wants Zero to cherish it.
Zero just nodded and went inside the Treasury. He already had decided on what to bring and he didn’t need to listen to Professor Mia’s advice.
He excitedly entered the Treasury and looked around in amazement.
“It is really the number one academy in the world!”
Zero exclaimed.
Rank-A artifacts were lying here and there just like some ordinary things and even the number of Rank-S items exceeded 10 which is extremely rare.
However, he soon began scavenging for the Lvl 7 Art. He assumed he would find it instantly, but he was wrong.
Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours and even then he could not find it. He searched for it high and low.
“Huh? It is not here!”