246 Chapter 246: Qualifiers for Qualifiers (1/2)

The next day, when I returned to Jing Tian Academy, I was met with a new announcement from the still grieving Vincent Violet.

”We have received an opportunity to participate in the Spiritual Road training camp this year,” he explained to all the students who had gathered in the hall. ”Of course, getting a slot for the Spiritual Road is a very competitive procedure, and not all those who want to go can go. As a result, we'll be holding what we call qualifiers. Then we'll pick the top five students or so to participate in the Spiritual Road training camp. Take note, the camp itself will run for several months.”

”What's the Spiritual Road?” one of the students whispered to her classmate. She wasn't the only one. Quite a few students hadn't heard of the Spiritual Road before. Hell, I hadn't…okay, maybe I had when I first read the Great Ruler web comic, but it was only after I watched the Great Ruler animation that the Spiritual Road suddenly decided to manifest itself in my story.

Seriously? So I went from being the Garrulous King to becoming Archer, had a shot at being an Isekai Cheat Magician, played around with becoming the Versatile Mage, and now I was expected to become the next Great Ruler?

Someone must be running out of ideas.

”The Spiritual Road is an annual event held regularly by the top academies of the Federation,” Vincent explained. ”No, don't worry. You will not have your magic sealed, that's utter bullshit and open to all sorts of abuse. Besides, there are monsters inhabiting the Spiritual Road…well, it's more of a Spiritual Forest actually, and Road might be a misleading term because it really actually translate better to Spiritual Way from Chinese. Anyway, to seal your magic – which is impossible to begin with – in a place inhabited by monsters is to sentence you to death, so we don't have such shenanigans. Furthermore, you are not expected to kill each other like some barbaric civilization. That said, there will be quite some competition, and each of the participants will be issued a single…uh, blood token each. At least I think it's a blood token, but whatever. You'll be strongly encouraged to fight each other and steal each other's blood token. The blood token is what you need to stay within the Spiritual Road. If you lose it, you'll be teleported out.”

Even the teachers were looking a little bewildered.

”Why were we suddenly allowed to participate this year?” one of them asked in a hushed tone.

Vincent must have heard her, for he cleared his voice and deviated a little to explain.

”In recent years, our performance was not good enough to warrant inclusion, but this year, because of a couple of certain individuals…” he stared pointedly in my direction and I was forced to hide behind the towering figure of one of my classmates. ”Our academy has caught the attention of quite a few higher-ups in the Federation, and they decided to give us a few slots this year.”

”What's the benefits of participating in this Spiritual Road thing?” Craig Carlson asked boldly. Vincent scratched his head.

”Quite a few, to be honest. Students who can boast of participating in the Spiritual Road on their CVs will have a higher chance of getting into magic universities, particularly the prestigious combat ones. It will also improve your own techniques and magic, not to mention allow you to gain insight and knowledge of techniques and magic used by other schools. Often, this serves as an exchange right before the International Tournament itself, with the students from various academies…uh, spying on each other and assessing each other's abilities.”

”Sounds like a good idea.” Craig grinned in anticipation, evidently already planning to grab a slot for himself. ”How do we qualify?”

”We'll hold a pseudo tournament of sorts…where those who want to participate will have to fight against other prospective participants. There would be a few rounds…and you earn points from defeating an opponent. By the end of this week, the one with the most points will qualify. Since we have five slots, so that makes the five students with the most points.”

Vincent paused for a moment, sweeping his gaze across the room.

”Oh, and Vermillion Academy has also agreed to host an exchange session at the end of the Spiritual Road training camp. So once the session there ends, most likely the teams representing us in the tournament will travel to Vermillion Academy. So if you plan to represent our academy in the tournament, it's best if you at least try to participate in this Spiritual Road.”

The academy director was probably saying that because he knew this exchange would benefit the tournament representatives the most. After all, if the whole point was to experience the magic and techniques of the students from other schools and gather knowledge on their fighting styles and strategies, then obviously the tournament representatives would stand to gain the most from this experience.

In other words, it had nothing to do with me.

The moment I thought that, I groaned inwardly. Yeah, as clichés would have it, I would somehow find myself forced to participate in it somehow. Author damn it. Well, might as well resign myself to participating in it eventually.

However, I wanted to focus on other things at the moment, and I didn't have time to spend a few months in some stupid training camp, no matter how beneficial it might be. Unlike Wang Zhong, I had no intention of becoming Jing Tian Academy's team captain and leading them to victory in the international tournament (Good Lord, I almost typed CHF by mistake). In fact, I wagered that I would be missing the tournament completely.

Not because I didn't want to participate in it, but because I planned on doing a few missions that would take me some distance away from the academy. After listening to Dad's story the other night, and working with Anastasia to eliminate the Assassins and Dark Church in Azpire City, I wanted to pursue the Assassins Guild.

Right now, I had half a mind to join Dad, if not the Silver Wolves in their mission to hunt down the Assassins Guild. I recalled that night when Dad rushed off to eliminate the organization that was manufacturing the device that could artificially trigger an Emergence event, that night when I fought against three rank B Crastrates. He was pretty determined in destroying them before they could come to fruition, and given his past with the Dark Church and their uses of similar devices, I didn't blame him. I wondered if he would allow me to join him.

If he didn't, then I would just contact Feng Hai and assist the Silver Wolves in hunting down and rooting out the Assassins Guild and Dark Church. Anastasia was working for them, so I could probably contact them through her.

With such goals, there was no way I could afford to waste a few months wandering somewhere on the Spiritual Road and fighting other students. My real enemy was the Assassins Guild, not fellow students.

After the announcement, and other mercifully short speeches, Vincent Violet dismissed us and the student dispersed.

”What do you think?” Dong Fang Yue Chu asked as he jumped me. Man, I almost forgot his name. It had been over seventy-five chapters since I last saw him, after all. Even though, in-universe, it had only been a week or two, it probably had been almost two months for the writer. It was a miracle I still remembered that he existed. ”When should we start fighting in the qualifiers?”

”Up to you, but I might give this a miss.”

”What?!” Dong Fang Yue Chu grabbed my shoulders. ”Why?! We need you in the team that represents Jing Tian Academy!”

”We need Troy too, but I don't think we'll be getting him,” I pointed out, crossed. The guy was busy chasing after his brother, Tyrant King. Similarly, I had more important matters to take care of. ”I'm going after the Assassins Guild.”