Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)
chapter-186

Chapter 186: Phantom Steps

The courses for the next day were Planet Norma’s Common Language and Basic Meditation. Xiao Lin decided to forgo the common language course for the time being after much deliberation, as his primary purpose was to increase his basic attribute value. Advancement would become more difficult as the value increased, but with the Miracle skill, Xiao Lin’s goal was very simple.

He did not need to aim for high attributes, because doing so would make it difficult to have any significant improvement within half a month. Xiao Lin had gained a better understanding when it came to the promotion of attributes.

It was easy to improve attributes, and that was with continuous practice. There were many ways to train, like improving strength through Basic Swordsmanship. At the same time, a similar effect could also be achieved by training other strength-related skills. The higher the skill, the better its effect.

Xiao Lin’s less-developed attributes were undoubtedly agility, which stood at only six points. Aside from the Basic Body Technique course, he felt that he had to take other relevant courses.

He opened up the sophomore course electives table and screened them according to attributes. The choices were quite different from that of freshmen and there was a larger variety of courses from sophomore year onward. Students also had a certain degree of autonomy in terms of their choices.

Most of the sophomore courses were advanced courses based on basic courses. For example, once a student’s Basic Swordsmanship reached a certain level, there were Intermediate Swordsmanship Courses. Clearly, those were not within Xiao Lin’s choice.

However, there were also plenty of courses which did not require high basic prerequisites. After all, the power system of Planet Norma was large and extremely complicated, and a freshman could not possibly choose to learn all of them.

Xiao Lin quickly had his heart set on a course called Phantom Steps. It only required an agility value of more than five points. There was also a brief introduction to the skill in the course schedule. The skill enhanced one’s ability to dodge enemies, and a person could even create temporary apparitions to confuse the enemy once the person’s agility value was high enough.

It was a very practical move, and a course based entirely on agility was certain to improve his agility attributes. More importantly, the time of the lesson happened to coincide with his common language course and therefore did not conflict with other courses.

After remembering the classroom, Xiao Lin appeared outside the sophomore training hall on time the next day. He swiped his door with his universal card, and the permission granted by the dean made things convenient. He kept a low-profile, quietly found the innermost corner of the training hall and waited there. The students taking elective courses were all from different classes, and no one cared about having more individuals in the training hall since everyone was unfamiliar with each other.

The tutor was a very young man. Even though the other students did not seem to care as much, he still remembered the number of people in the class. After entering, he frowned and clicked the interface by the door to browse the list. Using the universal card when entering and leaving the classroom almost certainly left a record.

“Xiao Lin? I don’t recall you being in my course.” The man’s voice was a little hoarse. He raised his head and looked curiously at Xiao Lin sitting in a corner. He then buried his head and continued reading the information, muttering to himself, “Huh? A freshman? Uh, I don’t have permission to access data. This permission is…”

Everyone else seemed to have no interest at first, but became a little curious when they heard that he was a freshman. After hearing that even the tutor did not have the permission to access the data, everyone’s interest was thoroughly piqued. Just as they were about to listen carefully however, the man’s confident voice had stopped abruptly. He grinned, wiped the sweat from his forehead, then coughed and said, “Let’s continue with today’s lesson.”

There was a loud clamor in the training hall. The man had stopped his sentence midway and was clearly trying to whet everyone else’s appetite. Unable to resist, they asked each other, and although they spoke politely, the whole training hall seemed at ease.

Xiao Lin was embarrassed as well as a little surprised. The tutor seemed to have a good temper and was not at all intimidating. On the contrary, he was more like a senior who got along with everyone as if they were in his generation.

What Xiao Lin did not know was that graduates, professors even, were tasked to teach the entire freshman year. As a result, the discipline and requirements of the freshmen’s class were much stricter than those of sophomore year or even third year.

In fact, the young man was a third-year repeat student. He chose to teach in second year because he needed to earn more redemption points. Phantom Steps was a very basic skill and did not require much advanced skills, so a third-year student was competent enough to teach that.

After everyone’s questioning, the man’s forehead began sweating much more profusely. His earlier search revealed only one piece of information: that Xiao Lin had been granted access to that class by the dean.

It was no joke. He had been in the academy for so many years, yet he had never seen the dean except during the occasional ceremony. It went without saying that he never met the dean in person either. Xiao Lin’s identity was unimportant. The fact that he had the authority was reason enough for the tutor to refrain from being nosy.

The questioning proved fruitless, so everyone else turned their attention to Xiao Lin. Several who were nearby randomly struck up a casual conversation with him, but he would not disclose anything. Although he was well-known in his freshman year, he was not really that interesting to those in sophomore year.

Nevertheless, surprises always came when one least expected. A tall girl with short hair suddenly yelled, and exclaimed with some excitement, “Xiao Lin? Xiao Lin! I remember you! I haven’t greeted you yet. Did you forget about me?”

“Huh?” Xiao Lin finally raised his head and looked at the woman.

Xiao Lin’s blank face made her very upset, and she directly introduced herself, “It’s Wu Qin!”

“Wu Qin?”

Xiao Lin was still confused, irking the woman at last. She stomped her feet and said petulantly, “We met in the meditation hall before! You said you wanted to borrow the hall and meditate? You’re that genius who entered the realm of meditation in three minutes. You can’t possibly forget me so quickly, right!”

Xiao Lin had a sudden realization and could not help but feel flustered. He had earlier replicated the skills of that woman named Wu Qin when he started learning Basic Meditation, but he soon went to New Washington and The Final Land. He had long forgotten the woman, whom he met only once.

“You took Basic Meditation, right? Why are you here?” Xiao Lin chatted briefly with her.

“Tch! I’m not cut out for learning spells, and besides, I have to collect enough credits, so I might as well learn some easier courses.”

Everyone else’s attention was not focused on the fact that two of them knew each other. Wu Qin was just a very ordinary woman among the sophomores, but what was it that she just said?

The genius who entered the realm of meditation in three minutes?

Finally, someone came over again and looked at Xiao Lin incredulously. The person then asked, “Could you be the freshman genius that Wu Qin mentioned in her post?”