Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)
chapter-295

Chapter 295: Rank Evaluation (1)

It was time for his rewards.

Song Junlang urged Xiao Lin to not delay things, and to hurry to the student union to prove his rank before immediately heading to the New World to get his money.

Xiao Lin was quite happy as well, but he felt that something was off. He asked, “Hold on, shouldn’t you be the one heading to the New World?”

Song Junlang waved his hand, retrieving a slip of paper, “The bet was placed under your name, and the money was originally yours as well. You should naturally be the one to retrieve it. Just deposit half the funds into this account after that.”

“Four to six split; it’s 40%!” Xiao Lin corrected.

“Oh, with your number, you’ll probably be taxed 10%. We agreed you’d pay for the taxes, so it ends up basically being an equal split.” Song Junlang said with a sly smile.

“Why do I feel like I was tricked again?”

“This is a huge sum of money. With that money, there’s a lot you can do in the New World!”

That was true. With the 1 to 150 payout, his 9,000 New Dollar bet would turn into 1.35 million. After the 10% tax and splitting it with Song Junlang, Xiao Lin would have 540,000 New Dollars.

With the forums in the academy, based on the 1 to 18 payout, Xiao Lin’s 2,000 redemption points would yield him 36,000 redemption points, but it paled in comparison to what he earned from the New World. He was quite thankful to Song Junlang. Xiao Lin would not have even thought about placing a bet in the New World otherwise.

“Can I really go to the New World?” Xiao Lin said.

“Didn’t the dean give you that letter of appointment? You’re a captain you know. Don’t look down on your status. The military does things differently. It’s never been particularly hard for you to head to the New World, since you only needed to get the student union president to agree, but now you don’t even need that. You just need to bring your letter of appointment to the interspatial gate. No one would stop you!”

After pausing, Song Junlang straightened his back and said, “Something important happened lately, and I need to head back to Earth. I might not be back here for quite a while, so you should be careful. No one will hold a funeral for you if you cause any trouble.”

Xiao Lin rolled his eyes, but he could not help but admit that Song Junlang was somewhat of a shield on his back. For instance, Department Head Song helped him when he went berserk a few days ago, even though the reason for that seemed to originate here as well…

After leaving the logistics department, Xiao Lin headed straight to the student union. According to Dawn Academy’s rules, students ranking up first needed to be approved and verified by the specialized department in the student union before a certificate could be issued, proving that the student had reached that level. Thanks to the nature of the colonists, no one had ever faked those certificates, and they were naturally difficult to fake in the first place.

Xiao Lin was someone with quite the reputation in the student union. As he stepped into the classical style building, quite a few passersby turned to look at him. Everyone was filled with looks of surprise or curiosity, but not many greeted him, since he did not really know many people.

Feeling like he had given the student union president quite a bit of trouble, Xiao Lin hesitated before deciding against looking for the president. He asked around for the location of the Rank Evaluation Office. The whole place pretty much took up an entire floor. It was a department primarily catered to fourth-year students, afterall.

Xiao Lin was stopped at the door by someone before being handed a form to fill up. It required his name, year, attributes, and other basic information, mostly to speed up the process.

After filling up the form he handed it over to a woman in charge of the information. She took a quick glance over the form before her expression immediately changed, exclaiming in surprise, “You’re a freshman! You… Are you sure you want to undergo the Black Iron-rank evaluation?”

Her voice was quite loud, and even a few of the staff behind her heard it before scrambling out, pointing at Xiao Lin.

“That guy is from the first year?”

“Black Iron-rank!”

“Is the betting pool coming to an end today?”

“My god! I’ve already placed a bet. Hey, do you know what that is?”

Xiao Lin was a bit annoyed, and he noticed that the woman in front of him had a darkening expression, so he asked, “Senior, what should I do now?”

The woman coughed a few times, frantically shaking her head before saying through clenched teeth, “Are you sure you’ve reached Black Iron-rank? We have very strict testing requirements here, and won’t give any compromises. Even though the first evaluation is free, every subsequent one will be charged a fee to prevent troublemakers.”

That woman was basically trying to chase Xiao Lin away, not believing he had reached the Black Iron-rank.

Xiao Lin gaped for a moment before losing his smile and saying, “Senior, I don’t know who you bet for, but relax, I’m not lacking in money or points.”

In the end, she could not hold Xiao Lin indefinitely. After making sure the form had no mistakes, she meekly pointed to a door and said, “The Black Iron-rank evaluation is in the second room. You can just head straight inside. There’s no one else there at the moment.”

“Thank you, Senior.”

“My redemption points!”

“Senior, gambling can ruin you! You should be careful next time!”

“…”

Xiao Lin’s arrival had caused quite a bustle in the usually quiet area. The truth was, after the betting pool had started a lot of people had shifted their attention here. After all, the victor would ultimately be determined by the student union’s evaluation. The news spread like wildfire on the forums in just a few minutes.

A lot of them tried to take the opportunity to place their bets at the last minute, but the casinos and the ones in charge of the forums had gotten the news as well, closing the gambling pools immediately while they awaited Xiao Lin’s results.

The ones in charge of the evaluation were a few young students, probably third- or fourth-year student union members. Xiao Lin could not help but chuckle when he saw the look of pain on their faces after looking at his form.

It was natural, since there were very few people who actually bet on Xiao Lin. What Xiao Lin did not know was that, after the closing of the gambling pools, a lot of chatter started on the forums. Everyone was hoping that his evaluation was a mistake, since it was their last hope.

Even though this evaluation had attracted the gazes of many, the few evaluators considered making the evaluation process harder. However, the process for selection was not that complicated, and it was only divided into three parts: a physical examination, a combat evaluation, and the final result.