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The ten Key Combat Academies were as follows.
Huaqing Academy.
Cangying Academy.
Tiandong Academy.
Tianyan Academy.
Bingpo Academy.
Hastings Academy.
Haowu Academy.
Luochen Academy.
Qixing Academy.
Fanzhou Academy.
These ten Key Combat Academies far surpassed ordinary combat academies, whether in the strength of their faculty or the quality of their teaching environment.
No wonder the admissions teachers from these Key Academies were so arrogant.
They really did have reason to be.
And the students who'd come along with them had grown just as arrogant.
However, two of the Key Academies' admissions teachers were absent from the conference room.
One was from Tianyan Academy.
The other was from Hastings Academy.
Could people from those two academies really not want to recruit the province's top scorer? That was impossible!
All the leaders and teachers from First High School wondered to themselves.
Every year, these combat academy teachers fought tooth and nail to recruit each province's top scorer.
So why were two academies missing this year?
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
As the principal, administrators, and teachers furrowed their brows,
Mu Yutian, an admissions teacher from Huaqing Academy, spoke up.
His cool voice rang out:
"Oh, right. I forgot to tell Principal Zhong. An admissions teacher from Hastings Academy called me and said they wouldn't be coming."
Principal Zhong Wenshan was stunned and hurriedly asked, "Teacher Mu, may I ask why Hastings Academy isn't coming?"
"I don't know."
Mu Yutian set down his teacup, folded his hands, propped his chin on them, and smiled. "Anyway, let me make my position clear first. If this Jobless Freelancer wants to come to Huaqing Academy, he'll have to agree to two conditions."
"First, he must accept whatever assignment we give him."
"Second, he must change classes as soon as possible."
"If he won't agree to those two conditions, Huaqing Academy won't even bother looking at this Jobless Freelancer."
As soon as he said that,
the faces of the First High School staff darkened.
The other Key Academy teachers raised their eyebrows slightly but said nothing.
Clearly, they more or less shared Mu Yutian's opinion.
Jobless Freelancers had no future.
That was a universally acknowledged fact.
Everyone knew that Jobless Freelancers couldn't learn advanced skills.
That was because 95% of advanced skills had class restrictions.
For example, the advanced skill [Sunset Stars (A+)] could only be learned by a mage who'd advanced to the second class, an Elemental Mage.
Under these circumstances, Jobless Freelancers could only use basic class skills to fight their opponents.
Basic class skills were certainly useful in the low-level trial realms of the Entrance Assessment.
But.
That was only in low-level trial realms.
The trial realms in the Entrance Assessment were only around Level 10. Once you got into a major academy, the realms you'd have to explore would start at Level 20 at the very lowest!
At that point, what could a Jobless Freelancer even do? Go in and scratch the monsters?
Many people were shocked that Ling Zhan, a Jobless Freelancer, had claimed the top spot on the Nanzhou Province Trial Ranking.
But the teachers from these major academies took a much longer view.
They cared about their students' futures.
Not just the present.
So Ling Zhan's status as a Jobless Freelancer was really just a joke.
"Heh! Well... you can't quite put it that way. King Yama Zhou saw what student Ling Zhan was capable of, and gave him extremely high praise. That shows Ling Zhan could very well shine in the future..." Principal Zhong Wenshan forced a smile, trying to save face for his student.
"That's right. King Yama Zhou praised my student as well," Qi Mu quickly chimed in.
However.
Mu Yutian shook his head with a laugh. "Enough. There's no need to use King Yama Zhou as a shield. He has no say in our recruitment."
"Speaking of Ling Zhan, doesn't your school also have Sun Ze, who made it into the provincial top 100? By comparison, I actually prefer Sun Ze."
As soon as he said that,
Sun Ze raised his head and chest and stepped forward with confidence. He greeted Mu Yutian respectfully. "Hello, Teacher Mu. I'm Sun Ze."
"Not bad. Archers are good at fighting alone, and they can also serve as the main physical damage dealer on a team. The fact that you can handle this class shows that your talent is very high," Mu Yutian said with a smile and a nod.
"It's not that high. My talent is only 90," Sun Ze said modestly.
Still, Mu Yutian's praise made him look rather proud.
The confidence Ling Zhan had crushed earlier seemed to spring back to life in that moment.
A person's talent level was actually an indication of how proficient they were in their class.
The higher their talent, the more proficient they were in that class.
They'd also find it easier to master that class's skills.
A student with high talent might need only two hours to learn and master a skill.
A student with low talent might need two or three days to learn the same skill.
Put simply, talent level was equivalent to potential.
Of course, that didn't mean that people with high talent were necessarily stronger. It meant they were more worth cultivating.
And it was easier to cultivate them into powerful experts.
"Sorry, something came up at home, so I'm late. Hello, teachers..."
Just then,
the door suddenly opened.
Su Rou entered, panting lightly.
Su Rou's arrival
made the male college students in the conference room focus their attention on her.
Su Rou wore light gray pants and a short-sleeved shirt with a wolf's head printed on it.
She looked youthful and lively, yet carried an air of toughness.
Most strikingly, her hair was tied into twin ponytails, and her pretty face was as rosy as an apple. All the boys there wanted to take a bite.
A beautiful junior!
"Hehe, let me introduce her. This is Su Rou, another one of my students. She received an SS-rank rating in this year's class-change trial."
Qi Mu of course hurried to introduce her to the admissions teachers.
"So she got an SS-rank rating..."
For a moment,
some of the Key Academy admissions teachers lost interest.
But the other first-rate academies were interested.
Just as the other first-rate academies were about to ask her some questions,
Mu Yutian once again spoke with an air of calm arrogance. "Student Su Rou, what class are you?"
"Teacher, I'm a female Assassin," Su Rou answered.
"And your talent level?"
"78."
"Not bad. You've got potential!"
Mu Yutian smiled. "You and Sun Ze are both promising students. You're a hundred times better than that Ling Zhan. Would you like to study at Huaqing Academy?"
As soon as he finished speaking,
the other teachers' expressions changed.
Damn.
Mu Yutian actually wanted to take both promising students away! What a shameless move.
"Come on, Mu. That's a bit much, isn't it? Student Su Rou, Haowu Academy is willing to give you a set of purple-quality starter gear and a B-rank skill book for female Assassins. How about studying with us?"
"Student Sun Ze, Tiandong Academy is willing to give you access to a B-rank resource realm, as well as a B+-rank skill book for Archers. Come to us."
"Enough. Tiandong Academy and Haowu Academy, haven't you two been at the bottom of the Academy League for the past few years? You may be Key Academies, but you can't even compete with first-rate academies. How dare you even speak?"
"If you ask me, you should choose Cangying Academy. We're willing to throw in two additional Level 20 purple-quality weapons on top of what they've already offered!"
For a moment, all the Key Academy teachers were fighting over Sun Ze and Su Rou.
As for Ling Zhan, the provincial trial champion, he seemed to have been completely abandoned.
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