Chapter 339 - 311: They’re Not Talking About Us, Are They?

Chapter 339: Chapter 311: They’re Not Talking About Us, Are They?

This was the Dean’s office at Mizkatoke, which also served as the academy’s most prestigious dueling ground. The Dean personally refereed and supervised every single duel that took place here.

Most of the time, however, the people who came here to duel were looking to resolve academic disputes with the referee himself...

Therefore, the number of times the Dean simply watched from the sidelines as a referee was far lower than the number of times he personally participated.

............

"Hm? What’s going on here?"

Lloyd was wandering around, organizing the knowledge he had learned that day. When lunchtime rolled around, he headed back to his luxurious dorm to make lunch for himself and the little kitten.

But upon his return, he saw the little kitten squatting by the roadside, waving its fluffy little paws as if bidding farewell to someone.

Across from it was a roly-poly Little Fragrant Pig. It was clean and white, covered in a coat of fine fuzz, and looked quite delectable.

The Little Fragrant Pig bobbed its head at the kitten before rolling away like a ball and disappearing into the dormitory that Lloyd was so wary of—the one with all sorts of dangerous plants in its yard.

’Is that Little Fragrant Pig meant to be food for those plants?’

Lloyd grumbled to himself before turning to the kitten and asking:

"Made a new friend?"

"MEOW MEOW MEOW!"

The kitten practically danced for him, looking overjoyed.

"That’s good. It’s wonderful that you can make new friends. I was a little worried you’d get lonely."

Lloyd smiled, scooped up the kitten, and gave it a good scratch before heading inside to make their meal.

He warmed up a bowl of goat’s milk for the kitten, tossing in a few dried fish. For himself, he just whipped up some fried rice and called it a day.

’Cooking for one is so much easier.’

Afterward, Lloyd flopped onto the sofa, shifting until he found the most comfortable position possible. Then, he took the thick tomes Professor Lawrence had given him out of his Storage Bag.

’I have nothing else to do this afternoon, so I might as well continue studying the fundamentals of Space.’

’In a place like Mizkatoke, with its liberal academic style, you really have to rely on yourself.’

With the help of the bracelet, Lloyd entered the state of ’Self-forgetfulness’ even more smoothly than before and began to study tirelessly.

This time, however, he didn’t go for a full twelve hours. Instead, he set an alarm beforehand and was woken up at 9 p.m., pulling him out of the state of ’Self-forgetfulness’.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of Spiritual Contamination; he just didn’t want to get an earful from Professor Hazled. He also didn’t want to end up with cervical spondylosis or a herniated lumbar disc at such a young age.

Fortunately, he had been lying down today, so the side effects were much milder than yesterday’s.

"HISS... Ouch, ouch, my neck... my shoulders..."

Lloyd sat up from the sofa, rubbing his neck and rolling his shoulders. He did a few simple exercises before checking the results of his afternoon study session.

Although he had studied for two hours less than yesterday, his progress hadn’t slowed. He had still managed to chew through another third of the material.

’Space System knowledge is just so difficult. With the same amount of time and focus, I could have finished three regular library books...’

He’d gained quite a few fragments, but [Spatial Domination] still hadn’t leveled up.

Lloyd had a feeling this would be the most difficult skill to level up.

His Madness Value gains were also lower. Because he studied for two fewer hours, it had only increased by three levels.

’It seems this Spiritual Contamination, whatever its source, isn’t something I can easily adapt to. At least, I haven’t seen any signs of it diminishing yet.’

Lloyd mulled it over for a moment, then decided to allocate his points first.

’A balanced build is best. Five points each into [Rationality], [Spiritual Power], and [Cognition]. Let’s do it!’

[Ding! Point allocation complete.]

[User: Lloyd]

[Status: Normal]

[Madness Value: 333/10,000, Max: 29,500]

[Rationality: 295]

[Spiritual Power: 295]

[Inspiration: 150]

[Cognition: 295]

[Systems: Twist LV4, Veto LV3, Manifestation System Enlightenment available]

Just as he finished his exercises and felt his energy return, he headed to the kitchen to make a simple dinner for himself and the kitten.

’Well, that’s enough hard work for one day. Now, it’s time to check the message board.’

Lloyd eagerly opened his student handbook, navigated to the news section of the message board, and first checked out the day’s "school paper."

The very first thing he saw was a rather significant announcement:

’Huh? The new school year is starting early?’

Lloyd took a closer look and saw it wasn’t a student-written news article, but an official notice from the academy.

It stated that freshman enrollment would begin early. However, this wouldn’t affect the schedules for first-year students and above, who would remain on their normal vacation. Their classes would still start in two months. This change was only to allow freshmen to arrive and begin their courses ahead of time.

Of course, for the slackers who had been here long enough but hadn’t passed a single subject or acquired a single etching, it meant their vacation was over.

They would have to pay their tuition early...

And so, the comment section below the notice was, predictably, filled with cries of misery:

"Why is it suddenly starting early? I haven’t figured out how to pay this year’s tuition yet!"

"Can any kind Senior lend me some money? I really can’t scrape it together, but I’m not ready to drop out just like that. I was only two points off on my last exam..."

"Is the academy short on cash again? The last few times the school year started early, it was because they were broke."

"Sigh... Starting early is one thing, but I’m terrified they’re going to raise the tuition... I’ve already been fooling around here for three years, and I’m still considered a freshman. If this keeps up, my family won’t be able to afford it anymore, and they’ll make me go home to inherit the family business."

"All of you complaining about the tuition, did you not join any projects during the break? Even if you don’t take the assessments, you can still raise your evaluation and earn credits by participating in various research projects, can’t you? How can you not afford tuition if you have credits to offset the cost?"

"Heh, you’re really something else... Don’t you know this damn place has always discriminated against us in the arts department? We try to join projects, but no team will take us."

"They discriminate against underachievers, too. I tried signing up for a few projects, but as soon as they saw my ’D’ rating, they turned me down flat. It’s a good thing I can still afford the ’D’ rating tuition, otherwise I’d have to rely on my good looks and charm to earn the money."

"Hm? Good looks? Let’s see just how good-looking we’re talking about."

Lloyd skimmed the comments and noticed that the people reacting most strongly were all slackers and underachievers. Hardly any of the upperclassmen were chiming in.

’Looks like everyone feels pretty sorry for these students...’

Of course, Lloyd wasn’t about to kick them while they were down just to feel superior. As a cultured young man who’d had the benefit of a higher education, that wasn’t something he would do.

He was just curious about the academy’s admission standards.

’Dandy mentioned before that the Dean seems to make all the decisions alone. Is there really no pattern or standard?’

’Don’t tell me he picks the talented with one hand and the rich with the other?’

Pondering this, Lloyd switched over to the ’Story Section’. He wanted to see if the story he posted yesterday had caused any kind of cultural shock.

The result? Not a single reply.

’It’s possible no one even read it...’

’Maybe it’s just too ahead of its time?’

’Good thing I was just reposting someone else’s work for a bit of fun...’

Lloyd smiled. He didn’t really mind, nor did he give up. He went ahead and posted the second Chapter from memory, then went to browse other people’s stories.

The most popular story today, the one with the most replies, was titled:

I Personally Saw the Tower in the Corner

The post described, in a ’witness to a legend’ sort of tone, a mysterious tower that had suddenly appeared in a corner of the Extraordinary District. It detailed how bizarre and frightening it was and launched into a series of associations that were "chilling the more you thought about them."

As Lloyd read on, he couldn’t help but wonder to himself in a low voice:

"They aren’t describing the tower for our Twisted System, are they?"