Chapter 260: The New King
Chapter 260: The New King
Jim stood in the middle of his masters while watching the arrogant dean extending his left hand to touch the pillar.
The moment he did so the hand got enveloped with the silver light from the pillar before retreating.
And there he got a missing finger from his hand.
"Small price indeed," the dean sneered.
"Good to know you still got a good hearing," Igory said before laughing, "next time I won't curse you loudly or mention your missing... finger."
The dean harrumphed and didn't speak again while the other hand kept moving the scepter in a circle.
"Rumble!"
It didn't pass long before the pillar shook and the screen up above started to change.
"This is the first monster I killed, it was in a river," Jim recognized the images being presented in the window and showing off the brutal fight he had in the river.
Then the images changed and showed him fighting the monster in the pet and killing it. Then the images kept shifting and strangely the monsters just kept increasing in number and ferocity.
It was like the images were arranged from the weakest to the strongest. However everyone here knew that the images were arranged according to the time of happening.
And that in itself was something remarkable.
"Wow, he truely fought a queen monster..."
When the time came for the last monster fight, the images showed him fighting that lizard monster.
And he heard many whispers coming from everywhere around.
"He couldn't kill it alone," the dean said in an arrogant way, "he will have some help."
But as the images kept playing, everyone saw how he managed to stand all alone, face the lizard monster and kill it alongside other shadow monsters.
And the next image that played had a deeper impact over everyone.
"An... ancient monster?!" many asked in doubt while Mark, Rana, and Igory exchanged silent glances.
"Why do you seem surprised?" Jim noticed their weird reaction and asked.
"You weren't injured by a queen monster?" Mark asked and that question made Jim realize what Hector did.
He lied, and it was obviously to protect him.
"It wasn't," Jim slowly said as he pointed to the window above, "it was that monster."
"No one can face and kill such a monster," the dean said in surprise.
The three masters around him moved a step forward while Igory sneered.
"We'll see about that," he said, "our boy here can do anything impossible it seems."
"We'll see," the dean then turned his head to the images up above. The images showed a brief summary of the fight against the ancient monster, Hector getting poisoned, the brutal fight against it, and finally Jim killing it.
"Amazing," even Igory was surprised by such a result, "how did you do it?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Jim asked.
"No, the spells used can't be known from such low quality recording," Mark turned to the window above which showed something new.
"One ancient monster core alone equals one hundred thousand points."
That's what was written up there. Then the writings changed.
"As the highest score I can allow to show is one hundred thousand points then I couldn't give the disciple the appropriate score he deserves."
"Hahaha," Rana couldn't help but laugh, "that serves you right."
"You asked for a cheat and we got back a recompunsation, that's hilarious!" Igory laughed in mockery while Mark only kept his smile and the doubtful gazes at Jim.
"That's..." the dean couldn't continue his words as he was about to accuse Jim of cheating. However he realized he was now on the altar and he might get more punishment from it if he continued his words.
"How did you do it?" the dean asked in a strong tone that didn't seem fit to the current humiliation he was feeling.
"None of your business," yet the calm and firm answer of Jim came to make his face change again.
"Now our boy is the king of the entire academy," Mark suddenly said while pointing at Jim, "I now ask for the crown to be placed on his head."
"That's..." the dean seemed not to be accepting such a result.
"What?" Mark slowly asked, "if you have any more doubts then we can ask the judge.
The dean moved his eyes towards the altar around. "We haven't finished yet to have the coronation ceremony," the dean slowly said while gritting his teeth with each letter.
"That's fair," Mark smiled before turning around, "we'll stand on that side, hopefully the rest won't take long."
The group of masters moved and the war about erupting here ceased to exist by the retreat of everyone else.
The dean's masters returned to the altar side, while Mark's masters went with him to stand on one side.
And now what remained was only a bunch of disciples who wouldn't be able to crush the amazing record of Jim.
"Great work," Rana said the moment everything settled down and the assessment was resumed again.
"Thanks coach," Jim slowly said while noticing the prideful eyes of her.
"What did you use to kill such a monster?" Igory asked again. "You know it's not that easy to find one of those monsters these days, regardless of killing them."
"Well," Jim smiled and showed a fake hesitation and struggle, "I used luck to kill it."
"Your Season pet? I doubt that!" Igory instantly said.
"What's all this king thing about?" Jim tried to shift the topic.
"Changing the topic? Smart and not," Igory smirked, "smart kid, I'm going to teach you for the next ten years... how will you evade me all this time? Huh?"
"Hahaha," Mark came at last and patted on Igory's shoulder, "it's not the time to speak about this. Besides..." he glanced around, "we aren't alone y'know."
"I just wanted to brag with that spell a first year kid used to crush his mighty ancient monster," Igory evilly said.
"Despite the spells used, the fact that a first year disciple belonging to the inner campus managed to kill his lovable pet is impressive in itself."
"A... pet?" Jim slowly asked while feeling a sudden threat.
"It's a known fact that he had an ancient monster as a pet," Igory said as if it was nothing, "he is crazy, right? And everyone is saying I'm the mad dragon, humph."
"Don't worry Jim," Rana noticed what Igory didn't as usual, "he can't come at you as long as you are inside the academy."
Jim turned his eyes towards the direction of the forest and his mind retrieved a series of images and memories of what happened there. "As long as I'm not under his mercy," he muttered.
"About the king," Mark shifted the topic this time, "it's an honorable position that holds few responsibilities and a great glory and fame."
"Responsibilities?" Jim noticed this and asked in doubt.
"They aren't that much," Rana said with a chuckle, "y'know... just to patrol the academy and lead some armies to exterminate some rogue thieves around... things like these."
"Oh..." Jim nodded in understanding.
"The list of the responsibilities are always present at the stele," Mark said, "but as far as I can remember, no one cared about these responsibilities or claiming the king to do them since a long time ago."
"I bet he won't let me off easily," Jim said while motioning his head towards the flying in the air dean.
"Yeah," Igory nodded in agreement, "I bet he might even put more tasks there."
"We can always help," Rana said in a prideful tone, "the king is a representative of the entire campus, and he has the right to call forth any master to help him from his campus."
"Really?" Jim hurriedly asked as this would solve a lot of problems for him.
"Yeah," Mark said, "if we are going to play by the rules, then we should play entirely as the book says."
Jim felt more warmth before Igory winked in a weird way.
"But compared to the responsibilities, the privileges given to the king are very rich."
"Hahaha," Rana hit the mad dragon with her elbow to silence him, "don't listen to everything he says."
"What? He can have all the fun he wants," Igory turned to Mark asking for his support.
"That... was something put for the older disciples to enjoy," Mark slowly said as he decided to stand beside Rana here. "It's a rule of thumb that kings would only come from the last two grades in the academy, mostly from the core campus."
"That's why many loose things were placed there," Rana crossed her arms.
"But they are still viable for him to use," Igory persisted.
"Such acts will damage him more than bring any benefits," Mark firmly said, "I believe we shall filter the privilege list before giving it to him."
"He is here by the way," Igory pointed at Jim, "we can hear his opinion."
"No, it's best if we handled this without any interference," Mark decisively said.
"And here goes all the fun," Igory said in a fake regretful tone, but Jim knew that statement from Mark wouldn't stop the mad dragon.
He would hear all the long list of privileges from that dragon sooner or later.