Wizard? God? Elementalist? Thaumaturgist? Arcanist? Locke looked at the abstruse terms in the book blankly as if he had broadened his horizons. He’d also noticed that the author of this article referred to his location as a plane rather than in a kingdom or a continent.

Plane? What exactly was that? It was difficult for him to guess the real meaning of the word by just looking at the literal meaning of it. He decided to borrow it to study it with Angelina later on. Borrowing books required a lot of points. As Locke only had about a thousand, he wasn’t sure if it was enough.

“This book?” A middle-aged female librarian looked at the book that Locke had just given to her in surprise.

“I wasn’t expecting you to find this magazine that was published hundreds of years ago.” The librarian seemed to be no stranger to the book.

Locke kept quiet as he didn’t know what to reply. He’d never heard of a magazine before.

“800 points. Please return it in a month.” She raised her hand and imprinted a magic stamp on the book. It seemed like she was a high-rank Lehrling.

“Okay.” Locke handed his scoreboard over painfully. He initially had more than a thousand points, but it was now reduced by more than half in an instant.

He wasn’t in a hurry to return home in the afternoon. Angelina was still doing her experiments, so he wasn’t sure what time she would return. He then decided to go to Kristin and Suzanne’s school to pick them up first.

“Locke!” Kristin ignored the strange gazes from the others in the academy and rushed into his arms.

“Where are Lia, Suzanne and the others?” he asked while caressing her head.

“Suzanne is in economics class and Lia is in math class.” Kristin had always addressed Glace as her aunt, but she addressed Lia and Suzanne by name as sisters would although they were around the same age as Glace. It was quite confusing.

Their academy was considered to be a well-known women’s academy in Princeton. The area of the campus was as big as Princeton Academy’s and the buildings were quite spaced out from each other. Locke was too lazy to look for Lia and Suzanne building by building, so he just sat at the entrance and waited for them to come out.

Princeton’s architectural technology was way better than Faustian’s. He’d never seen a building with more than four stories in Felor, but it was very rare to see buildings with fewer than three stories in Princeton’s noble districts.

He laid down on the stairs of one such building and basked in the sun. Kristin laid next to Locke like a well-behaved kitten and enjoyed spending this moment with him.

It was about the time when some students' classes ended, so quite a few of them were walking around. A lot of them were gossiping about Locke and Kristin as they walked past them. Although Locke’s body was relaxed, he’d been paying attention to his surroundings.

“Why are you here?” Laffey was in a knight’s uniform with iron boots and armed with a longsword.

“I’m here to pick you girls up.” Locke sat upright so that he could take a look at Laffey’s outfit properly. This maid sure looks good in a military uniform.

Laffey had been dragged into the academy by Glace and was currently taking the knight courses. After studying and training for a month in the academy, she wasn’t as childish as before and now gave off the aura of a heroine.

Locke still had some strengthening potions with him. He planned to give her some in the future so that she could advance to a low-rank Knecht. He wasn’t actually poor; he could sell some of his precious potions that he’d brought along from Faustian and to get out of the predicament that he was in, but he wasn’t desperate enough to do so yet. The potions were usually so precious that they couldn’t be bought with money. Locke would rather ask Glace or Angelina for money than to sell them.

After picking them up, he returned to the mansion by carriage. Glace also took several subjects in the academy, but she wasn’t a full-time student like Suzanne and Kristin. She wasn’t young after all, and there were few things she could choose to study that she didn't know already.

“Wizards?” Angelina looked at the magazine that Locke had just handed to her and flipped through it curiously. He’d only read the first article in the magazine so far.

“You don’t need to know too much about these right now,” said Angelina after skimming through the magazine. “Even I haven’t come into contact with a lot of things that were mentioned in the magazine, let you. Perhaps you’ll learn more about these when you’ve advanced to a high-rank Knecht and join the Hall of Knights."

After listening to her explanation, he realised that no matter whether it was in Aomar, Faustian, or other kingdoms in the continent, the high rank was the upheld standard. Only high-rank Knechts would be accepted by the Hall of Knights. This meant that he had to reach that rank in order to find out about the true nature of their world.

It was different for the casters, who just need to become a mid-rank Lehrling to have the opportunity to study in the Sanctum. Even some gifted low-rank Lehrlings would be valued by the Sanctum.

After studying for several months in the caster’s faculty, Angelina had obviously been inundated into deeper knowledge. They’d paid a visit to Angelina’s legendary grandmaster, who was a Magister, two months ago. He happened to be a teacher in the caster’s faculty, but it was just a nominal position and he didn’t really teach anyone there.

The tutors who currently taught beginner-rank Lehrlings like Angelina were mostly mid to high-rank Lehrlings. In a sense, they could be considered as their senior students, although they were a little old. Locke had seen a lot of casters before, and they were mostly old people with grey hair. Other than Angelina and her classmates, there were very few middle-aged and young casters.

“Everyone is stuck at the rank of a mid-rank Lehrling.” Angelina sighed. Casters also had bottlenecks when it came to advancement, just like how knights reached a plateau before becoming a high-rank Knecht. Every low-rank Lehrling had to overcome the wall of advancing to the mid rank.

The grandmaster had promised to recommend Angelina to the Sanctum to allow her to study thereafter she became a mid-rank Lehrling. Locke must also become a high-rank Knecht by then so that they could stay together. As he had accompanied her on the visit, he knew exactly how much more he needed to accomplish in order to achieve that goal. Both of them only had five years left before then. The grandmaster’s vocational teaching task would end after that and he would have to return to the Sanctum.

He really needed to improve his strength as soon as possible. Fortunately, he had enough potions and he only needed to learn the deeper theories applicable knowledge in the academy. When he had a more solid foundation, only then he could advance to a mid-rank Knecht.

Two months later, Locke was already halfway through the ten knight courses he’d signed up for. He had an average aptitude and he ranked average among his classmates in most of his courses. He only performed better in the combat training thanks to being a battle-hardened soldier. All in all, his overall ranking still ranked pretty high, much to others' surprise.

Those who were unconvinced by Locke’s abilities challenged him to a duel. He initially didn’t want the trouble, but there were always people who tried to provoke him. Locke, who was used to getting things done straight away, finally couldn’t stand them anymore and he taught all of them a huge lesson.

A student’s ranking was very important in the academy as it represented their future potential. Potential employers always looked over their overall rankings first before choosing to hire or not.

Locke would definitely not stay at Princeton after graduation and probably return to Faustian or follow Angelina to the Sanctum. Though, he would like a chance to explore the world by himself for a few years after graduating.

The more he learned, the more he realised how insignificant he was. It was as if the more he learned in the academy, the more he knew what he didn't know. Locke wanted to explore the true nature of the world, just like how he followed his father’s footsteps to explore the mysterious and barren mountain when he was a child.