Chapter 84 Plans (2)
The sun slowly set over the horizon, its rays of light buried behind the grey mystic clouds as evening dusk eventually took over the sky.
Over the Chapel of Cassia, Elias exited through the door and looked up at the sky in deep thought. His black, formal suit was blown away by the gust of wind.
Whoosh!
"Oh my, it seems we took our time talking. It's already about to get dark... do you perhaps want to stay with me for the night?"
Behind him, Celestia gracefully walked out of the door and stopped to stand beside him as she looked at him teasingly.
"I'd rather not."
Feeling not so amused, Elias shook his head. Celestia didn't take offense to his words and merely smiled in amusement.
"That's a pity then,"
"..."
Unsure if she was serious or not, Elias just decided to ignore her for the moment. It was no use trying to make sense of this woman.
Elias sighed and changed the topic.
"Before I go, I have to say... It was good talking business with you. I didn't think you of all people would make me say that."
"Hehe, don't be like that. It was also the best talk I had in my life. I feel like I took a big step to my goal, don't you also think so? I'd like to do it again next time too. But next time, let's not talk about just businness shall we?"
Celestia gave an unfathomable smile. It was hard to discern if she was being truthful or not, but there was some sincerity on her voice this time around.
But, Elias shook his head calmly. There's no clear answer when it comes to her.
If there's anything new he learned about Celestia through their time together this time — it was that she was as unpredictable and unfathomable as ever.
Elias was never a good judge of people, admittedly. And Celestia with her enigmatic and indecipherable nature was even more impossible for him to understand.
"I'll consider that offer. Despite your bothersome and irksome personality, you're a rather pleasant businness partner to have."
"It's amusing. You just can never be honest with your feelings. Why not just admit you find me attractive and also want to talk to me more? I find that side of yours cute."
"You know only half of that is true. Don't overestimate yourself. Screw off."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtElias callously replied, much to Celestia amusement. He didn't even want to get down that rabbit hole — who made the people in this world so beautiful anyways?
Oh right, him...
Anyway, there was no avoiding it. The women in this world were too attractive, above Earth's standards. But beauty was just pleasing to look at, more often or not they were sources of disaster.
Thinking about that, Elias discreetly looked at Celestia. But he discovered that Celestia had never moved her eyes away from him since earlier.
She was always watching him.
The Saintess looked at him with a haf-smile.
****
After bidding farewell to Celestia, Elias didn't have anymore matters for the day and decided to look for the 'house' the academy gave him.
He took out his Student ID Card and saw that it was filled with his information. There was an adress of an apartment written on it.
'X989 - Red and Blue Apartments... oh, this address seems familiar. This should be from the left side of the ranker society...'
Along with the student ID and some other benefits, the new students of Arcane Academy were also granted with a 'free place' to stay in upon their arrival in the Ranker Society.
This was called "Free House System" by the academy.
This type of system was established to give the students their own places or home to stay when classes were not up.
Aside from that, it was necessary because it would be a horrible look if they made their students homeless.
it was fine to make the students struggle for resources and opportunities, but making them homeless was too much, even for the academy staff.
Thus this free house system was implemented by the academy itself to prevent students from suffering too much.
However, it was worth noting that the apartments or houses given by the free house system were rather... low in quality, so to speak.
These free dorms or apartments were shared between 2 - 3 students and had some fair share of problems. If one was not willing to suffer through such problems, they could also buy their own house in the Ranker Society with academy credits.
There was a problem though — it was expensive.
'There's always two sides in a coin...'
Walking across the dim alleyways, Elias took a look at his Student ID card. He couldn't help but be slightly amazed by it.
Why? The Student ID Card was like a mini system. It contained his all of his information, down from his birth name to his specific attributes.
A few months ago, Elias mentioned that there was a 'system' in this world that was used by Rankers as a status screen to display information.
The Student ID Card was one of them.
[Name: Elias Corleone]
[Sex: M]
[Age: 17]
[Date of Birth: November 1, 2017]
[Academy Credits: 15,000]
***
[Talent: Indomitable Spirit]
[Rank: D+]
[Level: 39]
[STR: D+]
[AGI: D+]
[STA: D+]
[CONS: D+]
[INT: D]
[WIS: D]
[MAG: D]
[GROWTH: B]
'But these are not my true stats though...'
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmElias thought in amusement as he looked at his information in the Student ID Card. Unlike the detailed and true status display of his system — the Student ID Card only showed the information he personally submitted to the academy.
Althought the Student ID Card was great, it was not a perfect technology yet. There was room for manipulation of data and trickery in its information.
Elias did exactly that and made some discreet changes in his information. He lowered his status attributes and hid his talent.
He did this because he didn't want to openly show his talents and strength at the moment. For him, it was always best to remain low-key and keep some things hidden as a back up plan.
If anyone dared to use his Student ID Card as reference for his strength, they were bound to be up for a rude awakening later on.
'But some people already know though, tsk...'
If it was not for the system issuing him a mission to kill Garuda, he wouldn't had chosen to show his strength to the main characters, and especially to that Felix.
That way, he would still be unknown and have a significant advantage in a fight as an underdog if he ever came in odds against the main characters.
'But there's no use crying over spilled milk. Besides, having the main characters as allies are better than having them as potential enemy...'
Elias shook his head. By saving them, he was incurring favor with them and thus made them allies for the foreseeable future.
However, going back to the Student ID Card data manipulation, just as there was a benefit to it — there was also a disadvantage to doing this.
For example, it limited his opportunies in the academy.
The Student ID Card was also known as the student's ranker resume. If students wanted to join clubs or enter the academy dungeons, they would need to have a sufficient resume accompanied with them.
Clubs would not want weak students.
Similarly, the academy cannot put the students in danger by allowing them to the dungeons with their limited strength. They would only allow students with sufficient resume.
Thus having a great Student ID Card resume was essential to getting more opportunities in the academy. It was the goal of every student to raise their resume in the Student ID Card.
Thus, what Elias did could be considered illogical and foolish.
But even though he said all that, Elias current Student ID Card resume could be considered above average already. If he were to apply to any clubs, they would certainly accept him, bar from specialized clubs.
"In a similar fashion, anyone could also fradulently raise their resume status. But the consenquences of being found out of doing that is more or less... life ending for the ranker."
If someone instead of lowering, raised their status resume with fraudulent intentions, they could just say goodbye to their career.
In contrast, what he was doing was not as bad.
After a while of walking, Elias finally arrived at his own apartment. It was rather small, if he were to give a review about it.
But nonetheless, it was alright. He had come from a poor househould in his past life so he was used to having low-quality living conditions.
"Oh wait, I remember now why this apartment is so familiar...!"