The Academy's Time Looper-Chapter 56: Achievements

As the mana contract disintegrated, parts of it leaked onto the floor, lighting up the room a dark purple.

Seeing purple sparks, remnants of the contract, sparkling on the floor, slowly disappearing with each fleeting second, Caldris’s eyes glowed with curiosity.

On the other hand, Athen had an enormous smile as he carefully placed the gold ring on his index finger.

His ego...was the most trustworthy thing in the entire world!

If Athen had simply run away, not revealing his purple mana to the professor, instead of continuing to fight, then he would have been screwed.

When he inevitably displayed his purple mana in public, he would have been clueless and bombarded by questions by all the normal people.

However, Athen was still somewhat curious.

The professor reacted rather seriously, even forgetting the entire professor exam, when he saw his purple mana.

Not daring to question the teacher, Athen reevaluated his opinion of Caldris as he stared at the divine blue mana hovering around the professor’s body.

Why did Athen only have purple mana?

And why was the teacher telling him to ask Kai’s father for more information?

"..."

Then, suddenly, the exact same grim expression Caldris was wearing appeared on Athen’s face.

A secret...about mana, involving the grand duke.

He had just assumed that his mana was purple because it had combined with the blood leaking out of his wound.

Blue and red make purple simple, right?

But...was it something else...far more complex and dangerous?

Shifting his gaze downward, Athen looked at his arm, which was still somewhat red from the blood, and his wound.

The arrow’s metal tip was quite sharp, so the wound was very deep; however, it was also quite small, making it easy to hide.

His entire right hand was still shaking and somewhat numb, but it wasn’t at all the worst pain Athen had experienced.

Since it was quite hot outside, Athen had tucked up the leaves of his blazer, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway as the blazer was crimson-red like blood.

Blood also can’t stain skin as, just like water, it can’t penetrate the outer skin cells, so no one would notice anything on his walk back to the dorm.

Realizing that his blood supply might have already run out, Athen decided to test out his new ring while he was isolated here with Caldris.

Closing his eyes, he once again concentrated on his heart, focusing on the movement of blood in and out of the organ.

However, when the blood particle he was following reached the wound, Athen didn’t feel the weird sensation of something else there.

Snapping Athen out of his trance, a sudden voice sounded from right in front of him.

"You’re out of mana."

Immediately opening his eyes, Athen spotted Professor Caldris waiting in front of him with the envelope in his right hand.

The teacher was looking away with an emotionless expression while extending the letter with his right hand toward Athen.

"...nope, still a cocky bastard."

While reaching his hand to take the envelope from the teacher, Athen couldn’t help but mutter.

"That’s it..?"

The whole sequence of events where he had taken down Caldris and broke through two layers of mana protection was cool and all... but it had lasted less than ten seconds in the real world.

Sure, Athen had been able to extend that period by using his ability here, but that was because he believed there would be no repercussions.

In the real world...was he only going to be able to use mana for a measly...10 seconds?

Yet, as his hand touched the clean and smooth surface of Caldris’s envelope, his complaints suddenly disappeared.

What the hell was he talking about?

This day was meant to be useless!

Besides scouting, nothing was supposed to be achieved today.

However, he had not only learned how to both sense and control mana, even if it was very rudimentary, but also received a teacher’s letter of approval!

As for the secret of his purple mana...Athen was just going to ignore it.

From today on, with Caldris’s ring on his finger, he was going to be a very normal blue-mana user.

Even Kai couldn’t know about this, especially since his father seemed to be involved.

As Athen grabbed the letter and pulled it towards his chest, Caldris suddenly flicked his wand upward, causing both his mana sword, which was by the wall he had been thrown into, and the mana surrounding his body to disappear.

After glancing at his gold watch for a couple of seconds, the teacher then said.

"We’ll go back now. I assume you’re exhausted and don’t want to be bombarded by questions, so I suggest you leave as soon as we arrive."

Within seconds, the space around them suddenly began to distort as the walls of the hall were torn apart and replaced by the vibrant scenery of the academy’s plaza.

"Do you think he passed!?"

"Oh, they’re back; what’d you think happened? Another fail from the bastard teacher?"

As those whispers quickly entered his ears, Athen immediately glanced down at his uniform.

Yet, all the dust that had been on his clothes a moment ago, when he had been in the hallway, was nowhere to be seen.

Although Athen was all smiles on the outside due to everything he had achieved in the last twenty minutes, the slight worry of his ability usage giving him a repercussion was still creeping around in his mind.

But...it was a good sign that his uniform and everything else was back to how it had been before he had started Caldris’s approval test.

Even the crossbow arrows that he had fired off during the fight were sitting in his briefcase like nothing had ever happened.

Clutching the letter and picking up his briefcase, Athen simply walked past the students who were whispering from afar.

There was no point in hiding the letter.

If one failed an approval test, a gigantic "X" would be placed on their chest; however, Athen did not have one.

As the people around glanced at his chest with confused expressions, Athen was already halfway out of the plaza.

Halting for a moment, despite the countless eyes on him, Athen glanced back at the stage, a smile immediately appearing on his face.

"Looks like I’m not the only one getting things done."

[Current Artificial Environment Score]

1. Ren

2. Zoe

3. Alya