176 The Contract
“Two A-Ranks, two S-Ranks, and even the only SS-Rank applicant, it seems my VSFA will be getting five new monsters in this year’s freshman class.” Headmaster Rivia said in a gruff voice.
But this joy was short-lived, as a sudden 6g of killing intent bore down directly on two individuals, Cynrik and Brance, its source, Viktor and Lithlen.
At that moment, the two brothers who had turned to a side profile to speak with Headmaster Rivia slowly turned only their heads to face the two aggressors. Completely unaffected by the 6g of pressure weighing down on their bodies, Cynrik tossed Lithlen and Viktor a smug grin while Brance wore a passive expression.
Due to the pinpoint accuracy of the two High Tier Beings, no one except the other Headmasters was aware of what was happening at that moment, but when Viktor and Lithlen saw the unrestrained posture of the two boys, they felt their hearts shake.
This was 6g, a level of pressure that should have leveled the young boys to the ground instantly, but it seemed absolutely useless against them, to their surprise. Feeling they were already pushing the limits with their aggression and realizing it was useless, the two adults admitted silent defeat and went about calling more applicants.
However, the two Headmasters swore there would be severe consequences for going against them, especially in the case of Lithlen, who was utterly infuriated by being thwarted by two bastard kids with his blood flowing through their veins.
In spite of his initial shock that two children he thought were cripples showed a level of aptitude that none of the other children in his Jetlensr family displayed, when Cynrik and Brance, who were using fake names, were included in this year’s selections, Lithlen felt an overwhelming sense of pride and greed.
If he could secure these two brats in his camp and force them to join the institute under his control, he would initiate a slow-burn effect, drawing them into the family they belonged. He never believed they would go against him in a million years and instantly choose a competitive Academy that held significantly less prestige than his own.
It was a massive blow to his ego, but seeing them blatantly be insubordinate in front of such a large audience due to the cameras filming the event, he nearly blew his top then and there, thus his Killing Intent attack.
Seeing that things had cooled down, and Lithlen had gone back to calling up more applicants, the other three Headmasters narrowed their eyes momentarily before separating slightly from the pack and moving their applicants along with them for further discussions.
Across the field, with the assault finished, Cynrik scoffed loudly before turning to face the slackjawed Geralt impersonator.
“You two, what, huh, the fuck was that just now.” Utterly stunned by how effortlessly the two young boys had dealt with a usually crippling amount of Killing Intent pressure, Headmaster Rivia could do nothing but stare at Cynrik and Brance for a solid minute.
Initially, when he noticed the actions of the shameless Headmasters, he was ready to step in and deflect the Killing Intent onto himself, but when Geralt saw the two boys seemed fine, he stood back and watched.
“Sorry about that, Headmaster Rivia; some people can’t handle loss well. But, luckily for my little brother and me, we have trained extensively in high-gravity environments for just that kind of scenario.” Acting as harmless and unconcerned as possible, Cynrik walked closer to the beefy man with his hands in his pockets. Behind him, like little ducklings, were the other members of MyrkLys, who, Brance aside, had no clue what had just occurred. To them, it looked like Cynrik and Brance had paused mid-sentence to look behind them before going about with what they were doing.
“HAHA, no problem at all; let’s move away from the group to the edge of the Barrier since you requested privacy. This space is relatively large, so no one should be able to eavesdrop on us. If that isn’t enough, I have a silencing device I can drop to give us absolute privacy away from prying ears and eyes.” Then, taking charge and leading the group away, Headmaster Rivia began babbling about his Academy as they walked.
The more he spoke, the more flaws in his character Cynrik noticed. Unlike the original Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher series, who was always stoic and didn’t talk much, this guy seemed to enjoy hearing himself talk, and the more he did, the harder he broke Cynrik’s immersion.
After walking a short distance away, Headmaster Rivia pulled a small orange puck from his pocket, tapped a button in the center, and dropped it on the ground. In doing this, a thin transparent bubble covered the entire group, cutting them off from the outside world.
Next, he waved his hand and withdrew a simple table and some chairs from his inventory before motioning to everyone for them to sit. But to his surprise, only Cynrik sat down directly across from him, leaving the remaining party members standing like bodyguards behind him, giving off an air of authority.
Selene had gone to sit down as well, but Brance tapped her wrist, causing her to look back and see everyone standing orderly in place, so she joined them without arguing.
All this made Headmaster Rivia raise an eyebrow, but in the end, he simply nodded. This display was only fleetingly attractive to him as he pulled out three different stacks of paper and placed them on the table orderly.
“Now then, I have three basic contracts, one for A-Ranks, one for S-Ranks, and lastly, the one for SS-Rank. So naturally, as soon as we learned that there would be more than one S-Rank and a fabled SS-Rank, all the Headmasters, including myself, scrambled to develop the best proposals we could before submitting them to our Accounting and Legal Departments.” As the Headmaster spoke, Cynrik picked up the A-Rank contract and quickly scanned every page before moving on to the other two.
His insane memory, partnered with his INT and MIND stats, allowed him to speed read and memorize the entire contents of each contract in no time at all.
“It was a bit of a stretch. But, while we aren’t as rich as some other Academies, I can proudly say that we at VSFA have extensive teaching staff and top-of-the-line facilities.” Headmaster Rivia spoke with confidence as he watched Cynrik shuffle through each contract page by page without saying a word.
When he finished going through each one and placing them back down on the table where he found them, Cynrik exhaled calmly before he closed his eyes to think.
Putting aside the S and SS-Ranked contracts, the terms for Gabby and Benny were a bit lacking but were still far above what he had planned. All three agreements had full scholarships for all six years, housing, food, book, and uniform expenses, and there was even a monthly allowance in what the contracts stated were “Merit Points.” These points took the place of credits and held a monetary value similar to what you would expect from Skill Points 1 Merit Point was about 1500 credits.
According to the A-Rank agreement, each applicant would receive a corresponding EVO stone for their first Evolution after signing. Up next was a monthly allowance of 25 Merits, S-Rank came with 50, and the SS-Rank boasted 100 Merit Points. More importantly, this was given on the first day of every month. In addition, students were able to earn additional points for Academic success, placing in the top 3 in school events or exams. Apparently, there was a mission hall where you could choose to do everything from chores to kill quests to earn more points. On top of all this, each contract had a signing bonus of 250, 500, and 750.
Merit Points could be spent any numerous ways, from better food to equipment, all the way to training resources. But, to Cynrik, it was all pretty standard compared to novels and anime. So after finding out the amount of currency being offered, he ignored the long-winded paragraphs detailing their use for now and hopped to actual benefits.
The important part was that Gabby and Benny would receive very little additional support, aside from a single EVO stone for the Tier-2 Evolution, receiving paid tuition, housing, food, and a small sum of currency. For ordinary people, this alone would have been outstanding. Living on campus free and being fed three meals a day on top of learning material expenses were what the low-income would dream of, but for Cynrik, who had extensive plans for his party’s future, these little handouts simply weren’t enough.
Setting aside Gabby and Benny’s contract, there was a significant jump in favoritism regarding Selene and Brance, not to mention Cynrik, who had the most perks out of the group. The paper stated that they would have the opportunity to purchase items from the school store at a discounted rate, 15% for S-Rank and 25% for SS.
The next benefit was unlimited access to all paid training facilities at a heavily reduced cost. This alone showed quite a bit of sincerity on the Academy’s end. In addition, it was explained that depending on their grade and Tier; students would have time-restricted access to certain facilities such as the gravity room or meditation rooms.
Up next was a perk for only Cynrik, every time he was ready to Evolve, he would be given all the materials necessary for absolutely free, unlike Selene and Brance, who would receive them for half off.
Another shared perk was the ability to request access to the school-owned Egresses, the main issue being the limit on how many times a semester they could be used. So once again, Cynrik got a beefier handout and had double the opportunities to dive into these Egresses.
Running everything through his mind, Cynrik built his own counter-proposal in silence with his chin resting on his hands. Overall, the terms for the “O-Squad,” as he nicknamed himself, Brance and Selene, weren’t bad, but since he wasn’t only in this for himself and Brance, he knew the contracts as they were, wouldn’t do.
With that in mind, Cynrik exhaled slowly through his nose, straightened his back, and looked the Headmaster in the eyes with a determined expression.
“Alright, let’s make a deal.” Putting on his best professional businessman voice, Cynrik opened the floor for negotiations to begin. Behind him, Brance had to catch the wrist of his right hand with his left to force himself not to facepalm. Cynrik was clearly emulating what he saw on a TV show again.
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