Death Mage with an SS-Rank Talent-Chapter 109

"Since the first three are predetermined, now it is time to choose the item and skill", Peter stopped speaking and looked at Aaron, who was surprised after hearing the generous rewards given out by the academy.

"Ah, you seem surprised by these rewards", Peter chuckled, looking at Aaron’s surprised face.

Aaron nodded, "Though the academy didn’t reveal the exact rewards for the top ten, I didn’t think that the academy would give out so much", he said in surprise.

There was no need for the academy to give out so much. Once the students graduate, there is no guarantee that they will stand by the side of the academy or the human society. There are many talents who betrayed humans seeking more for themselves.

Even if they believe that the talents might not betray the human society, it was just the start of the year. There are still many months in the first year. Many talents can be unearthed as time goes on, maybe even better than the ones that shone at the start.

Many who shone brightly at the start dimmed later on. This happened many times, and it is true for the reverse, too, where someone who appeared to be lower talent shined later in life and became important, but there is nothing one can do about that.

Neither the alliance nor the academies can place their bets on everyone hoping that they will shine later in life. They can only support the ones that shine at the moment.

If anyone shows talent later on, academies would start investing in them. There is not much partiality nowadays in the alliance decisions as it used to be in the past.

The alliance learned its lessons so many times, which made it possible to be less partial. Academies take the same path as the Alliance took.

---

"Haha", Peter laughed, "This does not cost much to the academy".

"This is an open secret, but no one talks about it. You know, the rule of using credits for everything in the academy, that was introduced because of freeloaders who ate a lot of resources but did nothing to gain them, nor did they do anything to help the alliance later on".

"To avoid such situations again, everything can be accessed as long as one has credits. In the past, the classes, access to the library and dungeons, all of them were for free".

"The world is not as peaceful as everyone thinks. There are many dangers lurking around. So, to quickly improve, many things were given away freely at the beginning. This was because they didn’t cost much for the high rankers who obtained them, but as I said, that only created freeloaders, who are parasites of the society".

"So, now everything can be accessed as long as you can pay for it. Of course, this also caused problems, as no matter what, it wasn’t easy to get credits at a fast rate. Everyone has limited energy. So the growth rate of talented awakeners dropped down".

"To avoid that, competitions were held and rewards were given. For the top talents, the rewards would always be generous, so that they could grow faster".

After hearing this, Aaron understood the policies of the academy regarding the usage of the Dusk Credits. He thought that something like this should be the reason, but he didn’t have the in-depth knowledge to understand the reason. Now he does.

"I understand, thank you for clarifying", Aaron said with a smile.

He understood that this man, Peter, might not be a bad man, but he couldn’t reveal his secrets, as that might land him in trouble. He could, however, be cordial with him and could spill a few things, except for the core secrets like his talent and the rewards from the being that he got after his grade became Uncommon.

It has been hundreds of years since magic appeared in this world, but only a hundred reached Uncommon Grade, which means it was kept a secret. Only a few knew about this. If he spilt such a secret, then everyone would scramble to reach such a status.

It means more competition, which would attract ire from the other 99, as now they have heavy competition and can’t reach the next grade.

So, those things, he can never open his mouth about.

---

"It’s okay. Now, it’s time to choose the last two rewards. Here is the list of items, and the list of skills available for you to select", Peter said as he gave Aaron two lists to choose his rewards.

Aaron first took the skills list. He has already had an eye on a skill. He wanted to check if that is available to choose from and if there are any similar ones that are better than what he had thought to get.

If better ones were available, it’s best to choose one of them. If he wrongly chooses a weaker skill, then that would be a bad deal for him. So, he decided to check the list first.

Aaron was right, there was a better skill than Identify. The name of the skill was Analysis. It can not only give you the name but also where and how it can be used. This is normally a skill for Appraisers and Crafter professionals, but others learn as well in order to identify useful resources while adventuring outside.

He quickly selected the skill as the reward.

From the list of items available to select, there are only a few rings. As a Mage, he normally needs something that can help him replenish Mana or increase skill power, but for him, there was no need.

He has very high INT and WIS, which takes care of those problems. In normal situations, they won’t even exist such situations in the first place.

So, he ignored those.

What attracted him was a defence ring. It has no empowerments, but has a defence skill. Whenever any fatal attack was about to befall the wearer, it would cast a defence shield that could easily stop a Rank-3 attack.

It can even neutralise weaker Rank-4 attacks.

This ring should have ranked way higher, but it only has this skill and nothing else. Higher-ranking items would have multiple uses. Moreover, the ring would only activate for a fatal attack. Normal attacks, one to defend themselves using different means.

So, the ring was ranked only a Mid-grade D rank item.

For others, this may not be useful, but for Aaron, this would be useful. His name was on the Cult’s list. So, if they get a chance, they would try to get rid of him. Having such protective measures is necessary for him.

"Sir, I select these two", Aaron said after giving the two lists one last look, making sure that he didn’t miss out on anything better.

When he saw the items, Peter was a bit surprised, but he didn’t say anything. Everyone has their own path to walk. He has no right to interfere in that.

After confirming the items Aaron selected, Peter brought the rewards out, "Good luck, kid", he said, nothing more.

Aaron smiled and nodded as he collected his rewards.

---

After collecting the rewards, Aaron first went to say bye to Zara, and after a few minutes of chit-chat, he left intending to go to the library, but some arrogant students blocked his path.

"Oye, are you Aaron Skyhart?" one of those arrogant students asked him.