The next morning Max arrived at the admission area along with Astoria. The admissions took place in the outer court. As they arrived at the admission area he saw many tall buildings and open arenas surrounding the area where admissions took place.
"This is the teaching area is usually where the students are taught. Besides these teaching areas, there are also many special teaching grounds located around, such as the Soul Dueling Arena, the Assessment areas, the dormitories where the students of outer court live, the offices of the outer level teachers."
Astoria explained to Max.
Because it was currently the period that new students were admitted into the academy, the new student's teaching area was especially lively. A few new students who had already passed their assessments were currently there to enroll.
With Astoria's guidance, Max was able to complete the registration smoothly. The tuition fees were paid by Astoria as Max did not have a penny with him after giving them to Rin. The fee for a new student was fifteen gold soul coins. Furthermore, this didn't include his food expenses. If one could not pass the assessment of the academy conducted at he end of the semester and is expelled from the academy, the fee paid would not be refunded.
"You don't have to worry about money, with your strength you will definitely perform well in the semester end assessment trails and get into the inner court. The fee of a student in the inner court is free including the food expenses."
Max was not worried about money. He has many ways to earn money. For instance, stealing cough..cough... uhmm... borrowing. What he wondered was how could the academy afford teaching and training resources of the inner court students without charging money.
As if saw the doubts on Max's face she explained.
"The academy is funded by the Empire. Most of the people in the Empire have a strong sense of belonging to it. So most of the graduates join many departments of the empire including the army. In a sense the academy is the supplier of fresh blood to the army. So, the more talented students the academy has, the stronger the Empire will be. Hence, they reimburse the fees of all those talented students entering inner court. Of course, if you want additional resources you can obtain them through contribution points."
"You can earn the contribution points by completing the tasks issued by the missions hall or exchanging valuable resources like herbs, potions etc. In the academy except for the tuition fees and food expenses, gold coins are of no use. Everything depends on contribution points."
The age limit for admission was ten to thirteen years. So most of the new students were Rank 2 Star Knights.
"You can collect your dormitory keys in the administrative area. The dormitory is the largest building in your sight. I have to leave for my classes."
Astoria waved to him and headed back to the inner court. Since she was the apprentice of Emilia Star Knight who is one of the elders of the academy, she can attend the inner court regardless of her cultivation level. Of course without her talent it is not possible even if she was an elder's apprentice.
Max walked to the crowd and went to the administrative building to collect his keys.
"What is you name?"
"Max Miller."
The administrator nodded after looking through the record and handed him a key with a number 197 on the keychain and a wooden badge.
Max took them and started walking towards the largest building in the outer court. All the outer court students live in this large building with four floors.
He walked inside the building and showed his badge to the warden.
"Go upstairs. Room 197 is the fourth room on the right from the end on the corridor, first floor. The women's dorms start from the third floor, so you can't go upstairs at all. If you are found up there, you'll be expelled from the academy."
Max nodded and climbed the stairs. He found his room quickly according to the warden's instructions. The dormitory had a standard hallway layout, with both sides of the long hallway having dorm rooms with numbers inscribed on the doors. The dorm rooms looked like they had been used from a long time. The two ends of the corridor had shared bathrooms.
The corridor was noisy and in disarray as countless new students were reporting their admissions today.
Max opened the door with his key. When he walked into the room when a gust of air filled with dust gushed out of the room. Max isolated himself with a thin film of star power. He held his breath and opened the windows to pump the dust out. The room seemed to be uninhabited for some weeks, at the very minimum.
The dorm room was very small, its area only about hundred square foot or so. There were two beds opposite to each other which occupied most area of the room. There were two long metal shelves and a lamp on the ceiling.
The lamp was a product of the scholars and blacksmiths for the last hundred years. They were fueled by the star spar extracted from the rare meteorites.
Max was puzzled as to why there were two beds. He did not ponder over it. He went back to buy a blanket and a mattress with the gold coins given by Astoria. Basic necessities were also one of the few that can be bought with the gold coins.
He headed back to the room after he bought the things and also had lunch in the dining hall present in the adjacent building. Max was surprised to discover that the door to his room was open. As he walked in he saw a young man with a fair skin. He had short brown hair along with small brown eyes. Although he is not considered as handsome as Max he was also fairly handsome. He looked like he was about the same age as Max but was slightly shorter than him.
When he saw Max he looked at him in a descending manner and said arrogantly
"From now on you will clean the room. You should not do anything to disturb me during the stay. If you cannot follow this get out of the room."
Max decided not to care about an arrogant young master and ignored him. This angered the brown haired guy as he tried to throw out a punch at Max's face. But he was surprised to see that the boy on the opposite dodged it. He got a little serious and used his full speed to attack Max but found out he could not even touch is clothes. He kept attacking as Max dodged easily every time.
"Brother! Stop fighting. I am convinced."
The brown haired fellow completely changed his attitude and introduced himself while panting.
"My name is Raven. Brother, you are amazing. No one of my age has ever dodged my attack. Let's be friends."
Raven smiled and praised Max. Raven was a beast natal spirit user. His natal spirit was the swift roc. It is an extremely agile bird. So seeing the boy opposite beat him in speed which he bested at, he appreciated him very much and wanted to befriend him.
"I am Max."