There were two competitions that he wished to participate in, the first one was the yearly ranking competition that would be taking place a month from now.

Just as the name implied, it was a competition that was used to determine the academy ranks.

There were rewards for the top twenty five students in the completion, the first was a promotion to elite class and the rest were simply materials that would help them advance between stages faster.

The second was the inter-academy tournament, it was a competition that took place between students from different academies around the world.

The tournament was usually held in Steele which was currently the biggest and most advanced city in the world.

Harry wasn’t as interested in the ranking competition as much as he was interested in the tournament.

The former was on a much smaller scale when compared to the latter. Not only would doing well in the tournament bring him great rewards but he would also get the chance to level up his skills and a free ticket to becoming an Adventurer.

However, he had to participate in the ranking competition, whether he liked it or not because that was the only way he would gain a chance at taking part in the tournament.

‘I shouldn’t worry about all that now…’ Harry said inwardly.

[Just so you know, the Elementalists training method wouldn’t really benefit you]

A familiar voice suddenly rang out in his head.

Harry’s eyes squinted slightly when he heard the words of the other voice.

‘I know it wouldn’t benefit me… but I would still have to expose my elements sooner or later.’ Harry said inwardly.

[I’m not saying you shouldn’t… but you don’t use ‘normal methods’ and you don’t use mana either, most of the things the academy would teach you would turn out useless]

[The best thing would be to use the combat mages training method, it would definitely assist you in learning how to control your energy]

For some reason, the other voice seemed quite chatty. Normally, it would just drop a few words and remain silent for days, however, today was different. Not only did it explain mana core illusion but it was even giving him advice on the best path to take.

Harry didn’t hate it though, in fact, he wished the other voice would remain like this.

From his observations, he knew the other voice was a lot more knowledgeable than the system. Having a literal speaking encyclopaedia inside his head wasn’t too bad.

‘Help me learn how to control my energy?’ Harry thought in slight surprise. His system once said he should never compare his energy to mana as the former was a lot more powerful than the latter so the other voice words was quite surprising.

Besides, this was the first time he was hearing about the term ‘energy control’. He had once tried to sense his energy by meditating, however, he had failed to do so.

However, he knew that he did have that ‘energy’ inside of him as he always sensed it whenever he activated a skill or distributed his stats.

He just felt he was perhaps using the wrong meditation method and didn’t put much thought to it, after all, he still had the system.

[Mana control is quite similar to energy control. So learning more about how to control mana would definitely give you more knowledge on how to control energy.]

Harry nodded his head slightly. He finally understood why the other voice said the combat mage path was best for him.

It was well-known that combat mages were the best in mana control. They didn’t have elemental affinities so all they had was their mana.

Unlike Elementalists who had help from their affinities, they directly channeled this mana and used it to boost their physical stats to insane levels.

Although his energy wasn’t the same as mana, it seemed they still had a few similarities.

However, he still couldn’t register as a Combat mage as that meant he would have to hide his affinities.

Even though the idea of hiding his affinities did come to his mind, he decided against it. Sooner or later, he would have to expose his elements, it was only a matter of time.

A low sigh left his lips, he had already made up his mind on the ‘path’ to take and it was currently the best one for him. .

He walked towards the closet beside the bed and brought out the storage device from it.

To be honest, he hadn’t expected to receive any storage device from Justin, it was only given to him out of anger and embarrassment.

Harry’s brows creased slightly as he stared at the amount of money that remained in the storage device.

He only had about three hundred and sixty thousand credits left, he paid seventy-five thousand credits to rent the apartment and another eight thousand credits was spent on food and clothes.

He still needed to get a few appliances and furniture, that would surely cost him another twenty thousand credits or so.

‘I need to get a job… at least a way to get more money.’ Harry mumbled inwardly. So far his part-time job hunting hadn’t been successful. He was only able to find full-time jobs, unfortunately, those were useless to him as he was still an academy student.

The amount of money with him was enough to last a few months but he couldn’t wait till it was almost finished.

Harry sighed as he dropped the storage device, he still had a lot of work to do today. He still needed to get a few furnitures and appliances, perhaps a few decorations too.

***

Harry’s steps slowed as he arrived at the familiar entrance of the academy.

A strange glint flashed through his eyes as he stared at the system’s notification that appeared in front of him.

He had already completed two of his quest before coming to the academy, he completed the first one by running before getting to the academy.

He completed the second quest by lifting the dumbbells and weight slates he purchased the previous day.

He didn’t step into the academy though, rather, he kept walking forward.

After walking for a few minutes, he finally arrived at a black gate, compared to the academy’s fence, this one was a lot smaller. As for the building that was behind the gate, it was none other than the affinity hall.

***

Hey guys, I’m really sorry for not updating. For the last two days, I’ve not been feeling well. I have severe headache and it doesn’t allow me focus on writing.

I had to force myself to write this chapter. The update rate might also reduce due to this. However, I’ll definitely make it up to you all when I get better.

Keep voting, the power stone dropped and that isn’t a good thing. Let’s keep sending power stones and golden tickets, also send gifts, they motivate me to write and update more.

[If you’re worried that this long authors note would increase the coin price, don’t worry, it wouldn’t. I made sure of that.]