499 December 31st, 23:30.

In just half an hour, the new session would officially begin. At that moment, every fresher received a notification on their Aurelius Academy Application.

Ting!

>Fresher's Competition Rules

The moment people clicked on it, their current ranks appeared, and alongside them, their respective brackets in the competition were revealed.

Along with that came a point system that would decide their new ranking.

The students were distributed into 5 brackets.

Tier-1 = 1 - 10

Tier-2 = 11 - 50

Tier-3 = 51 - 500

Tier-4 = 501 - 2000

Tier-5 = 2001 - 6090

And a point system known as Combat Rating Points [CRP].

The rules clearly stated these 5 outcomes:

Clean win = 10 Points

Narrow win = 7 Points

Draw = 4 Points

Narrow loss = 2 Points

Clean loss = 0 Points

These points were exclusive within each bracket, which meant Tier-5 CRP could not be compared with Tier-1 CRP under any circumstance.

A student can only fight 10 matches per phase for the entire duration of the Competition. Matches would be held at 2 intervals daily: from 9 AM to 3 PM, and from 6 PM to 9 PM. During these hours, there would be no charge for life-saving bracelets or healing services, a rare luxury that eased many tense expressions.

During days 1 - 5, the phase 1—battles within the tiers—would be completed. After this phase, a new ranking would be established.

The CRP resets after every phase.

Following that, the 2nd phase would begin.

In this phase, the top 10% of each bracket would be allocated the right to challenge the bottom 10% of the next higher tier. Once again, CRPs would be counted, and rankings would shift according to accumulated points.

In cases where 2 or more students ended up with the same CRP, the student with the higher value in the formula, rank ratio = total CRP ÷ total time fought (per phase), is ranked higher. This phase would last only 2 days and was the only phase where students were allowed to jump brackets.

Phase 3 was a 1-day phase.

Here, Professors would personally select promising students from each bracket and arrange challenges against higher-ranked students within the same brackets for more accurate rankings. These matches were strictly intra-bracket, meaning no cross-tier battles. Phase 3 was considered a relief period, as the prize pool remained unchanged even if one rose in rank within the same bracket.

This set of rules made students painfully aware that they could jump at most 1 bracket. This limitation heavily affected those who had scored fewer points in the trial and were assigned to lower tiers, though it also gave bold challengers in the trial a narrow advantage. But some students, like Nord Birel, had still managed to adjust their rankings earlier through ranked matches before the new year—but back then, most were unaware of these rules. Now, it was already too late to do anything about it.

The final 2 days marked the last phase, and it was the most intense of all.

Only 10 students competed here—the Top 10.

This phase was also where the highest-stakes betting took place. Entire fortunes were wagered on the outcome. If one were lucky, they could be set for life by betting on the right student. If unlucky—then that was that.

On the 9th day, the first day of the final phase, all 10 students would fight in pairs. The 5 winners would advance to the winner's bracket, while the 5 losers would fall into the loser's bracket. Based on CRP, the winner of the loser's bracket would earn another chance to challenge the winner's bracket.

After this, a total of 6 students would remain.

These 6 would battle on the 10th day of the Competition.

Once again, paired battles would be held, producing 3 winners and 3 losers. The losers would then fight among themselves, and the winner of the loser's bracket would advance to the final stage. All of this would take place between 9 AM and 3 PM.

The final battle—between the last 2 winners—would occur from 6 PM to 9 PM.

This was the highest-stake match of the entire Competition, watched by almost the whole academy and even spectators from other parts of the Empire.

The reason the Top 10 was taken so seriously was simple—the rewards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place were the most enticing and the best distributed.

These rewards included Credits, stat-boosting treasures, Equipment, high-ranked beast cores, advancement materials, and even soul-enhancing treasures.

Some even said that the rewards were tailored to individual needs, as they were not revealed until after the final rankings were announced.

The remaining rewards were as follows:

4th - 10th:

- 1 Million AC

- Advancement Materials for 1 beast / oneself

- 5 Low 3-star random Beastcores

- 5 Low 3-star Soul Crystals

- Stat-boosting treasures — overall 150 stats if absorbed effectively

11 - 50:

- 200000 AC

- 5 Pseudo 3-star random Beastcores/Advancement Materials for oneself

- 5 Pseudo 3-star Soul Crystals

- Stat-boosting treasures — overall 50 stats if absorbed effectively

51 - 500:

- 50000 AC

- 5 Peak 2-star Soul Crystals

- Stat-boosting treasure — overall 10 stats if absorbed effectively

501 - 2000:

- 10000 AC

- 5 Low 2-star Soul Crystals

2001 - 5000:

- 5000 AC

- 5 Peak 1-star Soul Crystals

5001+

- 1000 AC

The reason there were 6090 students was that total admissions had exceeded 10000 this year. However, only 4947 students possessed combat-oriented talents. The rest had life-type talents not suited for direct battle. That said, since some life-talent students had expressed interest in combat, they were transferred into the 5th-tier bracket and then would be treated as combat professionals for the duration of the competition.

Life-talent students had another way to earn credits—by producing products and selling them. They also received monthly salary from the academy based on their mastery level.

Zero - 1000 AC

Novice - 5000 AC

Amateur - 10000 AC

Low - 100K AC

Intermediate - 1 Million AC

Advanced - 10 Million AC

Peak - 100 Million AC

Their monthly credits were far higher than those of combat talents, with only an Low-ranked life-talent student rivalling the monthly income of the 1st-ranked fresher. This was because their only way to earn was through production, and production required heavy initial investment—hence the higher monthly credits.

Even so, with the massive amount of materials wasted during trial and error, even these sums often fell short. This was why joining a strong territory that supported them meant flourishing, while lacking such backing often led to crushing pressure and debt.

Life-type talents also operated under strict ultimatums.

They were given 1 year to advance from zero to Novice, 2 years from Novice to Amateur, and 3 years from Amateur to Low-ranked professional. After that point, no ultimatum existed, as they could generate their own income and income for the academy, since their products could be sold to other regions at higher prices.

Failure to meet these ultimatums resulted in expulsion.

Combat talents, however, were never expelled. No matter how weak, they were still considered fighting resources—assets that could be mobilised for the academy and the Empire in times of crisis.

The clock struck 12 AM, marking the beginning of the 500th year of the Beast Calendar,

Every phone rang at once.

Leo's Balance: 40,760 AC → 110,760 AC [1st term 2nd ranking student's salary-70,000 AC]

(He used his previous ACs to buy food for his beasts)

"What...?" Leo muttered in shock.

Not only him, but Leon also recieved salary of the 3rd position, and Lily received the salary of the 4th to 10th position.

Lily was already beside him, so she didn't confront him and also saw the phone screen in shock.

But Leon knocked the next moment he received his salary.

"Leo! How the fuck did the ranking change, and the guy has over 5,500,000 points so suddenly?!" He said from the outside, not daring to barge in when Lily was with him.

Leo also quickly checked the name of the person.

1st - Tavian Gridfall - 5,500,000

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