However, Jiang Lin simply smiled and shook his head:
"It’s fine. In fact, when you're out in the world, it’s only by casting aside the halo of a surname that your true value can be seen.
"Otherwise, you’ll never be able to tell who is approaching you because they think you’re worth knowing, and who is only doing it for the sake of that name."
Hearing the hidden meaning in Jiang Lin's words, Neil recalled what the homeroom teacher had said yesterday.
This Jiang Lin really did seem to have quite a background; he just wanted to hide his identity to interact with them as equals.
As such, Neil didn't press further.
At the same time, he began to reflect on the meaning behind Jiang Lin's words.
It felt... incredibly reasonable!
In the past, he had often taken pride in being a member of the Kohlst family. When looking at students from ordinary backgrounds or with mediocre talent, he would feel an inexplicable sense of superiority, believing they could never reach his level no matter how hard they worked.
By this time, a good number of curious students had gathered around.
After hearing Jiang Lin's words and observing his manner of speaking, they had reached their own conclusions about his identity.
'He’s a young master from a great family masquerading as an ordinary student.'
While such people weren't common, everyone knew of them and could understand the logic.
After all, only someone who has personally experienced the outside world and built something through their own efforts would be capable of taking over family affairs later on.
Just then, someone asked curiously:
"Jiang Lin, why did you report for admission so late?"
Jiang Lin smiled.
"Because I only recently broke through to level 10 to meet the entry standards for Saint Brilliance Magic Academy."
Someone else asked:
"Jiang Lin, which grade of scholarship did you get?"
Jiang Lin answered truthfully:
"The third-level special scholarship. The requirements for the first two levels were a bit too demanding. My family might have other arrangements for me in the future, so I just chose the third level.
"What about all of you? What grades did you get?"
The person who asked replied:
"In our elite class, we mostly have special scholarships and first-class scholarships. The top ten big shots are all special scholarship holders, and most of the rest are first-class. It seems your talent is very high, Jiang Lin, if you were able to choose between all three levels!"
"Aren't you all the same?"
Jiang Lin was somewhat confused.
"Of course not! While most of the top students choose the third-level special scholarship, not everyone is qualified to choose the first or second level."
Hearing this, Jiang Lin realized the situation.
Afterward, he continued chatting with his classmates.
Jiang Lin noticed that most of the students who came to talk to him were from influential families. Many were subtly or overtly probing into his family background.
Jiang Lin chuckled inwardly. He calmly let it slip that he had two rank-7 powerhouses backing him while sharing the 'wisdom' his elders had taught him.
Soon, it was time for class.
Everyone returned to their seats. Seeing a new student, the teacher didn't ignore him and instead asked Jiang Lin to introduce himself.
Jiang Lin stood on the podium and introduced himself with confidence and grace:
"Hello everyone, my name is Jiang Lin. I am a paladin from Boulder City. I hope we can all get along well, and you're always welcome to come to me for a spar or exchange..."
Following that, the teacher let Jiang Lin return to his seat and began the lecture.
However, Jiang Lin soon began to feel a massive headache.
It was clearly a human language, so why couldn't he understand a word of it?
At that moment, Jiang Lin noticed that his beastkin deskmate didn't seem to have any intention of listening either, focusing instead on studying her own book.
'Is she that good? She doesn't even need to listen to the lecture?!'
Thus, Jiang Lin followed his example and began to self-study.
In the subsequent classes, every teacher who noticed the new student would chat with Jiang Lin for a few moments before starting the lesson.
They told him that it didn't matter if he couldn't keep up at first and that he could ask them questions privately if there was anything he didn't understand.
Jiang Lin had never received such treatment back in Boulder City.
It seemed Saint Brilliance Magic Academy was quite humane!
And so, Jiang Lin began his new campus life.
Time flew by amidst his fulfilling cultivation.
...
Middle Magic Academy had more theory classes than the junior academies.
These were the subjects that needed to be studied:
Basic Magic Potions, Introduction to Basic Array Formations, Fundamentals of Magic Script, Principles of Magic, mathematics, physics, and history.
As for the non-theory classes, they were much more varied, such as:
Class-specific combat technique class, breathing technique practice class, elemental application training, combat simulation class, and elective specialization.
The elective specialization was mainly for in-depth study of auxiliary skills like magic potions and array formations. Regular classes might only cover theoretical knowledge, while the elective specialization allowed for hands-on application.
The non-theory courses were basically designed for 1st-rank or 2nd-rank students, but with Jiang Lin’s physical strength, he could just barely keep up with the class rhythm.
So, when his classmates learned that Jiang Lin hadn't even reached 1st-rank yet, they were all quite shocked.
Perhaps because of this, almost no one ever came to challenge him to a spar.
This left Jiang Lin somewhat disappointed.
For the class-specific combat technique class, Jiang Lin chose sword techniques without hesitation. It was said that the teacher would teach one swordsmanship skill every half-month.
However, the skill currently being taught wasn't very suitable for Jiang Lin; he estimated there would be few opportunities to use it in actual combat.
Nevertheless, Jiang Lin still learned it and raised it to the limit-broken level.
For no other reason than it was a low-level sword skill, and the cost wasn't high.
【Flame Slash (uninitiated) → (limit-broken)】
【Fire-attribute affinity slightly increased, swordsmanship talent slightly increased】
As for the breathing technique practice class, it was useless to Jiang Lin.
This class mainly involved professional teachers guiding students on techniques to improve their breathing techniques and supervising them to see if there were any issues with the ones they were using.
Since Jiang Lin's breathing technique was already limit-broken, this class had lost its meaning for him.
Elemental application training involved taking students to the academy's elemental tower to find the element that suited them based on their attribute affinity and practice their skills.
This was also useless for Jiang Lin.
After all, his skills were already at the highest level of proficiency.
Reaching the limit-broken level wasn't something he could achieve through his own hard work alone.
As for the combat simulation class, it involved fighting against mana puppets.
This course was extremely useful to Jiang Lin.
With professional teachers providing guidance and instruction by his side, Jiang Lin gained a great deal of practical combat experience.
As a result, his combat strength increased significantly even though his base attributes remained the same.
But of course, his base attributes couldn't possibly remain unchanged.
With the hard work of the students far away in Boulder City and the diligent contributions of a certain nest of ants, Jiang Lin's physical attributes and mental power were rising steadily every day.
However, his focus for now was still on his theory classes.
In truth, the content of the books could be finished in no time.
But finishing them didn't mean understanding them.
And understanding them didn't mean being able to apply them.
If he just read through them once, the knowledge would simply slide right out of Jiang Lin's smooth brain.
And if he only had a rough understanding of the concepts, it wouldn't be of much help for future adventures or school exams.
So, Jiang Lin, like a certain simp, began to grind through problems day and night.
However, this time Jiang Lin didn't spend the entire day in the classroom.
After all, the gap between him and his classmates was too large.
He was afraid of overstimulating them and making the gap even larger.
So he chose to return to his dormitory to study in secret!
But because his dorm was on the first floor,
leaving the lights on all night inevitably drew attention.
Consequently, a rumor began to spread in the elite class that the new transfer student, Jiang Lin, was afraid of ghosts.
Neil, who sat in front of him, even expressed his concern, asking if Jiang Lin was afraid of the dark.
However, Jiang Lin replied:
"I’m not afraid of the dark. It’s just that as a paladin, my heart is drawn to the light."
Neil stared at him with a blank expression.
"So you sleep with the lights on?"
Jiang Lin answered:
"I need light to fill my entire life."
Neil nodded thoughtfully.
"Then it seems your sleep quality is quite good, being able to fall asleep even with the lights on."
...
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Jiang Lin's base attributes reached the average level for level 17.
When he went to the Tower of Trials to challenge it again and faced the level 20 elite demonic beast, the thunder giant ape, the fight was much easier.
He even had the strength left over to fight a monster of the next stage, the commander-tier.
However, it was only 'strength left over'; commander-tier demonic beasts were far stronger than elite-tier ones.
They were equivalent to geniuses among humans of the same level who could take on a hundred enemies alone.
So, after holding out for a few moments, Jiang Lin was defeated.
In recent days, the Junior Adventurer Exam had also officially begun.
Since Jiang Lin was already enrolled, he didn't need to participate.
However, he still wrote a letter back to check on his old friends and tell them about his recent situation:
"My son, Tie Chen:
"I hope this letter finds you well.
"Inside this envelope are several other letters, addressed respectively to Anya, Director Wills, Salas, Lina, Frederick, Zach, Aili...
"Because it costs extra to mail them separately, I’m asking you to help me deliver them. The addresses are marked on the envelopes.
"The weather in Clearwater City is always changing. A few days ago, it was bright and sunny, but today it’s overcast.
"I have been successfully enrolled in Saint Brilliance Magic Academy for a month now. Perhaps out of respect for my talent and strength, my classmates here are all quite kind and friendly, and nothing unpleasant has happened.
"It’s just that the atmosphere here is clearly a bit too relaxed and lazy. Their drive is not even half as intense as ours back at the junior magic academies in Boulder City.
"I truly look forward to the sight of you all, like a bright fire, scattering like starlight upon entering the middle magic academies.
"What kind of shock will you bring to those academies then?
"Good luck on the Junior Adventurer Exam!
"Don’t worry about me.
"Your father, Jiang Lin."
Actually, when he first entered the academy, Jiang Lin had already sent a letter to his friends to give them his mailing address.
Among them, in the letter to Anya, Jiang Lin had tucked in a letter for the City Lord; in the letter to Salas, he had tucked in one for the Temple Master.
Since he didn't know if mailing them directly to the two high-ranking officials would cause them the trouble of having to pick them up in person,
Jiang Lin simply asked the two Castrots to help deliver his letters.
His main goal was to inform them that he had received a special scholarship and had successfully enrolled.
It was essentially a way of letting them know he was safe.
In their replies, Salas and Anya indicated that the two adults had read his letters and offered their congratulations.
The City Lord even mentioned that the benefits brought by Jiang Lin's special scholarship were already greater than the lowest-tier benefits of marrying into the Castrot family.
Furthermore, he stated that if anyone in Clearwater City asked Jiang Lin to marry into their family, no matter what terms they offered, he shouldn't be in a hurry to agree.
Because the Castrot family was still always welcome to have Jiang Lin join them, and they could certainly offer better terms.
Jiang Lin didn't pay much mind to this.
After all, he had been keeping a very low profile and hadn't drawn the attention of any families.
Even if someone did have designs on him, they would likely discover the rumors of his 'mysterious family background' and wouldn't dare provoke him.
A few days later, the Junior Adventurer Exam ended, and Jiang Lin received replies from everyone.
Among them, Anya, Zach, Aili, Frederick, Lina, and others had all passed the basic requirements for Saint Brilliance Magic Academy.
In about a month, they would come to take the entrance exam for the academy.
If they passed, they could officially enroll next semester.
If they failed, they might go to other schools for their individual exams or choose a school based on their Junior Adventurer Exam scores.
As for Tie Chen, he got a barely passing score and got into a common middle magic academy in Boulder City.
Tie Chen mentioned that his family thought he did well and gave him some money so he could go to other cities to play during the three-month vacation.
However, he felt that traveling was too much of a waste of time. Since his talent wasn't great, he had to work harder. He planned to use the three-month vacation to overtake everyone and be ahead when he entered his middle magic academy.
Additionally, there was the overall situation at Radiant Magic Academy.
Director Wills wrote back to tell Jiang Lin that this year's students at Radiant Magic Academy were exceptionally outstanding. Although they hadn't slept for two consecutive months, everyone performed remarkably well.
Even in the tail-end class, where usually only one or two people could get into a middle magic academy, half of the students had actually passed the basic exam this year and could barely make it into one.
As a result, the school decided to start experimenting with making both students and teachers stay up late by force.
The use of magic potions was being handled by professional alchemists.
Seeing the contents of the letter, Jiang Lin was very gratified, feeling that his group of classmates truly hadn't let him down.
Although with their talent, even if they got into a middle magic academy, they wouldn't be able to get into a high magic academy, their future prospects would certainly be better than before.
Before, they could only be the lowest-level ordinary people, like Old Luo who worked as a security guard at the entrance of the artificial secret realm, wasting his life away.
But now, they had more choices.
Their parents were naturally very happy as well. They even started praising Radiant Magic Academy's teaching methods to their relatives and friends.
Now, beyond the educational circles of Boulder City, people in other fields were beginning to discuss the changes at Radiant Magic Academy. At the same time, inevitably, the name "Jiang Lin" began to flow into the ears of more and more people.
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