Zara's goal had always been to somehow gain Atticus's favor or, at the very least, get a little bit closer to him.
And although many might consider it pathetic or even stupid, Zara's plan had been to basically pretend to worship and revere him to an extent that got on his nerves, and he would personally ask her to stop worshiping him and become a little more comfortable with him.
Dumb? Yes, she was well aware of that, but yet, it could work.
She had to start from somewhere.
"Youn—" she raised her head from the bow, and just as she was about to apologize, Atticus cut her off,
"Save it. What lectures did you attend today?" Atticus asked.
It was clear Atticus had no time for trivial matters like this. 'I've been seen through from the beginning,' Zara realized.
She thought she had hid it well, but it was obvious Atticus had been aware of her intentions from the outset.
She had no idea how, but she knew; she never stood a chance from the beginning.
Zara snapped out of her daze, facing upwards to meet Atticus's piercing blue eyes staring at her,
'Is he really human?' she thought before immediately deciding to respond to Atticus's question, but this time, she decided to give up her worshiping act and stand straight, but still made sure to sound respectable.
After all, Atticus was still a tier-one youth and the leader of their division.
"We were taught about blacksmithing, young master," she responded.
'As expected, each lecture was tailor-made for each student,' Atticus pondered.
Just as the description had said, each class was tailor-made for each student. Which meant that the academy was completely aware of practically everything about each student.
What does this imply?
It simply meant that for that to happen, the academy had been watching them.
Atticus had always suspected that they were being watched by the academy.
But to what extent, he had no idea.
It was clear they had an accurate understanding of everything the students were good at.
The first alarm signals that rang in Atticus's head were his battles with the Shadow Seraphon.
'Did they watch that fight?' He pondered.
He was about 85% sure that they had watched his battle with the shadow Seraphon, both times.
Atticus couldn't even begin to imagine the reactions of the people who watched the battles.
He had no doubt that seeing a 15-year-old boy easily beat up a master- ranked beast would most definitely shock a lot of people to the core.
'It's long gone, I can't do anything about it now. Besides, it's probably the academy staff. If they were given the authority to watch over us, they must have signed a mana contract to stop them from revealing what they see,' Atticus concluded.
Although he hated the feeling of being watched and having his strength laid bare for them to see, if they were all sworn to secrecy, then it was a bit bearable.
"Were you guys given any materials to read?"
Zara shook her head, "Not yet. We were only informed what to expect during the duration of the course."
"I see," Atticus muttered.
"Hmm," Atticus thought for a bit before speaking,
"Zara, do you think you can record your classes and send them to me when you get back to camp? I'll pay you in points," Atticus suddenly asked.
Zara's face initially showed confusion for a few seconds before Atticus's words clicked in her head, "No, no, young master, you don't have to giv-" her words were once again cut short, but this time by Atticus's deadpan gaze.
'He can't even let me have any win!' Zara thought with slight frustration bubbling within her.
Zara sighed, "Okay, young master. I will do as you ask, but instead of points, I want beast carcasses in return," Zara asked.
Atticus raised an eyebrow.
And in the next second, "I see. Alright," he agreed.
It wasn't hard to figure out why Zara was requesting the beast carcasses as payment instead of points.
He had read the beginning blacksmith book before he had given it to Zara. He was well aware of some of the processes of crafting weapons.
While some could be crafters without it, the materials mostly used were the body parts of beasts.
Zara, unfortunately, was incredibly weak, which meant that she wouldn't be able to hunt for beasts herself.
She could have resolved to buy them from the academy store, but even she knew the academy went crazy with their prices most times.
It would be better if she got the carcasses of beasts from another source. And with how strong Atticus was, she had no doubt that whatever he killed would be in good condition.
Seeing that Atticus agreed, Zara smiled. She was elated!
All she had to do was click on her artifact and wait until the end of the class, and she would have as many carcasses as she needed for her experiments.
It was way better than her earlier decision of buying the carcasses from the other division members who could hunt with academy points.
Seeing that it was all finalized, Atticus suddenly stretched out his hand, and with a thought, close to a hundred bodies of beasts spewed out from his storage and landed on the floor.
Zara stared at the corpses with wide eyes.
Every single one of them was cleanly killed, with no unnecessary damage on their bodies.
They each had just a single hole passing through their chins, stopping at their brains.
"Do you know anyone taking the Alchemy classes?" Atticus's question brought Zara out of her thoughts,
"Yes, I believe Raila is taking the alchemy course. She's one of the non-combatants in the healer's group," she explained.
"Alright," Hearing Zara, Atticus nodded and immediately started heading towards where the healer group was located, leaving Zara who immediately started gathering the bodies as soon as he left.
Just like the forge, they had set up a building for the healers too. They were responsible for healing any minor injuries that might occur during battles or training.
Atticus reached there in a few seconds and made the same deal he made with Zara.
Unlike Zara, Raila had been completely fine with receiving points as compensation.
After making all these deals, Atticus retired to his room to rest and get ready for the next day of school.