The girls, excited, left with Liana, while Daniel stayed behind because he wanted to talk to the academy director for a bit.
As for the Turtle's Tear, they agreed it would be given to them next week, since it wasn't currently accessible.
"Well then, young man, what's new?" Philip said as he sat down, motioning for Daniel to do the same.
"Last time, we didn't really get to talk after clearing that dungeon. Also, I appreciate that you helped my sister and Tiana today—it means a lot to me."
"No need to mention it. Alice and Tiana are some of the best students we've ever had. They may be talented, but they're also humble and not arrogant."
Daniel nodded. He hadn't really dealt with many geniuses, so he couldn't say whether that was true or not—but he knew that, at least from his own experience, both his sister and Tiana were kind and well-mannered toward him.
"Anyway, since you're here, I wanted to talk to you about the Global Academy. Have you ever heard of it?" Philip asked, now with a more serious tone.
"The Global Academy? If I'm not mistaken, it's located in the Celestial Domain. An educational institution protected and supported by top powers from both worlds," Daniel replied.
"That's right. The Global Academy is the most elite educational institution across both worlds. However, student recruitment happens only once every ten years—and that time comes again next year. I wanted to know if you'd be interested in joining."
Daniel didn't respond right away. Philip, noticing the silence, assumed he was hesitant and continued.
"If you join the academy, you'll have access to many opportunities. Unlike guilds, their rules are more flexible, and you'll have more freedom. You can build powerful connections. With your talents, you could easily rank among the top five students and gain access to immense resources."
"In fact, I got that Purple Mountain Turtle Tear from the Global Academy."
"Oh? I didn't know you were part of the Global Academy," Daniel raised his eyebrows in surprise.
But he also realized that the director may have misunderstood something. The reason he wasn't sure about joining wasn't due to doubt—it was because his growth rate was explosive.
In less than two months, he had already reached the level where he could fight mid-tier B-rank Awakened. In another year, he was confident he could crush A-ranks, or even S-ranks.
At that point, would it even make sense to be enrolled as a student? Wouldn't that be the same as bullying the rest of the students?
More importantly, would the academy even allow someone that powerful to enroll?
"I'm actually one of the instructors at the Global Academy," Philip said with a smile.
"Really? I had no idea," Daniel said with some surprise—he had never heard about that before.
"Understandable. I've been on extended leave for a while now," the academy director said, but didn't explain any further.
Clearly, he didn't want to talk about it and had his reasons for keeping it quiet.
"I'll think about it, but I can't promise anything," Daniel said. He honestly wasn't planning on joining the academy. Even considering a guild was more of a strategic option, depending on future circumstances.
Philip nodded happily. As long as he could bring a genius like Daniel to the Global Academy, he'd earn a lot of merit and gain more resources.
They talked a bit more about other topics, then said their goodbyes and Daniel left. His family was waiting, and he couldn't keep them waiting too long.
He headed to the parking lot and saw his family inside the car, air conditioner running. They were all on their phones, watching videos.
"Took you long enough," Liana grumbled when she saw her son.
Daniel just shrugged and apologized, then started the car and drove off.
"What should we do for lunch?" Alice asked.
Daniel and Liana both glanced at the clock. It was nearly 2 PM, and clearly, no one had the energy to cook.
In the end, they decided to eat out. He took them to one of the city's most popular restaurants.
After lunch, they returned home and collapsed onto the couch. You could see the exhaustion in the eyes of the girls and their mom.
Daniel also went back to his room and flopped onto his bed—though unlike the others, he wasn't all that tired. Instead, he opened the Awakened Association's online community.
It had been a while since he last checked it out. It was time to catch up on the latest news.
After opening the online community, he clicked on the "hottest news" icon and started browsing.
There were tons of posts, but honestly, none of them seemed that important. He scrolled through them with little interest, barely glancing at most.
"Hm? This…?" Still, three posts finally caught his attention.
A purple dungeon appearing on one of the country's islands, an investigation into the Dungeon of the Horseman of Apocalypse, and surprisingly… news about him.
Daniel clicked on the Horseman of Apocalypse post first but was hit with a message saying his access level wasn't high enough.
After grumbling a bit, he gave up on it—not like he could do anything about it anyway.
Then he clicked on the other post, the one about himself.
To his surprise, the article was about an unknown genius who had managed to beat the top prodigy of the country, Diana, in a ranking competition.
Further down, it mentioned that this genius was from the city of Santcis and was believed to be the same person who cleared the Colosseum Dungeon.
He checked the comments, and most were split into two camps—some were happy that the arrogant girl had finally been defeated, while others refused to believe it and even accused Daniel of cheating.
"Cheating? How ridiculous," Daniel scoffed.
But one thing was clear from all the comments—everyone wanted to see the person who managed to pull this off.
He then clicked on the last post that had caught his eye.
"Oh? This…?" And what he saw next left him stunned.