The gazes of Instructor Valdin and his classmates were all on Simon the moment he appeared.
Sunless, Jorra, Merath, Storm Reaper, and many of the top students of the First Years were present.
Because their rooms were close to the academy, they could comfortably reach the academy without having to fight like the lower ranking students.
Many of them had frowns, anger, hatred, and coldness in their eyes as they looked at Simon.
Jorra only gave him a glance before indifferently looking away.
Merath did the same, and Sunless took a little bit longer staring at Simon before looking away also.
’He always finds a way to do unexpected things everyday. What an interesting guy.’ Sunless thought as she found Simon to be even more interesting than she expected.
As for Simon, he was indifferent to the stares and killing intent of his classmates.
He just folded his arms and stared at the Velari statues with an indifferent gaze.
He even ignored the gaze of their class instructor.
Approximately five minutes later, the sixteen minutes time limit was up, and only thirteen of their classmates failed to show up on time.
Compared to their first day in school where forty nine of them failed, this was a much better result.
Instructor Valdin looked at his students, then he nodded and approached the academy entrance without saying anything.
Without saying a single word, they all followed.
They were all experienced now, so they didn’t make a single sound as they entered the academy.
As they entered the academy, Instructor Valdin spoke.
"Today, you’ll be having courses taught under the Shadow Pillar. Make sure you’re attentive. It’s a very important pillar."
Some nodded, but Simon’s brows were furrowed in confusion.
’Wasn’t today meant to focus on the World Pillar?’
Simon knew their timetable very well, and he was 100% certain that the Shadow Pillar was for tomorrow and not today.
Simon was not the only person that was baffled, those who knew the timetable were also baffled.
’Why did they change it? What’s going on?’
As Simon had these thoughts, Instructor Valdin continued speaking.
"I’m going to be your teacher for all the courses under the Shadow Pillar, and the first course we’ll have today is Energy Control. I’ll be teaching you how to improve your control over your demonic energy."
At the mention of these words, the eyes of many lit up and they could not help but glance at Simon.
Simon was indifferent to the glances of his classmates, his eyes were on their class instructor.
’I understand now.’
’The academy believes that my superior energy control is giving me a massive edge over these young ones, so they want to reduce the gap between us by teaching them how to improve their energy control.’
’And look at these little ones. I can see the excitement in their eyes. They too believe that once they improve in controlling their demonic energy, they’d be able to have a better chance of defeating me and maybe even killing me.’
Simon yawned softly, then he shook his head.
’Well, I guess I can look forward to the class on Chaos Runes, and the class on Formations and Arrays... And who knows, I might learn a thing or two so that I can improve my control over demonic energy.’
’Hopefully he’s not biased like that short Sormon guy.’
Instructor Valdin did not say anything else after telling them the classes they had for today.
He took them to their classroom, and for the first time since he arrived in the academy, Simon sat in their classroom.
The classroom of the First Years was large and was carved directly into the stone of the mountain. The room was wide and circular, with rows of stone benches arranged in steps that slowly descended toward the center of the hall.
It looked more like an amphitheatre rather than a classroom.
At the bottom was a wide teaching platform where Instructor Valdin stood. A long stone table sat behind him, and it was covered with scrolls, books, and rune tablets used for lessons.
Torches fixed to the walls lit the entire room with a steady orange glow. The light reflected off the rough stone walls and the carved symbols that decorated parts of the chamber.
On one side of the hall were large stone boards covered with runic writings and diagrams used for teaching.
Simon and his classmates sat on the benches, quietly waiting for their class Instructor to teach.
Despite its size, the classroom was quiet and orderly.
Simon sat in the middle row of their class, and to his surprise Sunless sat to his right.
He looked at her with slightly raised brows.
She turned and looked at him with a slight tilt of her head.
"Is there a problem? Or is this seat taken?"
Simon narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why are you sitting beside me?"
Sunless shrugged. "Maybe it’s because you’re interesting to me, or maybe it’s because I’m hoping that if you we become close or that you fall in love with me, you’ll exempt me from the extortion."
Simon immediately scoffed. "Don’t bother yourself. That won’t happen."
Sunless tilted her head slightly with a light curl of her lips behind her mask.
"Which one exactly?"
"All of it."
Sunless was silent for a moment, then she chuckled softly and said nothing else.
Simon gave her a suspicious glance, but he said nothing else and just waited for Instructor Valdin to start the class.
Instructor Valdin stood in front of the class for nearly a minute. He waited until everybody was seated and the class was dead silent before he began to teach.
"Like I said earlier, today’s class is on Energy Control, and we’re going to be focusing on three things in this class."
"I’m going to teach you Output Control first of all. For this topic, I’ll be teaching you how to control how much demonic energy you release from your body."
"The next topic is Input Control. I’ll be teaching you how to efficiently draw energy from your Demon Heart."
"And the third is Flow Stability. This is to teach you how to prevent wasted energy. "