The Era of Gods

Chapter 443: Chapter 443 Totems and Deities

The opening ceremony ended just like that.

No one saw the beginning or the end coming.

His homeroom teacher hadn’t given him a heads-up, but he felt it was right not to be forewarned; the harsh lesson had made him more cautious.

With the ceremony over, school had officially begun. Everyone, brimming with anticipation, prepared to embrace the first lesson of their college life, armed with the information and rules mentioned at the opening ceremony.

The next day, Lin Xiao got ready to leave early. As soon as he opened his door, he saw a young man draped in a black trench coat standing at his doorstep, a… lollipop in his mouth? In his hand, he was twisting a fifth level Magic Cube. Hearing the door open, the man snapped the cube shut and looked up:

“Lin Xiao, I’m a recruiter for the Falling Star Society. You’ve been put on our watch list. According to the rules, we’ll observe you during the first big class of college before we decide whether to invite you to join our society,” he said.

After speaking, he didn’t wait for a response. He just twirled his Magic Cube and walked away, leaving Lin Xiao dumbfounded.

“The Falling Star Society?”

He quickly accessed his wristband, pulling up the holographic screen to search. It didn’t take long for the information on the Falling Star Society to pop up before him.

“Falling Star Society: A Six Star Society, established two hundred thousand years ago. Is this the ancient society Yuan Xi mentioned?”

That’s when he noticed two new messages. Glancing at the timestamps, they were sent just a few minutes ago. He opened them one after the other, a puzzled expression crossing his face.

They were from societies called Demon Night and Pillar Sky, both renowned top-tier societies of Lustrous University. The content was more or less the same, essentially – kid, we’re watching you, but we’ll only decide whether to recruit you after observing your performance in the first big college class, as per the rules.

If it was just one society evaluating him before recruitment, he might be peeved, but if all societies did this, then it was just the way things were.

Of course, at the heart of it, they just didn’t have much confidence in him; his background was too modest. If his background were a bit better, or if they knew he was a son of Gaia, there wouldn’t be any probationary period.

At least his girlfriend didn’t face such a period. She had joined a top-tier women’s society even before the official start of school, without any probation whatsoever.

Though slightly disgruntled, Lin Xiao wouldn’t let his annoyance stop him from joining a society. This was how the rules worked. Without the power to break them, he’d have to play by them.

Rubbing his forehead, he put these thoughts aside for now, heading next door to meet up with his girlfriend and leave together.

Similar to their high school days, the classroom for the first year, seventeenth grade was located inside a Mage Tower, but the interior space was larger.

When the duo arrived, many classmates were already there, gathering in small groups outside the classroom, chatting before the class started.

Scanning the crowd, he noticed the class was quite large, with several hundred students. He recognized barely a few faces; most of his high school classmates had disappeared, with only a handful present, but none he knew well.

“It seems she’s not very highly regarded!”

People are pragmatic. Jin Sisi may have moved up to the college division, but she lacked connections, and her resources paled in comparison to other homeroom teachers. Most of her former students didn’t think highly of her and had migrated to other classes.

Shaking his head, he and Shen Yuexin proceeded into the classroom. The classroom was similar to those in middle school, a massive space stretching for kilometers, with each student having a floating platform suspended in the air. He and his girlfriend casually chose a floating platform near the entrance to stand on.

These floating platforms were crudely divided into four types: Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, along with Crystal.

As their homeroom teacher put it, everyone starts on Black Iron, then after each big class, there would be an evaluation to determine whether one would advance or be demoted.

To put it succinctly, a big class was held every three months. You either moved up, or you were demoted. In theory, it would take at least four big classes to sit atop a Crystal platform.

Different seats offered different benefits. A Bronze Seat would reward ten units of Divine Power Crystals per month, a Silver Seat would reward fifty units, a Gold Seat would give two hundred units, and the Crystal Throne would present a thousand units of Divine Power Crystals per month.

True to its reputation as a Super Academy, the rewards were substantial and straightforward.

When you have money, you buy what you need. For someone like Lin Xiao, with an average background, this was one of the most practical rewards he could hope for.

If he could secure a Crystal Throne, along with a scholarship, and not to mention the little boosts from the homeroom teacher, it would add up to a substantial bounty.

Scholarships were divided into three tiers. The basic tier provided two hundred units of Divine Power Crystals each month, equivalent to the Gold Seat, but the scholarship offered more than just Divine Power Crystals; it also came with a Golden Mythical Quality Six Star Card of one’s choosing.

Indeed, when they ascend to demigods, they can use six-star cards.

At this point, it’s necessary to introduce the classification of cards above five stars.

Divine Beings can use cards from one to five stars, while the cards that a demigod can use are not from six to several stars, but only six stars.

Or to put it another way, anyone can use cards including five stars and below, but only demigods and above can use six-star cards, and demigods can only use six-star and below cards. Seven-star cards are only for True Gods.

Therefore, six-star cards are known as demigod cards, and cards above seven stars are known as True God cards.

The classification of six-star cards is the same as that of five-star cards, starting from the most basic quality to Golden Mythical Quality, and the higher Ancient Crystal Cards also come in four varieties: basic, fine, rare, miracle, and Supermodel Cards.

The difference between six-star cards and five-star cards is not about quality, but mainly the increase in quantity.

For example, a five-star card of ordinary quality—a flock of sheep—can summon 500 sheep of both sexes at one time.

If the quality of the card is enhanced, the main improvement is in the sheep’s quality, such as turning ordinary sheep into strong and healthy adult sheep. If the quality reaches a certain level, you may see sheep with special bloodlines, such as Warcraft sheep.

However, if you exchange a five-star ordinary quality sheep card for a six-star ordinary quality sheep card, you could summon 5,000 sheep of both sexes at one time, achieving a qualitative increase in quantity.

It has been a long time since Lin Xiao loaded various cards, mainly because he is now so powerful that ordinary cards are of little use to him, even ancient quality cards are useless if they don’t fit the Divine Realm’s conditions. Recently, he has been exchanging his extra card-loading slots for Breeding Cards, or simply leaving them empty. He has left nearly a dozen card slots unoccupied for almost a year.

However, now that he has entered the college phase and can load six-star demigod cards, these quality-enhanced six-star cards compared to five-star cards can be very useful to him, and he might load a large number of them.

Many elite high school seniors like him rarely loaded cards during the high school stage; they cleared card slots, waiting to ascend to demigods to load stronger demigod cards.

The reward for the second-tier higher scholarship is one thousand Godforce Crystals a month and three six-star Golden Mythical Quality cards, with only three slots available at the whole grade level.

The reward for the third-tier super scholarship is ten thousand units of Godforce Crystals a month, along with one six-star Ancient Quality Card, with only one slot available at the whole grade level.

To qualify for the second-tier scholarships and above, it’s not enough just to have outstanding personal performance; the comprehensive grades of the class you belong to must also be in the top three of the entire grade.

Lin Xiao felt that this regulation seemed somewhat targeted at him. He was confident in his performance and grades, but boosting the entire class ranking was another matter.

Regardless, he was sure of at least a regular scholarship; even if the class ranked last, five basic scholarship slots were guaranteed, and he would certainly get one. Along with seizing a Diamond Throne, the combined rewards were substantial.

Soon, the bell rang for classes to start, and three streaks of golden light descended from the sky, revealing two familiar figures: Jin Sisi and the former counselor Zhu Hong, who seemed to have a mistress-servant relationship and was also transferred over from the high school section.

The other teaching assistant was a middle-aged man from the college section who introduced himself as Yuan Xi, a Mage with a God Level of Fifth Level and weak divine power.

Like the first lesson in high school, Jin Sisi continued to wear thick armor that covered her stunningly beautiful face. Unless one had seen it with their own eyes, no one would know that underneath the towering four-meter armor was a shapely beauty.

Following the routine self-introduction, Jin Sisi’s style was always decisive and fast-paced; she quickly finished the pleasantries and got to the point:

“Today is the first class for all the students after entering the university. According to Lustrous University’s tradition, the most important first major class takes place today, and it will affect your treatment for the semester, the ten scholarship slots, and the evaluations of you by the school and many top-tier societies. I hope you all take it seriously.”

By this time, all the students were already listening intently, and not even those elites from wealthy families were exceptions.

Although they had family support, that support was not unlimited. The university would lift restrictions during this phase, but lifting restrictions didn’t mean no limitations.

The resources rewarded by the school might not compare to what the clan provided, but they were still a significant income; no one would complain about having too many resources to manage. They would certainly fight for it.

Moreover, scholarship slots also represented status within the grade, and even if they didn’t care for the resources, the status itself was worth competing for.

“This major class will involve going to Lustrous University’s Outpost Base in the MK-204 Crystal Wall System within two days, with all nineteen classes of the entire grade attending. Although it’s not a direct competition, your performance will still impact the grading and more directly the allocation of seats. Take this seriously.”

After making this statement, she shifted the topic:

“As for the allocation of the ten scholarship slots that everyone is concerned about, a decision has already been made. Zhu Hong, Assistant Yuan Xi, and I have decided that I will take two of the slots for our class, the two assistants will each take one to sponsor a student they favor, and the remaining six slots will be used to reward other outstanding students.