The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 198: Ranks

After getting Lara to her new school, Victor took the girls back to the Academy, as he had nothing better to do.

When he entered late, as usual, Isabella was busy giving class and chose to totally ignore him as he went to his Desk.

“Now as I was saying the system has a power ranking for all entities like artifacts skills and even classes.” Isabella continued as Victor gave Lin her morning kiss under the class’s astonished eyes then returned to his disk and put his head on a pillow that was prepared by Margret. Lily was nowhere to be seen.

“Objects, skills, and pretty much everything in the system range from F rank to an A. The closer to A the better it is, and every transition from one letter to the next means a qualitative change. So a B-ranked sword can crush a thousand C-ranked ones.” She explained.

“Teacher, but I have a BB grade ribbon here.” Madelaine, the succubus tamed by Tom, said pointing to a ribbon on her hair, it was a gift from Tom.

“When an object gets better but his advancement is not enough to reach a higher rank the letter repeating effect happens.” She explained. “But it is very rare in F to D objects as even a small advancement would make them reach a higher ranking. I have seen a AAA object once and it was the limit of what a normal object can be.” She added.

“What about S ranks?” Tom asked.

“S ranks are reserved for objects and skills that are very strong. I never saw an S object as certain powers keep them locked up and only give them to their own heirs.” She said with resentment in her voice as she glared at Victor.

“There are also S ranked skills. Those skills usually are very strong and very hard to defend against. They usually depend on authority too.” She added.

“Can things change their ranks?” Another girl asked.

“Yes, in theory, everything can level up, but in practice, we only observed this in skills and artifacts. It gets harder the better the rank. I am expecting all of you to upgrade your main fighting arts skill to at least C before you graduate.” She pointed out, making them complain a little. Upgrading fighting skills are hard as it requires a lot of training before clearing a dungeon to show the effects.

“Can classes level up too?” Another girl asked.

“Classes usually get a plus sign next to them… I have never heard of a rank change. Might be possible, but remember, it requires a qualitative change. How can that happen to a class?” She said making the class ponder on her question.

“What about ranks higher than S?” Peter asked.

“I heard of an SSS… but that’s the most proven,” Isabella said.

“But the teacher I heard about the mist oracle. They say she had an X-ranked future prediction class.” A gossip-loving girl interjected, making her few friends who also came from minor aristocratic families laugh at her.

“This only exists in fairy tales, but they might exist. If I guessed correctly, it was a legend from 500 years ago…” Isabella asked as the girl who was blushing now nodded.

”Well, Since many of the students here havenʼt heard of these, I might as well tell you about the legendary ranks then. Those only existed in legend though and were not proven. “Isabella said as she watched her students listen closely. She wanted to laugh as if any of them would even glimpse at an X rank if it existed.

“There are three other ranks in the literature.” She began to explain, “X, R, and N,”

“X is the strongest. It means that the holder can affect the state of the world itself.” She explained. “Like how certain powers can predict the future and at the same time change it. There is another mention of an X-rank skill in an old tale where a monster had a skill called Core Eater that lets a player eat other peopleʼs powers. It is also very overpowered so the system gave it an X rank… Of course in that tale, the hero defeated the monster by feeding him a cursed self-destruct skill and forcing him to activate it. ” She added as the students nodded, most playersʼ families had that same fairy tale book to scare naughty children.

Tom who came from a commoner origin was one of the few who never heard of this, so he decided to inquire about it from Miss Isabella later in the night. He will make her tell him that fairy tale while she…

“Tom, stop drooling and pay attention.” Teacher Isabella struck his desk and scolded him as she blushed lightly. She was sure that he will take his revenge on her later at night.

“Now…Where were we... Ah yes, R rank. It only appeared once in the records. It’s a tale about a fisherman who got an R-ranked pot from the bottom of a lake… Legends tell that an evil spirit was locked inside of it … Some fairytale stuff, if you are interested you can find the book in the player’s section of the library.” She said, making many students decide to go check it.

Victor, who didn’t sleep, was pondering on the ranks recalling what he knew from his memory. He knew what R stood for. It was ”Restrain”.

An R rank can only be given to artifacts and it almost always contains something locked away in it. Some things that the world itself wished to remain hidden and no dungeon could contain them… They usually held nasty things with nastier curses.

“Finally the N rank… We also don’t know… It was only mentioned in the tale of the greedy blacksmith who kept upgrading his evil sword with the blood of children until it reached the N rank. After that, it could not cut a thing despite its sharp edge. and the blacksmith was killed by a brave child who challenged him.” She sighed. “It is usually a tale of how evil deeds would never bear good results.” She explained.

Victor knew better. N rank is given to objects and skills that are super strong but can’t affect the world at all. It’s like a curse of effect nullification. He didnʼt know how such objects got created, but he had his theories.

“Now, enough of that… Let’s discuss dungeon air dynamics.…” Isabella changed the subject as her voice trailed off in the background while Victor closed his eyes.

He decided to dose off after that, he had to go to Tetraquad city in the afternoon and would probably not get much sleep in the night so he decided to take a nap.

“Will you tell me that fairy tale later?” A soft voice whispered in his ear. It was Margret who took the liberty to ”borrow” the absent Lily’s seat. “I might need to tell it to our baby when he is born.” She added, making sure that the eavesdropping students in the front hear her.

“We can let the servants tell them, as you will be busy making other babies,” Victor responded without opening his eyes to watch the jealous eyes of his schoolmates.

…

Lara returned home at 5.00 PM and was surprised to find out that her esteemed brother was nowhere to be found. According to Hilda, he had to travel to attend some auctions.

Lara was annoyed, she wanted to tell him about all the new friends she made and how El broke some nosy boy’s nose after he laughed at her when she told the entire class that she will be a hooker in the future… Lara and El finally learned what that word meant, and that made them both very embarrassed.

Her esteemed brother should have told her instead of laughing it off every time she asked.

Thankfully the headmaster let her go after some scolding. But El had to run around the school twice as a punishment. El didn’t mind.

Lara had noticed recently that El had much more endurance than her, especially when she accompanied her in her morning sword training. It made Lara very embarrassed and forced her to work harder as she didn’t want to appear like a loser in front of her new younger sister.

“Let’s go do our homework.” She told El who quickly nodded while wondering if she should tell her young mistress that she already did it before leaving school. It was only some random partial differential equations that she happened to have read about in some book in the mansion’s Library. She heard that the chicks filled it with all kinds of books to make their young master look extra smart.

She did not realize that the teacher had given the students some college-level problems to make the arrogant young brats more humble and to test their thought processes.

…

In a dark room, Tobias von Geldstadt was standing next to a tall man with one eye and a scar that looked way scarier than it really was. He was Kolmir von Geldstadt, the punishment hall master of the family.

“Uncle, please help me find who is the bastard who killed Clint. You…. He was killed doing a mission for you!” He bowed deeply,

“You mean it is my fault?” Kolmir asked coldly.

“I never meant that.” Tobias shook a little.

“I see… Clint was in Vain city… And I already know who killed him. I already performed the last memory ritual. It was a man called Dave Davis. A big arms dealer.” Kolmir said slowly, taking his time.

“I want him dead!” Tobias screamed as he squeezed his hands which still had traces of gold.

“No… Stay out of this…” Kolmir said. He was wondering if his nephew washes his hands. “The master had issued an order for me to investigate this.” He explained.

“Investigate? Does this need the Master’s intervention?” Tobias asked, a little surprised, he didn’t expect his son’s mission to be this crucial.

“There might be some complication that involves the Von Weise family, so I will have to make sure.” Kolmir patiently said, “So you better keep out of this for now and wait for me to summon you.” He repeatedly looked at his nephew, who shivered a little and stepped back.

“I… I understand…” He said, “But I hope that uncle makes sure to cut that Dave to pieces.” He added.

“I will see what I can do… No one kills a black chamber member without a punishment.” Kolmir stated with a gloomy voice.