Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Xiao Lin was shocked. As the dean of the academy, his experience was definitely incomparable to Xiao Lin and Lilith. When they were at The Final Land, or even after they left, neither of them had considered it, and neither of them even worried about the consequences of Asabanor going back to Planet Norma.
Xiao Lin gulped as he got anxious. “What would happen if that old man really has a way to fight against, or even eliminate the Law of Immortality?”
The dean leaned into the sofa, taking his time before saying. “War.”
Who would the war be against?
Very obviously, it would be a war against the natives of Planet Norma.
Xiao Lin had occasionally heard Department Head Song mention that Dawn Academy had been at war with the orcs for a long time. However, there had not been any large scale conflicts for a while. At the most, there were just some skirmishes with the surrounding merfolk.
It was the same for the colonized territories around the whole world. In the initial stages of colonization, war was very common. Outside of the elves who avoided conflict, almost every race in Planet Norma had a history of war with the colonists. It was only until Ivanovich established the Law of Immortality that the tides drastically swung in the colonists’ favor.
Ever since then, there were very few large-scale wars against the various races in Planet Norma. At the most, there were some local conflicts, but they were resolved peacefully most of the time. Of course, resolving it peacefully was just lip service. In truth, it demanded various forms of compensation in exchange for peaceful coexistence with the people from Earth.
If the Law of Immortality disappeared, would that form of peace hold?
The atmosphere in the office got very heavy. Xiao Lin was out of his depth regarding the subject, but the dean did not bother asking him for his opinion either.
After a short moment of silence, the dean adjusted his posture and laughed, “Forget about it. This isn’t anything important at the moment and you shouldn’t be worried about it. No matter what, us old coots are still around to prevent anything from happening. Now, let’s discuss your problems.”
Xiao Lin was startled; the true motive had presented itself. The dean obviously did not rush back to school just to ask about the undying high priest.
“First of all, I need to explain what talents are. Talents are not exclusive to us colonists. In Planet Norma, this power is called a God’s Blessing, which implies that it is a power given by God at birth.” The dean did not go straight into the main topic, but slowly explained things.
“God again?” Xiao Lin furrowed his eyebrows. In The Final Land, he kept hearing Asabanor bring up God’s existence. He refused to make a firm conclusion on the existence of God, since Planet Norma was completely different from Earth. God might just be a spiritual existence, or he might even have a physical body, but that was still just Planet Norma’s God.
The dean said ruefully, “In truth, according to our database, the manifestation of individuals with talent, regardless of rank, among natives number to around one to every ten thousand. Among the academies, the ratio of individuals with a talent is instead one to every thousand. Even if there are definitely certain margins of error with our data for the natives, this gap is still shocking. You should know yourself, in terms of our physical capabilities, the people from Earth cannot compete with the natives. However, when it comes to talents, we have a huge advantage.”
Xiao Lin could not help but speculate, “Could the God of Planet Norma be taking care of us outsiders from Earth?”
“It’s really strange, and we haven’t managed to figure out the reason. As for the rankings, we’re quite similar to the natives. Talents are all split into five ranks, from D-rank to S-rank. Our rankings in the start were actually made in reference to the ones on Planet Norma.”
No wonder the system in the academy had such detailed explanations on all the different talents; they probably utilized the information already available on the planet itself.
Xiao Lin asked softly, “Then what about SS-rank talents?”
The dean shook his head. “There were no SS-rank talents initially. What I mean is, the SS-rank does not exist among the natives. It was only until Ivanovich appeared did Voyna Akademiya realize his talent was not in any records, and that his talent was terrifyingly strong. Not even the S-rank talents that appeared before could hold a candle to him. Everyone immediately set his talent as SS-rank. After that, upon discussion, we settled on a new rule: any talent that was not in the archives would automatically be regarded as an SS-rank talent.”
This was the first time Xiao Lin had heard of this explanation, especially in regards to his SS-rank talent. It was a little surprising, but disappointing as well. He curiously asked, “I actually thought SS-rank talents meant it was stronger and better than an S-rank talent. Based on what you said, SS-rank talents are just holes in the archives, or just talents that the natives had never seen before?”
The dean knew what he wanted to say, and asked, “Do you know what Ivanovich’s SS-rank talent was?”
Xiao Lin shook his head. “That’s probably a big secret of the Russian academy.”
“Not many people know it now, but it was not a big secret at the time. Almost everyone knew about it back then. Ivanovich called his own talent Genesis; he could create anything from his mind that the laws of nature allowed, in any space that his own power could reach! A cup of water, a cigarette, a loaf of bread; he could create anything he wanted. If it’s anything that was at a higher level, such as a dragon-eagle or a golden dragon, then his own power had to be at that rank for him to create it.”
The dean narrowed his eyes in reminiscence, “Voyna Akademiya was once at war with the titans up north. They were few in number, but they were an extremely strong race; they’ve gone extinct now.”
“Did Ivan do it?”
At the time, Ivan’s skills were still not as powerful as the legends said. He only did one thing in that war, which was to head to the titan’s lands alone, creating a small meteorite and hurling it down toward them. The entire titan race was wiped out, and to this day, nothing grows on those lands.
Xiao Lin sucked in his breath. Even though the laws of the world did not allow a weapon of mass destruction like a nuclear bomb, meteorites were probably more terrifying than a nuclear bomb.
He suddenly recalled that there were a lot of plants that could only be seen on Earth around Ivan’s tomb in The Final Land. He always assumed that it was brought in by someone, but upon reflection, it was probably all created by Ivanovich’s talent.
