Read Novel Full Chapter 1820: The Road to Becoming a Scholar
Chapter 1820: The Road to Becoming a Scholar
"...Who knew the path of a Scholar was actually this hard?"
Lying down on her bed, Veradine blankly stared at the ceiling as the past few months she spent at school came to mind.
Not wanting to give up on the path of a Sage that easily, Veradine made the decision to embark on the path of a Scholar after she had somewhat come to terms with the verdict given to her by the Grand Sage.
Although the path was just recently established, with its history only spanning over a hundred years at most, Scholars had already begun to be recognized as a profession that were only below the greatest path one could take on the planet.
After all, Sages were the main reason why Scholars had come to be.
Though, unlike Sages, whose paths encompassed a myriad number of things, Scholars were only focused on two things.
Knowledge and research.
Of course, the scope of what a Scholar could research depended on the person. However, at the end of the day, a Scholar’s sole pursuit was to improve the knowledge on a certain topic through the process of research.
With that said, anything could become the scope of a Scholar’s research. Whether it be the formation of rocks, the mechanics of a certain movement, or even the patterns on various plants, all of it could become a Scholar’s focus.
Naturally, that also included things that were more in line with what a Sage would tackle, such as magic energy and magic spells.
The fact that a Scholar was allowed to tackle such things... was the main reason why Veradine had chosen to become a Scholar in the first place.
However, after arriving at the school where she planned to start her journey as a Scholar, she realized that she still had a long way to go before being able to pursue the intricacies only accessible to Sages.
"At this rate, I’ll only be able to ascend to the rank of a Third-tier Student by the end of the year," she muttered to herself, briefly glancing at the items she had within her dorm room.
From various notebooks to flasks, to potted plants and random sticks, she had them all laid out according to a certain pattern.
Though, whether or not that pattern was logical was something that she still had to confirm.
"Although the professors have high hopes that my topic of focusing on nature’s elements would yield a high-quality article, the others have already begun telling me to stop after showing no results on the topic for three months straight."
Just like those on the path of a Sage, Scholars were also split into two different major ranks: Students and Scholars.
If the path of a Sage had Sages-to-be, then Scholars had the Students as their counterpart, wherein the goal of a Student was to deepen their knowledge and understanding regarding the topic they had chosen to pursue.
However, since the level of depth a Student could achieve in their research differed from person to person, a governing body was made for this exact purpose that categorized one’s research into five different ranks.
Rudimentary-tier, third-tier, second-tier, first-tier, and exemplary-tier.
Publishing a rudimentary-tier article through this governing body was enough for one to be recognized as an official Student. However, just like on the path of a Sage, entering the path as a Student was only the beginning for a Scholar.
After accumulating enough rudimentary-tier articles under one’s belt, one would eventually be able to publish a third-tier article through the governing body.
Then again, a Student would only be recognized as a true Third-tier Student once they had published three third-tier articles under their name.
On the other hand, a Second-tier Student would need to publish three second-tier articles... as well as nine third-tier articles before they were recognized to be at that rank by the governing body.
As for a First-tier Student, they would have to publish not only three first-tier articles, but they would also need to have nine second-tier articles, as well as 27 third-tier articles that all fall under the same topic as their first-tier articles.
Thinking about how many articles she would still need to write before reaching that level, a faint shudder swept through Veradine’s body as she decided to rest now as the thought of her research came to mind.
’At the very least, my understanding of nature’s elements would become deeper after this,’ she thought to herself, closing her eyes.
’If all goes according to plan, I’ll be able to write at least three rudimentary-tier articles on it, laying down the foundations for my first third-tier article.’
’After that, I’d only need to write two more.’
...
Reminding herself of the goal she made before embarking on the path of a Scholar, Veradine engrossed herself in deepening her understanding of nature’s elements through her research.
With the help of like-minded people, as well as other Students that were embarking in a similar field of research, she was finally able to show results to others by the time she was in her fourth month of study.
Seeing that she had published four rudimentary-tier articles from the research she had done, a great number of other Students had become envious of her, with some even deciding to shift to the same topic because of it.
After all, if she was able to write four articles on the topic in that time, then wouldn’t that mean they would be able to do the same thing as well?
Unsurprisingly, the answer to that was no.
As if those four articles were the keys that opened the gate, the speed at which Veradine achieved results in her research slowly but surely improved over time.
On top of that, the quality of her research and her articles had also steadily gone up as more time passed, allowing her to become a Third-tier Student a month before her predicted time.
Having experienced the wonders and excitement brought about by dedicating oneself to a certain topic for almost a year now, Veradine had gradually begun to forget the verdict the Grand Sage gave her.
Taking up its spot instead was a genuine enjoyment for the pursuit of greater knowledge, as well as aspirations of becoming a Scholar so renowned that even her mother and father would be proud of what she’d done.
"If I keep this up, it won’t even take me 2 years to become a Second-tier Student," she said with a slight smile as she motivated herself to keep writing her first second-tier article.
Though, once she was finished and published the article through the governing body, those thoughts were immediately proven wrong.
...Since according to the governing body, she had actually written a first-tier article instead.