The bell rung, signaling the end of our class.
Today we learned about what causes a dungeon to form, and the different kinds of dungeon.
To summarize it. Dungeons get formed when mana becomes unstable, creating a pocket dimension with monsters and various items in it. It's unkown why the entrance is formed in the shape a stone entrance.
We only talked about the two most common types of dungeon, close and open space type. Those basically boil down to caves (closed space dungeons) and not caves (open space dungeons.)
But I still have one more class today.
Combat training.
"Excuse me" a female voice called out to me as I was heading for my next class.
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"Next... uuuh... oh." it took him a couple of long seconds to decide the next student..
"You!" The teacher was pointing at a student who clumsily stood up.
"I-I-I'm Liana from the United Kingdom of Tiasbes" a girl with cat ears and short brown hair "Since a lot of dungeons are formed where I'm from, I want to learn to explore a dungeon to prevent them from breaking out"
When a dungeon "breaks out" it causes all the monsters inside to come out... which obviously is bad.
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"A-are you also going to combat training"
She belongs to the heavy armor class, even though you wouldn't expect it from her due to her shy personality and small frame. A decent unit on early game that falls off pretty easily.
"Yea, are you also on group A too Liana?"
Unlike most classes, the combat training subject is divided into four groups of thirty-five students.
"Y-yes, and I-I wanted to know if..." she was looking to the ground.
"If you don't mind coming with me. Then sure, let's go together" I tried acting as friendly as I could.
She just nodded and started walking besides me.
"I-I'm sorry if this upsets you but... you're nothing like I heard in the rumours"
"Really..?"
"Y-yes, I heard thet you bribed the director to admit you in, and that you're secretly a hardened veteran infiltrating our school" she began describing every rumour formed around me.
"Hahaha" how can I react appart from laughing nervously. How?
"Oh. I'm sorry please don't demote me!!" She yelled and bowed to me
"Wha- no wait... raise your head...." if someone watched this, surely my rumours would've increased. "Calm down, I can't demote you"
"But I heard that you and prince Lyon Alva had a disagreement and because of that, you manipulated him so that he'd end up downgrading on the ranks"
I want to say that that rumour is false...
But it isn't...
"Trust me, I wanted Lyon to be demoted ss much as him. I hated the outcome but it wasn't something I can change"
Lies upon lies
"Besides... you now know that most rumours about me are false... so is this one" she seemed to calm down a bit.
I hate rumours
We made our way to arena three, where our next class was about to start.
Thirty-three students, not counting me and Liana, were all waiting for our teacher.
"Alen!" I hear someone calling me.
It's Franchesca "Already finished with that weird class?"
"It isn't a weird class..." I can feel Liana staring at both Fran and me with fear, stepping back.
That seems to be a normal reaction aparently.
Not only is Franchesca feared... but I also seem to be percieved like that aswell, so we've been getting along on our two required classes today.
"Anyone that willingly wants to explore dungeons is a weirdo" she crosses her arms and I notice how Liana left us and joined a different group.
"How was a class without me? Boring?" I teased her as I can suspect how they went.
"Don't think of yourself as that important to me, you're just an ant that I'm observing how it grows" she turns around.
"But was it boring or not?"
"Pfff..." she said something in such a low tone, I couldn't make out what she said.
"Haha"
I still don't understand why she's being so nice with me. I even noticed that she's cold to our classmates like she's supposed to be originally, but it seems that I'm an exception.
"Y'all seem to be in high spirits today!!" a voice that sounded as loud as a roar made everyone's head turn to see our teacher. "I think this makes for the perfect time for one-on-one matches" every step she took seemed like it made the ground tremble.
"Like true warriors, a fight without magic and only the skills of our body" why is she walking toward me and Franchesca?
"And you, little star boy" she grabbed me by the collar, lifting me with only one hand.
"Why don't ya show us the reason of your popularity" she threw me to a small ring.
But thanks to my passive, I have no trouble sticking the landing.
As soon as I turn around I see a black spot on the sky that's getting bigger.
Sadly, that black spot was a student that was also thrown by our teacher.
"Both of you grab a weapon and begin an esposition match for the rest of the class"
We both stood up and walked past the teacher and students as the weapons where placed on the opposite side of the small ring I was going to fight in.
Zagressa Beritan, a tiger demi-human with strength that makes even dragons look weak in comparison. A gladiator class unit, an advanced class from the warrior, that relies on brute strength to destroy every enemy.
She' even worse at magic than me, having no affinity with any of the elements.
Weirdly enough, she does have a magic attack and mana stat that are completely useless on her.
I didn't look at him but the one I'm fighting against is...
Cecil Treyaro, the current number three of the S class.
A guy with long black hair tied in a ponytail.
Theo Der Botcam's personal bodyguard.
And the second best recruitable swordsman class unit in the game.
A true beast that automatically benches like five other swordsman even if he's lower leveled.
"So ya fight using daggers? I expected something more entertaining" I could hear the dissapointment on her voice.
I looked at Cecil and he simply just off shrugged off his shoulders.
"Whatever, start fighting before I make both of ya run all evening around the arena"
We both got ready to fight.
"Snowfa-Heurk" a rock hit Cecil's head
"No magic is allowed on my classes"
He got up, blood started pouring out of his forehead.
We both started analizing eachother, preparing to counter the other one's first move.
"... Heurk" a rock hit my head and I was left on the ground.
"That was a warning rock. I know of yer little trick and I'm making sure you won't use it" she had another rock on her right hand, ready to be thrown.
"I wasn't going to use it!" Unlike Cecil, that rock hit me on my left cheek.
"Yea right. I know how you fight from the moment I laid my eyes on you. You're here to learn how to fight using only your body like true warriors" her intense look put a lot of pressure on both of us.
"So fight like true warriors!!"
I looked at Cecil and it felt like he was motivated by what she said.
I on the other hand, am not motivated by her words as I'm no fighting addict.
We both quickly ran at eachother.
Cecil's first attack was a diagonal upwards attack.
I parry his attack using both my daggers, pushing him back.
With a quick step, I made my next move by doing multiple sweeping attacks. He dodged most of them by stepping back.
Quickly adopting a defenssive position, he seemed to be waiting for the perfect moment to counterattack.
And that moment was when, after succesfully blocking all of my attacks, he saw an open spot when I charged up a descending attack.
He kicked me on the stomach, sending me back a few steps away.
He followed up by attacking my face with his blade.
The kick wasn't all that powerfull, so it didn't take me a lot to recover myself and duck under his attack.
Maybe it's because I trained with a better swordsman, but I felt like his attack patterns are easy to predict.
It didn't take me long to be on the offensive again.
I swear there's something wrong here.
I shouldn't be having the upperhand in a battle against Cecil.
No matter how much he tried to gain an advantage, every attempt was cut short and he ended up going back to a deffensive stance.
In the end, my offensive was simply more efficient and I pushed him back enough to be right next to the edge of the ring.
Just a couple more attacks and I'll win against one of the most powerful characters.
While I was preparing for my final attack. He suddenly assumed a weird position.
Even though he had no scabbard. He assumed a position as if he had one and was sheathing his sword.
And even if he didn't move a muscle.
I felt as if I could already feel where he would attack before he even started the attack.
Right side of my neck.
Left side of my chest, under my arm
Outer right thigh.
So... we've just begun the year and you already know how to do that.
He launched his attack, a horizontal slash to the right side of my neck.
Unlucky for you, fighting Karla was way worse. When I was fighting her, I could feel at least fifty different attacks that would instantly knock me out.
Yours will only damage me.
You are strong Cecil, being able to use that technique at this early point in the story, even if it's just for a moment, is truly some insane potential.
His attack was stopped by my own blades.
Once... twice... and I avoided the third strike by jumping.
I used the momentum provided by my jump to...
Where is he?
I felt pain coming from my back, it felt like a wooden sword...
And because we were already next to the limit of the ring, I was pushed back with enough force to be thrown out of the circle.
I stick the landing... but I've clearly lost the battle.
I look at our teacher and she had an obviously bored face while having his pinky finger inside her animal ear.
"Man the level's low this year" she yawned "Everyone, find a sparring partner and fight till' you throw up or pass out!!" I looked around to see who could be my sparring partner.
"How about a rematch?" Cecil asked in a calm tone.
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