The atmosphere was surprisingly festive in the Great Hall, which had been transformed into a large course fair with various stands for each of the classes and even a few student-led societies. There was even an Anime Appreciation club, demonstrating that not everything at the facility was combat focused, although, quickly flicking through the material, Lenny realised it was heavily orientated towards action.
Although intrigued, after a quick perusal, he dismissed the idea and went to find the classes he was considering. If forced, he had decided that the Melee Arms class aligned best with his ability, but ideally, he would do both classes he had set his eyes on.
He found the Melee Arms stall, which seemed to have the highest number of masters. There were three of them, unlike the others which had only two. It turned out to be the most popular choice, often accounting for twice as many as the next largest group, so it made sense there would be more of them.
Still, this meant that he didn't get an opportunity to speak with a master directly and instead simply put his name down and took a copy of the timetable. When he went to Hand-to-Hand Combat stall, however, he had a very different experience.
One of the two masters had approached him and asked: "Were you thinking of signing up?"
"I was, but I have signed up to Melee Arms too. I can see there are a couple of clashes. Can I still attend?"
The man nodded. "Can I ask which is your preference of the two?"
Lenny hesitated, not wishing to offend.
"We would appreciate your attendance at the class. As you can see, it's not exactly the most popular. Only one can contribute towards your final grade, but you would not be the first to attend multiple classes. In fact, the timetable is set up in such a way so that all the legacies can attend Group Warfare."
Lenny wondered about this for a moment. Was that class really so important? He had breezed past it, not even really considering it as an option. Surely, one needed to be able to fight on their own before they could contribute towards the group? Although that was his feeling, that was not technically true. There were many support abilities which would be more useful in a group setting than fighting solo.
The man looked at his orange sash for a moment, then asked: "Could I ask what your ranking is?"
"I actually don't know," said Lenny.
The man pulled out his tablet. "Name?"
"Lenny Hope."
After a few moments, he said: "Rank 250. Hmm…"
Although in a way it made sense, considering he had not attended the ranking, he did not feel like he was the weakest person in the year. In fact, he thought he could have beaten a few of the yellow sashes, if their abilities didn't give him too much trouble.
"Ha!" cried Master Berg. "I always love an underdog."
Lenny, embarrassed, quickly tried to move the conversation along. "Could I ask… Do you actually fight spirit beasts with your bare hands?"
"I use gauntlets, but my accomplice here uses no weapon at all."
"How?" asked Lenny, incredulous.
"I like to smash my opponents," Karelin said.
Lenny looked at them both for a few minutes, as if trying to assess if they were joking or outright lying. He just couldn't imagine anyone, even spirited, fighting those monsters with their bare hands. It made sense for Lenny, in a way, who could eventually enhance his body, or the master who used gauntlets, probably of a predator tier or maybe higher, but unless the apprentice front of him had an ability which significantly boosted his physical traits in some way, Lenny wondered how effective it could really be, and if Hand-to-Hand combat was really the best choice.
Catching this, Master Berg chose to elaborate: "You know, I wanted to take on an apprentice a few years ago. Advertised out the job and got loads of applicants. Most from reputable factions. Well, none of them passed the practical. I was feeling pretty depressed about it, actually. Thought I'd be teaching the class on my own. Then Karelin here came along, from some no name faction. They spoke about him like a God. Called him 'the Experiment', if you believe. And when we sparred, I went all out for twenty minutes and he was still standing, still coming at me, even smashed me into the ground a few times. As far as I was concerned, he passed the test with flying colours."
"You're an apprentice?" asked Lenny.
Karelin nodded.
"Don't let the title fool you," said Erik. "If he were in any other class, he'd be a master by now. Unfortunately, the Hand-to-Hand Combat class only has the budget for one."
"A title is what it is," said Karelin.
With that, Lenny took the timetable and left. He thought a lot about what the Hand-to-Hand Combat masters had said to him—well, master and apprentice.
"System, show me the enhancements tab," he thought. He spotted it on the 3d model of his body. Steel metacarpals. No stat changes. "System, why doesn't reinforcing my fists change my stats?"
"The material amount and weight is low, so should not really affect stamina or speed. It does produce a slightly higher durability, but not sufficient enough to increase your health by a whole point. Also, although the damage you could perform bare-fisted would increase, your strength would not. However, this might make fighting bare fisted more similar to the damage performed with crushing weapons with your current stats."
With that, he started to reconsider his options. He really had two choices: either he needed to use his next core to make a spirit weapon, maybe even begin specialising in some specific weapon, or he needed to go the other way and use all his cores to enhance his body for Hand-to-Hand Combat.
With that, he went off, attempting to find his companions. Somehow, they had kept missing each other in the large hall full of moving bodies, but finally, it was Rose who had spotted him, queuing up for some food.
He had been caught off guard, distracted by the menu, that seemed to offer a wide variety of fish. Being from the inner-city slums, he had never tried any fish, so was struggling to make a choice. What he hadn't known, was that no one here would have eaten the options on offer, it being from a spirit beast.
He looked up, aware someone had approached, and saw Rose was giving him a strange look.
"You weren't at the ranking yesterday," she said.
"I was unconscious," he replied.
"Sleeping?"
"No," he paused. "I was knocked out."
"Colour?" she asked.
He thought for a moment. This question wouldn't have meant anything to him only a few days ago, but now he could see that the school was essentially partitioned into levels where some groups were considered inherently more valuable than others. There was no need for it to be stated openly, it was apparent from the way those of higher grades were treated. Even the lower coloured sashes had taken in this cultural bias and would look down upon those lower than their own. This was despite the fact that there were some of lower colour grades who had received higher ranks off the back of the sparring session.
"Yellow," he said. "But they were a second year."
"Not a fair comparison then," she said. "Did you sign up for the Melee Arms class? I heard it was popular."
He nodded, not going into his trouble choosing between the two classes.
"I'll see you in the morning, then," she said smiling.
As they were about to leave, though, they were approached by someone unexpectedly.
"Hello," said the young woman. She had dark curly hair and purple eyes. Her build was athletic, somewhat hidden beneath loose-fitting clothes. But what had surprised them both the most was the colour of the sash on her breast: it was violet. They had not known anyone had been awarded such a high distinction but Base Sixteen had done well that year and received two.
"I'd like you to join my party for the first assessment," she said, looking at Rose.
Rose looked around, wondering if she was talking to someone else. "Do you mean me?" she finally asked.
"Who else would I be talking to?"
Lenny did not like the implication but thought better of offending potentially one of the strongest students in the school, so bit his lip.
"But why?" said Rose.
"You're a healer. One of two in the year. The other is a green sash but only because of her spirit essence. Her fighting ability is weak, meaning she'll be using it on herself. Soon, we will be asked to form teams for the first task and a healer would complement the other strengths of my group."
"Can my friend join?" Rose asked, looking at Lenny.
The young woman looked at him carefully, spotted the orange sash and simply said: "No."
"In that case, I refuse," said Rose.
The other girl was surprised. "If you change your mind, the name's Ivy." She went to walk away, but then turned back: "I'm from the Drowned."
Things were beginning to make sense. The Drowned were one of the four pillars, known for their abilities associated with water. With an ability as strong as that, she must have been associated with the main branch, perhaps a direct descent of some prominent family member. If this was true, she would have been groomed for a leadership role from a young age.
They were curious what exactly Ivy's ability was, perhaps water or ice or even a transformation ability associated with a ferocious sea creature, but asking was unlikely to get a positive response considering the refusal. Besides, they had just lost their chance as she walked off, not looking back.
At that moment, Harry seemed to appear out of nowhere. "What did she want?" he asked.
"She wanted Rose to join her hunting party," said Lenny.
"Don't trust the Drowned. People like that, they don't see us as equals."
Both of them looked at Harry strangely, for they had spent their whole lives believing that they were not.