Chapter 10

  I was taken to a storage room and given my uniform. I had come straight to class from Soot’s cave after meditating there all night. This resulted in me missing the moment a porter arrived at the dorms and dropped off our new clothes.

  The uniform was predominantly black, but the colour of the trim differed based on class. The exception was the diamond class, which looked too similar to the silver class, and thus was given a dark blue trim instead. As for us in the chamite class, we were given a deep, blood-red colour that matched my hair nicely.

  Professor Kuhn briefly mentioned that we were permitted to alter these uniforms to a reasonable degree, although from what I saw, nobody had yet had the time to do so.

  I walked back into the classroom, feeling somewhat embarrassed that I delayed things for everyone.

  I took a free seat near the back next to Lily.

  “Good. Now that we’re all here and appropriately dressed, we can begin.”

  Professor Kuhn peered at me over his glasses.

  “Thankfully, you all took the initiative to introduce yourselves last night, so we can skip the introductions.”

  This was welcome news. I always hated it in my past life when we had to go around the room and say our names along with one interesting thing about ourselves. The way we did it earlier was way more relaxed.

  “Excuse me, Professor, that’s not entirely correct. The honourable princess of the Sol Proudmane family had deigned not to interact with us last night.”

  Axel spoke up from the back corner, ignoring the piercing glare coming from Bridgit who sat at the front.

  “I see. I’m sure you know enough about their family to fill in the rest of the class regardless.”

  Professor Kuhn meant to gloss over Axel’s comment and continue onward, but he chose his words poorly this time.

  “Oh, I would love to!”

  Axel sprung up from his seat and swaggered down to the front, but a venomous voice stopped him.

  “If a single word of my family leaves your filthy mouth I’ll remove your tongue, you disgraceful brute.”

  Bridgit stood in front of him and stared him down. The height difference wasn’t doing anything to help her intimidation, and Axel just smirked at her without backing off.

  The air around them heated up. Literally, the temperature was rising as Bridgit began channelling her mana.

  “Really? You want to do this? Bring your brother along, and maybe the two of you together will stand a chance.”

  Axel’s smirk dropped and was replaced with a look of boredom. He viewed her display with total disinterest. It looked to me like he wanted a verbal battle of wits because a physical fight would be too easy for him to win.

  “That’s enough, both of you. There will be plenty of time for family feuds outside of my classroom.”

  Bridgit clicked her tongue in frustration, and they both returned to their seats at Professor Kuhn’s words.

  His choice of words had piqued my interest, but I kept quiet.

  ***

  The lesson proceeded properly after the outburst. We were given our weekly timetables and an outline of the basic principles and rules for the IMA, such as the duel system, which allowed students to formally challenge one another.

  After this, Professor Kuhn opened up the room for questions.

  Bridgit, surprisingly, was the first to demand an answer.

  “Why am I here? I already submitted a transfer request, but it was denied immediately.”

  “You requested a transfer to diamond class, and your skills don’t justify that. Gold is the best you can hope for outside of chamite.”

  Professor Kuhn responded in cold indifference to her entitled whining.

  “Furthermore, your talents will be wasted and you will stagnate if you continue as you have been. Don’t you understand this is why you have fallen behind Zachariah despite putting in the same efforts?”

  Bridgit was about to retort, but was cut off as Professor Kuhn continued.

  “Finally, King Leonidas Sol Proudmane himself has given specific direction not to allow your transfer. For your own good.”

  She stiffened at the mention of the Soleo Kingdom’s monarch.

  “F-father did that…?”

  She slowly sat back into her chair in stunned silence.

  “U-uhm, sir!”

  Oliver had gathered his courage and called out.

  “C-could you please tell me why you chose me? I don’t think I have any hidden potential or anything…”

  Professor Kuhn looked at him, this time letting a small smile show on his face.

  “You’re wrong. In my personal ranking list of high potential students, you’re near the top.”

  He moved to the chalkboard and drew four circles labelled 'Mana, Aura, Holy/Unholy, Soul.'

  “You know what this refers to, right?”

  Oliver nodded.

  “Yes, sir, but what does this—”

  “Just humour me for now. Explain this to the class.”

  “...Okay… they are the four categories of energy manipulation. Mana is the most common and is based around the concept of using formulas to write or chant spells to induce phenomena. Next is aura. It uses physical force and sheer willpower to manipulate energy. Holy and unholy are grouped together as they are two sides of the same coin in that they are bestowed upon people by a higher power.”

  Oliver perfectly summarised each of them, but hesitated when he got to the final category.

  “Soul is… Not well defined, and many academics still dispute its existence. The theory is that all living beings contain a highly condensed ball of energy, and by tapping into it, they can create effects similar to magic.”

  “Hmm… Rex, you scored the highest in this subject, why don’t you take over?”

  Soul Sculpting. It was a subject name I didn’t expect to see at all when I came here, but like Professor Kuhn just said, it was the subject I was most well-versed in.

  All eyes turned to me. Fleur in particular looked strongly interested in what I had to say.

  “That theory is only half right. Souls are a part of our bodies and are indeed formed of the same energy as mana. However, unlike mana, which is mixed in the blood pumped by the Mana Organ, our souls are combined with everything. Bones, flesh, organs, your soul is connected to all of them. If the soul can be altered, then so too can any of these other things.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  This was all information that I learnt through my experience in the Feral Abyss.

  “It is most similar to aura, in that it is typically used to target yourself to improve personal abilities. However, you have to ask yourself, if there is a way to shape your own soul, wouldn’t it be possible to alter others as well?”

  There was a lot more I could say, but it would be delving too far into my own as-of-yet unproven theories, so I simply sat back down.

  “Well done. Now, keeping all that in mind, how many people here can use more than one of these?”

  Axel, Bridgit, Meztili, and Oliver raised their hands.

  “Now who can use more than two?”

  Everybody except Oliver put their hands down, which drew many curious gazes to him.

  “And who can, at least theoretically, use all four?”

  Oliver wavered, but kept his hand up.

  “Doesn’t this answer your question?”

  Professor Kuhn smiled again at him.

  “Do not fool yourselves, I have made no mistakes in my selections.”

  He was now addressing the whole class.

  “If you have any doubts as to why you are here, feel free to seek me out for private counsel. I’m aware some of you may not wish this to be discussed publicly.”

  He glanced at Oliver as he said that, but didn’t seem to have any problems with calling him out earlier.

  “Excuse me? Is this the class for magical analysis?”

  We all looked to the hallway, where a large group of students were waiting.

  “Yes, it is. My apologies. We appear to have exceeded our time limit. Chamite class, you are to return here at the end of the day before dismissal.”

  We filtered out the room and went our separate ways to find our next lessons. Only one of my classmates followed the path I took out of the building, leading to the greenhouse, where my alchemy lessons would be taking place.

  “I thought perhaps the score in your report crystal was a fluke. But it seems you do understand the topic of souls well.”

  Fleur spoke up from my side.

  “And you have an interest in alchemy, too. Do you perhaps have some elven blood in you?”

  She reached for my ear and pinched it, rolling her thumb around to look for the slightest of points to indicate elven heritage.

  “Stop that, my ears are ticklish.”

  I swatted her arm away.

  “And no, I’m 100% human.”

  “Oh? That is even more intriguing. Perhaps you had an elven teacher?”

  “No, you’re the first elf I’ve met.”

  “...So an ancient elven text then?”

  “No.”

  Why was she so hung up on me learning from elves?

  ***

  The alchemy lesson wasn’t particularly eventful, but I did get to see Fleur’s skills at mixing potions, something which impressed me greatly. She, on the other hand, judged my every action in class poorly and we parted ways afterwards with a simple comment of “I guess you really didn’t learn from an elf.”

  I don’t feel like I did anything wrong; my potion of fire resistance did exactly what it was meant to do. Sure, Fleur was a lot smoother and added some flourishes here and there, but wasn’t the end result the same?

  Casting those thoughts aside, I made my way around to the same field where we had our entry duels. It was now serving its usual function for sporting and combat lessons.

  “Oi!”

  A familiar face ran towards me.

  “Partner with me.”

  She demanded.

  Felicia Pancia practically dragged me by the wrist to join the rest of the group.

  The instructor was a burly feline therian. Unlike Felicia, his rough black mane and imposing physique showed he was of a different caste than hers, probably of the Lion family.

  Felicia dragged me to the very front. Nobody else had paired off, and it didn’t look like the instructor had said anything yet.

  “What are we partnering up for exactly?”

  I just asked instead of speculating.

  “He’s my Daddy’s friend. I know what he’ll do for the first lesson.”

  “…Daddy?”

  “Listen up, weaklings!”

  The ferocious man bellowed over us, immediately commanding silence.

  “I am Klaus Eisenruf. My duty is to grind you down and build you up better than ever! The weaklings before you were an embarrassment and put me in a bad mood! Your job is to wash away their failures!”

  He pointed his chin to the side of the field, where some students from the previous class were sprawled out, gasping for air.

  “First course: Laps! Run, you pathetic infants, run!”

  There was naturally a lot of confusion, but Felicia pulled me along and immediately started running with me.

  I followed her pace half-heartedly while looking over my shoulder.

  Most of the others were just standing around, but they were soon all running for their lives when Klaus leapt down and started physically grabbing students and roaring in their faces to run.

  He didn’t stop there either. He ran behind us with an expression that said everything.

  If you fall behind me, I’ll show you hell.

  I stopped doing things halfway and ran seriously.

  We ran…

  “Aaaarrrghh, my legs are killing me!”

  Students started complaining, but we kept on running…

  “Haaa. haaaa. Haaaa… I can’t….”

  The complaints became exhausted pleas for mercy, but we still ran…

  “Haaa… That’s it… I’m done…”

  Someone finally gave up and dropped to his knees.

  “BOTTOM FEEDER, GET OFF THE FIELD!”

  Klaus caught up to him and kicked him off the field like a sack of potatoes.

  Seeing this, we all felt a second wind and picked up the pace.

  ***

  My body ached all over. I was confident in my stamina before this lesson, but now I felt like I was still a long way from competing against my betters.

  It didn’t end with the running. Klaus would abruptly yell for us to go from one exercise to another and push us to our breaking point each time. Sit-ups, push-ups, and squats followed the laps, and there wasn’t a moment’s rest between them. I seriously considered cheating and fusing with Tiara just to make it through, but it looked like we were done.

  “Don’t relax.”

  Felicia wiped the sweat from her brow and yanked me back up by the collar as I sat on the grass.

  “This isn’t the end. It’s just a break before the real lesson.”

  I looked around for Tiara and prepared to cheat as hard as I could.

  “Everybody grab onto the nearest person!”

  Klaus yelled before I could find Tiara and execute my plan.

  Felicia was already holding onto me.

  “That person is now your battle buddy, and we are now in a simulated combat scenario! Here’s the situation: You and your battle buddy were marching for three days and three nights, and now you have fallen into an enemy ambush. Look around at all the other students besides your battle buddy…”

  Everybody cautiously looked around. I realised where this was going and took a proper stance.

  “Those are the enemy soldiers ready to bring you down! Fight or die, soldiers!”

  Even with his declaration, everybody was still hesitating until Klaus dropped the final bombshell.

  “The winning pair gets to skip laps next time.”

  I swept out the legs of the nearest student, and Felicia roundhouse kicked their partner. Like that, the first pair was eliminated, and the chaos began.

  ***

  Surprisingly, Felicia and I came out on top pretty easily. As luck would have it, our classmates mostly consisted of people who relied too heavily on weapons or magic. Felicia and I held a massive advantage with our unarmed skill and cleanly swept the opposition.

  My senses were still on high alert and my body rushed with adrenaline, but I switched it off immediately when Klaus announced our victory.

  I may have hated this lesson at first, but once the fighting started, it felt like old times. Of course, outside the Feral Abyss, I didn’t have to worry about dying horribly, which made the training a little more laid back than I was used to.

  “You did good not holding Felicia back boy.”

  Klaus addressed me while he patted Felicia on the back with a proud grin.

  “Pretty impressive for a human. So tell me, how did you like the taste of my novice course? It’s meant for therians, but the boss at this school encouraged me not to lower my standards for other races.”

  “It was exhilarating. When do we upgrade from the novice course?”

  “When your knees don’t wobble like jelly.”

  Klaus lightly kicked the back of my knees, and as he suggested, I fell forward to the ground. I was completely unable to hold my ground.

  I couldn’t deliver any meaningful retort, mainly because I lacked the strength to stand up again, so I opted to lay flat on the nice soft grass.

  Klaus laughed and finally dismissed the class. I needed Felicia to support me with my arm slung over her shoulder as we left the field to enjoy our meal break for the day.