Eritance - Chapter 39

I struggled to my feet. It was a difficult lesson to accept. I didn’t realize that this old man would be so powerful. “Ross, from now on. Can you show me someone’s magic power too?” I asked him. “Of course, as long as you know what you’re looking at, it can be measured by me”.

So, it was like that. Education really was important. I wondered how many useful stats I’m missing out on seeing by virtue of not being smart enough to understand the things around me.

I vowed to myself that I would study hard once my lessons started. The more I grew, the more Ross and the relic would grow. This would ultimately turn me into a force to be reckoned with.

I silently followed the old man into another grand hall. Inside this hall there were three sets of stairs leading to different wings in the hall. I say hall, but actually this area resembled a giant underground castle.

The stairs represented the rank of the recruits using them. There were bronze, silver, and gold stairs. On the first floor there was a path that had all sorts of older men and women walking in and out of them. They all wore robes or ceremonious clothing, so it must have been a zone for the instructors to live and work in.

“Take this ring” the man said to me. “It will guide you to your room. It is important, so don’t lose it. This ring stores all the information about you on it. Your rank, your class, and your merits. If you lose it, you’ll have to start again from the beginning”.

With that he handed me the ring and walked towards the path on the first floor. “Oh, and don’t worry about instruction, you will be assigned a senior to help you learn about the innerworkings of this place” he said while walking away.

I equipped the ring and thought about my room. The ring slowly emitted a light and within it, there was an arrow telling me which way to go. This was an amazing ring! If everyone had rings like this, there would never be a person getting lost again. Although, maybe the ring only worked in the academy I thought.

Still, it was an amazing item in my eyes. I would certainly never lose such a precious thing. I followed the arrow up the silver stairs and into what would be my new room. It was small and sparsely decorated. It had a small bed in one corner and a chair and a desk in the other.

I grumbled a bit a this. I had thought that I would get better treatment as a silver rank recruit but seeing this made me feel sorry for those who were bronze ranked. I also wondered what kind of perks gold ranked members got.

There was so much that I needed to learn about this place. I wouldn’t be able to stay here forever, so I needed to maximize what I learned within the time that I would be here.

It’s too bad that I would only have several months to be here. Not long after I settled into my room there was a knock on the door. I opened that and a person just a few years older than I was standing there.

“Hello, my name is Alwan, and I’m your senior”. He introduced himself and told me all about how the academy worked. He was an upper silver rank recruit. He gave me a few things and told me if I needed anything else, that I could find him and ask him for help. However, apparently this help wouldn’t be free.

I learned a few very important things. First, I could gain merits by going on missions. The mission rewards would provide me with merit points. These points would be recorded onto the ring that I had. These points could be sold, traded, or bought.

These points were very important because this was how classes would be paid for. Courses didn’t last long, just a few weeks or a month at most. However, relic users were gifted and expected to learn quickly.

Each month a new list of courses would be sent to all students. Missions would also be given out daily. Some missions come from teachers, other students, or are contracted out to the organization through others related to the organization.

The courses were quite varied. There were courses on the history of the land, language, battle theory, magic, alchemy, and many other subjects. These could increase my knowledge, my skills, and even teach me new things.

I also learned that I wouldn’t have to wait to do courses. As a silver rank recruit, I was given 5000 points. Apparently bronze ranks started out with 1000 which was only good enough to get one course started for them.

I would be able to start off with five basic courses, or do two intermediate courses, or even one advanced course. I considered it carefully and decided that I really need to start with the basics first.

I scanned the list of courses available and chose to work on my education. I took a history course, a language course that involved reading and writing, a sword craft class, botany, and a field medicine course.

I figured these courses would help me learn to defend myself better and allow me to increase my knowledge enough to unlock more of my relic’s hidden potential.

I was worried about learning so many things at once, but the relic would help me learn better. This was because it had Ross’ soul in it. So, his mental abilities were combined with mine. So, even though we both didn’t have a lot of knowledge I could learn at a very fast speed.

It also increased my memory to the point where I would be able to watch the classes again in my mind and review as many times as necessary. The beast warrior relic at first glance seemed to be a relic that only enhanced strength but it was so much more. The beast warrior tribe was certainly formidable. They truly fit the name of being a beast in all aspects.