Chapter 27: Vipers

At that moment, Agatha clapped her hands to gather everyone’s attention and spoke.

“Okay kids! Except for the newly admitted students, the rest of you can go to your classes and continue your work.”

As she spoke, the students from the second year to the final year dispersed from the crowd and started moving in different directions.

After a while, only a hundred students stood in the Foyer and looked at the red-haired headmaster in silence.

“Hmm, before you go to your classes, I’m going to let you guys choose your path. Follow me.” Saying so, Agatha stepped down from the staircase and started walking towards the corridor on the left side.

Elizabeth also closely followed behind the headmaster and also signaled all the other kids to follow.

Agatha and all the others passed through the long corridor, walked past more than four classrooms, and finally entered a large training hall filled with wooden dummies for practice.

“I’ll call out the name one by one. Pick up a weapon and also choose a pathway.” Agatha said as she pointed her finger at the wooden weapons placed a few meters away from her.

At that moment, a pale-skinned girl with a lean physique raised her hand and asked.

“Is it necessary to select a pathway even though I plan on becoming a Wizard one day, Headmaster?”

“Oh? You are aiming much higher already.” A broad grin appeared on Agatha’s face.

“To become a Wizard, you have to at least be physically strong enough to hold the elemental energies within your body. Only then you will have an easier time engraving the Elemental Circlet Technique within your body and rank up further. If your physical strength is very low but your soul is strong enough to construct more spell models, a clash will happen between your body and soul. In the worst case scenario, you might end up receiving backlash and even fail to construct the spell model in your mind.” Agatha suddenly paused as she saw the confusion on everyone’s face and soon chuckled.

“That’s a lesson for another time. Now, all you have to remember is to select a pathway and also pick up a weapon that’s most suitable for you guys. Once you pick up a weapon, you can’t change it for the next year. So, choose wisely.”

“Alan.” She quickly called out a name while looking at the recorded notebook.

Soon, a tall boy stepped forward and soon arrived before Agatha.

“First, you have to choose the pathway you are going to take. Let me give you the options: 1 Knight, 2 Warrior, 3 Assassin, 4. Ranger. Which one would you like to choose?” Agatha asked.

Alan showed a pondered look for a few seconds and soon spoke.

“I choose Warrior, Ma’am.”

“Hmm, I thought you would pick the Knight Pathway.” Agatha furrowed and added.

“Now, your weapon of choice is: 1. Broadsword, 2. Gauntlet, 3. Shield, 4. War Hammer, 5. Axe, and 6.Spear.”

“I take Broadsword, ma’am.” Alan didn’t hesitate a moment before we went ahead and picked up a broadsword.

“Next, Jean.” She called out, and soon, a black-haired young girl stepped forward.

“Choose your pathway,” Agatha asked.

“I choose Ranger, ma’am,” Jean responded.

“Ranger, huh? There are limited weapon pathways for Rangers. 1. Bow and Arrow, we mostly recommend this only. 2. Dagger Arts and Knives.” Agatha didn’t even finish answering as Jean walked forward and picked up the bow and arrows.

Following that, many students stepped forward one by one and started choosing their favorite pathway and weapon. Unlike the first two, many students practiced with weapons for more than five minutes and chose their pathway very carefully.

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“Raven!” Agatha finally called out his name.

Raven hurriedly stepped forward, soon arrived before the red-haired Agatha, and spoke.

“I choose Knight Pathway, ma’am.”

“Hmm, it seems you are planning to follow your sister’s pathway. That’s a good thing too.” Agatha nodded in approval and added with a smile.

“Now, choose your weapon. I recommend you to pick up a long sword, lad.”

Meanwhile, Raven walked closer to the table where the weapons were placed in bulk and soon asked.

“Can I try the weapons before picking up, ma’am?”

“You can.” A surprised expression appeared on Agatha’s face. The same goes for Elizabeth as she quietly stayed behind the kids and observed his every action.

Raven first picked up the long sword as Agatha recommended and started swinging it multiply. He tried thrust, slash, and a few other movements, but all appeared clumsy and unorganized.

“A big no. You don’t have any small affinity or even an attachment to swords.” Even Agatha herself regretted saying those earlier words.

But Raven didn’t get discouraged and tried our bow and arrows next. The result appeared the same, causing laughter among the kids.

Finally, Raven put back the bow and arrows and finally picked up the spear. Then, he held the spear using the knowledge he read from the Wintermoon Spear Dance Technique and tried the gripping movement.

Then, he also tried thrusting and slashing the spear.

“Hmm, it’s not as bad as the long sword and Bow. You should stick with Spear from now on.” Agatha spoke before writing down his pathways in the notebook.

After him, it was Chris’s turn.

Unlike Raven, he chose Ranger Pathway and picked Bow and Arrows as his weapon.

“Mary also chose Spear it seems,” Chris spoke as he walked closer to Raven and stood beside him.

“What about Dennis?” Raven asked in curiosity.

“It seems he chose the Assassin pathway and picked his main weapon, a pair of Dagger,” Chris answered as he looked at Dennis and Mary, who had already formed some group among all the high-class people.

‘Oh? He has a ‘Genius’ rank affinity in swordsmanship, right? Should I give him a suggestion?’ But as soon as he recalled the previous conversation, he stopped himself.

After that, Agatha called out the rest of the students' names and let them choose their pathway.

“Now, the classes will be decided based on the pathway you have chosen. Class 1A is for Knights, Class 1B is for Assassins, Class 1C is for Warrior, and Class 1D is for Rangers. You guys can go back to your allocated classes now.”

“What? We aren’t in the same class?” Chris was startled by Agatha’s words and soon asked.

“Well, we can still meet during break time, right?”

Raven nodded with a smile and added.

“Let’s go. I’m more curious about the basic Training Manual they will be giving to me.”

Chris nodded his head and started walking towards the training hall exit.

Before long, the group of hundred kids walked out of the large hall, entered the long corridor again, and started walking back to the allocated classroom.

“Mine is 1D Classroom. Yours should be 1A.” Chris said as they walked closer to Classroom No. 1D and pointed his finger at the farthest room.

“See you later then, Chris.” Raven wore a smile and gave him a thumbs-up.

Meanwhile, Chris thought of something and added in whispers.

“Don’t fight with a kid named Scott and his friends.”

“Scott?” Raven was clueless about this kid named Scott and showed a puzzled look.

“Well, there are rumors that his family seems to have some connection with the ‘Vipers’ and are also said to be one of the three richest families in Darkcross town.” Chris’s words caused Raven’s face to be solemn.

The term ‘Vipers’ wasn’t new to Raven.

That word was more like a nightmare for all children. Parents usually scare the kids using that word to be wary of strangers and also to not wander around at night.

“I thought that ‘Vipers’ are made-up stories to scare us,” Raven muttered.

“No, it’s some big net. ’Vipers’ is an underground dark syndicate organization that specializes in supplying some secret ‘drug’ not only to Darkcross Town but also to the whole Empire itself. They are also often involved in thieving, assassination, and even contract missions. Official members of Vipers are not known to many because of their secrecy. However, the supplies of drugs are distributed to the people through contractors like Black Merchants and gang leaders. That way even if the contractors got caught, no one will be able to track down and find out any information about Vipers.” Chris answered.

“Now that I think about it, my sister has been chasing after some group related to drug dealing for the past three years and even arrested many corrupted officials who had shares in these cases.” Raven quickly understood Chris’s intention and nodded.

“I’ll be careful around them.”

After thanking him, Raven parted away from Chris and moved towards the class at the farther end.

Soon, he entered classroom no 1A and saw rows of benches and desks placed on two sides.

Raven quietly stepped into the classroom without minding the gazes from his new classmates and soon moved towards the last bench on the right side.

Unfortunately, it was already occupied by a few kids.

As Raven said on the bench that was placed before the last one, a cold yet childish voice came from behind.

“That bench is already taken. You should go to the front one.”

“You are?” Raven turned around and looked at whom the voice belonged to.

It was a blonde-haired kid with reddish eyes and a square face. He appeared to be chubby, had a large physique, and showed a cold look.

Even after hearing his question, the blonde-haired kid didn’t say anything and only stared at him coldly.

“He is Scott Morris.” A familiar voice came from the front, causing Raven’s eyes to squint.

It was none other than Mary.

“Heh, you aren’t afraid even after hearing my family name?” Scott showed a surprised look and felt curious.

“Why should I be afraid of? You are just a student like me.” His words looked more like an ignorant kid.

As Scott’s friends were about to say something in anger, Raven turned his head and looked at Mary with a smile.