It took a while, but they managed to explain the concept of a tank to Derrik. Kaden couldn’t help but feel quite skeptical about that boy and thought he seemed a little slow.
However, when the uniforms came, his mind soon turned to other matters, as everyone was eager to try them out.
Designed around the colors of the Central Martial Academy, they were mostly black and white, and had the academy’s small black insignia, depicting two crossed swords, on the right chest.
Putting on the well fitting uniform, Kaden was quick to notice that the material was super stretchy. It was also sort of thick and spongy, which indicated that it was shock absorbent.
That would make them great for sparring and moving around in, making them a very practical uniform for a martial academy, since a lot of the courses centered on fighting.
Speaking of courses, they stopped experimenting with the uniforms, and started preparing for tomorrow, where they would have their first day of lessons.
Most of the curriculum was predetermined, but not all of it. For their first semester, they had to select two extra courses to fill up their schedule.
Browsing through the extensive list of offered courses, Kaden filtered out the ones intended for second years and up. With the filter in place, it didn’t take long before he found a few that suited him.
The first one was a melee training course offered to first years, which had a lot of focus on sparring. It was a course that would definitely be very beneficial for him and also give him a better understanding of where he stood skill and strength wise amongst his age group. That one was a sure pick and took up his first slot.
As for the other course, it wasn’t as easy for him to decide. There were two that had drawn his eye, and he didn’t know which one to pick, as both of them were very interesting.
The choice was between a beginner course on footwork, or a course on essence manipulation, which focused on reaching the next step of the skill.
He was sure that the footwork course could improve his combat skill a ton. It was one of his weaker areas, and something that he desperately needed to improve.
But the course on essence manipulation just seemed far more interesting. If he unlocked the next tier of the skill, he would be able to project a very thin layer of essence outside of his body, and use it as a sort of sixth sense to feel his surroundings.
Right now he could only manipulate essence within his own body, except for when he used essence empowerment. But that skill was limited to weapons, and he had to remain in contact with the object the whole time. Not to mention, the skill only let him strengthen weapons, which was very different to what essence manipulation would let him do.
It wouldn’t directly improve his fighting strength, empower his abilities, or anything of the sort. But it would still aid him a lot in combat if he learned how to use it well. Being able to sense things moving, even when your eyes were closed, was a tremendous advantage to have.
And that wasn’t even all that it could do. There was also the benefit of being able to sense a person’s inner strength, without even having to fight them first.
Overall, it seemed like an incredibly important skill to have, but what made him hesitate in picking it, was that having a minimum of a thousand total essence was recommended. It wasn’t a direct requirement, but it was worded as a very strong suggestion.
While not fulfilling the requirement, Kaden was close, and only lacked about a hundred more. Since he got 5 attribute points per level, it would only take him two levels to get there. As long as he spent all of them on essence power, of course.
But they wouldn’t have permission to enter any dungeons before the second semester, so despite it only being two levels, it would take him a lot of time to get them.
Of course, since it was only a suggestion, he could just ignore it altogether. But that would be dumb, as it was obviously there for a reason.
In the end, while he definitely considered the skill important, he knew it wasn’t an absolute top priority at the moment, and that he could afford to wait. The course would still be there waiting for him, when he decided it was time to take it.
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He also knew that if it was necessary for him to take the course as soon as possible, his father would’ve told him about it, and made him focus his attribute points on essence power.
His mind made up, he filled his last slot with the footwork course and signed up for the two courses he had chosen. Already looking forward to getting started, he asked the others what they had picked.
Unsurprisingly, most of them had gone with either the melee or the ranged training course, which seemed to be very popular.
The only exception was Ewan, who hadn’t actually avoided either of the courses, but instead enrolled into both of them, surprising everyone.
In an effort to make them understand his choice, Ewan had explained and demonstrated how a chakram could also be used as a melee weapon.
Kaden didn’t feel entirely convinced, though. From what he saw in the demonstration, there wasn’t even a good way to grip the chakram, as the edge was quite sharp. And the weapon was just a small thin disc, which gave the user very little reach. With the flimsy design and the no good way of holding it, it obviously wouldn’t provide much blocking force in a fight either.
If Ewan tried to use that thing to block Derrik’s war hammer, Kaden was sure that he would just get his face smashed into an unrecognizable mess. In his eyes, it was doubtful that the chakram could perform even remotely well in a melee fight.
There was no point in bringing that up now though, and he would wait and see how things turned out. It would at least be interesting.
Back to the rest of his roommates choices, there were some good news. Gavin seemed to have taken his role as the team’s tank seriously, and had chosen a course on defensive fighting as his second choice. Somehow he had even managed to convince Derrik to come along with him.
How he had managed that, Kaden had absolutely no clue. He had gotten the impression that Derrik was a bit of a battle maniac and didn’t have much of an interest in defense. Hopefully that course could beat some sense into him, though.
As for what course Finlay had chosen, Kaden was surprised to find out that it was that same essence manipulation one that he had been considering. He was sure that he had made the right choice for himself, but he still couldn’t help feeling a little jealous now, despite all of his earlier convictions.
***
Early in the morning, the sun’s rays filtered in through the tiny gaps between the shades. Already awake, Kaden donned his uniform and went to the cafeteria to eat some breakfast.
After having his own room for so long, it had been a bit strange to sleep in a small room with four others. Thankfully, all the snoring hadn’t stopped him from getting a good night’s rest anyway.
Scooping some food onto his tray, he went and found an empty table to sit down. He ate while lost in his own thoughts, looking forward to the day ahead.
But it wasn’t long before his peace was disturbed, and he was joined by the two people in the whole world, that he least wanted to see.
“Good to see you little bro,” Thrad said as both of the twins sat down at his table, right across from him.
This summer they had both stayed at the academy instead of going home for the break. And Kaden really wasn’t ashamed to say that he hadn’t missed their presence in the slightest.
It had been much more peaceful, and none of his things had gone missing.
“What do you want?” He asked them, a cold tone to his voice.
“Now, now, don’t be like that little bro. We're just curious about something,” Thrad said.
With a nod, Chait continued, “Indeed. Can you imagine the surprise we felt when dear old daddy told us you would be attending the academy?”
“It was quite a shock, I don’t think anyone in the family expected it, do you Chait?” Thrad asked.
“I doubt it,” Chait replied.
“Anyway, to put it simply, we're not too pleased that you’re here. With your third rate potential, you should’ve gone to some third rate backwater academy. That’s where you belong.”
Kaden just tuned out their monologue and kept eating. Meanwhile, the twins continued taking turns to talk, babbling about some useless nonsense. It really wasn’t worth bothering with them.
“Hey, we asked you something orphan boy,” Chait said, clapping his hands in front of Kaden, which made him pay attention again.
“We have the same father, obviously I’m not an orphan.” Kaden sighed and rolled his eyes, then gave them a piercing stare as his eyes turned frosty. “Now, could you two leave? I’m trying to enjoy my meal here and you’re ruining it.”
“Wow, he’s so tough. Don’t you think, brother?” Thrad said.
“Yeah, he’s so scary. I’m afraid he’s going to hurt me,” Chait said, and then pretended to be shaking from fear.
Both of them chuckled, and then Thrad started talking again. “No need to be so hostile, little man. We just saw you and wanted to say hello to our favorite little brother.”
“Right…” Kaden said.
“Whatever.” Thrad shook his head. “Let’s go Chait, the sad orphan boy wants to enjoy his meal, and he can’t do it while we’re here.”
The two of them snickered as they wandered off, leaving the cafeteria.
With them gone, Kaden couldn’t help but laugh slightly as well. They obviously tried to frighten and intimidate him, but it just came off as comical and cringe inducing.
They were just twelve-year-old kids; he was already older than them before he came to this world. Naturally, he wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of them, so their posturing didn’t have any effect on him. At home, their greatest weapon had always been tattling on him to their mother, often with lies. But they couldn’t do that here.
Sure, they were stronger because they were older, but he doubted they were stupid enough to get themselves kicked out of the academy. With so many powerful students walking around campus, there was a very strict zero tolerance policy on violence. And that effectively rendered the twins completely harmless.