I enter my new classes Monday and immediately start sleeping through them once more, when lunch comes I get pulled aside by Tila who had shared the class with me to a private spot to speak.
"You skipped a grade? I thought you were a behind student, how did you succeed in growing so fast, although your training style is much more efficient your physical strength should still be behind most of us." She asked me.
"I was trained by highly capable professionals as soon as my awakening happened and was given extreme precise training that were based on full body medical scans, my type of training is highly specialized and the type of cultivation I use is a family secrete one that helps make up for physical deficits like mine. I also have a far more developed energy purity and size than most freshly awakened so it all melded together that each piece made up for my weakness." I reply, of course it was purely accidental that the type of cultivation I use enhances me at a base level but I can't tell her that.
She doesn't ask anymore, asking about another persons family cultivation techniques is a massive taboo and only done by highly trained investigator that only the king himself can appoint.
So I spend lunch in silence, going to the training part I know that I will be asked my current floor and what I specialize in, for the last year you do dungeon diving in mostly cleared dungeons as so to see peoples ability to work together and play their respective roles properly.
The tower does not have an ability to join a team for each floor until the tenth floor, from that floor on every tenth floor is a joint waiting room where you can join or leave your team, of course you can continue soloing but for floors that require teams you will be randomly assigned and if the team member stabs you in the back to get more rewards for themselves there is no way to prove it.
It is better to just pick a team on the tenth floor that you know outside even if they aren't the best because they are unlikely to betray you.
Many teams have one high powered person who is better than everyone else on the team for this precise reason, because if they relied on you to get good things they won't betray so as to keep getting good things.
As a healer/buffer I will be able to easily get a high grade team with no problem even if I am a lazy person and don't do anything but heal and enhance them, and there is no chance they will betray me because I could be the difference of life and death for them in the future so they will try and suck up to me.
Others aren't as lucky and this training is to make those in my class aware of the signs for this, after the fifth floor it is mostly solo tasks until the tenth floor and tasks those at school can easily do so they will most likely get to the tenth floor soon enough.
Tina is currently on the 7th floor and will probably be on the eight in the next week, most people reattempt floors multiple times to try and get the first place award so although many could be further along they purposely fail so as to try again. Tina could easily be past the tenth floor otherwise but teachers tell the students to use there extra time in the tower before others to there advantage and take as long as needed to make it to the tenth floor with as many revival coins as possible.
I am on the fifth floor and have four revival tokens, in six months it is considered an incredible feat and is most definitely something I could brag about.
Of course the tower only allows those below the age of eighteen on to the tenth floor at max as although cruel it does have strict rules for any minors within it. If anyone in the tower attempted to use the floor to try and get away with something inappropriate on a minor the tower will force the person out, ban them, and mark them for the action.
Stabbing a minor in the back on the tenth floor is not considered inappropriate by the tower, neither is killing them, but it is forbidden to make the deaths purposely painful if an alternative is possible.
Of course this protection leave once you turn eighteen.
After that point it is anything goes no matter how horrible it is, as long as the person doesn't end up targeting someone to powerful and end up dead or caught but it is nearly impossible to catch criminals in the tower.
Even if they kill you many tower climbers hide there faces so as not to be targeted in their normal lives so they can easily cover their faces and it will be impossible to find them afterwards.
We are sitting in the stadium area and many people are already grouped up in teams with 10 members each. Only two teams aren't full, Tina's team with 7 members and another one with 9 members.
"we will be doing dungeon diving were we left off before the exams, as a new person is here pick a team and settle in." The brown haired female coach says.
I walk to Tina and ask, "You have a healer/buffer in the team yet?"
I can see confusion for a second before realization hits her face at what I am implying.
"You are a healer? Why are you so good at fighting as a healer you just needs basic self defense ability and leave the rest to the fighters, it almost makes me not want you just because of how insulting that feel." She says with a look of both disgust and admiration.
I laugh as I know this is the general thought for most people, each person plays there roles to there limit and everything will run like a machine. Each part doing it's work to make everything function properly, but if one part goes bad the machine might slow down or stop completely it is why most people prefer those who are highly specialized rather than jack of all trades.
I look at the coach and say, " I will be playing the role of Healer/buffer for leader Tina's team."
I can see the envious look from others giving the team as I am the only healer/buffer in this class and one of the only two in the entire academy with over 2,000 students, it is just how diverse the energy types are means landing on the already rare one while also being highly gifted is like winning a lottery.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
We go to a the under part of the academy where over 10 different types of basic and mid level dungeons exist.
"Today we will be handling kobolds, the number of kobolds of this dungeon is regulated so you will never face a kobold group of more than 20, there will be an emergency shield on you to prevent any deadly injuries. If you lose an arm or leg you will have to pay for the healing yourself so do not rely on the shield." She appeared to say this to everyone but looked at me as she said it, clearly making sure I got this message.
"You will be given an hour to bring me the left ear of 2 kobold per person, this includes support people who won't fight but will be an aid to you non the less. You will begin when I tell you to, all of you in front of the entrance and prepare."
Being with a group I only know two of the members for I know I will need to adjust to many unknowns so I wait for the introductions to come.
No one did though. "May I know your names and positions so as to be able to support who I need to at the right times?" I ask as politely as possible.
The female dwarf of the team huffs, "Dumpet, metal, secondary attacker and back up shield."
The girl with green hair says, "Janette, wind type, I am a support archer."
A brown haired man says, "John, earth, main shield."
A blue haired man says, "Millet, I am a hypnosis type person, I am a support to make dealing with large groups easier." He appears friendly compared to the other who clearly are just like Tila with those she don't have any respect for.
A yellow haired man says, "Albert, I am an assassin with a darkness attribute. Support/front fighter depending on the situation and strength of the monsters, I will be more support for this dungeon."
Finally Nali goes, grinning like always "Nali, a vibration specialist, I am a support type for tracking so I will find the monsters but not fight unless attacked."
"Tila, fire type, front line main attack as you are well aware of, since we all know each other I will say this don't bother with helping this guy out with monsters or fighting he is perfectly capable of kicking all of you guys asses." She says while pointing at me.
We sit around for another five minutes when the teacher shouts, "Everyone begin there dungeon dive, we waited for the other teams to go first and were the last to enter.
It had been almost eight years since I was in a dungeon last and once more I was returning here of my own accord.
Entering the kobold dungeon we enter through a cavern looking place before coming out to a forested area with many bushes and tall grass. We follow Nali's directions and five minutes later find a small group of five kobolds.
I stay in the back and watch as they fight, Tina's control on her reactions have gotten a bit better since our spar. But she is still not in control of her body enough for more advanced monsters with higher in intelligence as they can easily dodge her attacks. Albert has much better control on his body but appears to lack in the senses control department as he will over focus his senses on one and fail to notice another coming close.
Dumpet is standing up front beside Tina and is helping her block the attacks and deal with any stray kobold that escapes from the control of Millet and that Janette is unable to strike properly. John works from behind them to watch out for anymore groups from coming in or sneaking up so as to not allow them to get overwhelmed.
Everyone is doing their job properly and decently, I decide to finally help by giving Tila a boost in her body control by pushing my energy into her body and wrapping it around the parts of her brain and nerves that works body movement.
She suddenly appears to be hitting each strike accurately and with decent force in the proper location, we finish the fight in five minutes and I can see the light shining in Tila's eyes at me from here. She knows that I had enhanced her control and clearly was very happy with how well it worked to make her stronger.
She finally speaks and says, "I have never seen anyone buff a person like that, it was like having perfect control on my body after using it like a club previously."
I can see the interest shining in the eyes of the other members, body control is something that usually only comes with extreme training for a long time, fighters early on compensate by coating the weapon in elements allowing the area of attack to be larger and slowly build up there striking force so as to make the attack more deadly.
A buffer that increases body control means the members don't have to expand as much energy to fight allowing them to last longer and with higher strength then other teams.
It is like having double the amount of time to do the same tasks, because you don't need to stop and rest as often as others along with able to fight faster, it took them 3 minutes to kill 2 of them but only two minutes to kill three of them once I enhanced Tila's control.
With that Nali took us to another group of five, it only takes 3 minutes to finish them off with me enhancing Tila in her control.
Now all but three of us have the required items and only 23 minutes to find and dispatch the groups of five, we will be finished before the time requirement easily. A group of 7 is found and we decide to hit it as we will get the last of the required amount from it, although they admit they usually wouldn't hit it to preserve energy with me here they feel less worried about that.
We attack them at the thirty minute mark and are finished at the 36 minute mark, heading back to the entrance I am low on energy due to using the control enhancement on another for more then ten minutes.
Using the enhancement on myself, even if the effect is so weak it is hard for others to tell, it is ten times easier then on others.
The amount of energy used is drastically different as I lose a large amount by releasing it from my body and keeping up the link to keep feeding the energy to keep the enhancement going, it is just easier with me since all I do is focus more energy to the control areas in my body while I have to coat there control areas to properly get the same effect.
My group leave the dungeon at the 45 minute mark, luckily we didn't go to far in or you may not make it out in time, handing over the ears we are the first to complete the task the teacher had assigned.
Two minutes later a ten count group comes out clearly tired and scratched up from fighting with all of there ears in hand. Two more full groups come out by the 55 minute mark when the nine count group comes stumbling out clearly quiet injured and one of there team members badges is yellow meaning it had been activated.
They did bring out enough to pass but was deducted points for a dead team member, at the 58 minute mark one of the last two remaining full teams make it out haggard and running like a village of goblins are on their tails.
They have the appropriate amount of ears so pass, the next group came out sluggishly at the 62 minute mark with clear signs of having ran like the other group.
They have all the ears but will be deducted points for taking to long, though they will lose less points than the team who had a member 'die' during the task and so the score my team gets is full marks with 15 extra credit points for coming out early.
Leaving the dungeon to rinse off in the workout showers we then have practice on the obstacle course for those who had points reduced, while I was given the task to heal those injured as practice for treating larger groups for multi team tasks like boss floor killings or mass monster hunts in dungeons.
Although she didn't give war as an example I could tell that was an underlined one of the reasons even if not spoken, although peaceful you never know when a disaster could strike and cause large scale conflict.
With the training finished we were told not to bother showing up on any day beside Monday and Friday.
Heading to eat and then sleep I finally get some sleep without nightmares for the first time in two weeks, rested and relaxed I get through my classes napping like always and when it was time to enter the tower we were the first group of the high school level sent.
Taking a breath I enter the tower once more.