I had set the alarm, but just as it was about to go off, there was a knock at my door.

"Time to go, Cain, apparently the first lesson has been moved, we need to go to the stadium," Mason said.

I quickly washed my face and left my room. Mason and I met up with the others just as we were leaving the building.

"I wonder why the location change?" Ivy asked as we passed some buildings.

"I have my suspicions, I've heard of Sergeant Peterson before, he led an Extermination Unit that would land with the scouts on new planets. He retired about fifteen years ago and has been teaching ever since." Mason answered.

The twins just cocked their head at Mason and looked at each other. They really were basically one person, as I thought that, they both looked at me and nodded.

They are so deeply connected, and I still haven't heard them talk, I wonder if they often do, Haru does have a fairly overbearing personality after all.

"He's fine, we just don't like talking much, once we are stronger and can connect everyone together as a group, we will talk more," a voice spoke in my mind.

I spun to stare at the brothers, they both smiled in unison, I didn't even know which one it was.

It was only a few minutes later while we were still in the park around the admin building that we saw the stadium over the buildings. It resembled a modern version of the colosseum, built from stone but reinforced with steel and runes.

We found our entrance and walked through a bunch of hallways following signs. We ended up in a decent-sized room with most of our class around us, it would be everyone except the ones who wanted to work on mana crafting.

"I will have each of you come through, one at a time, starting with you." A voice rang out next to me, a man appeared as if he had been invisible, I could only assume he was Sergeant Peterson.

It turned out he was also pointing at me. He motioned me towards a different door on the side of the room and walked through first.

I started following him, not sure where we were headed. The odd part was I consistently couldn’t remember who he looked like.

"Why did you join this class?" He asked.

"It was chosen for me," I answered honestly.

"Half-truth. Why did you join my class?" He asked again.

"I want to explore the universe, this will help prepare me." I tried it again.

"Half-truth. WHY did you join my class?" He asked for a third time, this time with force.

I thought about it this time, there were elements of me, apparently from the beast affinity that wanted to hunt. I could feel Clin's influence, it would make US stronger...hunt, kill, devour, silently stalk, suddenly strike. Clin was showing me his past and desires.

But it wasn't all, this was another class that would make me stronger, give me real practice into what my other classes were teaching me. That was the answer I chose, but it wasn't what came out of my mouth,

"I don't want to be weak anymore, the one that’s taken. I want to be the predator, the victor." I growled.

At some point I had started flooding my body with beast mana and had turned into my combat self, Clin had left my neck and was sitting on my shoulder getting ready to strike.

At this realisation I stopped, I didn't know where that had come from, I assumed it was triggered by my experience with the Truth of Mist's Brother Moss.

I calmed Clin quickly, he felt hungry, I would need to get some food for him later.

"Finally, the truth. Now let us see if you can use that form." He replied with a smile as he waited for me to pass him.

We ended up on the ground in the middle of the stadium, there were two other doors around the walls and a few hatches. One of the hatches opened, a black wolf was pushed out.

"This is a tier-one Dark Wolf, it has limited shadow abilities that give it the ability to create a smokescreen to cover its movements. Good luck,” Peterson said from behind me.

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I turned around to look at him, but he was already gone, so I turned back to the Dark Wolf that was looking at me.

I reactivated my combat form and prepared to use my magic. The Wolf started running to my left, trying to get into my blind spot, I thought for a moment, did I want to use Burning Ember straight away?

No, it was probably too fast, I would need some way to slow it down. I clearly took too long to come up with an answer, I was too much in my head, not enough action.

I suddenly couldn’t see anything other than a spreading black cloud, I felt movement near my leg, I pulled back just in time, my leg getting grazed by the wolfs teeth. My spells weren’t fast enough with it this close, I would have to learn to quickcast them. I didn’t panic, the graze didn’t penetrate the scales that formed on my leg.

I knew this was a test I had to pass myself, I didn't let Clin leave my neck, once I had calmed down I realised I could feel something moving behind me, I spun around to see the Dark Wolf leaping at me.

I threw a punch and, well, I missed horribly, really needed to learn to actually fight. I heard a laugh above me as I missed.

I got angry, suddenly it felt like Clin, and I were sharing senses, he could 'see the body heat of the Dark Wolf as it circled us, I realised I could sense it as well, it was like my senses expanded once I was in this form.

The Dark Wolf charged me from behind again, I spun and caught it by the throat, I slammed it into the ground. Without prompting from me Clin leapt off my neck and struck, the feeling of hunger from before exploded into full-on ravenous, his venom took a lot of energy from him.

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

A sarcastic slow clap started behind me as I came out of 'combat mode' for lack of a better word. I turned around to see Sergeant Peterson, he was the plainest person I had met yet, he stood out for not standing out, everything about his looked grey, his hair, eyes and even his skin looked pallid.

“I can only imagine how you made it into my Advanced Weapon Training with those skills. It wasn’t until you stopped thinking so damn much and started reacting you showed your talent,” he stated.

I was surprised to learn that Sergeant Peterson also taught the Advanced Weapon Training.

“When the Queen herself picks your studies, you do what you’re told, Sergeant Peterson,” I answered with a grin.

The surprise on his face at my blunt answer made the honesty worth it, he laughed for a few moments before responding.

“I suppose that’s fair. Have you thought about what weapons you are going to learn in conjunction with your magic?” he asked.

“Mason and I discussed it, and I was thinking of learning dual pistols in Martial Training and focusing on my combat form in your class, as I assume this class will heavily focus on Manabeasts instead of just fightling.” I explained.

“No, that’s a terrible plan. You would be spreading your attention too much if you were already experienced in a weapon that would be fine but not for a novice like you. Stick to training your combat form and magic for ranged." Peterson shot down my plan hard.

"I don't have enough mana for a lot of magic yet though," I argued.

"That will come in time. You don't know yet, but the more familiar you get with your spells, the faster you will cast them using less mana. If you study hard enough, you will be able to build the sigil almost instantly and control the movement of the spell." He explained.

With this new information, that Mason had already told me a little about, to think about I sat down in the stands and watched my classmates go through the fight with different levels of success.

Mason barely flinched as a Shadow Spike stabbed up into the wolf, being a Shadow wolf, it sensed and dodged the attack. He wasn't phased and charged in with his sword that appeared in his hand.

It was over seconds later as Mason stabbed the Wolf through the chest, giving it no time to fight back. Mason received the same grilling as I did, just to a lesser extent.

"Why did you try a Shadow spell against a Dark Wolf? Considering who trained you, you should know better than to use the same element against a Manabeast." Peterson asked.

Mason looked sheepish.

"I have only learnt Shadow spells so far, I was focusing on mastering the two spell I already had before moving onto my other elements." He answered.

Sergeant Peterson shook his head and waved him towards the stands. Mason came over to me and so told him how my turn went, he gained a thoughtful look as I spoke.

"Hmm, that makes sense if you defeated it that quickly once you stopped thinking, we can get you armoured gloves with or without claws to increase your damage if you go that way." He told me.

"What about the ranged, what's the mana cost difference once you can instacast?" I asked.

"It's maybe forty percent the mana cost and maybe twice as fast. It's a process. First, you learn to shorten the chant, depending on your choice you can use any part of the chant. The next level is without the chant but still a bit slow as you get used to it before you can instantly cast it. Even then, there is a level even higher where you can instantly cast multiple copies from the one cast, I've been told it involves finishing the cast and then mentally splitting the spell. I haven't been able to do it yet, though." Mason explained.

We watched the rest of the class go through the same fight across the next hour. There were a few notable examples of easily taking down the Wolf. Unfortunately, that included Cage and all of his friends, of my friends only Hoshi and Haru easily dispatched their enemy.

Cage tangled the wolf in vines before beheading it with a shortsword I hadn't seen at his waist. His friend Rio, the golden-haired healer, cut it to shreds with Air Blades, after them I had to have Mason tell me names.

There was Ash Arden, a red-headed girl I hadn't seen in our Fire lesson, who used Burning Ember to wound it before killing the wolf with Air Blade.

Kai Steele, with copper colour hair who also caught the wolf in vines and killed it with an Iron Spike.

Skye Steele, distantly related but different elements had turquoise coloured hair and stunned the wolf with a shock, killing it with her own combat form, that looked cat-like.

Scarlett Flint, red hair with streaks of yellow, stunned it with a Lightning Shock and killed it with a short blade.

And the last of his group, Helen Lucas, dark green hair, used the vines and then an Earth Spike to dispatch the Wolf.

Some of the other impressive displays included a different noble called Isbrand Cobald who stood stock still to the point where people thought he froze, but his expression still looked bored. Just as the Dark Wolf leapt at him a Metal Spike burst out of the ground between his feet and speared the Wolf through the mouth, Isbrand neatly stepped out of the way as the corpse of the Wolf hit the ground.

Clover Blaise, the red-headed scion of a business empire, used a similar technique except she used a Tree Root instead.

The final one actually worried me, Aspen Storm, entered a Beast Combat Form that was as deep purple as her hair. A burst of air appeared to displace the dust in the air around her. The Dark Wolf used it's Smokescreen and tried to flank her, once it got within five metres from her it visibly slowed before slumping to the ground. Instead of using her claws like I did, Aspen approached and bit into the neck of the Wolf, killing it in seconds.

She was followed by a few more newbies that only started cultivating the day before so didn't show much, appearing the most ruthless had Aspen avoiding everyone else.

Instead of telling us any more, Peterson sent us all on our way. I saw Aspen walking off alone looking lonely since multiple of my friends also had Poison as an affinity, I looked at Haru and nodded towards her.

He didn't look surprised and ran off towards her.

"She looks so lost and alone," I said out loud, getting different looks from my new friends.

Hoshi and the twins gave me a small smile of approval, Mason gave me the "she's hot" nudge that some guys do, and Ivy got shy and hid behind me.

As expected from Haru, it seemed to only take seconds before he was essentially dragging Aspen over to us. I saw that her eyes were just as purple as her hair, I think that meant she only had Poison and Beast, other than that she was just as beautiful as Ivy and Hoshi in her own way. Magic made everyone attractive it seemed.

"Aren't you all afraid of me? Everyone always ran away from the 'Poison Girl'," Aspen said with real pain in her voice.

Hoshi could also hear the pain in her voice and stepped over and put her arm around her.

"You have no idea how many times I've been accidentally poisoned by this idiot while he was training. I have zero fear of you," she said while pointing at Haru.

"Hey, I'm just happy I have someone I can talk to in both Poison and Beast lessons other than you guys.” Haru chimed in.

We spent the next few hours hanging out and getting to know Aspen while having dinner, we eventually left to get a few hours of cultivation before bed.