The car ride back to Hellstrom was…awkward. We had taken one of the cars from the penthouse on our outing and it was a two seater. Star refused to leave my side so she ended up in my lap the whole ride. I would have been able handle silence or sharp retorts but she and Ali seemed to just…click. Apparently they had similar tastes in reading and weaponry. I guess you could say all my awkwardness came from…not feeling awkward.
The time had really flown by in the casino so we didn’t even have time to head home to change or relax. Ali had called Erin and reminded her to meet up with us (since my sister seemed to be screening my calls)and we were all headed back for our first classes. Since I hadn’t created a class yet I’d been lumped in with the miscellaneous professor.
I had debated using my OP new skill to create a class but I wasn’t sure what the hell an observation based class would be like. I wasn’t sure I could give up my chance at a more combat oriented class though. When I explained it to Ali she called me immature, apparently its juvenile that I still had fantasies about throwing around fire and lightning while I axe kicked my enemies in the dick. Wait…no, I hear it now.
Arriving at the school was a welcome relief, if only to escape being completely ignored and talked over. We all climbed out, and I made sure to check the clock on the dash to see how much time we had left until class. Unfortunately not much, in just a few we managed to track down the others, trying to identify which of us had which classes (no pun intended).
Of all our friends, only Theo fell toward the miscellaneous end of things, while charisma based abilities were definitely covered in the curriculum people tended to use them differently, and until he settled on one of the major disciplines he’d be with me. Although apparently according to Shawn it wasn’t going to matter much. The classes would give us overview on the first day and other than that were mainly to keep us in groups so we could party up easier for whatever mysterious training they would be informing us of later tonight.
We all split up, Star coming with Theo and I to Professor Andras’ class. We arrived at the lecture hall (which I had been shocked to see on the schedule when I had checked) and snagged seats in the back of the room. Or at least Star and I did. Theo split off to talk to some cute girls he had apparently met at initiation and left my bodyguard and I alone. Star had changed in the bathroom before we headed over here, pulling a pretty blue sundress from her purse that made her look like the porn version of every girl next door ever, though I may have been biased by the lack of underwear.
Star seemed genuinely excited to be here, and not just for the partying aspects. She had borrowed a pencil and notebook from Ali and was sitting studiously waiting for the teacher to arrive so she could take notes. The seriousness and gravity she was giving the situation was so at odds with the complete apathy of all the other students that I had to stifle a grin at the maenad. It was honestly kind of adorable.
Professor Andras arrived fairly quickly and took her seat behind the desk at the bottom of the lecture hall, looking seriously at us. Her weathered face and steel grey hair framed a set of piercing green eyes, which swept over all of us like a hawk seeking prey. “Welcome.” Her voice was rough and course, but with an undertone of fluidity, like very expensive whiskey poured over sandpaper. “This will be, in many ways, both the easiest and most difficult prep class anyone in the program will attend.”
She sat placidly, scanning over us as we all shifted nervously in our seats. “These prep classes are designed to teach you skills and tactics to supplement our party based training system. Each student will be part of a party of their own devising and these parties will climb the tower the school keeps on campus for just such a purpose. You will face many dangers in the tower, and these classes are designed to give you life saving tips on how to work with your party members in a way that best suits your particular talents.”
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Her eyes bored a hole through each student as she spoke, almost biting off her words more out of annunciation than any sort of malice or anger. “Or at least, that is what MOST of these classes are for. This class however, does not work that way. Due to the varied and unusual makeup of your skills and proficiencies, all of you will need to find your own paths to power and safety. In many ways this will make your time in my class very simple, allowing you to have freedom to plan your strategies on your own and blaze new trails.”
Her cold emerald eyes seemed to soften a bit “But as I said, in many other ways this class will be the most difficult in the program. Though I will offer any aid you may require and am happy to consult with you after any experiences you have in the tower, you will have no crutch to lean on, no forefathers to emulate. Your success, or indeed, your failure, will be entirely of your own making. These courses will meet once a week, and on these days no one may enter the tower, to give time to recover and parse the information you gain in your trials. This is all the speech I have to give. Prepare yourselves ladies and gentlemen. You’ve all just been thrown into the deep end.”
She gave a curt nod and without any more acknowledgement flipped open her laptop and began to type. I looked over at Theo, seeing him looking worriedly at me, and glanced to Star next to me, who looked pensive but not especially afraid. To be fair I wasn’t sure what her level was, but I doubted it was low enough to need to worry over school training. Maenads were a type of nymph and they didn’t age, so she could be hundreds of years old, and even if she wasn’t she could easily be high level by virtue of much faster experience gain than most.
I turned my thoughts inward, thinking over my own situation. I had been constantly putting off making any decisions. This whole thing had been insane and I had mostly just been getting swept along by everything that was happening, but Professor Andras had been right about me needing to forge my own path. Extra experience or not, we would be fighting real monsters from what they had been saying and I was going to need some kind of combat or utility skill to be useful enough to actually gain any experience at all.
The simplest method I had of gaining utility would be to get myself a class, that seemed to be the main method of leveling up and gaining power, though skills were obviously important too. The problem was that I didn’t have many decent skills. My plan to acquire some luck based skills in the casino hadn’t exactly born fruit, though admittedly having a crazy wine nymph body guard could be handy down the line. But I did have one skill that would be sure to create an amazing class, albeit an unpredictable and potentially useless one.
An S ranked class would make me exponentially more powerful than others my level, but my only skill of that rank was a utility skill of the most basic nature. I couldn’t imagine the kind of class something like Revelation would make or what it would do. Being able to see through illusions or something maybe? The problem was that, much like most of my life so far, it all came down to dumb luck. There was no way to know what I would get until I tried it.
I exhaled carefully, firming my resolve, if I wanted to keep up I needed to be decisive. No more flying by the seat of my pants, I had to take my destiny into my own hands and decide what direction I would go in, and that all started with my first step. I focused on Revelation, and with a sharp inhalation I selected the skill and invoked my right of class creation on just that one ability.
I expected a bit of fanfare, maybe the lights flickering or the room shaking, something to denote an S ranked class being made, an event that based on what I’d been hearing, hadn’t happened more than a handful of times in all of history. But nothing happened, at least nothing big. All that transpired was a small ding, and a popup from the system.
Congratulations on the creation of a class! You have unlocked the class Oracle (S). Welcome Ethan Sunder, to your new world. We’ve been waiting for you.