The next day, there was more than one instructor walking into the room. They poured through the doors, taking up the center of the room, both in attention and position. Topaz, Jade, and other people wearing gemstones were at the forefront, and were also the ones who spoke. "Students! Separate into groups depending on your discipline. Thoughtstrikers, Songstresses and Noteweavers, Renders, Manashapers, and Spiritspeakers split up!"

  Jay opened his status page, looking over his Paths.

Tier 1 Path of the Sentinel: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: Thoughtstriker

Class: Weaponmaster

Requirements to advance: Unknown

Tier 1 Path of the Soul Archive: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: Spiritspeaker

Class: Collector

Requirements to advance: Unknown

Tier 1 Path of Cyclic Power: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: Render

Class: Child of Summer Blossoms

Requirements to advance: Unknown

Tier 1 Path of the Guardian of the Depths: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: Manashaper

Class: Deep Walker

Requirements to advance: Unknown

Tier 1 Path of the Soulshaper: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: Soulshaper

Class: Soulsworn

Requirements to advance: Unknown

Tier 1 Path of the Sovereign: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: Noteweaver

Class: Commander

Requirements to advance: Unknown

Tier 1 Path of the Gem Body: Standing on the First Step

Discipline: None(Body Enhancement)

Class: Amber Form

Requirements to advance: Unknown

  Jay's eyes quickly scanned the gemstone council, and finding no one wearing a diamond, he walked over to Jade. "I have multiple disciplines," he said, watching Millie stroll over towards the Manashapers' group.

  Jade sighed heavily. "Diamond's going to have to deal with you. For now, it doesn't matter. Go with whatever group you want. We'll sort this out later."

  Jack nodded, strolling over to Millie. "So you're a Manashaper?," Millie asked.

  Jack shook his head. "Remember how I told you I have mutliple paths?," he asked. Millie nodded. "So, what I didn't tell you when I told you about my classes is that I have multiple disciplines as well. One of my classes is a Manashaper, so I guess I'll just be using that."

  Millie nodded. A small collection of teachers strode over to their group, a man with an aquamarine pinned to his lapel at their head. "Aquamarine, nice to meet you," the man said. "So, classes. Tell us. Also, check your abilities. I want to know about those too."

  Millie stepped forward. "Monsters of the Desolate Depths," she said.

  Another student stepped forward. "Healer."

  "Ranger."

  "Brawler."

  "Wind Dancer."

Stolen story; please report.

  The classes continued, not sounding very impressive, until a young man stepped forward with his chest puffed out. Jay winced. When the school had decided based on character, evidently they hadn't looked very hard, based on the number of idiots he'd had to deal with so far. "Earthshaker," the kid said, his face turning red from pride.

  The teachers quickly noted it down, waving him away. Thankfully, the kid seemed too caught up in his own greatness to pay attention to anyone else. Aquamarine stepped to the front. "As this is a school setting, it is fine to reveal your classes. However, do not do so in public, or others can figure out your strengths and weaknesses. Now, check your abilities."

  Jay opened his ability list for his class, finding:

Summon the Ocean

Summon a semblance of the ocean to your position. Can be controlled.

Main stat: Intelligence(Mind)

Mana cost: Varies with size-scales exponentially

Water Bullet:

Shoot a compressed bullet of water at your opponent.

Main stat: Intelligence(Mind)

Mana cost: Varies with power-scales linearly

Crush:

Touch your opponent and show them the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

Main stats: Intelligence(Mind), Strength(Body)

  Closing his status sheet, Jay waited for everyone else to complete their examination. Aquamarine clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "Attack the dummies made of water. Test your abilities. Then we'll do other things."

  They walked outside, finding multiple rows of dummies already set up, each created with a different element. Jay walked over to one of them, quickly charging a water bullet. He watched it in his hand, then decided it wasn't destructive enough. A drill tip fashioned itself onto the end, and it became a short cone. Then he changed it back to normal. There should be another way to do this. Slowly, but surely, Jay shaped it into a tool of destruction.

  Turning, he fired the sphere at the dummy.

  It hit, penetrating the outer coat of water, lodging itself inside. The water was slightly murkier than the rest of the dummy, letting him see exactly where it was. Then Jay activated his small augmentation.

  The bullet exploded. Or, more correctly, it rapidly depressurized, all the condensed water releasing itself from the tiny package. It was enough to rupture the dummy, causing it to fall apart. Jay nodded. Success. The conjured water rapidly turned back into the Mana it was made from as Jay activated the next ability he wanted to try. Zooming over to the new dummy that had appeared, Jay touched it, activating Crush. He saw the dummy suddenly grow smaller and start to pressurize, with the Mana trigger nestled firmly in his palm. Jay started clenching it, watching the dummy. It kept building up pressure until he couldn't squeeze anymore.

  Jay frowned. This was a problem. Sure, he could kill someone just by squeezing them like this, but it would be more effective if there was a small opening for them to explode out of. Sighing, he released his hand, watching the head of the dummy fall apart, then the rest of it.

  Wait. Why was the head first?

  With more experimentation, Jay found that each finger corresponded to a certain part of his opponent's body. His pointer was the head, his middle finger was their arms, his ring finger was their legs, his pinky finger was more specialized, and his thumb was their torso. His pinky would crush whatever he visualized it crushing.

  Jay touched the dummy, pulling only his pinky finger in. The dummy's neck broke apart, the entire dummy once again fizzling away into nothingness. Jay stepped back, feeling for his Mana pool. Above half. He opened his eyes, getting ready to use his last ability when he suddenly stopped. Why could he suddenly do magic now? And how did he know to check his Mana pool?

  Jay grabbed his Mana, attempting to wrangle it out of his body when he came to another realization. How had he altered the water bullet?

  He shrugged. There was time to think about that later. Turning to Millie, who was attempting to eat a dummy with a leviathan's head, he simply stood for a couple seconds before giving her advice. "The head is not part of you. Do not attempt to eat the dummy with your physical head. Just stand there and tell it what to do!"

  Millie looked over for a second, before stopping her eating motions and waving at the leviathan. It snapped forward, gobbling up the dummy. Her face suddenly flushed, embarrassed that she had missed this. Jay shrugged, returning to his dummy. Grabbing his last ability, he activated it.

Summon the Ocean.

  A sphere of the ocean rippled around him, clear blue water, as if it was at the surface. Jay pushed more Mana into it, increasing its size. He winced at the quickly growing cost. That's going to get enormous as this thing gets bigger.

  He spent just enough to pull the dummy into the sphere. Jay breathed in the water as if it was air, but he assumed other people would not have it so easy. Jay grabbed the Mana within the spell, changing it from the surface to the deepest parts of the ocean. He saw the pressure shoot up on the dummy, though the spell started to take more Mana. Pushing a bit extra in, Jay summoned a jellyfish right in front of him. Its long tendrils reached out to the dummy, which it obviously considered a target, and shot their deadly poison in. The dummy dissolved, once again. The poison floated towards Jay, but he ignored it. Nothing from this domain would be able to hurt him.

  He canceled the ability, seeing just how low his Mana had gotten, and stepped away from it. Aquamarine's eyes latched onto him. "Done testing?," he asked.

  Jay nodded. Aquamarine replied with another nod, waiting for the rest of the people to finish their testing. Jay watched Millie summon the tail of what he knew as a 'Really Big Earthworm', which had a nasty pointed spike on it. Apparently her class didn't just have to do with the ocean depths, but the depths of the entire world.

  Eventually all but one of the students finished, with the child who had gotten the Earthshaker class remaining behind, shooting pebbles at the dummy over and over again. Eventually Aquamarine tired of it, walking over to the kid and telling him, "Let's go."

  Aquamarine got the class, moving them into the training room, which was now, helpfully, partitioned. He stepped into one of the partitions. Sparring rings lay within, enough for about half the class to go at a time. Aquamarine spoke once again. "Get in a ring."

  Jay stepped in the closest one, with Millie going into an adjacent one. A woman who Jay remembered as having the Ranger class stepped in along with him. He nodded to her, and she waved back, bouncing on her toes.

  "No attempting to kill, though I can save people from practically any injury. Trap them or have them surrender to win. Also throwing them out of the ring works. Go whenever."

  Jay leaned out of the way of an arrow which had come out of nowhere. The bow was strapped to the woman's back before the match started, then it suddenly shifted into her hands, an arrow already nocked and ready. She had green eyes, with brown hair and a fair complexion.

  Jay stepped to the side, catching an arrow out of the air. It disappeared. "So, some kind of arrow creation skill?," Jay asked the girl, who simply kept shooting. He summoned a water bullet, shooting it forward. It crashed through the woman's arrows, hitting her directly in her stomach. Jay depressurized it, slowly, causing the Ranger to only get shot out of the arena and not through the wall. He stepped out of the ring, waiting for the other matches to finish. Millie summoned a leviathan head, surprising the dark-haired boy she was fighting against before chomping down, holding him gently between its teeth.

  Their next opponents were similarly easy, with Jay dodging the blonde Mage's attacks and tapping her to activate Crush. He simply held her there, waiting for the matches to end before moving onto his next one.

  Only a couple contestants were left, including he and Millie. The Earthshaker was there, as was the Wind dancer. Aquamarine announced the final pairings. "Kid versus Jay, and Vanna versus Millie."

  Jay blinked, walking into the ring. He asked the kid, who arrived almost immediately after him. "Kid. Is your name actually Kid?"

  The kid nodded. "I'm Kid."

  Jay nodded. "Okay then."

  Aquamarine boomed behind them, "Begin!," as he sat down.

  Kid looked up, seeming slightly concerned. "Sorry about this?"

  "Kid, I'm not one of those people you can sweep with a single spell."

  A pebble shot at his head. Jay stepped aside, but tapped the rock, hit by a sudden inspiration. He activated Crush, clenching his hand. The pebble broke as he released his pointer finger. On inanimate objects, his fingers seemed to crush wherever he chose.

  He turned back to Kid, who was shooting a volley of pebbles. Stepping around all of them, Jay made it to Kid, almost touching him before he moved aside, dodging the blow. Kid's voice suddenly deepened, whispering something only they could hear. "You can't get me like that, idiot. It seems I'll have to start actually fighting."

  Jay dodged another volley of pebbles, watching Kid build up a modicum of mana. "Shape Earth."

  The arena started to rumble. Jay spontaneously decided to pull out the stops, tapping a boulder and crushing it, before dancing through a series of spikes erupting from the floor.

Summon the Ocean.