“How has it been back at home?” I asked as I leaned on a tree.

“The usual. However, there was a particular outburst some weeks ago. Although I can’t remember the exact day, one day my sister came home all pissed. She took out her anger on the poor merchandise, does she know how much they cost?” Leon shook his head, a tiny smirk being seen.

“I heard her shouting something along the lines of “how dare he lie to me” and “he must’ve enjoyed toying with my emotions!” Leon said, mimicking a female voice.

“That’s indeed strange. It’s unfortunate she can’t control her emotions as well as you. Eh, I guess there will always be failures in every family,” I said as I sighed.

I placed my hand on the back of my head and yawned. While it may sound insulting, it’s the truth. I’m not the type to sugarcoat the truth. The whole situation was never going to escalate so far if it was someone like Leon.

Originally, I expected her to be similar to Leon, but no, she defied my expectations for the wrong reasons. All of this was shown the day where I inquired about Yukiko Yabuki.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask about this, but I never had the chance. His condition was pretty bad wasn’t it? You sure gave him what he deserved…” Leon sadistically smiled, a chuckle escaped his mouth.

“It was going to be worse if it wasn’t for the interruption. Plus he should’ve been out for some time. So, did you take full advantage of it?” I questioned.

“I sure did. Thanks to you, we were able to secure a lot of things. As a token of appreciation, you can have more than half of the earnings.”

Leon rubbed the tip of his fingers together in a gesture indicating money. With a grin, he placed his hand into his pocket. He swiftly yet discreetly took something out of his pocket and gave it to me.

“I assume there’s some unwanted stuff? I doubt you’ll give me such a high percentage for almost doing nothing,” I said.

I grabbed the item. The item had a solid, rough texture. When I took a quick glance, a blue shining tinge appeared. By the texture and appearance, it must’ve been a mana stone. The stone was the size of an eyeball.

As the name implies it’s a stone where you can store your mana, sometimes mana is already present when they’re found. Mana stones are primarily utilized in staffs and wands. The stones help regulate the flow of the mana inside us when it’s used for spells.

I’ll give an example, imagine a ball rolling. When we don’t use a staff or wand, it rolls on a plain surface with an occasional bump, which represents the time chance of failure when creating a spell, the speed is slow yet steady.

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Now, if the wand or staff is being used, the ball will be rolling on the slope surface at extreme speed. There will still be bumps like the other, these being more of a problem.

Instead of simply stalling or stopping the process of a spell, it will now be detrimental to the user since a tiny bump on a slope will make the ball go flying.

The bumps on the surface depend on how large the mana stones are. Due to this, many people start with less yet more safe mana stones. As they improve, they increase the mana stone as well.

There are multiple types of mana stone, or how much mana they can hold. Although some may be smaller, they may hold a bigger threat if not used properly. That’s why most are informed about the different types of magic stones, those who don't have someone with the knowledge.

Okay lesson over.

“Right on the money. I don’t find them to my interest, and knowing you, I know you’ll like it. Don’t you have a collection of jewelry? If I recall it was a gift from my father.”

“Yeah, I still have it. I’m not going to appraise their value, much less sell them.”

“Well, we should get going, the teacher is gathering the students,” I said, pointing at them.

“You’re right.”

Both of us walked towards the teacher, who was calling everyone. A carriage stood behind him, many people unloaded wooden boxes.

“All right everyone, gather up!”

Once all thirty six of us gathered around the area, the teacher clapped his hands. The people opened the wooden boxes, the sound of metallic hitting each other was heard.

“Here are your weapons, you may choose whatever is to your liking. Those who specialize in unorthodox weapons, don’t worry, we have already prepared them.”

“Once you obtain your weapons you are free to explore the location for dungeons. The duration of the event will last a month. Even if you finish a dungeon early, you’ll have to complete another.”

Hm…

A month…

“A month!?”

“Isn’t that too long?”

“My family won’t be fine with this!”

Many students voiced their displeasure. As if taking their protests seriously, the teacher nodded.

“Your families have already been informed so don’t worry,” he smiled. “Well? Go ahead and take the weapon of your choice.”

A crowd of students formed where the weapons were. As such, I waited for the crowd to take a lesson before I approached the wooden boxes.

Finally when I had the chance, I went towards the wooden boxes. I pondered, what weapon should I pick?

Honestly speaking, I can use most weapons, so I don’t have a preference. Well, I guess I should pick one according to the role I want to fulfill during our assessment.

I picked a regular sword, but that wasn’t all. I also took a shield from one of the boxes. I went back to our meeting place, waiting for the rest. The first one here was Leon, he held a spear, spinning it around.

Arakawa held a bow, Rona had a sword, Rick swung his staff for some reason while Cynthia gripped her dragger, a wand sticking out of her pocket.