Chapter 423: Growing Up

“How has my life been in the academy?” Thomas mused to himself.

“Yeah,” Derek said. “How have you been? Other than the dungeon snafu, has it been as cool as you thought it was going to be? Were you let down? Are your instructors good people? You know, the usual. It’s about a year and a half for you already. What do you think about it?”

“I guess…” Thomas scratched his chin. “It’s not been what I thought it was going to be, but it’s been pretty fun.”

“What did you think it was going to be?” Derek asked.

“Well, I thought it was going to be what it was going to be… you know… before we couldn’t run dungeons outside the capital anymore,” Thomas explained. “From what I know, it should have been a bunch of hands on experience with dungeons and monsters outside the city, then reviews of dungeons and monsters, then more dungeons. Instead, there has been a lot more sparring with other students and instructors than usual. At least from what I’ve gathered since I’ve been enrolled.”

“I see,” Derek said. “Learning to fight against other system users is a good thing, though. I’m glad you’re at least getting a lot of that experience—even if your monster fighting experience is falling behind. We can always go out and find monsters for you to fight, but fighting against so many different students that are at you level and have different classes is very practical.”

“It is,” Thomas agreed. “I wasn’t complaining. I’m glad that they reworked some of the curriculum because of everything that’s happened. It would have been boring if we just got free time when we were supposed to go fight monsters.”

“It wouldn’t be much of an academy at that point, would it?” Derek asked with a laugh.

“I guess not,” Thomas said as he continued to play with his new spear. “As for the academy being cool… it is. When we have free time and get to go into the capital, the looks of envy we receive by some of the children who haven’t unlocked the Great System are crazy to me. Like… I never thought someone would be looking up to me like that. You know?”

“I can understand that,” Derek said. “It makes perfect sense. To most younger kids, getting to enroll in the academy is something they can only dream about—especially the commoners. Rare and epic classes still aren’t that easy to come by.” Derek had seen many people with rare and epic classes lately—just about anyone he had any real interaction with had such a class. However, those he met were just a drop in the bucket of the entire population.

“That’s true…” Thomas agreed. “It is still crazy that everyone I walk by in the hallways or meet in a classroom has a class that could be just as powerful, if not more powerful, than my own.”

“I bet it helps motivate you to get better, though,” Derek said.

“It does. I can’t help but want to prove myself against all the other students,” Thomas replied. “But isn’t it the same for everyone else, too?”

“Judging from what I have seen, that’s only true for most of the students in your class.” Derek explained. “There are definitely some that have no business being in a combat oriented role. There were a couple who would be a detriment to any group they were in. It would be better for the group to go into a dungeon a man down than to have them there to watch their backs.”

“I think I know who you’re talking about,” Thomas said.

“If you were to go back to dungeon running, would those few be assigned to groups?” Derek asked. He really didn’t want people like the one epic class holder to be someone there to ‘help’ Thomas and the others.

“No,” Thomas said. “Well… yes, but no. For the dungeons where the instructors can’t go in and make sure we stay safe, we are allowed to choose our own team. With their showing, I doubt anyone would want them on their team, so I won’t have to worry about that.”

“Good,” Derek said. “It may be mean, but I don’t want you learning anything from those students, if you know what I mean. I would hate if some of their inability to make decisions rubbed off on you after all the growing you’ve done in the last year or so.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Thomas said with a blush. He wasn’t used to being complimented so fiercely by Derek, or probably by many others in that case. “It’s not mean,” Thomas said. “I suspect that they got lucky with epic or good rare classes, but are only going through the motions so they can say they went to the academy. All the slackers have one thing in common, as far as I know.”

“And what is that?” Derek asked, but he had a pretty good idea.

“They are nobles,” Thomas answered with the reply Derek was expecting.

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“And even after everything that happened, they still act like that. They have no drive to get better, or are too much of cowards to do so,” Derek said with a shake of his head. “They should get some weeding skills or something. At least that way they could be a bit useful to society. Though that still may be a bit much for them to handle.” Inwardly, though, Derek made an internal note to talk to Instructor Onis—the man who had led him to the arena—to see how what they did with those students. Do they end up expelled? Or do they become instructors? They probably become influential people in the kingdom…

“Mhm…” Thomas nodded in agreement. “They certainly may have a hard time. But I think a couple of my classmates who are at the bottom rank could become good fighters or good additions to any team if they could just get over their fears of being injured or their hardheadedness.”

“I guess that could be true,” Derek said. “But still, it’s not on you to help them through that. You’re here to learn and get stronger. If at all possible, when you do get to go to dungeons, you should try to get people who you work well with on your team. People like Syd or even Eric. I think they can be reliable. They have family that is pushing them to be so, after all.”

“I will definitely try,” Thomas agreed. “It is awesome having a good tank on your team.”

“I can vouch for that,” Derek laughed in agreement. “So, what else? What about your instructors? They seemed pretty good to me. Will probably become pretty strong later on.”

“They are great!” Thomas said. “I really like Instructor Cruz and Instructor Jeffords. Instructor Cruz reminds me of Malorie and Instructor Jeffords is kind of like you, in a way. Well… almost. The other instructors are all really good too. The six instructors you saw here today are our class’s primary instructors.”

“What does that mean?” Derek asked.

“They were assigned to us the week we started at the academy, and they will be our instructors until we all either graduate or leave. Our primary instructors oversee our combat training throughout our time in the academy.”

“What about the other instructors? I imagine if there are primary instructors, there are also secondary ones?” Derek asked.

“Yes,” Thomas answered. “The other instructors specialize in certain fields. Like, Instructor Mitchell teaches Dungeon Studies, but she teaches it for the entire academy. We go to her classes, she doesn’t come to us. Same for Instructor Brooks. He teaches Anatomy of Monsters to the academy—I have classes with him every Monday and Friday.”

“I see,” Derek said.

“Then there are the weapon instructors. I’m under Instructor Ichida for my spear training. He’s really good with the spear, but I think Shae’s teachings are better suited for me. He’s more hands on and doesn’t hold back. I think training works better for me when there’s a chance that I might get hurt.”

“I can see that,” Derek said with a smile. “Well, on the bright side, if Judy doesn’t kill him, Shae will be back at the Savannah Adventurer’s Guild as soon as he finishes with all the tasks Judy’s given him. And now that the teleporters are open, you’ll be free to head there on your free days. I’m sure he’d love to see your current progress.”

“I’ll definitely stop by the next time I go to Savannah,” Thomas agreed.

“He’ll definitely be happy,” Derek said. “And Judy may even take it easy on him for a bit if you’re the one there asking about him.”

“Maybe,” Thomas said. “Oh!” He turned his head quickly and looked at Derek with a smile. “Grandpa and Grandma are here. They’re staying for free at the Crown Restaurant. Miss Swan had one of her people bring them here from the village before the attacks began on that side of the kingdom.”

“Malorie told me,” Derek said. “I bet they’re proud of you. How often do you see them?”

“I go see them every weekend when we get our free time. And they are very happy. Grandma won’t stop fussing over my uniform. I like how happy it makes her, so I always make sure to wear it when I go out,” Thomas replied with a big smile. “Grandpa can’t believe the type of food he gets to eat every day. Every time I visit, he tells me about what dish he had each day of the week.”

“Haha,” Derek chuckled. “I should take Silvi over there so they can discuss food. I bet she would enjoy that.”

“You should,” Thomas said. “How is she doing?” as he asked the question, he instinctively rubbed the top of his head.

“She’s doing fine,” Derek said. “She supplied the whole royal wedding in Ast… Indaria by herself. All her food was a hit with everyone, so I suspect she’s going to be a little bit extra… full of herself for a while.”

“So she’s going to be extra Silvi?” Thomas laughed.

“Exactly,” Derek said. “By the way, how are the cooking instructors? I heard that there are crafting students here as well? So I imagine there are cooking ones?”

“I don’t know,” Thomas said. “I haven’t met them because I’m not in any cooking classes. But, some of the cooking students make food to sell for Academy Credits. Why?”

“I was just wondering if they may need a special cooking instructor,” Derek said with a smile. He imagined Silvi with her little chef’s hat hopping onto a podium and teaching a cooking class. Then he remembered how she acted after cooking lessons in Torith and shivered.

“No,” both Thomas and Derek said at the same time.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be a good idea,” Derek said. “Maybe she could audit one of the cooking classes, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to put her in charge of any students.”

“Agreed,” Thomas said with a chuckled. “But you should stop by and see Grandpa and Grandma if you get a chance. I’m sure they would really appreciate it.”

“I will,” Derek said. “If they are staying at by the Crown Restaurant at the hotel, I’ll make sure to pop in when I got to check on Clare. She should be there, too.”

“She is,” Thomas confirmed. “She’s doing really well. So are Zachary and Lucas.”

“Oh yeah,” Derek said. “Avery’s… wards. I bet they’ll be excited once Avery’s back there full time. He certainly seemed to miss them in the raid dungeon. I look forward to really meeting them.”

“They are nice and hardworking,” Thomas said. “But who wouldn’t be with Ms. Swan there? Even if she can’t speak to you.”

“They definitely have reasons to become stronger,” Derek said.

“The two of them would do great in the academy if they ever join,” Thomas said.

“With Avery as their teacher, I imagine they would…”

After that, Thomas and Derek continued chatting for a good couple of hours. Derek was worried that he would be missing classes, but Thomas said he didn’t have any until the evening. After a while, though, Thomas had to get to one of those classes. Derek accompanied him outside the arena, and Thomas gave him a hug bigger than the one Brandi had given him.

Derek smiled as he watched the boy walk away. He was definitely growing up.