Chapter 7: First Class

Morning came.

Teo, Windle and Lia met up together.

Today was the first day of classes.

The trio had never attended a class before and were filled with anticipation, excitement and anxiousness.

They headed towards the buildings were the lectures would be held. There were four auditoriums within a single building.

Each auditorium was fairly large. It could easily hold up to 200 students.

Students were free to choose any auditorium they wished, except once they registered into a specific auditorium, they would have to attend the same class for the whole year.

Students flooded the first auditorium. They rushed to register for it and since the seats were limited, it was first come first served.

The same material was taught in all four auditorium, but for some reason the first auditorium was unusually more popular.

The new students numbered a little over 500 and with the freedom of choice, the number of students within each auditorium was divided unevenly.

Seeing the popularity of certain auditoriums compared to the others, Teo and Lia found it mysterious. Windle on the other hand did not seem too surprised.

Windle led Teo and Lia towards the fourth auditorium. The number of students that registered for the fourth auditorium was the least of all four.

There were only about 40 students in the fourth auditorium, while the first auditorium was filled. The second and third auditorium had around 120 students each.

The students waited for the teacher to arrive. Some formed groups and chatted, while others prepared to take notes.

The trio had heard from Rowen a few things about the lectures. They sat together and chatted until the lecturer arrived.

A woman wearing a purple and black robe went in front of the whole class. She was tall and had long brown hair, domineering green eyes and had a serious look on her face.

She took a piece of chalk and wrote on the black board and spelled out "Dina"

"I am your instructor for the year. You can call me 'Dina', 'Teacher Dina' or 'Instructor Dina', it doesn't really matter"

Her gaze swept through the room

"It looks like that my class is as unpopular as always, but don't worry. I am more competent than the other instructors. I assure you that you will greatly benefit from my classes" She smiled devilishly

Dina was famous throughout the first and second years student. Her nickname from the students who took her classes was "The instructor from hell". All students who had heard of her would avoid her like a plague and by the second year, she would usually have no students to teach.

Only the ill informed would accidentally choose her class, but she did not mind it. She was a strict teacher, but with less students to teach, there would be less work for her to do.

The academy placed full control of the class within the hands of their respective instructors. As long as the specific materials were taught, they would not intervene on how the class was handled.

The reason Dina was avoided by students was because of how she handled her class. There was plenty of time within the year to cover the whole curriculum.

She would often teach a subject and give the class a test. She made sure that her class would get at least 90% of the answers correct before they could move on.

This was the main problem. Other students would become sick of hearing the same lecture over and over again. Students were not allowed to skip classes or they would have to attend another class to make up for it.

Anyone who failed and stalled the class would be targeted by other students. Since the whole class would be "tortured" from the lectures, they would harass and bully the ones who failed. The academy would turn a blind eye to such harassment among students of the same year. The strong prey on the weak, this was the iron rule of the world.

The results were public so they could not hide. Dina would even call out their names and announce their scores in class and give them their tests back. She did not do this out of malicious intent but was just the way she was.

Students would not be allowed to not pay attention either. If she caught anyone distracted or sleeping, she would ask them to come to class on the weekend to make up for the class that they had "missed".

This would push the students to study as if their livelihood depended on it. Whether did it intentionally or unintentionally, it was all the same to students. They would all put the blame on her.

And when Dina's students found out how easy it was in the other classes. They would regret choosing her class even more.

"We will be starting off with the history of the empire, followed by basic skills and knowledge you will need to survive in this world, such as arithmetic, herb identification, basic human anatomy, wild beast identification, and others..."

....

The class continued on with the lecture

It covered the basic history of the Avanald empire; from the first emperor, Arman Avanald, to the war that led to the empire's creation.

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After the chaotic wars that lead up to the empire's creation. The newly established empire flourished. The authority of the Imperial family had never diminished since the start of their rule.

The lecture also talked about the recent war that happened 50 years ago, the first war the empire was involved in since a thousand years.

The lands of the Avanald empire were the most fertile among the surrounding empires. These lands were precious and was coveted by several empires surrounding the Avanald empire.

Without the Imperial family being aware, a coalition of several empires joined forces and attempted to invade the Avanald Empire's borders. They attacked the guardian city of the Mist Valley, Mist city.

Mist city was located at the edge of the Avanald borders. It was one of the crucial cities that connected the Avanald Empire to the outside and thus, it was heavily guarded by a large army. This city acted as a buffer to the outside and where most trades happened.

When the city was attacked, the city's army struggled to resist, but in the end the city fell. Using the city as a platform to invade the borders, they invaded deeper into the Avanald Empire, but a strange phenomenon occurred.

The deeper the enemy force invaded the weaker they became. Like poison, the longer they stayed the greater their strength decreased. The enemy soldiers started dying one after the other and the army decided to retreat back to Mist city.

The soldiers were spooked, it was like the lands were cursed but the leaders of the coalition soon found the reason why previous generations never attacked the Avanald Empire. After thousands of years, they had forgotten the reason why their empires forbid any invasions to this mysterious empire.

Once the enemies retreated, the Avanald army launched a counter attack. Because the enemy soldiers did not easily enter the Avanald borders again, they could not chase the Avanald army who retreated into the border when an unfavorable situation occurred. Using their border as a platform to launch their attacks, they easily whittled down the enemy forces and eventually forced the enemy coalition to abandon the war and the invading forces retreated from Mist city.

The strange barrier was attributed to the empire's ancient ruins. A person born of foreign soil was not allowed to stay within the borders or they would eventually die. Even powerful foreign cultivators did not dare to step inside. Although they could last longer than an average person, they would still be affected by the strange barrier. This was the reason why the Empire had never been attacked for thousands of years, but for such a long time, the empires had forgotten such an important thing.

The mysterious barrier was still unknown to them, perhaps only the upper echelons of the empire knew about it, but that was something the public did not need to know.

....

The class lasted for 5 hours.

Many of the students paid closed attention to the lecture as it was something interesting that they did not know of.

After the class ended, Lia separted from Windle and Teo. She headed to her other elective while Teo and Windle headed to the elementalist class.

'That story is so interesting' Teo thought

They both arrived at the designated location for their next class. It was a circular auditorium that was located outdoors. The landscape was modified to look like an auditorium.

There were a total of 27 students here, all waiting for the instructor to come. It was clear to Teo and Windle that everyone here was an elementalist.

Many of them wore prideful expressions. Elementalists were all blessed by the heavens and were considered to be elites of the empire. Some wore excited expressions. This was the class where they would learn how to use their gifts.

While Teo and Windle sat to an open area, they could not help but overhear the conversation between a group of students.

Teo and Windle took a quick glance towards the group.

A golden haired young man with an arrogant expression was loudly bragging to his group about his elemental attribute. He was apparently a dualist of both wind and fire.

The others within the group also had haughty expressions on their faces. They bragged loudly about their attributes. There were three others besides the golden haired young man. One was a girl with golden hair as well and a boy were apparently dualists too. The last black haired young man was apparently a triad.

The group had such a rare lineup. Three dualists and one triad!

Many of the other students were in awe of the group, some even jealous. The majority of the other students were specialist and having 2 or even 3 elements had a large advantage in combat.

Suddenly, a familiar figure approached the podium in the middle of the auditorium. Students took quick notice of purple and black robes that this figure wore and quickly quieted down. Many had somewhat fearful expressions as they had heard rumors about this fearsome instructor, while in contrast, Teo and Windle were just surprised.

[Author's Note: Second Revision]