When I arrived at the Armory there were already many students there. The different classes had gathered separately outside of the large, square building that looked sufficiently stylish and high-tech to fit in with what I had started to expect of this world. Scanning the groups of students, I tried to discern which gathering was class 1, but I didn't have much luck. While I'd counted 31 of them entering the classroom, I didn't actually look at any of their faces. The only one whose face I knew was the guy who scored first place in the exam, but he was nowhere to be seen. I could look around, or I could just try finding him with the help of [The Watching Eye]. If he were among the crowd, my Talent should make it easy enough to find him.

As I focused my senses just like I'd done the first time I used it, and immediately the mass of people melted away from my view. I ended up looking through every single one of them and even into parts of the building, so I had to adjust it a bit so that the people at the front disappeared. After some trial and error — I was still getting used to this — I finally spotted Jean Bradford talking with a few other students. Heading over to that group of students, I turned the ability off. I was limited in the amount of time that I could use it so there wasn't much point in wasting it. When I closed in on the class, I positioned myself at the edge of the group and took a glance at the surroundings. All the buildings around the Armory looked as modern as it did, although most of them were smaller. All of them were built around a large rectangular park with a large pond in the middle. The park was beautiful, with a flock of birds laying about next to the pond. We were currently waiting at the edge of the park, in an almost parking-lot kind of area. There were even a few vehicles here. Almost like golf carts, but a bit larger and decked out.

The students were busy chatting with each other and didn't pay me much attention, but there were a couple of voices I heard that sounded like they mentioned me.

"Hey, you see that guy that just got here?" One guy from another class said, trying to point at me without being too conspicuous. He wasn't doing a good job.

"What about him?" Another guy next to him asked.

"I think I took the entrance exam at the same time as him. You should have seen him; he's like an emotionless robot. Kinda creepy. And he didn't use any weapon for any of the combat tests. Just beat the target with his hands, like he wanted to brag or something."

"What's up with that?"

"Hell if I know."

Shaking my head slightly, I ignored their continued gossiping. I'd wondered how Hope had been when it controlled this body. Guess I've got my answer. I doubt rumors will spread about it, but even if they do it doesn't matter much. Even if people were to avoid me if rumors were to spread, I wouldn't mind. I wasn't planning on getting all chummy with people right now, at least.

Some of the other classes had already started entering the Armory by now, but we were still waiting for Mr. Basara to arrive. We stood there for another five minutes before he finally appeared with a big smile on his face.

“Good, you all found your way here." He said, doing a quick headcount. "Sorry for the wait. Follow me.” He signaled for us to follow him as he walked towards the building’s entrance.

We first entered a wide lobby with a high ceiling and many different kinds of weapons hanging on display on the walls with plaques under them. They were far away, but with my new enhanced sight, I had no problem reading what was written on them. ‘Dyrnwyn,’ ‘Gram,’ ‘Rhongomiant,’ ‘Ame-no-nuhoko,’ ‘Joyeuse,’ and many others. They seemed to be models of famous historical and mythical weapons. I’d learned that, in this world, the power of a weapon depended as much — if not even more — on the history of the weapon as it did on its quality. Even if a weapon was just an ordinary stick, if a famous hero had used it in the past it could still be far more powerful than any ordinary sword that could be made today. Weapons like these were called relics, and they were imbued with the magic and feats of the people that had owned the weapons during the ages.

Partly because of this, more modern weapons like guns didn’t see much use amongst heroes. There weren't many guns that had been around long enough for them to have become relics. Allegedly, guns were also hard to efficiently use magic with. All of this meant that guns had a relatively low-efficiency limit when it came to monster subjugation. They were useful early on but their usefulness quickly tapered out.

I kept browsing the weapons that were presented on the wall as class 1 followed Mr. Basara to the other side of the lobby. He swiped his smartwatch over a device next to a door, and a sharp beep rang out as it opened. He then led us through a long corridor until we reached a large room that was filled with different kinds of targets on one end and all sorts of weapons in several rows on the other end.

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There were at least a dozen different kinds of weapons here. Swords, spears, polearms, halberds, gauntlets, katars, hammers, bows, and many more could be seen. The amount of money this school must have spent just on these was impressive.

“Listen up now, students.”

Mr. Basara clapped his hands to catch our attention.

"I'm aware some of you might already have personal weapons, some of which might even be better than these — but here at Lemorth Academy, only academy-regulated weapons are allowed for usage on academy-grounds. Eventually, after having it reviewed and given approval from the academy, you can use your own weapons. But for the immediate future, you’ll all be using these training weapons that we’re providing you with. Class 1 has booked this hall for another hour, so make sure to think carefully about your weapon of choice. Switching to another weapon later on means a bunch of paperwork for me, and I’d like to avoid that if possible.”

It felt like he was looking at me for a second there.

“When you’ve chosen a weapon, feel free to try it on the targets over there to see how it fits you.” He said as he pointed towards the targets on the other side of the room.

With that, all the students started moving towards the rows of weapons. A good third of the class immediately went over to where the swords were. Amongst them was Jean Bradford. Another big group also gathered around the polearms, spears, and other pole weapons. I also saw a couple of students that picked up pairs of gauntlets. There was even a student that grabbed a pair of katars and turned them over a couple of times as she examined them thoroughly.

I wasn't sure what to choose, so I looked over the rows of weapons carefully several times.

“Why couldn’t guns just be a thing here…” I mumbled.

A student next to me gave me an odd look before they also went over to the rows of weapons.

It annoyed me to no end that guns were so worthless. I knew from personal experience that they couldn't hurt any of the stronger monsters, but they were useful for distracting them at times. I’d grown relatively proficient with guns during these last few years and would have preferred to at least have had the choice to use them now too. Perhaps I could have found a way of making it useful through a Talent. I had no experience what-so-ever in using any of the close-quarters weapons. Fortunately, there was one weapon here that I did have a moderate amount of experience with — the bow.

I'd practiced archery up until my world was invaded, and although I was far from being good enough to be able to compete at it, that was still far better than starting from scratch.

Walking over to where the different kinds of bows were, I looked all of them over. Four other students were also assessing the bows. One of them, a girl with long, curly blond hair and bright blue eyes, grabbed a slick red recurve bow and started moving with determined steps towards the targets that were set up for archers. But she forgot to pick up a quiver with arrows. I turned my attention back to the bows. She's bound to realize soon enough.

There were several different types of bows to choose from, but the majority of them were recurve bows. There were a few compound bows there too, but none of the other students seemed to be interested in them. I had experience with both, but I was best with the compound bow. They were designed to be easier to use and not require as much strength as normal bows, yet still be as strong — if not stronger — so it was surprising that these people seemed averse to using them. Was it because they were modern weapons, and you were unlikely ever to find a relic compound bow? Or perhaps the increased convenience gained from a compound bow wasn’t even needed for superhumans like the heroes, the kind of people who bench press one hundred kilos with their pinkies.

Thinking it over for a while, I eventually chose to try a recurve bow. There was no point in selecting a weapon that'd only limit my growth in the future. The same went for guns, I guess, although I still think I'd prefer using one.

Looking over the different bows for a moment, I picked up a dark green bow made up of fiberglass with a draw strength of twenty kilograms. It made me wonder what draw strength the bows that the other students chose had. Some of these bows were listed with draw strengths over five times mine, which was insane. These were training weapons. I have no idea what the hell those strings are made out of, but they don't look thick enough to have that kind of draw strength in them. I glanced over at the blonde girl, and what I saw surprised me.

My assumption that she forgot about taking any arrows wrong. She didn't need them. Instead, she merely pulled the string back and close to her cheek as a bright golden light seeped out of her hands like a fluid, forming a glittering arrow that was nocked and ready to be released. After correcting her aim for barely a second, she let go of the string and the arrow flew off at an incredible speed straight into the middle of the target. After a few seconds, the arrow slowly crumbled into small golden motes that disappeared into thin air. From what I could tell, that wasn't her first shot. With my increased sight, I could see that there were several equal-sized holes very close to each other in the middle of her target. It was only thirty meters away, but it was still an impressive sight. She was more skilled at that than I was, that much I could tell. And she wasn't using a stabilizer, which I was used to doing. It made sense not to. When you’re using a bow in real combat the stabilizer is more likely to get in the way than anything else. That, and you probably won't find many relics that use them.

The question was how she created that arrow out of thin air. Just the time one could save from doing that could make one several times more efficient in combat. Not having to run around with arrows in a quiver would also useful. If that was something that can be learned, and not just a Talent she has, then it would have to be a priority for me if I choose the bow.

I picked up a quiver filled with arrows and hung it over my shoulder. I still had to try this bow out before I decide on anything specific.