Before I forget. I will post a chapter every 2 days, during night time (at my time zone). It is, however, unlikely for me to increase the speed of it. I might release extra chapters if I'm in a school break though.
Also, although i had planned most of this arc out already, I do not mind suggestions. In fact, due to my limited knowledge in school life, suggestions would be extremely helpful. Yeah, I am the kind of person with 0 friends in school.
“Dude, wake up!”
Upon hearing those words, I forced my eyes open, and looked into the person in front of me. He looked at me with his read eyes while grinning. The most distinctive part of his though, was his badly cut hair, which is maroon colored.
“Wa?” I got up quickly while searching my memories. “Who are you?”
“My name’s…” He faltered, and started thinking, “Actually, you know what, my name is insignificant. I am but a lowly nobody.” He said while laughing. “Mind you, my name really was registered as Nobody.”
I don’t know what to think. Is this a joke?
“No worries, it isn’t a joke.” He laughed again, but suddenly stopped, “By the way, you should get up. You’ve been collapsed since yesterday. I was quite shocked when a corpse was thrown into the room.”
“Sorry.” I muttered as I got out of the bed, and then winced as pain roared through my whole body.
“Whoa, careful there.” He held me up, and guided me to the bathroom, while throwing a set of uniform at me, “Get ready for class, I’ll wait for you.”
I recalled the events of the previous day as I took the bath. I was brutally beaten up by Kuro-senpai, and then fed by her, and then, according to this ‘Nobody’ person, I was thrown into the room.
What did I ever do to deserve this?
I wore the uniform which consists of a simple white shirt with a single green stripe on the sleeve, indicating the year, with the school emblem and a pair of black trousers. Unlike traditional schools, uniforms would often get destroyed through various means, which is why the uniform is simple, although combatable. On a side note, the females has an extra blazer, with a similar shirt, but they can choose between short skirts, long skirts and trousers.
Also, when we reach C and A ranks, we can upgrade, and then custom make our uniform, like how Kuro-senpai did with hers. It is a pain for them to do that, though, so we would have to pay every single time we want a new set.
Also, I wonder why she chose a uniform like that.
After changing into the uniform, I returned to the room, where Nobody was lying on the bed reading from a horribly old notebook.
By the way, the room is quite small, with 2 beds, one on each side, 2 cupboards, 2 desks, and a single window. There is also a small bath, although there is a bathhouse for each gender near their dorms.
Upon seeing me, Nobody closed his book, storing it in a small magical pouch. I was provided one of it by the academy as well, although the storage space was not that large. It couldn’t even fit my pistol, so I had to carry it myself.
Nobody, on the other hand, doesn’t have any weapons on his body. He got up, stretching his body, “Now now, let’s go before we are late for the entrance ceremony.” He said, walking out of the room, “Come on and follow me.” The entrance ceremony is held in the main hall in the main academy building, and there was quite a number of first years, and older students, according to the stripes on their sleeves, guiding the first years
We entered the hall, and Nobody randomly chose a seat. I took the seat beside him, while looking around. At the moment, there are few students, but more are entering by the second. After a while, a girl with long silver hair sat down nervously beside me, but when I looked at her, she blushed and looked down, so I averted my gaze.
Nobody, on the other hand, had no delicacy. “Woo~ How did you get a girl so quickly?” He asked with a taunting smile, which caused the girl to blush even more while shuffling away from us.
“Hahahaha, sorry, sorry, what’s your name?” Nobody asked with a laugh, but the girl simply ignored him and stubbornly looked away, until I decided to ask her the question myself.
“…Ashley…” She said, now looking downwards.
Honestly, I don’t know how to deal with someone like her. Neither Carla, mom nor the other females I have met up to now, which includes Mel, Gwen and Kuro-senpai, had been this shy. Every single time I looked at her, she would turn away and blush.
“Good morning, everyone.”
Ah, it was the principal. Today, instead of wearing a formal suit, he wore a green cloak. He held his bow on his hand and 3 arrows in another, and he spoke in an amplified voice. “Welcome to AAA. Short for Altea’s Adventurer’s Academy. We, as the best adventuring academy in the world, welcome you to join our ranks, and graduate as proud men and women. I’m sure that some of you expect me to give a speech about the founding of the school, but since everyone would just sleep, please satisfy yourself at our great library!”
He nodded a few times at us, and continued, “Our goal is simple. To give all of you the basics of adventuring, and the mindset of an adventurer before you go! And for those that are interested in something else, such as crafting, you are not left out! Please fully enjoy your time here, and use our facilities as much as possible! I hereby welcome all of you, the 123 students that joined us this year, to AAA.”
Most of the students clapped excitedly, but principal, what everyone wants is the lessons, not the speeches. Well, there is another teacher coming now. It was Prof. Gwen, and she looked at everyone sternly, forcing them to quieten down before starting her tiny speech.
As she got up, she told us that our home room was decided by our seats. With 9 rows, every 3 rows of students are allocated into the same homeroom. For me and Nobody, we were in homeroom 2. We were also told of the class location, and I quickly checked the map. By the time I confirmed the location, she was already done, and we were dismissed.
“Got the location?” Nobody asked casually as he leaned against the chair, “Lead us, scout!” He said, while pointing towards the exit. I smiled at the joke, and got up.
And then I felt a pull on my sleeve.
Ashley was holding my sleeve, while still looking away. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but was stuttering. “Ca… can… I…?”
I sighed mentally. “Do you want to follow us?”
She nodded quickly, while still holding my sleeve. As I led the way, Nobody followed behind me, but the moment he tried to speak to Ashley, she walked 2 steps to the side, as far away as possible to Nobody, while still holding my sleeve.
Is he really that scary? He’s the one that is going to cry now.
Using the map, we quickly reached the classroom. The classroom was still half empty at this point, and when we entered, we were greeted by an bored looking old man leaning on the chair. He looked at us with a sleepy face as he said, “Clint. Ashley. And that insignificant dude.” He said, and handed us our timetables.
We took the seats in the middle of the class. Nobody sat behind me while Ashley to the left.
According to the time table, there were 2 swordsmanship classes and combat classes per week, each lasting 2 hours. Tactics has a 2 theory classes, which is 2 hours each. The final basic engineering has 3 classes, a 1 hour theory and two 2 hour workshop sessions.
Nobody took 2 subjects only, which is basic engineering and combat. When he noticed me looking, he told me that he came here for the engineering only, and that he was not interested in anything else. Ashley had 4 subjects, Healing, Support magic, Basic Magic and Combat. I asked her a few questions of her choices, and she tried to answer for a bit before giving up with a sigh.
According to those choices, Ashley would be a priest, while Nobody an Engineer? I’m not sure about the class concepts… (Notes: No worries, Clint, you are right)
After some time, the class filled up (the teacher sent a few students running to search for those missing), and he stood up, silently looking at us.
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And he sat down again, as if deciding that it isn’t worth his energy standing, “Welcome to class 1-B. My name is Atler Goshan. Just call me Mr.Atler or Mr.Goshan, I don’t really care, I’m an engineering teacher, so congrats for those who took engineering,” He said dryly while manipulating a chalk to write his name on a blackboard, “We can start the self-introductions now, you, boy in the corner, start.”
Didn’t they have whiteboards? My mom often complained how blackboards give out too much dust, and changed all the blackboards at home into whiteboards a few years back.
“Ah okay.” The boy said quickly, and stood up, beginning the self-introductions. I idly listened to them, although honestly I couldn’t remember the names of most of them. My mom told me that dad had a certain trait. He couldn’t remember the names of the people by listening to them only once, or twice, or thrice, and that he would rapidly forget names of people. It seems that I had the exact same trait. By the time it reached the 4th person, I couldn’t remember the name of the first person, and it took me a few seconds to remember the name of the girl beside me.
Ashley, right.
At least Nobody’s name was easy, although quite weird.
“Erm… My name is Ashley Dewspark… 9 years old… Nice to meet you!” She bowed, and sat back down.
Dewspark, huh… but Ashley, nobody could hear that anyways if you speak so softly. The teacher waved for the next person to continue through. It seems that he doesn’t exactly care.
It reached my turn soon after that, and I stood up, “My name is Clint, 9 years old. I hope that I will be able to get along with everyone.” I sat down, somewhat proud of myself for modifying it slightly from an introduction from a story.
Nobody grinned at me and whispered, “Wow, so formal.” And then he stood up, “Hi~ I am someone insignificant, but I go by the name Nobody. I hope that I can get along with all the girls in the class~ Thank you, thank you.” He waved to everyone as he sat down.
Actually, he ignored the part of the class that didn’t have any girls.
Why only the girls?
The introductions ended soon after that. The teacher sighed visibly, “I am supposed to give you guys a brief introduction of ranks.” He gave a really long sigh upon saying those words, “Fine. Basically, you all start as crappy F ranks. You guys get a horrible allowance every week, and can eat at the F rank cafeteria for free. Also, you can take F and E rank missions from the adventurer’s guild as well as the crafting guild.”
While still manipulating the chalk, he started writing the letters F to A, as well as S, SS and SSS. “You can increase your ranks through multiple ways. But since there are that many… Fine, I’ll tell you brats all of them. The first way is through the guilds, by doing guild quests. Completing adventurer’s guild quests will give adventurer points, while the crafting guild gives crafter points. After getting a certain amount, your ranks will increase. The higher one of either rank determines your student rank.” A few of my classmates looked around confused, but he ignored them and continued. “In addition to that, there are 2 other ways to increase ranks. The first is from leadership achievements. By leading people well in quests, or events, you can increase your rank if the principal or heads allow for it. The other is attitude. It can go negative too, and it can be modified by the principal and the heads directly. Simply speaking, if they like you, then you get bonus ranks, if they don’t, you don’t get bonus ranks.”
He ignored the ‘any questions’ part, and instantly went into the next point. “You can’t take missions for three months, and you can’t do any labyrinth related missions until your third year. Also, there will be a small test after every semester for every subject to reevaluate all of you, and a final test every year. On the first year of any subject, depending on your marks, you can skip a few years, or for some subjects, to the next grade directly.”
Since most of the students has previous experience, the first year is mainly to gauge the student’s real knowledge and skill of the subject, and at the end of the year, the students would be moved to a more suitable year. Such a thing couldn’t be done in a day, in fact, since there are many factors to evaluate.
Each subject lasts 9 years at maximum, and a student below S grade has to finish at least 4 subjects to graduate. An S grade student needs 2, while an SS grade student only needs one. SSS grade students doesn’t even need to finish a single subject, and can graduate by the 7th year. Also, for subjects like engineering and magic, there are grades, which ranges from basic to advance to expert.
By this time though, there was quite a number of students who couldn’t get what he said, but none of them dared to ask the teacher to repeat it, so he dismissed everyone and left.
Ashley’s PoV
I looked at the boy with awe. Even now, when the teacher spoke with such confusing words, he had a confident feeling as if he understood everything. Even his friend behind him was the same, I think? He seemed really lax though.
He had introduced himself as Clint, with no surname, at the hall.
Initially, I felt nervous. After my roommate, a 3rd year senior, left me at the hall, I felt really unconfutable with all the gazes other people gave me. My roommate told me that my silver hair is rare, and it stands out a lot. Flustered by the gazes, I took a random seat and sat down beside a boy, but he almost instantly turned towards me.
He had a curious expression as he looked at me with his hazel eyes. The eyes were warm, yet piercing at the same time. It was as if he was gauging me, but he quickly realized that I was uncomfortable, and turned away. That’s when his friend suddenly made an improper comment, and the shame instantly took over my nervous brain.
How could someone say something so shameless!?
He asked for my name, but I decided to ignore such a vulgar person. It was until the other boy, who seemed really troubled, asked for my name that I gave them mine. The boy with caramel hair was called Clint, while the vulgar boy wanted to be called Nobody. I really can’t understand someone like him…
After the speech, I realized that I didn’t know where the classroom is. But since the people beside me would be going to the same homeroom, I quickly grabbed Clint’s sleeve.
Wait! What was I doing???
I turned away in shame, but it was too late to remove my hand, as it had tugged on his sleeve when he got up. I tried to cover myself, but I was too shamed to even speak. He looked at my face, and smiled lightly, “Do you want to follow us?”
Ah, I suddenly recalled the novel about a charming prince.
No! Wait! What was I thinking!? I nodded lightly after clearing my thoughts, and followed him. The other boy, who was also following him, smiled and moved closer to me. But I instinctively moved away… He was a little scary to me…
And now we are here. As the teacher swiftly left, he turned back towards us while smiling, “Want to go to the domes together?” I wasn’t sure where the domes are, so I nodded while Nobody gave a single thumbs up with his trademark scary smile… I’m… afraid of him…
He nodded, and led the way. As we were walking, I took out a small piece of wood, and chanted a short incantation. Upon receiving the mana of the spell, the wood extended into a staff, which I held with both my hands. Nobody whistled, while Clint simply glanced back and looked at my staff.
That was the first time I managed to look at his face directly. Again, he had his kind yet dark eyes, although it isn’t focused on me now, and he had quite a good face. But there was something curious about him. I shook away the thoughts. It was improper of me to think like that. But when I shook my head, I caught his attention, and he looked at me again.
I couldn’t help looking away, which gave him a troubled look, but he continued guiding us to the domes.
Why can’t I help looking away when he looks at me!?
What is this feeling in my head!!??