Ashbury is a special town.

The country of Westerland is one of the more successful human settlements in a world where humanity is one of the weakest civilized races of all.

Unlike the elves, humanity does not excel at magical talent. Unlike the dwarves, humanity does not excel at physical might. And humanity has one of the shortest lifespans of the civilized races.

The strength of humanity is our ability to use organized tactics, and for people of diverse abilities to work together in much larger numbers than other races manage.

And the secret to Westerland's success among human countries is its education system.

While like most other human countries, its capital Telos is the centre of education for the aristocracy, what makes it special is that the Adventurers' Academy at Ashbury.

It was a school for commoners.

----------------------------------------

'Welcome, students. Each of you here today is the future of Westerland.

Ashbury's Adventurers' Academy was founded 37 years ago by a visionary, Marcus Cornelius, which some of you may know better as the Sage.

He was a man ahead of his time. While everyone else attributed the power of nations to the strength of their strongest combatants, and the sheer number they can field, the Sage understood that human life is too frail for everyone to learn from their mistakes.

In this world where each of us is alone weaker than its other inhabitants, what gives us our strength is our ability to learn from others - even from the mistakes that got them killed.

Some of you are here today because your parents, your clans, your towns, believe that you have the potential to be the guardians of this great nation.

Others are here because it is your own dream to be a protector of the peace.

You will all receive basic training over the next ten days, and you will all be tested at the end of that period to discover what your strengths are. After that, for the next three years, you will split into your various Paths, to receive more specialized instruction from those who came before you.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Your instructors are those who have faced threats of superior strength and numbers and lived. Trust in the techniques that kept them alive, and they will in turn serve you.

I have great hopes for each of you. Dismissed.'

----------------------------------------

As the man with white streaks in his hair descended from the podium, a small clamor rose among the students.

In Westerland, adventurers are broadly classified according to the level of threats they are responsible for handling, and that classification corresponds to the material their nametags are made of. When facing deadly monsters, it is not a rare occurrence that adventurers do not return alive... and against more dangerous opponents, their bodies and equipment may not even be recoverable in an intact state. Thus it is the convention for adventurers to carry a small carved nametag to identify their remains... or in certain cases, the location of their end when nothing else remains, and this is made of a small amount of the sturdiest material they are likely to be able to afford with the pay that comes with the missions they handle.

Copper is the lowest class, usually used for fresh graduates from the academy. Bronze adventurers generally handle extermination of pests and the gathering of materials in low-risk locations.

Then comes its alloy bronze, used for those which deal with dangerous wild animals.

Then comes iron, used for those which deal with weaker demihumans like kobolds and goblins.

Then comes its alloy steel, used for those which deal with stronger demihumans like orcs and ogres. Most soldiers who protect the country against other countries are also of a steel rank.

Beyond that are the rare adventurers with enough ability to deal with special threats. Titanium tags are used by those who fight wyverns and other draconic creatures due to its resistance to heat. Mythral tags are used by those who fight magical creatures like elementals and demons due to its resistance to magic. Diamond tags are used by those who fight creatures of surpassing strength like giants. There is no real hierarchy among the special metals as techniques for dealing with dragons are not necessarily useful when dealing with giants, but it is generally understood that anyone capable of dealing with special threats is also capable of dealing with threats of steel and lower.

As the man who gave the speech wore a greyish white tag, it was clear he was one of the few active dragon hunters in Westerland, and this was a clear sign of how seriously Westerland viewed education. But it didn't stop there.

'Rows one through four, get up and come here.' intoned a bald, muscular man with obvious scars on his face with a clear head protector that diffracted a rainbow across the largest scar.

'Rows five through eight, please come with me.' crooned a attractive woman in her twenties, with a necklace suspending a light blue metal plate just above a dangerous looking chasm in her dress. Eh... those guys look like they're probably not going to be focusing on the lesson at this rate...

'Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, this way~!' chirped someone even shorter than me wearing an armband made of a similar blue metal.

'And the rest of you will be in my care for the next ten days.'

I guess we're getting direct instruction from the dragon hunter himself.