"Ah, I'm finally here," Lucius grinned with anticipation he arrived at Trupe City
"Yes, finally," Luna said. She vouched to come to Trupe City with Lucius for protection but to also do some sightseeing. Her wings were hidden from view so she appeared as a normal human. They stopped by assorted clothes and armor shop.
"Uh, why are we here?" Lucius asked as they stepped inside.
"I'm going to spice you up," Luna said. "Appearance will help you with a lot of things."
Lucius couldn’t imagine what appearance could be used for, but he went along with Luna. She grabbed a long, black trench coat that looked like it would be on an anime character. She threw it over Lucius and looked at him.
"Perfect," she said. Then she grabbed a pair of black pants and quickly paid for them. A little confused, Lucius put the pants on, strapped his katana to his belt, and concealed his two handguns under the trench coat. When he looked in the mirror, he looked more... powerful. Slightly intimidating.
I look like a glorified anime character, Lucius thought, but it still looked really cool. The pants and the trench coat didn't constrict his movements at all.
"Now you look better!" Luna proudly said.
"Whatever. Let's go to the school now," Lucius said. They weaved through the streets and soon arrived at a large building. It stretched extremely far into the distance. A sign read, FORAGEBLADES, A SCHOOL OF COMBAT.
"Guess we are here," Luna said. "Make sure you come back soon! Time for me to head back! Have fun!"
"Wait... what?" Lucius started to say, but Luna threw a Transportation Gem at her feet and disappeared.
Well... okay then, Lucius thought and stepped inside the front entrance. The place wasn't full, but it wasn't empty. There were people milling around checking in, signing forms or talking with other people. The floor was covered in a carpet and strange looking lightbulbs gave the building a cheery feel. Lucius went into the line that trailed to the front desk.
"Hello there. Are you here to apply for school?" The front desk said.
"Yes," Lucius said. The employee handed Lucius a form and a pen. He took them and walked to a nearby desk to fill it out.
NAME: Lucius Avalon
AGE: 17
GENDER: M F
BIRTHPLACE: N/A
DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 03/04/XXXX
WEAPON OF CHOICE: Katana
YEARS ATTENDED: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6+
And that was it. Lucius turned it in.
"Thank you," the employee said and looked over the form. He looked a little confused by the N/A that Lucius put, but he didn't question it. "Please go into room 156 where the sword users are being tested."
"Alright. Thank you," Lucius said and walked to the room.
When he stepped inside he noticed the sheer number of students that used swords. They were all waiting for an opening for an arena to open up.
"Hello," someone said behind him. Lucius turned to face someone that he assumed was the instructor of the sort. He had thick arms that rippled with muscle and had the same build that Balos had. His skin was tanned and his hair was white; an odd contrast. "You must be Lucius."
That was quick, Lucius nodded. "Yes, sir."
He laughed. "Ah, it has been a while since I've heard formality. That's good. Also, you are a katana user. Not many people use that, so I hope that you can wield it well. By the way, call me Instructor Demios."
Lucius gave a small nervous laugh. He was looking at the arenas, where people were hacking at each other with swords. When one was either knocked out, forced out of the arena, or surrender and drop their weapon, then the other would win. Evaluators would write something down and a new matchup would start.
"I think it is your turn, Lucius," instructor Demios said. "Go to that arena," he said and pointed to a just opening one.
"Alright," Lucius said and walked over. He climbed into the arena and rested his hand on his sword. Another person climbed into the arena. He was in a full suit of armor and had a broadsword in his hand.
"Start!" An evaluator said. Lucius didn't move and just waited as his opponent inched toward him.
The instant Lucius predicted that he was within lunge range, Lucius leaped at him and jerked his katana out of its sheath, ramming the hilt of it into the armor of the person. But it didn't really do much other than knocking the other person back. Lucius jumped back to avoid a heavy swing from the sword, then he went back and stabbed at him with his katana.
The katana cleanly pierced through the armor, but it stopped.
Is this more armor? How much protection is this guy wearing?! Lucius jumped back. He tried to break through the defenses a few more times.
Soon, the opponent was chuckling slightly. When he spoke, his voice was surprisingly deep.
"This armor is made from Blackmetal. You'll never pierce it with that cheap katana of yours!" He laughed.
Lucius grit his teeth. "Oh, really?" He didn't give him a chance to get a response. He slid his katana into his sheath and dashed around him. Wearing two layers of armor made him bulky and slow, which gave Lucius the upper hand.
When he was at his back, he planted his foot into his opponent's back and pushed. Hard. He stumbled forward, which gave Lucius the chance he wanted. He pulled his katana out of his belt and slammed the hilt into his opponent's back, which made him fall to the ground.
Then, Lucius put his katana into his belt and pressed one of the buttons without anyone noticing. Even through the sheath, Lucius could feel the heat coming off the heat from the tip of the blade. Very quickly, he slashed as fast as he could and he could feel the Blackmetal armor melt underneath.
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"Halt!" A voice came out from the sides from the evaluator. Lucius jammed his katana back into his sheath and reverted it back to normal. The evaluator didn't seem to notice but if he did, he didn't care.
He wrote a few more things, then nodded at Lucius.
"You are the victor of this match, so here is this," he said and handed him a slip. It had Lucius' name, the date of the match, and a room number.
"Before you head to your classroom, head over to the infirmary. You'll need to get background checked before you get accepted."
"Alright—thanks," Lucius said and walked away. His opponent glared at him when he was standing up. There was a trail of smoke from his back which burned Lucius' nose with an acrid scent.
Lucius walked into the infirmary, where he was greeted by a nurse. There were a few people here and there.
"Slip, please," the nurse asked. Lucius handed her the slip that the evaluator gave him. She looked over it and handed it back to him.
"Now, have you ever done a background check before?" The nurse asked. Lucius shook his head.
"Well," the nurse went over to a table with a small needle. "We take a drop of blood and use Rank 4 <<<
Lucius broke into cold sweat. I did kill someone. Does that count?
The needle gently pricked his skin, and it absorbed a single drop of blood. The nurse put it on a glowing red stone, where it sizzled.
The nurse raised her hand.
"<<<
The nurse studied the drop.
"Hm... inconclusive..." The nurse said. "This is rare, but it usually means that you are clean."
She smiled at Lucius as he visibly relaxed. "Well, I guess it's time for you to head to your first class. Good luck!"
Lucius thanked her and went out.
Inconclusive? I wonder what went wrong?
He thought about it as he studied the numbers above the doors.
This school is huge! How am I supposed to find my class? There is like a million rooms here! Good thing I'm quite early. Any later and I would be late for sure.
After about five minutes of searching, he gave up and went to someone. He tapped on her shoulder.
"Excuse me, um--" Lucius started.
The girl turned, revealing Setsu, the girl that assisted Lucius in finding the stores. Also, the one who's friends tried to take Lucius' guns.
"Lucius?" She exclaimed. "Oh my god, it is you!"
Lucius grinned. "Hey, Setsu!"
She hugged him. "I was so worried about you! When my idiot friends chased you off, you didn't come back and I didn't hear anything from you at all!"
"Yeah, well, I was busy. What happened to your 'friends'?" Lucius asked, a little cautious. Setsu might not have been involved with the attempt at theft, but she was still friends with them at the time.
"I ditched them. They always seem to do all of the wrong things at the wrong times. Plus all they want is money. I mean..." Setsu started, then she shook her head.
"'I mean' what?" Lucius asked.
"Never mind," Setsu said. Lucius hated that phrase. It meant that they were hiding something from him, but he didn't press it. It was obvious that it made Setsu sad.
"Well," Lucius said. "What is your first class?"
Setsu looked a little happy at the change of subject. "Well, my weapon of choice is swords, so I obviously start with sword work. The other classes I signed up for was monster taming, magic, and lore."
"Where did you sign up for classes?" Lucius asked.
"If you wanted specific classes, you were supposed to come in a week in advanced," Setsu said.
"Oh," Lucius said. Balos didn't tell him that. "What happens if we didn't come in?"
"I'm pretty sure that you would automatically get assigned to other classes based on your performance at the entrance test and the application."
"I hope I'm fine then. I did pretty well at the ceremony," Lucius said. They walked down the long hallways that seemed like they stretched forever.
"By the way, where do you keep your sword?" Lucius asked Setsu. She didn't appear to have any weapons on her.
"I have an Item Box," Setsu said.
"What's that?"
"You don't know?" Setsu asked. She sounded surprised.
Lucius said no.
"Well, an Item Box is--" Setsu reached into the thin air. Her hand disappeared into something invisible and it slowly reappeared with a long, thin sword. "-- an item that bonds with you and it is basically a storage that you can use anywhere."
"Cool," Lucius said. "How do you get one?"
"Well, you can buy one. It's pretty pricey though. The cheapest ones cost about 500,000 Orbs. The one I have would've cost over a million Orbs, but I got this one for 200,000 since I was sponsored by the school."
Sponsored? Then she must be pretty good then to get an 800,000 Orb discount.
"Is that the only way you can get one?" Lucius asked.
"You can make one, but it is very, very difficult
They stepped into the classroom. Without Setsu's help, Lucius was sure that he was going to be late.
"So, is this your first year?" Setsu asked.
"Yeah. What about you?"
"Third year."
"Ah, okay."
They sat next to each other in the back of the class. The tables looked like the ones at normal schools, but the chairs were made out of wood. The areas where the legs met the seat was seamless.
"Since the day of the incident, I was wondering, where do you live? You went into the South Forest, and the closest civilization is over fifty miles away. So, where did you go?" Setsu asked.
Lucius shook his head. "Sorry. I can't give you that information." Before Lucius left Baylight, Balos specifically told Lucius not to tell anyone about Baylight.
"Why not?" Setsu asked. "It won't do any harm, right?"
Again, Lucius shook his head. "It actually might. You never know what that kind of information could do."
Setsu sighed. "You're right. Sorry."
"It's fine."
They sat in silence for a little bit, then Setsu broke the silence with another question.
"Sorry again for asking, but what was that metal rod thing that you had? Was it an artifact?" She asked. Lucius' body went a little tensed up.
"You'll see later," Lucius said and cut off any chance of her pressing.
More people were coming in. Lucius recognized one of them.
"Lucius!" A person said. It was Tres.
"Hey Tres," Lucius said. "What's up?"
"Nothin' much," Tres said.
"I'm surprised you actually still go to this school. You seem like someone that would have already graduated," Lucius grinned.
"Nah. I'm younger than what I appear, plus this school accepts people of any age. It doesn't matter how old you are; as long as you didn't graduate already," Tres said and took the seat next to Lucius. "Thanks for saving me when we attacked the Grade B monster."
"W- wait," Setsu stammered. "You fought a Grade B monster?"
"Yup, he did. And he beat it alone, too," Tres said proudly. Lucius smacked his arm.
"Shut up. Don't get other people interested--" Lucius started.
"You fought a Grade B beast and beat one alone?" A girl slammed her palms into Lucius' desk, startling him and the people around him. Lucius looked up.
She had long, pink hair that flowed down to her hips. She looked at Lucius like he was some sort of science specimen that was interesting.
Lucius sighed. "Yeah, I did."
"What year are you?"
"This is my first year," Lucius said. The shock was evident on her face, which kind of made Lucius satisfied.
"I don't believe it," the girl haughtily said. "Beating a Grade B monster alone would be impossible for even me, much less a first year."
"Alright, believe what you want to believe," Lucius said and tucked his arms behind his head. He had to admit, the trench coat did make him look sophisticated.
"That, I will," the girl said and marched to her seat. Lucius leaned over to Setsu.
"Who's she?" He asked.
"That's Fylus Desgredin. This is her..." Setsu thought for a moment. "Fifth year, but even then she is one of the strongest people in the school. She is nicknamed the 'Sword Legend' since she can outduel almost everyone in the school."
Lucius eyed her from the corner of his eye, then he sighed and slumped in his chair.
"Welcome to your first class of the day, students!"