It took 10 minutes for the teacher to explain to the students how the bracelet worked. He finished his speech with a not-so hidden snide comment.
"You'd think people at this school would realise that things we give ain't as simple as they appear. Bloody hell!"
He turned to the class and introduced himself.
"Hello you idiots. I'm your teacher for home room. My name's Konnor, Konnor Emmeric. Call me Mr Emmeric. In this class, we'll go over everything important together, and I hold your tests and shit like that. You'll have a theory teacher, mana teacher and a PT teacher as well, but I'll let them introduce themselves. Now that we've sorted out the bracelets, I'll take the register."
Konnor went through the register, listing out 49 students.
"Rank 1, Elijah Dawn."
"Present."
Rank 2, Darren Black."
"Here."
"Rank 3, Aurora Novis."
"Present."
Rank 4, Penelope Spring."
"Yes sir."
"Rank 5, Hannah Raven."
"Here."
…
"Rank 9, Natalie Spring."
"Yes sir."
"Rank 10, Var Havek."
"YUP!"
…
"Rank 32, Aldrin Calvo."
"Here sir."
…
"Rank 209, Blake Windfall."
"Here!"
…
"And finally, Rank 3984, Kim Jaehyun."
"Present!"
"Man, there's a lot of high rankers in this class, huh." Konnor muttered under his breath.
Grey frowned. The teacher had gone through the list, but he hadn't said his name.
"Mr. Emmeric, why wasn't I called?" He asked.
Hearing his words, Konnor put up a finger, as if to say '1 minute' and then stared off into the void, presumably communicating through the bracelet.
"What? He wasn't called?" A girl whispered.
"Ha! I bet he's so bad he doesn't even make it onto the rankings." A boy said, followed by the laughter of all 8 students around him.
"Alrighty, It's our fault, Grey. Don't worry about it. Admin didn't put you on the list because of your rank. They forgot about you, I suppose. After all, we haven't had someone like you before." Konnor spoke again, which brought the class to whisper again.
"Is he so bad that they forgot?"
"What did I tell you!"
"Poor dude."
All of a sudden, Elijah raised his hand. "Mr. Emmeric, since you called out our ranks, may I ask what rank Grey is?" There was a slight glint in his eyes, as if he felt he was onto something.
"Uhh, sure lad. He's Rank 0." Konnor didn't elaborate further, leaving the students to guess. At the words, Elijah turned to Grey, a smile on his face. It was a smile Grey knew all too well, as he wore it whenever he sparred with his father or grandfather. He wanted a fight!
"What? Rank 0, is that even a thing?"
"Maybe he's better than everyone?"
"Preposterous, I bet Rank 0 is under the ranking, not above the ranking. I'll prove it later."
- Grey, they all look like they want to fight you. - Fallen Star said.
'That's good. Sure, only a couple will be good experience, but it's not like people will stop giving me challenges after I wreck Elijah.' Grey was confident that he would beat Elijah in a fight, simply because he was taught by the two strongest people he knew. Other than Jay Alv, but that man was an anomaly. If he lost, then he wouldn't have the courage to face the two of them.
"So, now we're done. I'll see you later." Konnor spoke as he left the room. The door slammed shut, leaving the students confused. Konnor was a really weird teacher.
Elijah turned around as soon as the door shut, a glint in his eyes.
"Grey, wanna fight?" Elijah immediately asked.
"Sure, but we have class now."
"Oh, really, where do we go?" Var questioned.
"Well, if you look at your timetable, you'll see that we stay here. We have a theory class next." Just as he finished, the door swung open, and a petite lady walked in. She had fully brown hair, and elf ears.
"Hello students, I'm Mila Erth. You may call me Miss Erth. I'm your theory teacher, and today we'll have a test, so I can see your average level. Please, access the email I've sent you. You have 1 hour and a half. Begin." The teacher didn't mince words, and an email notification appeared before Grey.
As he scrolled through the test, he accidentally smirked. 'Damn, isn't this easy? I learned this when I was 8!'
---
Grey was once again walking through the halls, looking at the map from his bracelet. He had finished the test in 20 minutes and submitted it silently. He made no noise, but the teacher asked him to leave. Apparently, he was to go to the PT hall early, and any students who finished early were to go there as well.
'Damn, why did she ask me to leave? It's like she wants to stop me from making friends.' Grey thought as he remembered the looks of the people in class when he left.
His plan was to finish the test and then sit in the room until the end of the lesson. 'The only reason I submitted it was because there was a timer on the paper itself. I mean, who measures how long you take?!'
Grey walked into the PT hall, and looked around. There were training dummies, archery targets, swimming pools, running tracks and all sorts. There was even a gravity chamber.
'If I recall, dense mana acts like increased gravity, and that is how they made the gravity chamber.'
Grey searched for a weapon, and found rows of them next to the door. 'Missed them, I guess.' He grabbed a spear, a falcata, and a compound bow.
'I've got just over an hour, best use it good.' He thought as he moved towards the dummies.
---
Aurora was heading to the PT hall, thinking about a certain boy. 'That test was so hard! I barely finished it in half the time, and you're telling me that he did it in 20? I knew he was special!'
She opened the door and saw Grey practising. She watched as he moved, each step elegant, each swing or thrust dignified. His movements were like a dance, a dance she would never grow tired of watching.
'Ah, what am I thinking!' She blushed, and then gave herself a light slap on the cheeks. 'You are an Ice Queen, Aurora.' She repeated her mantra until her face cooled down, and her expression became cold.
She entered the room, and looked around. Like Grey, she missed the weapon rack as she walked in. She moved towards it, grabbing a longbow. Aurora looked at Grey again, trying to see what weapon he used. 'A spear, a sword, and a bow! What the! Can he use all of them?'
'That's absurd.' She thought as she stood in front of the archery targets. 'I'm sure he just carries them. There's no way those 3 all clicked for him.'
Little did she know that 4 weapons had clicked for Grey, and little did she know who his father was.
The two trained in silence, uncaring even when other students walked in. Once the last person walked in, the teacher suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall.
"Welcome, my lovely students! I am your teacher here at the academy. By special request, I was hired by Jay Alv!" His voice instantly caught the attention of all the students, but one, who was too engrossed in training.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" A girl yelled. "IS THAT LUCAS HEART? WEAPON MASTER LUCAS HEART!"
"Yo, it is!" A boy shouted, encouraging others to start clamouring.
'Lucas Heart. If I recall, he has mastered every weapon he ever picked up, and created his own techniques for them. Grey's a bit like him, they clicked with multiple weapons… Wait? Silver hair?'
Lucas suddenly walked through the students, each of them moving out of the way to form a path. He stopped behind a certain student that was practising with a spear, who had a sword on his hip and a bow on his back. There was a glint in his eyes as he looked at the boy.
"Hang on, doesn't Grey have the same hair as Lucas?" Aurora heard a student say. It was Elijah who spoke.
"Yeah he does." The ginger elf next to him spoke. "Maybe…"
"AAGH, WHAT THE FUCK!… DAD!?"
---
Lucas and Grey were chatting, and every student in the room was in disbelief. The weapon master, Lucas Heart, known for his cruelty against vampires, had just pranked a student. And that student called him dad!
"So, why are you here, old man?"
"Well, your old man is actually a teacher here."
"You? Yeah right, you lazy bum."
"No, I'm serious. Here, my ID."
"This is clearly fake."
"Why, you!"
The students watched on in shock. Now he was arguing with the boy!?
"Um, teacher? Can we start the class?" Var asked, hesitant to get between the father-son duo.
"Oh, right." Lucas stopped talking with Grey immediately, and moved back to the centre of the room.
"Hello students, I am Lucas Heart. You may have heard of me as the Weapon Master. 'I know how to use every weapon I have ever picked up.' That old rumour. Well it's true. It's also the reason I was hired here. I'm here to train you until you are worthy of wielding a weapon, and then I will teach you to use a weapon."
"Today, however, I want to see if any of you are any good. So, you're free to pick a fight. Challenge anyone if you want, and then come to me. We'll set up a duel area."
Upon hearing his words, Elijah immediately starting walking to Grey.
"Everybody, the Rank 1 is going to challenge the Rank 0!"
Elijah strode slowly, clearly on purpose to build up the hype, but...
When Elijah stood just 3 meters away from Grey, a long brown haired elf stood in between them.
"I, Aldrin Calvo, challenge you, Grey Heart, to a duel!"
The students began to mutter, disinterested in the duel, but still excited to see Grey's prowess. Was he above everyone as 'Rank 0' or was he at the bottom?
"Damn, Calvo and his young master complex." A student complained under his breath.
Grey looked around Aldrin, giving a questioning look to Elijah, to which he received a nod.
"Sure, I'll bite."
---
Grey stood opposite Aldrin, and listened to the boy yap.
"Today, I'll prove that, son of Lucas Heart or not, someone called 'Rank 0' is a weakling!'
Grey looked to his father, the referee, and asked him to start the match. Aldrin was enraged that Grey ignored him, but held it in, nodding when Lucas asked if he was ready.
"3, 2, 1, Begin!"
The students were given whatever weapon they wanted, and Grey had chosen the spear, whilst Aldrin chose a longsword.
"I'm going to prove my superiority today, and I'll start by kicking your ass!" Aldrin said as he rushed to Grey.
He probably looked fast to most students, each of his steps empowered by mana. But, to Grey, he looked like a turtle.
'So slow. Let's end this quick, I guess. Not much experience here, huh.'
CLANG!
Aldrin's sword was stuck in the ground a moment later, and Grey's spear was hovering in front of the elf's neck.
"Duel over, Grey wins!" Lucas shouted.
"What the? When did he even move?" A student said.
"I don't know, all I saw was a blur, and then Aldrin's sword was in the air, flying."
"Im... Impossible!" Aldrin was shocked. How did his blade suddenly dissapear, how was Grey now right in front of him, spear against his neck?