Morning came and after another round of love-making and a loud breakfast with Liv, Alya and Fenia, Ryker got ready for his first day.
Walking towards the Adventure Course Building with Alya holding his arm like an anchor, he checked his schedule.
His classes were only theoretical. From morning till the afternoon filled with magic and combat formations, survival strategies, and mana theory.
Even though they were theory, he wanted to make a good impression, maybe catch the attention of one of his teachers.
"Are you thinking about guppies?" Alya's cheerful question broke his concentration.
"What?" he chuckled, staring at her.
"Your face is all tense. So I thought you were thinking about which guppy to eat for lunch. I recommend the gold-striped ones."
His footsteps halted. The way Alya had been talking about guppies, he didn't expect her to eat them.
"You eat guppies?"
Alya looked at him, her head tilted with genuine confusion.
"Guppies are snacks in Atlantis!"
She let go of his arm and stood in front of him with her hands clasped behind her back.
Smiling, she said, "My favorite are the caramel ones!"
After that and a few whispers about last place and the Kraken, they were sitting in a classroom.
Adventure Course had 500 students. With that many students, a split was necessary into 20 classes; not based on ranking but rather type of races.
Ryker sat down with Alya in their class. No other familiar figures were occupying the other seats yet.
He took out his book from his bag. Alya mirrored him on his left.
Opening up his book, ignoring the wood-on-wood scraping happening to the chair on his right, he rehearsed.
Adventure Course had 3 types of classes: Tanks, Bruisers and Supports. Contrary to the name it had nothing to do with physical strength or body structure. It was based on type of magic like fire, healing and strengthening.
Anna and Lyra possessing healing magic , would place them in the support classes.
Rul possessing strength magic, would place him in the tank classes.
Ryker's ice and Alya's water, would place them in the bruisers.
The page ended and he had to turn to the next one, but a golden tail from his right flipped it for him.
Looking at his side, it was a Kitsune. Her eyes were topaz and her Meridian Academy uniform was spotless, completely devoid of any dust or leaves from the Sakuras.
"Fluffy!"
Alya gently stroked her tail. But the girl flicked it away.
"Touching my tail... is rude."
Her accent was Eastern.
Ryker cleared his throat and apologized on behalf of Alya, who was now sulking in her chair with her puffed-up cheeks.
But he thought it was odd what she did.
"Perhaps you should keep it on your side of the desk?" Ryker asked.
She studied him up and down, her silver framed glasses reflecting Ryker's reflection back at him. Then she nodded.
"You're right."
Moving her tail to her other side, it neatly coiled around her waist like a fluffy belt of gold. She left him to continue reading. Flipping through the pages, he landed on the requirements for bruiser.
Must be able to use magic spells to assist in all ranges of fighting, close: to provide assistance to the Tank, medium: to provide assistance to other Bruisers, long: to provide assistance to the Support.
A sense of dread smacked him right in the core. He knew he missed something crucial. It was a fundamental void. Ryker had another defect on top of his Iota-limited core: he couldn't cast range spells. No ice ball, no ice shard, no ice wall. He needed to be touching someone or something to pour his mana into it.
There was a chance he couldn't be a bruiser. Something most suited for vampires and honestly the coolest position that he could think of.
Closing his book, he muttered to himself, "Demoted to tank would be demeaning."
Maybe there was another way? Grabbing the bible of knowledge, that was his book, he was about to open it when the door was pushed open.
Yet no one entered, only a chilling gust of wind hit every student, making them shiver. Out of nowhere a white hued-silhouette materialized in front of the green board.
One of the white chalks flew into the air, dragging itself by an invisible hand on the canvas, writing the words: Professor Yurei.
Stroking his magnificent white beard, Yurei turned to the class and examined them.
"A yokai..." Ryker whispered.
"Good morning. I will be your theoretical magic professor."
His words were coming from all sides, not from a single direction.
Yurei was the only yokai that worked at the academy. Ghost magic was essentially useless in combat until he ascended past the Gamma ranks and unlocked his special ability, poltergeist. At that level, he could move objects without physically touching them, as he had so elegantly shown before.
Practically a legend among spectre-folk.
"Ryker Larduca?" the professor said, looking directly at him.
Every head in the class turned. Their collective gaze was a physical weight, pressing down on Ryker's shoulders.
Swallowing through the sudden nervousness, he said, "Yes professor?"
A question to match a question. Yurei kept staring at him as if trying to tear a hole in his brain. Even Alya elbowed Ryker.
In a low whisper she said, "Is he going to curse you? Baba says spectres like to haunt people if they don't like them."
Ignoring the mermaid's ramble, Ryker's crimson eyes stared directly at the old ghost.
For some reason he didn't feel malice more like curiosity from Yurei's gaze. The staring contest that lasted a mere five seconds came to an end.
"See me after lecture," he said, moving on without another word.
Then the professor clapped his hands together and began talking about the types of classes and the races that usually belonged to those classes. After that he explained what grades were expected in the first semester.
"One important thing to note," Yurei said as he wrote: Delta, on the board.
His gaze once again lingered on Ryker.
A sour taste formed in Ryker's mouth, a feeling that's been growing too familiar. He braced himself.
"In order to pass the E-rank exam at the end of this semester, Delta is the minimal requirement to continue on the adventure course. Anything below that, and you'll be expelled."