Soul of the Warrior

"It's the end of the first month, and the student rankings will be updated over the weekend," Master Feld said to the class. "You second years already know the drill, so begin infusing your Affinities like usual. Reivyn, come up here for a moment and I'll explain it to you." Reivyn got up from his seat and joined the teacher at the front of the class.

"Here in the weaving class, we handle recording the progress of your Affinity Levels. The Mana Theory class will handle the progress of your Skills, but they don't do so based on your Levels. They test you on the mastery of the Skill and the content they've taught. The non-magical classes will have written tests. I know that you've tested out of the first-year course, and that exam will count as your first-month test grade. You'll still have your tests each month after that compared to those in the first-year course. It's not entirely fair to do it that way, but that's one of the stipulations for testing out early.

"On Monday there will be an assembly and no classes. At the assembly, there will be an orb where you hold your token up as you enter. It will update your token to your student rank. Up until now, nobody has been given a rank, you've just been separated into your classes based on your Affinity Levels. One-fifth of your overall score wasn't enough to give everyone a specific rank, but now we'll have a complete picture after the first month of classes.

"Any questions?" Master Feld concluded his explanation.

"I have one question," Reivyn replied. "If our rankings are determined by our progress in our Affinities, then what about when someone has a much higher Level than someone else? They will progress slower than those with a lower rank, so it seems counter-intuitive to hold that against people who started with a higher Affinity Level."

"That's a good question," Master Feld nodded his head. "The answer is simple: The scores for advancing are weighted. Nobody has an Affinity Level less than 11, so we can disregard those Levels. Unlocking a new Affinity gives a bonus of 5 points, but then no points until Level 11. Levels 11 through 19 get one point per Level gain, Levels 20 through 24 get two points per Level gain, Levels 24 through 29 get three points per Level gain, and every five Levels grant an additional point after that. The points are multiplied by the Tier Level, as well, so advancing a Tier 3 Affinity to Level 20 will give 6 points. You started off with your base Affinities at level 44, so advancing to level 45 would give you 7 points for each Affinity advancement."

"What about Level 100, or beyond?" Reivyn asked with curiosity. Master Feld chuckled.

"You don't aim low, do you? That's never happened before in the history of the Academy, but we do have a system in place. Just because it's never happened before doesn't mean it's not possible. Anyway, the scoring system is the same all the way to Level 99, which grants 17 points per Level between 95 and 99. Level 100 grants 20 points, and all Transcendent Levels, those above 100, grant 100 points.

"Those grading systems were just set in place because it makes sense to always be prepared for any eventuality, not because we expect it to ever happen. I've never heard of anyone reaching a Transcendent Level in anything, Affinity or Skill, below Tier 5. Even the Headmaster doesn't have a Transcendent Level, though I don't know if he has any Skills or Affinities at Level 100. A good rule of thumb is to assume anyone in mid-Tier 4 or above have at least some Skills or Affinities at Level 100, though, so we can assume that he does."

That matches with what I know about my parents, Reivyn thought. My dad said that he had stagnated at Level 100 in his Weapons Prodigy Skill for a long time, and he didn't advance to the Transcendent Level until recently when helping to teach me. I don't know how long he's been in Tier 5, but I'm pretty sure he already was when he advanced his Skill.

"Alright, thank you," Reivyn said. "I think I get everything."

"Good, and remember," Master Feld said, "it's a double-edged sword to have higher Affinity Levels. If you advance your Levels during the month, you'll get more points than other people, but if you stagnate for the month and don't advance, you get zero points."

The second-year students had lined up and were busy infusing their Affinities into an orb similar to the one used during admissions. There was one slight difference in the procedure, though: the students placed their tokens into a slot, and instead of ramping up their Affinities starting from the lowest Level all the way to the top, their information was recorded on the token, and it somehow bypassed all the previous Levels and worked to extract the appropriate Level from the very beginning.

It's much faster this way, and it doesn't cost nearly as much Mana, Reivyn thought as the line moved quickly. There was a staff member recording everyone's information down on their student records as they moved through the line. Though I suppose a lot of people didn't enter the Academy with Affinity Levels as high as mine, so they probably never experienced the amount of Mana drain that I did.

It was quickly Reivyn's turn to infuse his Affinities. He did like everyone else before him and placed his token in the slot. He put his hand on the orb, and he felt the orb absorb his affinities starting off from where it had finished with the initial testing.

Reivyn's test lasted only a little bit longer than the average of everyone else in the class. Most of the second-year students had unlocked all of the Tier 2 Affinities, and some of them had begun working on their Tier 3 Affinities, as well.

I won't get any additional points for my Tier 2 and Tier 3 Affinities I've already unlocked until they reach Level 11, but that's fine, Reivyn thought. I'm still ahead of everyone in the first year, and I'll start getting points from them long before they do. It doesn't matter for just the first month of classes.

The staff member recorded the numbers down with an obvious look of appreciation on their face. The staff member didn't know Reivyn was still a first-year student, but from their expression, it seemed he was still at the top of the second year based on Affinity Levels alone. He wasn't given his score when it was over, but all he had to do was look at his Affinities tab and compare it to what it was when he started to calculate it on his own.

Affinities:

Tier 1:

Air (49), Earth (49), Fire (49), Water (49)

Tier 2:

Ice (26), Lightning (13), Magma (26), Metal (26), Mist (13), Mud (13), Plasma (26), Wood (26)

Tier 3:

Darkness (42), Durability (6), Gravity (6), Kinetic (6), Light (42), Piercing (6), Sharpness (6)

Tier 4:

Eternal (1)

140 points for my Tier 1 Affinities, 48 points for my Tier 2 Affinities, and 108 for my Tier 3 Affinities, Reivyn did the mental math as he walked back to his seat. So a total score of 296 points during the first month of Class. I think my score is going to be well above those of anyone else in the first year. Reivyn chuckled. He left out the Tier 5 Affinities as he wouldn't be exposing them regardless.

I already know I passed the first exam for the Political Science Class, so we'll just have to see how that compares to whatever exam they have to take. Then we're all in it together for the other courses. I'm definitely going to remain in the Elite Class, but we'll wait and see just how high of a position I can get. The Affinities improvement only accounts for 20% of the ranking, so even if I had a thousand points more than anyone else, its effect is still limited.

I also still have a solid lead based on my overall numbers, as that accounts for another 20%, but I don't know if that's only Affinities or if there are other Skills or Stats involved. All in all, I basically have 40% of my ranking guaranteed to put me in the first place ranking, and I'll need to maintain good scores for the other 60%.

Reivyn stood in line as the students from the first year trickled into the auditorium. Usually, they would all be able to get in at a much faster pace, but because they were updating their student rankings as they entered the building, it was much slower than usual. There were multiple entrances accommodating the students, but there were still 2,000 students that had to go through the process.

"So is there going to be an official ranking board or something?" Reivyn asked as they slowly moved forward in the line.

"Nah," Trick said. "There isn't an 'official' board, but someone is bound to make one anyway."

"People will find out who's close to them in their own class so they understand where they stand against everyone else," Tom said. "So each individual class is bound to have their own information sorted out fairly quickly. Every year, someone will compile each of the classes together and make a List public to everyone."

"Some people just have too much free time on their hands," Vane chuckled. "It makes sense to understand your own class and the ones behind and ahead of you, as those are the main competitors you'll be dealing with trying to jockey for a better position. But people love drama. Those in the lower classes will pay attention to what's happening at the top, and they'll be looking to stir up trouble so they can watch from the sidelines."

"Stir up trouble?" Reivyn asked.

"Yeah, they'll start rumors and other little tricks in order to heat up the competition between the best students," Tom said. "That's where the duels really come into play. Most people get along just fine, and there's really no reason to hold duels or anything other than practice. But every now and then, someone with a lower ranking will do something that garners attention, and the lower-ranking students will start rumors that their positioning underneath someone else isn't fair. They'll goad the two students into settling it in the dueling ring, and then they'll get to watch a show."

"Dueling outcomes don't affect your official position unless the duels are part of the course," Vane said. "Then, the results of the duels will be calculated in your Practical Application portion of your scores."

"Doing well in duels will have a positive effect on your position in the girls' List, though," Trick said. "We don't care as much for a girl's performance when it pertains to the List of Angels, but it can be used as a tie-breaker."

"Of course, that's what you'll interpret from the rankings and duels," Vane snickered.

"Hey now, I'm not the person who makes the List," Trick defended himself. "If other people weren't interested, it wouldn't exist at all."

"You have a point," Vane said.

"So who makes the List, then?" Reivyn asked.

"Nobody, really," Trick said. "It's a collective will kind of thing. When people talk about a girl enough, she'll obviously make her way on the List somewhere, and if enough people accept it, then that's her position on it. There's no committee or anything that makes the decisions. It's organic."

"Do you ever think that this might be one of the reasons why the girls' List is so secretive?" Reivyn asked. Trick looked at him in confusion. "They might not care enough to codify it like you and the other boys interested in the List do, so it might not exist at all." Trick had a stupefied look on his face for a moment before he shook his head.

"Impossible," he denied. "Their List definitely exists."

"If you say so," Reivyn shrugged.

The four friends made their way to the entrance, and there was another orb just like the Affinities testing orb with a slot for their token to go into. Tom was the first one to step up, and he placed his token in the slot. The Orb shined for a moment, and then a light flashed on his token. Tom took it and looked at it while stepping to the side for Vane to move up.

"Hah! Rank 17, boys," Tom said. "I'm firmly in the middle of the Elite Class, pretty much the perfect position."

"Perfect position?" Reivyn asked as Vane retrieved his token from the slot as well.

"What do you have? 19? Also a good spot," Tom said. He turned to Reivyn and addressed his question, "Yeah, those in the bottom portion of the Elite Class have to worry about losing their spot, and those in the top position have to worry about all of the attention. Like we were talking about earlier, those in the top 10 are more likely to have trouble stirred up between them."

"It's more annoying than anything else," Trick said as he took his token and put it away. "It can get in the way of your studies or practice with people constantly trying to mess with you in one way or another. I pity the person who ends up in first place, actually."

"What's your rank? Quickly, tell us," Vane said, jabbing Trick in the shoulder. Trick rolled his eyes and produced the token for his friends to see as Reivyn also put his token down in the slot.

"Hahaha, rank 9," Tom said. "You're going to be one of the ones that get harassed, and your spot isn't much worse than first place. As a person in a low spot in the top 10, people will be equally looking to knock you out of the top 10 and get you a higher spot."

"Yeah, yeah," Trick said, rolling his eyes. "This works well for me, though. I don't mind a bit of competition, and this might get me a spot on the girls' List if I can capitalize on it correctly."

"Of course," Vane said, wiping his hand down his face. "Reivyn, what's your rank?'

Reivyn held his token in his hand, looking down at it, and his three roommates joined him in staring at it. On the token, where it had once been blank, a large "1" was prominently displayed in the center.

"Oof," Tom said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You can look forward to a lot more people showing up to your 'study group,' as you call it, and you'll probably get extra busy with challenges."

"I'm not too concerned," Reivyn said as he put the token away. "You all seem to forget one thing."

"What's that?" Trick asked.

"You mention that challenges happen because people start rumors about their ranking being unfair," Reivyn said. "But if you crush all opposition and make it clear that you stand on a different level than everyone else, nobody can question whether or not your rankings are close." Reivyn flourished his tessen and allowed some sparks of embers to ignite off of it. "I might be challenged in the beginning, but if nobody can stand a chance against me in the arena, then those challenges will quickly disappear."

"That makes sense," Tom said, stroking his chin. "It's the same principle as if a commoner comes into wealth, the other commoners will be jealous of him, but they're not jealous of nobles or affluent families, because it's natural that they have wealth. If you make it seem that it's completely natural for you to be in the first position, so much so that not even the second place has a shot at knocking you off the pedestal, everyone will just assume that it makes sense for you to be in your spot."

"The premise, though," Vane said, "is that you can crush everyone else in such a manner. You might be able to use your Class Skill in open challenges, but you'll still have to expend some effort on the Weaving challenges. No Skills allowed, remember?"

Reivyn smiled as he thought about the progress he had made with his Tier 2 weaves and his Lattice Class Skill. As my Lattice Skill increases, and I get more instruction from the teacher as I show my mastery of the weaves, I'm confident I'm further along in that aspect than anyone else, as well.

"I think I'll be fine," Reivyn said.

"Ok, if you say so," Tom said. "We've already seen you in action before, so I'm sure you know what you're talking about. Let's go find some seats."

"The first month is over, and that means there will be some changes in how things are done," the teacher announced. It was the same teacher that had given them the speech at their first assembly at the start of the semester. Reivyn didn't know what his name was, as he didn't teach any of the classes that Reivyn was in.

"You may now live off campus if you so choose. Your rooms will still be yours, so you'll always have a place to stay, but you don't have to stay there any longer.

"Another change, obviously, is the rankings. Many of you may think that the rankings only determine which class you're in because there aren't any resources allotted to anyone. That isn't the case.

"While you're enrolled in the Academy, your ranking directly affects how many classes you can miss and stay in good standing. This will become more apparent as you go off to gain Life Experience in various things. People with lower rankings won't have enough absent days available to them to go off and explore Dungeons or participate in Adventurer Guild quests that require any kind of significant travel time.

"If you miss too many days beyond what your ranking allows for, you could fall even further, or even possibly face expulsion. Nobody wants to be expelled, and nobody wants to stay cooped up in the Academy forever. The system is designed to ensure those that are lower in the rankings are spending their time in the most efficient way for their ability levels.

"Higher ranked students have shown that they don't need as much instruction, and so they're given more time abroad. We don't want people to set themselves up for failure by biting off more than they can chew."

That makes sense, Reivyn thought. The lower one's ranking, the lower Skill and Affinity Levels they've displayed, as well as a lack of understanding of the outside world when it comes to politics and philosophy. People with higher scores within the Academy have displayed a certain level of mastery that they can be trusted to go about independently.

I guess that means Melissa and Larissa are fairly high ranked, as they were gone from classes for well over two months. There might be more to it, though, as it was towards the end of their school year.

"This leads to the next change: Dungeons and Guild Quests. As novices in your first semester, even if you have a high ranking, we don't want you going off on long expeditions. You will now be allowed to explore the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon located half a day away from The Capital, and you can accept any Adventurer's Guild quest that isn't more than a day's journey away."

"The Cobbled Ruins Dungeon?" Reivyn leaned over and whispered his question to Tom.

"Yeah, it's one of the Dungeons controlled by The Capital," Tom answered. "Students get preferential access. It's a pretty low-level Dungeon, so the army and nobles don't care for it too much. It's a bit different than the Dungeon you explored, though."

"Oh, how so?" Reivyn queried.

"It's not an infinitely instanced Dungeon," Tom said. "It's an open-air spawn Dungeon. That means that beasts and monsters will pop up out of nowhere in a set range over and over again, but there's no floor to explore or even a separate space. It all happens here in the real world."

"There are theories about how these Dungeons are formed," Vane whispered, joining the conversation. "Some people think that an infinitely instanced Dungeon failed to form or didn't connect with our plane of existence properly. It's still there, and there's a small connection, though, so monsters and beasts inside of it occasionally pop over to the real world."

"So if there's no separate space and no floors to explore, does that mean there's no bosses or bonus experience?" Reivyn asked.

"Yup," Trick said. "It's just a place where you can go to practice your spells in live combat situations. The monsters and beasts are all weak, too. Tier 1 creatures, like goblins and ferocious beasts that are barely more dangerous than regular predators."

"Hmm, doesn't seem like it's worth it," Reivyn said, rubbing his chin in thought.

"No, there's a reason to still go," Tom said. "You'll get an artifact from the school that records your performance, and you can get School Credits. Sure, the amount of School Credits you can get from this Dungeon is low, but it's more than you can get on campus. Plus, it's the only Dungeon open to first-semester Novice students."

"Next semester, more options will be open to you," the teacher continued. "You'll be able to explore slightly higher level Dungeons in the surrounding area, and then there's the third semester of the school year. The third semester is designed to allow students to go further afield and get more Life Experience using the lessons they learned in the first two semesters.

"I'm sure everyone has heard of the new Dungeon in Count Ilpir's domain near Magron. We had a couple of students explore that Dungeon and one of them was a first-year Novice like you. They were able to go so far away because they were Elite students in the third semester. Your time allotted to you still uses the same concept. Lower-ranking students will be required to attend more classes to make up for any deficiencies, but even they will be allowed to go further away to gain Life Experience.

"That's all there is to it," the teacher concluded. "You all now understand what the Academy is like and what's expected of you. You're not children, so we're not going to hold your hands the whole time you're here. There are no classes today, and you can begin making plans for furthering your education outside of simple classroom instruction and practice.

"That is all. Dismissed," the teacher walked off the stage after ending the small speech.

"Well, that was short," Reivyn said as he and his three friends stood up from their seats.

"Yeah, the main purpose of the assembly was to get everyone their rankings updated in an efficient manner and explain some of the new things, like going to the Dungeon," Tom said.

"We got the rest of the day to ourselves," Trick said. "I'm sure the unofficial ranking list will be out before the week is over, so we still have time before you see anyone making moves."

Hmm, why wait for someone else to make a move? Reivyn thought. A plan formed in his mind to get it over and done with.