NOVEL WEB Chapter 3: I Meet The Main Cast
Last night, I spent the rest of my time writing down all the things I could remember from the novel on my laptop. The novel was an important memory for me, so I had read it a few more times, not to mention, my friend asked me for a lot of references while he was writing, so I still remembered quite a bit about the story.
The next day I got up early, took a shower, and dressed in the new clothes that I ordered online. The delivery system here was quite fast, delivering the package within 12 hours. I even got myself a dimensional ring, with a storage capacity of 1500 cubic metres. Cost me a couple of million R.
I had also checked my bank amount and there was 1 Billion R in it, which in my previous world currency was approximately 12.5 Million USD. The Aurum Guild really had a lot of money, befitting their #5 Rank in the entire human realm, considering I had millions in my account, and that was when I wasn't counting the various shares I owned.
I cheerfully walked to the staff room, knowing that I didn’t have to worry about money in this world.
A sudden burst of Aura hit me as I opened the staff room door, drenching my flame of excitement.
‘Right, I forgot. Money wasn’t the only thing that ruled this world.’
I calmed myself in a moment and glanced at the black-haired man sneering at me.
‘This prick is really getting on my nerves.’
I hadn’t met this guy for the past few days yet he just couldn’t let me go. Well, thanks to him, I did realise that to survive in this world, what I needed more than money was power. I would have to ask one of the instructors to teach me how to fight. Thankfully, Ray was more of a brain than brawn, so it wouldn’t seem weird to ask them.
Miss Misa approached me. Ray was quite pleasing to the eyes too, but world-class beauties were really on another level, defying the laws of physics. Despite being in her thirties, she still looked like she had just graduated from being an adolescent. Not surprisingly, as far as novel clichés go, she was the homeroom professor of Rhian’s class.
“Nervous for your first class, Mr. Laxon?”, she asked, in her sweet voice that could make even the angels turn towards it.
“Mr. Laxon?”, she called again.
I brought myself back to reality.
“Ah, yes Miss Amore. I do feel a little nervous, but I guess I am getting a bit better.”
“I see.”, she gracefully replied, before turning back and walking towards her desk.
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
‘Appraisal’
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Name: Misa Amore Rank: S+ Stats:
Abilities:
Skills:
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‘Wow, Miss Misa is as deadly as she is beautiful.'
I guess every rose has its thorns. But a rose is a rose, nonetheless. I doubt even my friend would be able to guess how beautiful she was in real life. A person worthy of being a character in a fantasy novel.
While Ray was stealing glances at Miss Amore, she was returning his favour in kind.
Ray was looking at her with a lot of discretion, but it couldn’t go past undetected with her Perception stat of 15.
And it wasn’t something she wasn’t particularly used to. All her life, the people around her would indiscreetly steal glances at her. Some filled with lust, others with greed.
Ray was quite handsome too, taking after his parents. Misa had seen both of them at some of the high-society galas she had attended. Although those two were always indifferent towards each other, nobody could deny that they had been given the title of “Most Beautiful Couple of the Year”, the year they had got married.
But Ray's glances at her were filled with neither greed nor lust. Rather they looked as if they were admiring a statue or a piece of art. Though being associated with an item of abstraction was unpleasant in its own way.
She pulled up a file on her laptop. It contained all sorts of information on Ray Laxon. The League had recently caught hold of information that The Aurum Guild might be associating with The Fallen. So they had asked for favours from the Director to accept him as a temporary professor at Star Academy. Misa was left with the responsibility to keep an eye on him.
When she first saw him, although he seemed normal, his eyes told a completely different story. They looked hopeless as if he had given up on trying. A week after, vitality had sparked in those eyes again. Instead of letting James Lanton bully him, he retorted cunningly. But after that, he shut himself in his room for a week. Though her surveillance revealed that he did nothing much but read books on mana during that time.
She needed to collect more information to send to the Hero League.
There was still half an hour left before my class started, so I organised my desk. I wasn’t that nervous since I had some experience in the teaching industry, having given tuition classes during my college years.
When there were five minutes left, I exited the staff room and headed toward the lecture hall for the Alpha Class.
When I entered the room, the students were loudly talking amongst themselves. Many of them had already formed their circles. Luke was sitting at the rightmost corner, his lackeys sweet-talking him. Behind him sat Rachel, her eyes were bored to death from seeing the master-servant interactions in front of her.
Rhian, on the other hand, was all alone sitting in the leftmost corner. The upper-class students avoided him, thinking Rhian was below them, and instead interacted with Luke and Rachel. The less-privileged class students feared as well as respected him, and thus kept their distance.
I stood on the podium in front of the lecture hall.
“Attention please.”, I called out. The students ignored me as they kept talking amongst themselves.
‘This is gonna be tougher than I thought.’, I thought inwardly, suddenly realising the difference between teaching a couple of students and an entire class of teenagers.
As I had practised, I released my Rank C Aura in the classroom. The noise instantly settled down as the students fought to resist my Aura.
Ray may not be able to compare against monsters like Misa and James, but he was a Hero in his own right with a place on the Hero Rankings. A bunch of newly Awakened E Rank first-years were no match for me. Though a few students, who had higher rank, were able to resist my aura.
Most people Awaken only when they are in their mid to late teenage years. So before they Awaken, and are able to wield mana, all young children go to special schools where they are taught to use weapons and different types of martial arts. That is why there is very little difference between a Newly Awakened and a trained soldier.
Students like Luke and Rachel get an upper hand, compared to other students, since they train much more systematically under the guidance of the highly ranked Heroes provided by their families. Rhian, who had the memories of his previous life had also trained his body from a young age, thus why they were able to resist my Aura.
Now, with the attention of the entire class on me, I began my introduction.
“I am sure you are all excited to begin your classes at the prestigious Star Academy, but I would like you all to maintain a level of discipline. That aside, it is nice to meet you all, my name is Ray Laxon and I will be teaching you mana theory in my class.”
The students all groaned in their seats.
“Now, now, I am sure you are all far more excited about your practical training with Miss Amore, but learning about mana theory is very important and is gonna be very helpful in your next class. As people say Knowledge is Power, and the one who is gonna share that power with you will be good old me.”
A smile plastered on my face as I began my lecture.
Rhian had always felt different from other people. Ever since he was young, Rhian was able to understand everything he experienced easily. While peers at kindergarten struggled to learn the alphabet, he was already channelling the mana in his body.
When he turned 10, he finally understood everything. The memories of his previous life flowed into his mind. He had been born on Earth a thousand years after his death. In his previous life, he was a warrior, who had been killed at the hands of The Demon Lord. His family was annihilated.
In this second chance he got, he vowed to kill his enemy. But despite training for years, his mana control hadn’t improved much. In the thousand years he was gone, and the fact that his new body had a totally different constitution from his previous one, the feeling of mana was completely different from what he was used to.
But he wasn’t discouraged. He explored many dangerous places outside the cities that protect the humans and in one of those Dungeons found a 5-Star Sword Art scroll, ‘The Demonic Dance Sword Art’. He practised until his body was sore as hell and was able to carry out 20 Stances without his body breaking apart.
But to learn the other Stances he needed a better understanding of mana. So he enrolled in the Star Academy, the #1 Academy for Hero Training. His first plan was to maintain a low key at the Academy.
But he had no idea how weak the other humans were and ended up being the No.1 Hero Cadet at the Academy. His plan to lay low was immediately thrown down the drain.
Since he had experienced a noble society and aristocracy in his previous life, he knew how the high society would react to the achievements of a person with no backing. They would either monopolise his power for themselves or put him in his place.
Rhian didn’t want to experience either scenario so he stayed low and focused on his original plan, to learn more about mana.
But the professor in front of him was merely a Rank C. Rhian had no idea what this person was going to teach him.
He prayed with all his heart that he will be able to learn something from him.
“I am pretty sure you all know what mana is. You must have felt it when you were Awakened and used it when you practised your weapon arts. Now whether this action is done consciously or subconsciously, it all depends on how much you know and understand it.”, the professor began.
“Did you know that although mana is a versatile form of energy, it can still be divided into 6 elements. Fire, water, earth and air. The final two are not in your syllabus, but they are classified as the element of healing or light and the element of destruction or darkness. Every Awakened Being has some sort of compatibility with at least one of these six elements.”
One of the students raised his hand. “Sir, is there some way to tell what element you are compatible with?”
“Of course. That’s what you will be doing today. Finding what element you are compatible with.”
Professor Laxon snapped his fingers. One of the staff members rolled a trolley into the classroom. A huge mana ball was placed on top of it. It looked like one of those crystal balls you would find in a fortune-telling shop.
As the professor called the students names one by one, the students would place their hands on the ball, pushing their mana into it. The colours the mana ball had glowed were brown for earth, red for fire, blue for water and green for air.
“Rank #3 Rachel Briar!”
The girl with platinum blond hair slowly approached the mana ball. She was probably the most beautiful girl Rhian had ever seen in both his lives. She lightly placed her palm on the ball and injected her magic into it. But unlike the previous times where only individual colours were displayed, two different colours appeared on the ball. Blue and Brown swirled inside the mana ball, like two immiscible liquids fighting for dominance..
“Congratulations, Rachel. It seems you inherited your grandfather's elements.”, Professor Ray praised her. “Having two different dominant elements is a very rare trait. You can find it in about one every thousand Awakened Beings.”
Rachel silently went back to her seat, her face a little flushed from hearing the professor praise her in front of the class. The professor called on the next person.
“Rank #2 Luke Vestillo!”
The black-haired boy slowly stepped down to the podium where the mana ball was placed. Arrogance oozed from each step he took. He stopped in front of the ball. As soon as he touched the glass surface, the glass turned black as if the clear glass had been tainted by ink.
Well, the darkness element was expected from the heir of the Shadow Guild. It was one of the rarest and sought-after elements. The Darkness element used to be considered the element of demons, since all the demons and Fallen had a high affinity towards it. But after a lot of research, it was found out that Darkness, the element of destruction, was also the most effective in destroying demons.
“Congratulations to you too. Having the darkness element is as rare, if not more than having double elements.”, Ray informed the class.
As Luke went back to his seat, his lackeys swarmed him, congratulating him for the achievement.
“As expected of Young Master Luke. You got the best element in class.”
Luke smirked in Rhian’s direction. Rhian just rolled his eyes at the childishness.
“Finally the #1 Rank of all the first-years, Rhian Vermilion.”
As Rhian got down the podium, all the eyes were on him, curious to know what rare element the #1 Ranked first-year would display.
But Rhian already knew what his elements were. He had the double elements of Darkness and Water, a combination that could be found once in ten thousand, no, not even a million Awakened Beings. But Rhian had no intention of standing out even more than he already had.
When he touched the mana ball, he concentrated so that only the Water element mana would leave his body. His blue mana completely engulfed the ball, showing not a hint of darkness that the mana ball had previously displayed.
Murmurs filled with disappointment erupted from the seats, but Rhian's face only showed hints of relief.
But when he looked up what he saw was unexpected. His professor’s eyes were smiling, as if he found this entire affair amusing.
‘There’s no way he knows something, does he?’
But when he was returning to his seat, the answer revealed itself. There was another smiling face in the crowd. Luke had a mocking smile on his face as if he had just proven something. Looks like there are some people happy to see that he isn’t as special as everyone thought. Oblivious to his misunderstanding, Rhian quietly took his seat as Ray resumed his lecture.
“Well, I am sure not everyone here is all that pleased with their results. But don’t worry, this small test doesn’t dictate anything in your lives. You guys are more than welcome to learn to control the mana of other elements, if you are willing to put in the effort.”, he reassured his students.
“In analogy terms, think of this. We all know how a person is either left or right-handed. While they have been right-handed all their lives, it doesn’t mean they are incapable of using their left hand. It’s just a matter of effort they put into practising it. Though of course, the Darkness and Light elements are exceptions to this case. They go much deeper than just putting in the effort. You need at least a bit of talent to learn it. ”
Ray brought a screen in front of him. On it, were clips of different Heroes using mana while fighting.
“Now my job is to teach you all how you can use mana to improve all your fighting styles or in other practical aspects of your life. Not everyone who uses mana becomes a Hero, fighting in Dungeons for their lives and protecting humanity. Some do it from the comfort of their labs, helping these said Heroes. They are called Alchemists and they are the ones responsible for creating different types of potions which can give a Hero an edge during a fight.”
A video of an Alchemist lab enlarged on the screen. On it, people wearing lab coats were doing trial experiments with various potions. Smoking beakers and test tubes filled with colourful chemicals swarmed the table.
“Moving on, here is a clip of a Tanker.”
The video changed where a Tanker was blocking tiger-looking monsters with his shield.
“The most desired element for Tankers is Earth. It increases their defences and gives them a proper footing to protect others. The air element is good to increase the speed of your attacks while the water element provides agility and fluidity to evade attacks. The fire element is good for offence.”
Ray slowly explained all the elements, explaining their many pros and cons.
Rhian had always been the type to use mana based on instinct. Learning about it from a research point of view was quite insightful. Some of the factors were a bit unfamiliar to him too. Research on mana must have progressed quite a lot in the thousand years he lost.
After an hour and a half had passed, Mr. Laxon concluded his lecture and exited the hall. Following this, Miss Mia Amore entered the lecture, ready to take all the students to the training hall.
But long after the lecture had finished, Professor Ray was still on his mind. Before leaving, he had given Rhian a long look from the corner, which no one would notice unless they were the recipient.