"So today is the first day of your class and I'm glad to see the excitement on your faces. I am Professor Hoffman, a teacher of Arcadia Academy, skilled in Pure Martial Arts and my System is Martial Arts System. Since today is the first day, we will be starting with introductions and then you guys can decide what to do next," Professor Hoffman smiled as he looked at all twenty of us.
The 100 selected people were divided into 5 batches of 20 people each, with each batch holding 18 Orthodox and 2 Unorthodox and this was based on the rankings with the strongest being placed in the A batch and the weakest in the E batch.
"Since I am the homeroom teacher of this class, I should start by introducing myself. While you may have heard of me, let me tell you myself, I am one of the teachers of Vanguard and about 12 years ago I joined Arcadia Academy just like you. Later on, I became the Vice-Leader of the Vanguards and later became an adventurer for the next 5 years. I became a teacher here 2 years ago and….."
He kept going on and on, describing himself and about his notary works and other stuff. His eyes were calculating each and every person's worth in this class as if he was scouting.
He looked at me and then, after a few seconds, ignored me as if I were a pebble. Later on everyone's turn came and everyone introduced themselves and I did find a few capable people within this class that I could groom later on.
Soon my turn came and…
"My name is Aidan Williamson. Country of origin: Classified. Date of birth:Classified. Powers and skills: Classified. System: Classified. Parent's name: Classified…" I kept on saying that everything was classified except my name and then I simply walked back to where my seat was and sat there peacefully.
Everyone just kept looking at me dumbfoundedly, including professor Hoffmann. Then professor Hoffmann coughed a little before resuming,"all right… Next."
There was a rule that if a person doesn't want to share their exact identity or powers, he or she can do so as long as it is not against the Arcadia's System. Though, you still have to register basic information, like your System and power level, within Arcadia's System.
The registration was going to take place today after the classes and was totally private and secure.
The seating arrangement was done with 5 rows of 4 students each in a small class. I was sitting in the fourth row from the right on the 3rd seat. There was a purple-haired girl sitting in front of me, who looked too proud of herself for entering this class.
On my left was a kid with glasses and a katana tied to his waist.
On my right was a kid with a bulky figure that looked really serious and attentive. He had red short hair and, based on the scar marks on his neck; I guess he had been through a rough fight before.
There were in total 7 kids I was interested in this class that had the potential to become usable while the others… they are going to be the stepping stone for those seven.
"So, we are done with the introductions. What do you guys want to do next? There are many options to consider, you can learn about mana and other stuff. The Academy provides various skills and other artefacts for you to train with and you can also use the simulator system to see which weapon works better for you and the list goes on and on," Professor Hoffman spoke and I looked at him once again as he waited for the class to answer.
From the 2nd row from the right, the 2nd seat raised her hand and Hoffman nodded at her,"yes miss… Melissa, right? Speak."
Melissa was a brown-haired lady with her hair reaching down to her waist and was really furry. She looked at the Professor with her green eyes, as she adjusted her silver glasses and said,"Can we visit the place where we can learn skills? I want to look around and find if there are any skills we can use. Also, I would like to ask, when are we going to visit the Stairway of Knowledge?"
'The Stairway of knowledge, huh? It doesn't have much use for me but… If I were to have access to it, I could get a lot of privacy,' I thought as I recalled the Stairways.
The Stairway of Knowledge was located at the centre of the Arcadia Academy and was one of the main attractions of the Academy. It was like a huge tree with an upward going stairway encasing the tree, where mana density increases with each step.
How up you can go is determined by how much mana and will power you possess. It also has a special form of energy that tests the users will power, but that is only after the thousandth step.
There were a total of 10 floors, with each floor holding sacred skills and each floor's entrance was at every 200th step. The last floor, or the top floor, is one of the most sacred grounds where only the highly respectable people of the Academy can enter.
Namely only 5 people have the authority to enter that floor irrespective of one's mana or will power. The Principal, the 3 Royal Professors and the 5th person was who actually built this whole Academy's infrastructure and helped Amelia from behind the scenes.
The 5th person is one of the SSS-Classes, has been in seclusion at that Top Floor for over half a century now and is simply focusing on increasing his energy. It was said that he can see the future and what he saw actually made him feel threatened enough to cultivate for the rest of his life.
'It's ironic that the guy who was preparing to fight against the Parasites, later joined their numbers because he couldn't bring himself to fight them,' I sighed as I recalled the bits of information about that guy.