Chương 99: Chapter 97 - Red Room.

Nythera swung her legs back and forth in the stands as she watched yet another half dozen bouts take place. Gladius had long since been moved to the medical wing and after some basic exercise she was excused.

"Miss Aurendor, it is a pleasure to meet you" said the 5th noble that had come for answers. She barely even spared a glance.

"Hello" she replied with barely concealed disgust. He coughed, "your performance was nothing short of superb. If I might be so bold, may I inquire if you have a noble sponsor yet? Of course royalty like yourself hardly needs one, but being so far from home, surely it could be worth consideration."

"Can you provide me with dozens of token and tomes?" she asked. The boy's face lit up in excitement and just before he could speak she cut in "And a few fluxcutters of course, I have need of my own airships." As fast as it came the excitement was gone, replaced by shock "I'm afraid that fluxcutters lie outside of my family's immediate purview." he bowed and took his leave. I wonder if Rowen would pinch me for finding a decent sponsor, it's basically free resources we can exploit.

I need to find some rich bastards and squeeze them for every dime. The class ended shortly after, finally permitting Nythera to go eat.

"Are you insane? You nearly killed a Tesset royal prince on the first day of classes. From your exam group no less." Rowen hissed angrily.

"It wasn't intentional, I just wanted to get him to stop glaring at me all the time. Besides, how was I supposed to know he was so weak?" Nythera sighed.

"By Kronan, at least you didn't use that other skill or he would have been killed at the first shot. I will do what I can to salvage the situation. Perhaps we will take one of the families up on a sponsorship arrangement" Rowen pulled them into one of the dining halls.

"If you pick one, make it a good sponsor. I want access to those flying ships" Nythera found a table and they finally sat down to eat. The entire dining hall was nothing but individual tables with two chairs opposite each other. The lighting was dim and warm and everyone spoke in hushed voices. Huh, why are all the groups one man and one girl? The food available was all fancy meats, dressed up with exotic spices and sauces.

Nythera's fork came down like a spear skewering a fish, nearly going through the plate itself. Well at least the food is good even if this room is weird. Whispers were easy to listen to in such a quiet room. Good, Rowen caught on quick. Stay silent and let's see what people are saying. It did not take long to find what she wanted. Students sitting directly across from them spoke in hush tones.

"Did you hear what happened? Gladius Tesset is in the hospital wing with serious injuries."

"Apparently he was nearly killed in battle magics, by another student no less." The other student gasped.

"And it gets worse, apparently she has been targeting him since the beginning of school, they were in the same exam group!"

"No! Who is she?"

"Apparently she's royalty from the far north, some crazy girl with a missing arm who attacked a royal! A near death in the first class bodes ill for the entire group" the guy began. That's when Nythera locked eyes with the girl sitting across. The guy continued "she just held up her one good arm and blasted him over and over again ruthlessly. She nearly killed him with the tenth blast! They call her the one-arm witch of destruction! With silver hair and red eyes, she has promised to kill all of the royal family."

his tale got more and more animated.

"Shut up" she hissed back, eyes locked with Nythera in fear.

"What, what oh….." he followed her gaze to Nythera. Both of them shot up and left without even pushing in their chairs, a half finished meal sitting wasted on the plates. Rowen's eyes screamed "I told you so." The food tasted delectable, a sweet and savory red meat.

"We might need to deal with this until we graduate, or center forbid, are expelled. Try not to piss off anyone else and I'll see if I can smooth things over with Gladius." Rowen held his head in his hands and closed his eyes. Well if it goes too poorly it might be better if I just execute some of them. Though keeping that hidden from diviners could prove problematic.

"Fine, I'll let you handle this and keep a low profile for now." she nodded.

"Low profile" Rowen snorted. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Next class was system guidance, up on the third floor.

"Hey! Vargan, Valerius!" Nythera called out.

"Oh hello Nythera, I have heard grand tales of your class" Valerius ran up to her and teleported onto her shoulder. Is there anyone who doesn't know?

"How funny, what did you hear?" Vargan grinned "We heard you showed them the true fury of the North! These weak slickneck southerners don't know how to fight." he beamed with pride and slapped Rowen on the back "good job you two." Rowen let out a pained grin "Yes of course, we showed them the true power of the north." The lecture hall had a vast, arching ceiling despite its relatively smaller class size. The professor did not waste any time.

"Now I doubt you all know much about the system. Fortunately for you, I am here to correct your inadequacies. Please prepare to have everything you thought you knew, shattered by truth." He stopped pacing and turned 90 degrees to face them.

"You may call me Professor Qweller and nothing else." The class waited silently.

"Now let us begin. What do we all know about class ascension? A common topic, yes. A top you also know nothing about, yes. It gives you some class options, fun new skills, a fancier name if you've done it properly. But what else?" he looked out expectantly and a moment later his gaze turned to disappointment. He let out a deep sigh "Very well, at the core of class ascension is the stats, yes. I do not mean stat distribution or even additional stats per level." he paused to sweep his eyes across the room.

"No, it is all about the qualitative boost. Not just to resonance, not just to health or stamina. I mean the boost to every single stat you have, each point of strength makes you stronger than it did before, each point of dex, faster. Every. Single. Stat. is stronger than it was before." he drew out his speech, looking for a reaction that never came. Some students furiously scribbled notes but most just With a scowl he continued "but how much stronger? How much better? You might ask these questions.

The exact values have not been determined, as they are not unified across all stats, but the prevailing belief is that each stat is worth 10% more per class ascension." Hold up, it is not just the resource pools? How is this not common knowledge? So each point of my hundreds of wisdom got stronger on ascension? Nythera grit her teeth. This is why people don't challenge higher strata people. They are fundamentally stronger, higher stats, better stats, higher skill level cap too.

Speaking of stats, I have 68 free points left, it's time to use them. I know exactly what I need. My skills are strong enough, my flux pool is downright absurd, but my reaction time is terrible. All of this is going straight into dexterity. What is the point in overpowering firepower if I can't react in time to hit anything? She gasped as her perception buckled under the strain, her dexterity more than doubling in an instant. Her vision sharpened and sounds around her became incredibly loud, grating on her ears.

Next time I can do resonance again or whatever but I bet this will make me a far stronger duelist for now. It might be time for an evolution on some of my skills, time to dump some tokens.

"If you do well in my class, you might even qualify, if you are absurdly lucky and talend, for the wildskill course with Professor Julian Greywing" Students shot up in their seats as the class hushed, listening to every word like it was worth its weight in gold. Qweller smirked "That's more like it. Proper respect. While I cannot fathom why you would want to take such risks, students your age tend to be quite reckless and Julian is a true prodigy with a deep understanding of the system, approaching that of my own.

Work hard and maybe you can get into that class." He walked back to the desk where is stone-white board sat on the wall "Nothing but perfection will suffice in my class." Class passed with a discussion about course work, the textbooks, and the basic differences between classes and professions, to which the students expressed their deep and profound boredom.

"Remember, it is important to make sure all foundations are equal before we proceed to more nuanced content." … History of Aelthyr was hardly any better, a class full of students on the verge of total boredom collapse. Why are all the students in here commoners? There is not a single noble.

"Welcome to history, this class is going to cover the foundations of all of Aelthyr's long and rich history." the professor, a woman this time, spoke slowly. Geography of Aelthyr was split into five sections, North, South, East, West, each of the edges was inhabited by kingdoms and empires, bound to the cold, but habitable edges of the world and separated by small seas and islands.

Then there was The Center, a massive expanse of land covering nearly 70% of all land on Aelthyr, the never-ending heat meant that very little life not perfectly adapted could survive. Control of the region was ceded entirely to a single, massive empire, often called the Ant-people, or the Monoformic Empire; it had no diplomatic ties with any nations. Most students were asleep or on the verge of it. One had a quill automatically writing as they clearly slept, snoring with no shame.

When the class ended, only about a third got up and left while the rest had to pull themselves out of a stupor. Nythera finally managed to escape to a dining hall, finding herself in a new one. A vast room with circular tables and nothing but fried food, the ceiling arched overhead with faux wooden beams and bright multi-colored lighting. The volume level was, sadly, also much higher.

"Oh, did you hear about Julian? He turned down Gladius and Marcelles, BOTH, Again! My brother said it was because they "weren't hungry enough to be his apprentice"" one student proclaimed so loudly half the cafeteria heard, and so the gossip treadmill spun.

"Shhh do you want to end up in a Red room? The king is going to get furious if rumors spread like this, I wonder why he even allows Julian to scorn his children" another replied. After stuffing her face with as much fried, unidentifiable nonsense as she could find, she made her way back to the room. The entire room smelled of burnt meat, fish, and smoke. Vargan had a massive animal on a spit roast in the middle of the hallway at the end.

"Get your fat stinking floppy fish out of here you damnable runt" Vargan shouted.

"You have no sense of taste, but I should hardly be surprised given your trying to cook an oversized rat that probably fed on someone's organs." Valerius retorted.

"I need space, stop hogging the entire burner or I won't be able to roast this… thing" Vargan complained.

"Do you even know what you are trying to cook?" Valerius asked.

"No but it looked good." The cloud of smoke was rapidly building, making it hard to breathe. Fucking Hel, I am going to strangle both of them before the night is through.