09.05 AM was displayed on Arthur watch, just 5 minutes left until his first class starts.
'Almost—there!!'
Arthur worked his legs to the best he can. At the distance, he finally saw his class entrance. Truth be told, he can arrive at the class in just under 10 minutes if he can find the right path. But unfortunately, he almost took the wrong direction and had to check his map, ended up wasting time instead.
'Just who decided to make this big of a castle filled with countless intersections' *sigh*
Finally arrived at his class front door. Arthur checked his uniform and fix his hair the last time when suddenly he heard a commotion down the hallway where he just comes from.
"I'M LATE!! I'M LATE!! MOVE!!! YOU AT THE DOOR MOVE!!!!"
Arthur heard the yell and saw a person figure getting closer and closer running towards him. Just barely before he received a traffic accident, he moved his body backward and avoided a collision with that person.
BANG!
Arthur saw a magnificent scene played in front of him. The person slammed head first towards the door, producing a reverberating sound that traveled through the hallway and dropped to the ground butts first. Judging by the sound Arthur thought that it must be quite painful.
Arthur was startled and checked the person condition. A young girl probably the same age as him. Small in stature and a pale skin tone, Arthur guessed her height probably not more than 155 cm. She's got a short wavy hair, that goes just above her shoulders and strawberry blonde hair color. She's got a round face with quite big blue eyes, and pink lips, completed with her little stature that just makes her looks cute and adorable like a doll.
"Awooo...My head hurts..." She groaned with her hands on her forehead.
"Yo-you're okay?" Arthur asked.
Arthur saw the young girl propped himself up slowly. Her hands still stuck on her forehead trying to rub away the pain and in the corner of her eyes, tears were slowly forming. Her memory was a little bit fuzzy, she replied, "Maybe...Probably...No bleeding...So I guess I'm okay..."
"Oh! That's good then." Arthur said, glad that she's okay.
After Arthur said that, suddenly the young girl remembered what happened before she crash landed. She pouted her lips and stared towards Arthur, and said, "You're Bad! Why you're not stopping me there?" While stomping her feet.
Arthur finds her remarks and action were rather cute and let out a giggle, and replied, "Well, you told me to move. So I moved. Haha."
CREAK
Arthur heard a sound of door opening and turn his head towards the source. Arthur looked at the place and saw a middle-aged man with a beard on his face, from the looks of it the man was in his late thirties. The man wore a black suit and a red tie fitting his well-built body. His hair was short with a buzz cut and black in color. His face was a little rough and quite masculine.
The man saw both Arthur and the young girl and scolded, "If you're not planning on taking the class don't make a commotion outside!"
Arthur was startled, and apologized, "Ah! I'm very sorry sir!"
"I'm sorry..." The young girl apologized after, her tone was low.
Arthur looked at the man and saw he turned walking away from the door. Arthur and the young girl just stood still at their place, with heads lay low. Awkward by the scolding.
The man turned his head towards the two and said in his stern voice, "Well don't just stand there, get on your seat! And close the door after!"
"Yes, Sir!" The two was startled and yelled at the same time, bringing laughter to the entire class.
----
Arthur sat at the back of the class with two other boys, while the young girl sat near the front mingling with her friends. He thought the class was quite nice and spacious. He focused his eye towards the front, where the man that scolded him before stood behind his desk. He also heard murmurs about himself and his feats at the enrollments trial. 'I'm famous now...But I'm not even happy about it.' he thought to himself and sighed after.
Tock, Tock, Tock
Suddenly the classroom that full of murmurs were replaced by a silent. Arthur saw that everyone focused himself or herself fully to the front of the classroom. Not wanting to grab attention Arthur followed after.
"Okay! Some of you might know who I am, but there's also some of you that just enrolled here. Let me introduce myself again. My name is Howard Campbell, you can call me Instructor Campbell. I will teach you about Class, Military Studies, and your instructor for Specialized Weapon Training. As you can see for some unknown reason we're short on teaching staff here. Stated by the fact that I'm taking multiple classes in my hand. So you will see me much more often than not. If you have a question better ask now before I start the class." Instructor Campbell said in his strict voice.
Everyone in the class just stayed silent. Arthur thought that everyone didn't have a question to an already complete statement, and neither did he. To be fair, he can ask regarding the unknown circumstances that the academy faced are, but even if he knew, there was nothing he can do about it.
The man nodded at the class response, "Good! One more thing. If any of you make any single noise during my lecture. You will have to get out of my class and ran 200 laps around the academy. And! If you dare to slack on my punishment, you better pray that I didn't meet or see you around the academy." He said with a fierce look on his eye and stared at everyone in the classroom.
Everyone gulped and have a cold sweat around their back, scared by the man fierce gaze and this includes Arthur. Instructor Campbell gazes finally passed through him, Arthur sighed a relief and thought, 'Why do I always meet people with a similar personality to the old man...".
Done with his gaze, Instructor Campbell started the class, "Now let's begin then." He changed his expression to his usual stern one and continued, "Let's begin with a little of history. Classes were found around a millennia ago, nobody knows the exact date and who the one found it because it was a closely guarded secret. Some speculations were made by some scholars that it was around the ninth centuries while others said it was around the tenth centuries, and no conclusions were made ever since. But one thing was certain. The one that found it will surely reform the world and that was because of the knowledge that the black obelisks hold."
Instructor Campbell told the lecture while pacing back and forth throughout the classroom. He paused a little, took a breath and continued, "Kingdoms and Empire raged wars against another to obtain just a little bit of that knowledge. Scholars traveled far and wide just to catch a glimpse of the recorded knowledge. And with that, the first three was born. The Trinity. Warriors, Priest, and Mages."
Arthur was mesmerized by the explanation and thought, 'Instructor Campbell sure is a fantastic storyteller!'
"The Trinity from the ordinary people point of view was like a god, bringing miracles one after another. But from the scholar's point of view, they were regarded as a key to earth beings evolution. They recorded the process and wrote step by step instructions on how they've acquired it, and they've named it The Genesis Manuscript. The manuscript was coveted by many kingdoms and empire, they offer riches, lands, or anything they can offer to get their hand's on it. But instead, the scholars released it to the public."
"Following after new classes discovered one after another leading up to the modern era. By now you can tell that classes were not given, but to be obtained. Your knowledge, your training, and your determination will lead you on your path to acquire it.— Before we continue, any question?" He said and returned to his desk.
The classroom was still silent. Arthur, in particular, had many questions in his mind. He just about to raise his voice to ask a question but was outdid instead by his peers located in the middle of the classroom.
"But how do we know that we or they have acquired the class, Instructor?" The male student on the middle row of the classroom asked.
Instructor Campbel perked his head towards the student, and said, "Good question." He smiled, "To know that you have to go to one of the black obelisks in the seven seas, that is the case in the ancient world. But fortunately, we are now at the modern era, our technologies have given us access to many things we didn't know before. Let me ask you a question, Have any of you heard the device called The Orb of Fate?"
'I've heard the old man explained about that device before, but why can't I recall anything about it?' Arthur racked up his brain, but no matter how hard he worked his brain nothing seems to be coming out. The same can be seen with the rest of the students.
Finally, a girl voice can be heard from the front row seats, "Instructor!! Instructor!!"
Arthur saw the direction of the voice and it was the young girl that almost collided with him earlier. The young girl raised his right arm and waved her hand right and left, once more adding points to her cuteness.
Instructor Campbell turned his head to look at the young girl and said, "You knew?" He saw the young girl nodded and continued, "Stand up and explain it."
The young girl stands up from his seat and took a deep breath to calm his nervousness, "The Orb of Fate was a device that created with the sole purpose of connecting the user minds to the black obelisks anywhere they are. The device works by connecting the person minds via a series of aether network that was guided by a magic formation towards the nearest black obelisks. Designed by the Italian universal genius, Leonardo Da Vinci in 1494 but was completed in 1878 instead, because of the limitations in technology at that time. The device was completed by the Scottish Inventors, Alexander Graham Bell after discovering the similarities between Leonardo design and his telephone inventions.
Instructor Campbell was satisfied and nod his head by the young girl explanation, and said, "Well done young girl! And may I know your name?"
The young girl can't hide her happiness by the praise and grinned from ear to ear revealing her canine teeth, and answered, "Charlotte, Charlotte Eclier, Instructor."
"Thank you for the explanation Ms. Charlotte, you may sit now." He thanked Charlotte and continued, "The Orb of Fate as explained by Ms. Charlotte was one of our world technological marvel. It showed both our pride and hope towards the brighter future, and now it was mass produced and available at every class center around the world. Thankfully we have one too in our Academy. It was located on the fourth floor near the Headmaster office, and every year we operate it to see if any of you have the potential and opportunity to pick your class."
Arthur minds clicked and suddenly remembered after the explanation, 'Ah! That's it! It was meant to connect to the Akashic Records.— Wait...Does that mean my smartphone can do the same too? And I don't have to use the Orb of Fate! Wow! Thanks old man!' Arthur thanked from the bottom of his heart to old man Robert.
"Now! Let us continue with our subjects. The difference between Arts and Magic." Instructor Campbell said while looking at his watch, "The time is short so I will keep it simple. The difference between the two is how one's acquired it. Arts, for instance, is acquired through repetition, for example, the arts Rush. The person is required to dash at the target at a high velocity, repeated it again and again until it becomes an arts, of course, if it was that simple then every person in this world can learn it, but it wasn't, for it to become a arts the person requires an aura and that can be achieved through acquiring a class."
"The aura is also needed to execute those arts, and it's also an exhaustible resource, so if you become a warrior class or those that belong to the subgroup, always be mindful of your aura consumption. One more thing, every person have a different aura and it's tied to the 7 discovered elements which are Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Light, Darkness, and Nature. But some would argue that there are two more elements which are Space and Time, but let's save that for another discussion." He continued.
"As for magic, I would only touch the surface of it because I know some of you will take the Magic Studies after this. Magic was acquired by memorization, knowing the right incantations and spell. Magic was even more strict on its requirements. The caster would need the knowledge and the talents to control or even mutate the wild aether to turns it into mana, one wrong step, the spell would backfire on its caster, and you don't want to know what its looked like.— I guess that's it for today. If you have any more question, you can find me at my office on the third floor. Class dismissed" Instructor Campbell added and wrapped up the class.
Arthur was a bit dazed by the rush of information, and he thought, 'This is my first time hearing a lesson about classes and I can't help but feel amazed by it. The old man only teaches us about combat and strategy every day with the occasional history and artifact lesson, so this lesson is like bringing me to another world altogether. Now I look forward to the Magic Studies and hope I can learn more from it!" His eye sparkled with anticipation.