"Wrong! I have actual combat tactics experience so I should lead" Victoria asserted, pointing her chin out, an odd gesture considering her height.
"I refuse to take orders from you" Shin replied succinctly, making his displeasure known.
"Yeah, it should be me! I've been cracking skulls since I was a teenager!" Ressana Interjected, quite possibly just to add to the chaos.
This had been going on for the past 5 minutes, from the moment they were told to decide on a team leader.
To get a proper grasp of the situation it was necessary to take a few steps back.
It was another ability studies class, albeit formatted differently than usual. Instead of being inside the usual training hall, they were in the large tournament arena.
It reminded Jacob of the old Roman Colosseums. If the colosseums had an opaque magical dome to protect spectators from collateral damage.
At the centre was a stone stage that had risen from the ground after their professor had somehow prompted it.
"Today we have a new student joining us, a late entry into the course but within the cutoff limit. His name is Arthur Fletching and I expect you all to help him catch up for the previous week he's missed. For today's ability studies class, the class will be split into two teams of six" Professor Howinster calmly introduced the new student before moving on to their lesson.
The young man was, to put it plainly, handsome.
To the point where it annoyed Jacob.
As someone who had average looks, he always had some dislike for the advantages offered to the good looking and Arthur Fletching was a typical example of a Hollywood handsome.
He was tall and built well, clearly no stranger to either labour, sports, or the gym. He had blond hair, clear blue eyes and a confident but friendly disposition.
In addition to all this, he was a dreamer, although Jacob didn't know what clan. From any girl's perspective, he was basically the whole package. Another reason for Jacob to dislike him.
Just because Jacob didn't show much interest in the fairer sex didn't mean he wanted to be upstaged completely, he was still a man after all.
Despite his inherent dislike for the good-looking Jacob made sure to keep his face neutral and try to view the young man objectively, a personal bias would do him no favours.
"As Professor Howinster said, my name's Arthur and I'm a little behind so I hope you all go easy on me" The young man introduced himself humbly.
To make things worse he was also Australian judging by the way he spoke. So yeah no way was he comparing himself to the guy.
The next few minutes went by busily as the groups were decided by the teacher.
Group one consisted of Victoria, Shin, Stephanie, Erwin, Jacob and Ressana
Group two was made up of the rest, unfortunately including the boy Fredrick whom Jacob did feel slightly bad for.
Out of everyone in the class, the only people who really talked to the boy were Erwin and Jacob, leaving him with a group of strangers left a bad taste in his mouth.
Of course, there was also Stephanie who was quiet for the moment but was surely displeased to be in the same team as the one who had ranted at her in the library for simply saying thank you.
After that encounter, they had mostly stayed out of each other's way. They had come to an unspoken agreement to treat each other as air.
The next part of the exercise was to decide on a team leader.
Which takes us back to the present.
"It should be Jacob" stated Erwin. Who until now, had been quiet.
A collective "huh" came from the three, along with looks of surprise and absurdity.
"He's the only one who we all know and don't dislike, and his ability is basically best used for being a leader compared to everyone else" Erwin explained.
"Wait, what was your ability again?" Asked Ressana, having never bothered to learn it despite having been friends for a few days now.
"It's a mental thing, I can sort and store information with 100% accuracy" Jacob replied, downplaying his ability somewhat and not mentioning the combat system or overclock.
He wanted to keep things close to the truth, but it would be stupid to reveal his trump cards, however meagre they may be.
This brought a variety of looks from his new teammates.
Ressana looked interested and a little condescending, most likely thinking, perhaps accurately, that her ability was better.
Victoria looked slightly thoughtful but otherwise remained mostly stalwart.
Stephanie looked as if she had finally figured something out, most likely how he was able to help her at the library with the books.
He had already told Shin about his ability and Erwin had known since their first ability studies class.
After digesting the information each of the arguers vying for team leader looked at each other and seemed to decide something.
"Fine"
"A'ight"
"Better than the pipsqueak"
The last one came from Shin, earning him a truly venomous look from Victoria.
Even Stephine nodded, although she didn't seem that interested in the position in the first place.
Still, it was a nice vote of confidence.
A totally unearned one in Jacob's opinion.
But nice, nonetheless.
"All right, guess I'll take the lead. First things first, abilities, I only know Erwin's and Shin's and, no offence, it won't be the most useful thing in a one vs one." Jacob asked.
Erwin waved his hand, indicating he didn't mind the minor slight at his combat strength.
"Well, I'm rocking the spirit of the hung" Interjected Ressana, eager to make some noise.
A minor stunned silence ensued, possibly because of the double entendre based on the word hung, or because Jacob had no idea how that was supposed to help him understand.
"It's an awesome spirit, makes me swim like a fish, and lets me summon a sharp as shit cutlass and a flintlock pistol!" Ressana followed, after letting the awkward silence sink in for a second of course.
Jacob couldn't help but feel that the girl thrived off being a disruption.
Despite that, he roughly understood what the 'spirit of the hung' was.
Long story short, pirates, or pirate-like at the least.
"Well… I can't believe I have to say this, but I also feel like I do. Don't shoot our classmates with a flintlock pistol. At least not in the head, or chest... or stomach. Actually, just don't use the pistol." Jacob ordered.
"Fine…" Ressana pouted.
A short sigh later he indicated for Victoria to talk.
"I have Jin clan mana affinity, my ability lets me use mana to make my skin as hard as rock and also makes me stronger," Victoria replied succinctly.
Nothing too fancy, but that was fine. What she lacked in specialisation she could make up with the raw utility of increased defence and power.
Honestly, her type of dreamer could actually prove more difficult to deal with than Ressana in certain cases, especially after her ability was strengthened as she grew stronger. From the limited info he had, dreamers with purely defensive abilities tended to be able to stop small calibre bullets with their skin by rank 1.
Most dreamers received some level of physical fortification or enhancement from their abilities, even Erwin had mentioned that he felt stronger after he became a dreamer.
Jacob was an odd case in that aspect, he had learnt that his ability had reinforced him. But it was completely focused on his mental capacity.
His best guess was that analysis was kind of like very high-end software while his brain was low-end hardware, his reinforcement just upgraded his 'hardware' to the point where analysis wouldn't cause him to overheat. Or whatever the human equivalent was.
Of course, he only had analysis as a source of information in that regard, he certainly didn't feel smarter than before his nightmare trial.
But he conceded that a normal person's mind couldn't handle processing their senses and thinking at 10-time speed even with the help of mana as fuel.
The point was that most dreamers were lucky enough to gain the strength of an athlete from the moment they gained an ability.
Even if he disregarded Victoria's reinforced body, she was a decent fighter. At least according to Shin who had both fought her and seen her fight their challenger training instructor, Douglas Macdonald.
Between her and Ressana they might actually have a decent chance.
Next was Shin, luckily his roommate had already shared the details of his ability earlier that week.
He could use mana to speed up his body, allowing him to move faster. It also made him slightly harder to anticipate apparently. Even Shin wasn't too sure of the specifics but apparently, his ability made his moves harder for the enemy to predict.
Finally, it was Stephanie's turn.
"I'm a Dempster clan dreamer."
"My ability lets me draw off the magical phenomena of certain fairy tales with research." She explained succinctly.
Jacob asked a few follow-up questions about the specifics and was both surprised and intrigued.
Her ability allowed her to research various fairy tales, stories and mythologies and recreate certain supernatural phenomena or summon creatures from them based on her research.
The process was long and very complicated, as it was with all Dempster clan abilities, but it was still a very interesting ability.
At the moment the only boons her ability granted was the ability to summon two creatures, one called a Knocker and the other a Nixie.
The Knocker was a creature that typically dwelled in mines, using its voice and body to mimic the sounds of minors hitting rocks. When they were agitated, they could create so much noise that the mineshaft would collapse.
The Nixie on the other hand were friendly creatures, identified by their humanoid forms with water continuously flowing down their body. They had the ability of hydromancy and loved music and dancing, their speciality lay with instruments made from reeds, especially pipes.
Not the most battle-worthy summons, especially considering the Nixie couldn't be summoned on account of the lack of water, but Jacob decided to look on the Brightside, the knocker might be useful as a distraction.
Who was he kidding?
Unless Stephanie had some hidden max-level skill in martial combat, which he sincerely doubted based on her petite figure. She was probably a lost cause for this duel.
He had three fighters, two (relatively useless) summoners, and himself.
How the hell was he supposed to win this?