Perfect, I think as I look at myself in the mirror after getting on the school uniform.
I turn to look at Alice and find her dressed in the orange and white uniform.
"That uniform looks good on you Alice. It matches with your fur and hair. It feels refreshing to look at" I say.
"Thanks, and you look good in the black and red. It matches everything with you. And you look super cute in it"
"I know right. Well, shall we go. It would be embarrassing to meet up late at the ceremony"
"Yes"
As we walk to the hall we shall meet up. I ask Alice a question. "Do you know how many students are attending the school?"
"350 students are usually accepted every year. And we are attending years so that would be 1750 students. The nightingale academy is accepting few students and is focusing on raising their potential. That's one of the reasons the strongest persons are coming from this academy. Almost all other academy's is accepting 1000-3000 each year"
"Wow, that's a huge difference. I didn't know how lucky I was to be accepted before now, and just one and a half week before the end of summer break"
"You were accepted less than a to weeks ago?! Do you know how hard that is? Guess your race and maybe class is really special then"
"Of course it is, its me were talking about"
"Hehe, yea you're right. But what is your class if I may ask?"
"Well we are going to fight together so why not. I'm a blood hunter"
"Blood hunter? Isn't that a super rare class?"
"Yes that it is"
"You're just becoming more and more interesting by the second Sophia"
"Hehe"
We arrive at the hall and walk in. There are many people that have arrived and we walk to find some seats for the first years. As we walk we get many stares from the crowd and that makes me proud.
"Seems like we're quite the popular pair" Alice says.
"Of course we are. You are a pretty girl walking with a pretty and cute girl. How could we not be popular?"
"Yes your right"
"Let's find a seat in the front. Or else I wouldn't be able to see anything." I say. Because I'm more on the shorter side, 1,61 meters I wouldn't be able to see anything if a tall boy sits in front of me.
"Sure, let's do that," Alice says. She herself doesn't have that problem as she is around 1,82 meters if I should guess.
"By the way, how tall are you Alice?"
"I'm 1,86. How short are you? '' she says with a grin. Mocking my height.
"1,61" I say with a pout as I look to the other side from Alice.
"You're cute" is what she responded with after seeing my reaction.
We find a seat in the front row and continue talking.
"Do you thing the headmaster will say why we aren't allowed to talk about our levels and why we cant see others level and names through the system?" I ask.
"I hope he will because I'm curious about that myself"
As we talk a familiar boy comes and sits at the chair besides Alice. "Hello there Alice and Sophia," Ethan says.
"Hello Ethan. Have you met Sophia before?" Alice asks.
"Yes, in the dungeon. She was irritating, but skilled"
"Hey, I'm right here. And how do you know this stalker Alice?"
"I wasn't stalking you. I was checking if you were team material" Ethan says.
"You did that by following me out of sight and spying on me. That is what being a stalker is, mr stalker. Don't you agree Alice" I respond.
"That sounds like a stalker to me" she says and sends Ethan a teasing look.
"Hey, don't side with that seducing and flirting succubus Alice" Ethan says.
"I'm not a succubus, and you did enjoy it. You thought I was going to kiss you and you didn't resist. I'm just glad that my lose the stalker move worked" I say.
"You met one day and are already flirting. Is it some love brewing? Ethan I know she may not look it but you are the same age and I think she is single" Alice says.
"There's no way I could be with her," Ethan says.
"You say that but your face is red, but there is no way I could be with you. I'm too perfect for that. I would rather be with Alice" I say while I hug Alice's arm and stick my tongue out to Ethan.
"Are you lespian? Then I don't have to worry about you hitting on me" Ethan says.
"I'm bisexual, but there is no way I would hit on you. I worry it already is the other way around. You did start stalking me after our first talk after all" I respond.
"It's quite fun to see you flirting so much with each other, but the headmaster is standing on the stage. Oh, and Ethan and I are childhood friends"
I look up to see Leo the headmaster on the stage and sit back on my seat. A little bit flustered.
"I welcome our new students to the Nightingale academy and welcome back the rest of the students.
I'm proud to see that we once again have accepted new students with promising potential. That is eager to join our academy.
My name is Leo and I'm the headmaster at the academy"
"You all probably have questions as to why we have forbidden you to talk about your level and why we have blocked your ability to see the levels? Well it is to not create a top and bottom class based on levels the first week. As you all know many other countries have rich and strong people that look down on the poor and weak, racism that to some goes to the extent of killing other races like vampires and werewolves. But our country is not like that. We are the country with the least difference between rich and poor, we are the country that has the most acceptance of other races and we are the country that stands most together. And we want the school to be like that as well. Where the stronger and weaker stand together and where the stronger aren't bullying the weak. Where we support each other and grow together. In many other schools the strong are free to look down on and bully the week. This only leads to the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker. We at the nightingale academy have fewer students than other academies, and are focusing on all those students. Not just the stronger ones. That's why we support you to help each other and grow strong bonds that will stay when you graduate.
If bullying should happen you have two choices. One is to get help from a teacher and two is to deal with it yourself or get help from another student. If number two is chosen the bully will as punishment be used as training for the victim or the one helping the victim to deal with other people and get stronger. This will be tolerated as long as no negative effect that lasts over a long time or death happens to the bully. This is also to help students grow stronger bonds and to reduce the amount of bullying" After the headmaster said he stopped. Probably to let everything sink in. I myself agree with what he said. It seems way better than to only focus on a few strong people and getting many weaker.
After a short time the other people that have been standing behind the headmaster, probably the other teachers, step forward so they are right behind the headmaster.
"These are the teachers for the first years. In your school ID that all of you should be wearing at all time there is installed a program that is linked to your mana signature and allows you to access a database with your thoughts. It will be shown as a hologram in front of you and can sow information, identify students and teachers. This will be used instead of books or pads in class. And it will be used to know when and where you have classes"
After he said that a hologram appeared in front of me. It showed me what classes I have: Tc3, close combat 1, ranged combat 2 and elemental 3. When I looked at the teachers I saw their name and what they teached. I looked at Alice and saw her name, that she is a first year and tc3. I don't know what tc3 means but we had the same at least.
"What you see now is your class information. Tc stands for theory class and there is one to seven with fifty students in each. To close this program think close program, like you close your system by thinking close system"
"Once again I welcome you to the Nightingale academy. Your classes will start tomorrow, and you will start with dungeons next week"
After he was done with his speech we clapped before standing up to leave.
"I'm so glad we are in the same theory class as Alice" I say completely ignoring Ethan.
"I'm glad about that too, and looks like mister stalker *giggle here is in our class to" Alice says.
"Hey don't you give me that nickname too"
"But you did stalk a girl right after meeting her" Alice says
"I admit it may be close to stalking, but I didn't think she would be able to notice me and I was really curious about her race"
"As if that makes it better" Alice says and Ethan doesn't say anything back.
"How did you shut him up so easily?" I ask Alice.
"Because I didn't flirt with him and we are childhood friends"
"I didn't flirt with him!" I say.
"Yes, you did. Just admit it" Alice respond
"If you continue like that I won't let you hug or pat me in a week"
"You say that now but when I try you won't be able to resist it"
"That, umm, I, ehh, urgh. You're right" I say defeated.
"Didn't you girls meet yesterday? How have you grown so close in that short time?" Ethan saks.
"It's the power of cuteness" I answer.
"The power of cuteness? How does that make sense?" Ethan asks again.
"A stalker won't get it" I tease back.
"Please stop with that already. I'm not a stalker" Ethan says.
"And your back to flirting" Alice says.
"No, we're not!" I and Ethan says at the same time and we both shut up after that to not make it worse.
Alice smiles with a satisfied look. Likely feeling victorious in getting us to admit it may be close to flirting. But it was just close.
"So which classes did you choose Ethan?" I ask.
"Elemental times two and ranged times one" he answers.
"Seems like none of us chose all the same classes. And do you want to join our hunting team?" Alice asks Ethan.
"Sure" he answers.
"Well if you are ok with it that is Sophia. You are the leader after all" Alice says.
"Wait, why am I the leader, and sure he can join and what's with 'hunting team'?"
"You created the team so it's just right that you become the leader and hunting team is what most people call it at the academy because it is most used in dungeons"
"Ok, but how many members do we need in the team based dungeons?" I ask.
"Five if I remember correctly. But we will learn that tomorrow I think" Ethan says.
"Five huu, then we need two more. We have one who attacks from range, one who is mid to close range and me who is all around but most stealth. We should get one front liner who is close combat.
When all of us can, we should get together and discuss what we can and how we attack so we can choose our next two members carefully" I say.
"See, you are already acting like a good leader. And I have time now to discuss our team stuff. What about you Ethan?"
"I can also now. Better to get it done with so we can keep an open eye the rest of the day"
"Good, where shall we talk about this? In my and Alic's room?" I ask.
"Me in some girls room on the first day? I'm sure popular" Ethan jokes.
"Don't get too full of yourself. It is Sophia that's been flirting with you, not me. It's only one girl that interested, not two"
"Hey! I'm not interested in mister stalker" I say as I start waking faster to our dorm.
When we arrive at the dorm, Alice and Ethan sit on her bed and I on mine.
"I guess I can start telling about myself," I say. "I'm a blood hunter, have a unique race and my fighting style will change as I get new skills and level up some of the ones I have. Right now I have one mid range skill and one that can be used for close combat and mid range. My race makes it easy for me to smell creatures and make out the level to all creatures from level 1 to 15, but it will improve the more I train. It also improves my blood element. My fighting style is to sneak up on an enemy and attack it, preferably from above. I use my wing to get myself speed and get a more accurate attack. I can't fly with my wings, but I can jump high, glide and accelerate when I am on the way down." "That was more than just my fighting style, but it will be handy to know. And I forgot to add, I like myself best in the dark and away front the sun, feed on blood and hate spiders"
"That was a lot about yourself" Alice says "Guess It's my turn then. I have illusion attacks that I combine with swordplay and magic. I use illusion to confuse my targets for a short second which make it easier to hit. I can attack from mid range with fire based spells"
"My turn then" Ethan says. "My class is a unique one. It's called elemental hunter. One time each day I'm able to pick one element as the main element except poison, blood and of course void. My main weapon is a bow, I'm good at hiding my presence until I attack and I am good at both long and mid range.
When I choose an element I have one active that I always get and one random. The amount of skills I get increases as I become stronger. The elements I em best at are shadow, nature and ice. Shadow makes my arrows invisible when traveling through a shadow, nature applies thorns on my arrow that shoot out and cause bleeding damage and possible internal. Ice slows down and chills a target and is more of a support skill. The shadow skill takes a huge amount of mp so i can't use that so often. The nature skill also takes much, but less than the shadow skill. The ice skill is pretty decent."
"Ok, so now we need one who is either mainly focused on close combat or a tank that acts as a frontline. I and Alice can fight close combat, but each of us is best when we are not tied to holding an enemy in coles combat but are free to change to ranged. What I want is a team where Ethan is ranged support and dps, firing arrows when you get a good shat or can back up the front lines. And also have a good picture of the battleground from afar. Then I want Alice to be able to easily switch between close combat and ranged. This way you can both support the frontline, be main damage focused, be another front line for a short period and protect yourself if an enemy should get close. I want to be free to shoot my mid ranged spell, do sneak attacks on enemies, and be a hit and run close combat person. For this to work we want either a close combat dps person with enough defense to hold the enemies and do damage or one who is pure tank and where we do the damage. The other person I want is one that is either another close range to support the first one. Then both should have some healing skill. This is hard to come by, so the easier and also good option is one that is a healer. Either a pure healer or a healer with support skills.
What do you think?"
"I think it was right to choose you as the team leader and I support your answer" Alice says.
"I agree, though I have to say that I didn't take you for the strategist you are." Ethan says.
"I didn't know I was so good at it myself. Though it should have been obvious. It is after all me we are talking about"
"And the narcissist talks again." Ethan says.
"Don't be like that Ethan. She is cute when she talks like that" Alise respond.
"Yea, don't be like that to your team leader. You never know what positions you're gonna get in. Like the bait for a giant spider" I say to Ethan.
"Not all are as afraid of spiders as you are, besides I have heard that spiders are more attracted to birds" He say.
"Wh, Wha, What?! Are you serious?!" I say as I shiver. Probably with a pale face.
"Relax Sophia, he was just teasing you" Alice calm me down.
"Ethan! You bully" I say angry.
"You're the one that started it. But you're a bird huh. Not actually just a winged person but actually a bird race. What are you a phoenix?" Ethan asks not seriously.
"Yeah, right. I'm a phoenix. A mythical creature" I dodged that perfectly.
"Well now that we have taken care of this, why don't we go and have lunch. The cafeteria opens in 2 minutes." Alice asks us.
"Sure" I answer.