At one of the training grounds of the Faculty of Body Transformation, a crowd of first-year students was standing around, waiting for the class to start. Most of them were looking around curiously at the current area that would be used to hold the Body Transformation 1 class for today.
Despite its outdoor setting, the training ground seemed to have incorporated technology into its facilities. The grounds of several parts of the area were covered in some kind of grey metallic tiles. There were also a bunch of apparatuses sporadically located throughout the area.
"Do you know you've been smiling silly since we arrived here?" Natalia remarked. The two had actually met on the way here. Their current location was not too far from the faculty's main building.
"Hehehe, I'm just excited. I've been looking forward to using the training ground since my first day here. I hope the professor doesn't talk too much later and just lets us run around freely…" Drai said, eagerly looking at the distant trees and rock formations.
"Looking at your complexion, I wouldn't have guessed that you're an outdoor type," Natalia added as she inspected Drai's light bronze skin that looked a lot paler due to the occasional shades of silver covering it.
"My transformation did me dirty. You should've seen me before the Revelation. I was rather good looking back then," Drai shamelessly mentioned.
"I think the current you doesn't look too bad. Now I'm curious how good you looked before," Natalia said, slightly intrigued.
"Maybe I'll show you a picture later. I think I was at least three times better-looking than I am now," Drai replied.
"Oh, really? Then you must've been quite a lady killer," Natalia teased.
"Huh? Why would I kill ladies just because I was handsome?" Drai blurted.
Hearing Drai's response, Natalia facepalmed. She eventually sighed and put her hand on Drai's shoulder, saying, "Drai, I'll give you some private lessons later when we're free, okay?"
"Huh? What for?" Drai asked, baffled by the sudden offer.
"For learning pragmatics, particularly figurative language."
"What's that? Some kind of foreign language? Do I need to learn it?" Drai asked reluctantly. He wasn't planning to travel abroad anytime soon, so he didn't want to add this unnecessary burden to his already overwhelmed brain. In addition, most of the countries on Atria used a common language, and for anything else, Drai could use the built-in translator in his comm.
"You do. I guarantee that you'll end up in huge trouble someday if you refuse to learn," Natalia sternly said.
"Ugh, okay… I'll try to learn it," Drai helplessly agreed. He felt that Natalia wasn't kidding when she said he would get into huge trouble, although he didn't know what it had to do with not knowing an obscure language.
"Great. Let's decide the schedule later," Natalia said, finally breathing a sigh of relief. She glanced at Drai who was currently squatting and twiddling his finger on the ground, obviously feeling down due to the additional lessons that weren't even related to his stats.
'Rather than a friend, I feel more like a mom or big sister,' Natalia thought before chuckling. She didn't have any siblings, so she rather enjoyed the feeling of guiding someone as ignorant as Drai. She felt that for the first time, she had become someone to depend on rather than the one who depended on others.
'So, what does it feel like being depended on by the whole country?' Natalia thought to herself as she was reminded of her dad. She felt that being in such a position would likely feel greatly satisfying as well as mentally taxing.
While Natalia was having such thoughts, murmurs suddenly filled the area. The surrounding students hurriedly tidied themselves up before lining up.
Natalia and Drai also followed suit and stood along with the others in front of a metal platform. At the corner of this platform was something similar to a professor's desk that was commonly found in the usual classes, which was the reason why the students had assumed that they were supposed to gather in front of it.
Following this commotion, a middle-aged man walked onto the platform, followed by a pair of man and woman who were contrastingly built; the woman was very slim while the man was quite bulky.
The three men stood at the middle of the platform, looking at the standing students. The middle-aged man then stepped forward and addressed the crowd.
"Good morning, everyone. I am Darius, the professor in charge of this class. Behind me are Professor Leta…" the professor said as he gestured at the woman, before moving on to the man, "…and Professor Olly. These two will be assisting me during the class throughout most of the academic year. I hope we all get along well.
"Now that introductions are out of the way, I'd like to tell you what this class entails. The main purpose of Body Transformation 1 class is to help train your physical aspects in ways that are suitable for each of you. However, this doesn't mean that everyone will always train independently and through unique methods, since some training methods are applicable to more than one individual; this is because some people share common physical traits and some of the training methods are compound exercises that will be effective for most, if not all, of you.
"Of course, there may be exceptions, such as in the case that one has a body that vastly differs in composition and thus requires a unique training regime. But cases like this are quite rare, since the first evolution seldom involves such a drastic transformation.
"Does anyone have any questions up to this point?" Darius asked.
Among the dozens of students, only one person raised their hand.
Darius glanced at the student before looking at his comm. He then said, "Yes, Colvin?"
"How do I know if I am a special case like you've mentioned and what will happen if I actually am an exception?" the student inquired.
Hearing such a question, most students turned to look at Colvin, including Drai. Looking at Colvin, Drai surprisingly recognized him. Colvin was actually the student with bark-like skin that Drai had noticed during the entrance ceremony.
"I understand why you asked so," Darius replied, noticing Colvin's peculiar skin. "To answer your question, if any of you feel that your body's composition is special or requires specific methods of development, please report to me after the grouping is done. If your case is then proven or suspected to be true, we will devise appropriate measures afterwards. And the grouping that I mentioned will be done right after this, so there's no need to fret about it."
Colvin nodded, satisfied with the professor's answer. Some students couldn't help but slightly ponder over the word "grouping" despite what Darius had said.
"Does anyone else have any questions?" Darius asked the students. This time, nobody else raised their hand.
"Since there are no more questions, let's begin," Darius said as he gestured to the two assistants, who proceeded to walk off the platform and stood at a distance on the left and right side.
"Now, you will be grouped according to your main stats. For those specializing in strength, constitution, or both, you will be supervised by Professor Olly. For those specializing in agility, dexterity, or both, please head to Professor Leta instead. And those who don't quite specialize in any physical attribute of either group will stay here with me.
"You will be tested later, so please stay true to your specialization. If you are not sure which group you belong in, please refer to your status page. Any attribute that is at least ten points higher than the others is considered as a main attribute, which determines whether you belong in Professor Olly's group or Professor Leta's. If none of your physical attributes is a main attribute or if you excel in at least one attribute from both groups, you are considered an all-rounder and should stay with me.
"And those who think that their bodies are special will also stay with me. Now if you please, head toward your group in an orderly fashion," Darius instructed.
The majority of the students proceeded to walk toward their respective groups. And just like the assistants, their bodies mostly indicated whether they leaned toward either strength or constitution, or vice versa. Therefore, most of the students who headed toward Olly were quite bulky, and most of the students heading the other way were rather lean. Meanwhile, those who remained in place mostly had average builds.
The current Drai actually had a rather average build, neither too lean nor bulky, but there was no question which group he belonged in. In fact, no other student among all three groups had more defined and solid muscles than Drai.
"You're with Professor Olly's group, right?" Natalia said to Drai.
"Yeah. How did you know?" Drai asked, as he had never revealed anything concerning his stats to Natalia.
"I just know," Natalia shrugged, hiding her amusement. She didn't want to tell Drai that there's a stigma around strength-based classes involving blockheadedness; she had thought that Drai was quite a dunce, which led to her assumption that he had a strength-based class.
"What about you?" Drai asked, unaware of Natalia's thoughts.
"Based on my stats, I'm an all-rounder. Although these scales are tough, I don't think they can be trained in the same way as constitution," Natalia replied while patting her azure scales.
Drai wanted to ask whether Alancho trained his scales and what methods he used if he did train them, but most of the students had already finished grouping up with only a few stragglers left, so Drai decided to leave his questions for later.
"Okay then. I'll be going," Drai said as he waved at Natalia before walking toward Olly's group.