Tobi's gaze hung on Rem for a while before he turned away - certainly the Monster Monarch wasn't all that strong for now, there was no reason for him to even extend his full power to destroy him but it never occured to the Shapeshifter that… Rem too was not showing his cards.
Cole gritted his teeth and looked at the door.
"Where are the others? They are being really late and not to mention the Instructor," Cole said with a sigh.
"You guys came here really early, it isn't even 8:30 yet," Tobi said, "The Instructor won't come for the next thirty minutes or so,"
"That's enough time for a rematch," Cole said while eyeing the arena, "Want to go a round, Newbie?"
Rem shook his head, preferring to save his energy for a class that he had never experienced before rather than defeat Cole in battle yet again.
"No," Rem said, "Battling you would be a waste of not only my time but energy as well, It's already certain who the victor will be,"
Cole gritted his teeth.
"Just because you got one win, you're getting all cocky," Cole said, "Why don't you battle once again and prove it to me?"
Rem smirked softly.
"There's no need to prove my superiority," Rem said while his right hand rose to the left, pointing at the podium, "Besides we haven't taken permission from the Instructor yet,"
Cole looked back at the arena and saw a pink-haired woman with gold eyes, gleaming ever so beautifully, standing on the decorated tiles, her arms folded and her eyes scrutinizing each and every one of them in the room.
'So these are the competent students,' Maria thought as she coiled a strand of her hair- eyeing her new students and their capacity, she was quite surprised that Rem actually sensed her position when she had concealed it so well.
'He's certainly a case of his own,' Maria thought while her azure eyes landed on Rem's figure- he was different from the other two, vastly different almost like he was a monster in his own right.
The door opened and revealed the girls; wearing their respective track suits… they were completely ready for today. Upon seeing all the Apprentices in the room, Maria clapped her palms together.
"Welcome to the Magical Weapon class, I will be your Instructor today and you may call me Instructor Maria," The Pink haired woman began.
Rem and the others folded their hands, and listened to the lesson as it began unfolding.
"Some of you have been in this class before but as it is a new experience for our two new Apprentices, I shall take us back to the beginning," Maria said and then raised her right arm into the air, "A Magical weapon, this is a tool that aids Cavaliers in combat against the dangerous entities known as Monsters,"
"Only a few amount of humans are able to unlock their Magic and then utilize them in a Spell which will be able to kill a Monster," Maria said, "Anybody can become a Cavalier- as long as they possess determination and power, even a regular human could ascend to the title of a Cavalier,"
Then she brought her arm down and smashed her knuckles against each other.
"For a Cavalier, their Magical weapon is their life," Maria said, "This is their closest friend in the harsh terrain of a Dungeon and as Apprentices, you must understand too that visiting a dungeon without a weapon is nothing but suicide,"
Rem gave a little nod, the lesson was only beginning to show it's true colors.
"To harness the full power of your respective Magical weapon – you need a bit of Soul energy which is something most humans have, of course there are exceptions," Maria said, her gaze landing on Cole, "The stronger your soul energy is, the stronger your weapon can become,"
Saying so, Maria walked over to a nearby wooden board, attached to the wall- adorned with different Magical weapons.
Maria grabbed a Magic Iron Sword without hesitation and turned to the Apprentices.
"This is a Magic Iron Sword, one of the most basic D-grade weapons a Cavalier could wield but there's a reason it's preferred more than it's successor, the Magic Steel Sword," Maria said as she focused a fraction of her soul energy into the sword- the Apprentices stood in awe, watching the weapon light up in a bright crimson, "Unlike the Magic Steel sword, it is easier to pour soul energy into this sword,"
Maria grabbed the hilt of the blade, the crimson light adorning the blade growing as it engulfed the blade- Maria swung at the air and a shockwave suddenly echoed through the entire room.
'Such force…' Rem thought as he withstood the Shockwave, he could remember a force similar to this… everything clicked into place, he quickly reminisced on Drew using an attack similar to this, when he was up against the Bandit boss- he had thrusted his sword forward with his soul energy and the Bandit had done the same.
'So this should be a basic thing all Cavaliers know,' Rem pondered deeply, 'If it's possible to utilize Soul energy in your weapon, it should also be possible to use it to enforce our bodies but Instructor Maria said that to utilize the full power of your Magic Weapon, you needed to have soul energy – it didn't matter how much of it you had, as long as you had soul energy and poured it into your Weapon, you would be utilizing the full potential of your Soul weapon but for body reinforcement, surely you'd need to have a specified amount of Soul energy to attempt that,'
There was one thing Rem couldn't understand – why the hell was Cole in this class? He had looked into this boy's soul multiple times and there was nothing even as much as a glimpse of Soul energy, probably he was learning to use his weapon and nothing more.
Maria quickly returned the Magic Iron sword.
"Now each of you are going to choose a Magical weapon and attempt to pour your Soul energy into it," Maria said and the Apprentices nodded- one by one, they stepped forward and chose different weapons, they were given no information on these weapons whatsoever so they were meant to pick any one that fancied their eyes.
Rem paid attention to Cole's choice, noting that it seemed to be jagged chained blades- suitable for close range and long range combat, though it was an unbefitting weapon because if there anything more that Cole had in this world, it was his unreal speed and the stat he lacked most was Defense, a defensive-oriented weapon would do Cole much more in this regard.
When it got to his turn, he eyed the remaining weapons on the board and sighed- he already had a Crossbow and as much as Rem wanted to be a swordsman – he couldn't because Mika had already taken the Magic Iron sword as her choice, there were few weapons left on the board but another weapon that caught his gaze was a black Shortsword and of course Rem used his System appraisal.
…
[Item Name: Black Shortsword]
[Item Grade: D-grade]
[Item Description: The Black Shortsword is a certain kind of Shortsword crafted out of a Black steel ore]
[Item Durability: 50 / 50]
…
After taking a look at the durability, Rem carried off the Shortsword- it had even more durability than a Magic Iron Sword and Rem was grateful for it… although he partly wished he could have those Monster Gauntlets that Krista was wearing but a Black Shortsword would do.
'Now it's to pour your soul energy into the weapon right?' Rem thought while observing Mika do it with ease, a pink aura wrapping around the Magic Iron sword instantly.
Cole wasn't able to do it, but no one questioned him while Tobi was BARELY able to manifest his soul energy, it seemed very suspicious to Rem- since all it took was a flicker of soul energy to activate your weapon.
Krista wasn't able to manifest her soul energy though and Rem could understand, it might be very easy to humans but it was the opposite for a beastkin- their souls were a complex creation and even Rem didn't try to understand it, all he could see was that there was a latent energy within her soul which meant that she had the potential to use the full power of her Magic weapon.
"I wonder how the new boy will do," Mika said, unable to keep her excitement bottled up- well unlike Krista, this wasn't Rem's first time in holding and using a Magic weapon so he had considerable experience in these sort of things.
Rem sent a flicker of his soul to the sword and it burst into an amazing display of green aura, engulfing the entire short sword like flames that threatened to burn Rem's palm yet it didn't… It was an Application of his own soul after all.
-
Author's Note: …
If you're enjoying the book so far, don't hesitate to add this to your library and throw in some power stones for me, and if you're feeling really generous- you can support me with a golden ticket or two, and a gift too!