'A slime can speak?!' Ars was shocked.
Everything seemed to shock him.
"Freshman?" The slime twitched its body. "Are you lost?"
"Ah, no. I am in Class 1-6. Can you lead me there?"
"Ah, you are from Class 1-6. Alright. You're my student then." The slime floated around him. "Follow me."
'A teacher?' Ars thought as he followed the slime. 'He is?'
Teacher slime led him to a classroom. They walked through twisted stairs, entering some strange doors before arriving at another stairs. Ars felt dizzy after walking through those doors.
'What the heck is this?!'
There were so many space-connecting doors that Ars had no idea where he was anymore.
"We are here." Teacher slime stopped at the front of a door. "Class 1-6. The strongest class in Doom Spreader School. Go ahead and enter. I will return to the entrance to guide the other students. Some of your classmates are already inside."
'Other classmates… Right, they surely arrived faster than me. How should I act around them?'
Teacher slime didn't notice his panic and floated away, leaving him alone. He hoped that the teacher would go inside with him.
But reality was cruel.
He didn't have any choice but to enter.
With a deep breath, he opened the door.
Inside was a classroom like any other he was familiar with. A chalkboard, a teacher's desk, and a lot of chairs and tables.
However, Ars's eyes were glued on the students that were already inside.
One of them was a green-skinned girl with black eyes. She was the one pouncing at the boy with crab hands yesterday.
Another was a boy with six arms. His face was covered in wounds. He looked like he was beaten up badly.
And the last one was a girl with red skin. She was looking at him with a smirk. Ars shivered.
"Ah! The boy from the Eldritch Family!"
Green girl jumped out of her seat and rushed at him. Ars was scared and closed his eyes. But he felt that nothing was coming at him.
Opening his eyes again, he saw the red-skinned girl stopped the green girl.
"Sit down, Slammy. Don't scare our classmate on his first day."
"But! But! I want to hug him!"
"And melt his clothes in the process? I know your acid won't work on him, but his clothes are another matter."
"Eh, you're no fun, Akari!" Slammy pouted and returned to her seat.
"Hey, Eldritch Boy." Akari, the red-skinned girl, approached him. "My name is Akari from the Oni family. Nice to meet you."
Ars didn't understand what was happening. But he knew that this girl saved him from being melted.
'An acid? So that slimy liquid can even melt a human body. That girl is no joke. Let's get away from her.'
"Nice to meet you too, Akari."
"Good. At least you have a decent mind." She smirked. "Slammy is an idiot and can't control herself sometimes. Just kill her if she does something funny."
Smiling to hide his fear, Ars nodded.
Akari's smirk widened.
"Great! You are a smart one on top of being strong. I like you."
She patted his shoulder before returning to her seat.
'That girl is scary too. Oni, huh.' Ars thought as he sat down. 'I really need to get used to this. Just like them, I am not totally normal.'
The students continued to enter the classroom. Their Races varied. Some had animal parts, some had tentacles, some were normal, but Ars could tell that they were not normal.
'This is normal. It's a Dark Union school. So this is normal.'
Ars tried to convince himself.
In the end, a total of 12 girls and 8 boys, including himself, settled in the class. He was sitting in the frontmost seat beside Akari.
Finally, Teacher slime entered the classroom. His body jiggled as he floated to the teacher's desk.
"Everyone is here, right? Let's start the class then."
He was a slime, yet Ars could feel the intelligence coming from him.
Rather, the air that Teacher slime exuded was that of a scholar.
"Alright, freshmen. My name is Professor Oogie. I am your teacher. My race is a Chaos Slime. Nice to meet you all."
Teacher slime, no, Professor Oogie, introduced himself.
"Chaos Slime, huh. Fascinating." Ars was amazed.
What was a chaos slime? He just liked the name. It had Chaos in it, so Professor Oogie must be really strong.
"Now, freshmen, let me announce the class placement. Yesterday, the teachers calculated your placements. It is decided based on your performance. The lowest and the weakest students will be Class 1, the highest and the strongest will be Class 6."
Professor Oogie began to announce the class placement.
"Among the students, the 20 of you are the best. You all are in Class 1-6."
Professor Oogie looked at the students.
"Slammy from the Demon race. Akari from the Oni Race. Ars from the Eldritch Family. These three students are the strongest among the freshmen. Congratulations."
The students clapped their hands. They looked at the three students situated at the frontmost row.
Akari and Slammy looked like they were used to this. But Ars was shocked.
'Best? Me? How do they score us? I want to know! I didn't do anything but breathe that purple smoke. How can I be best with that?'
Attention wasn't something he needed when he tried to adapt to this new environment.
Professor Oogie continued. "Alright. Today's class is simply a self introduction. Let's start with the backmost row. Please introduce yourself. If you have a unique power, please tell us too."
"Yes, sir."
A lizard-faced girl stood up.
"I am Lisa. From the Lizardman race. My power is to shoot lasers from my mouth."
Lisa demonstrated her power.
A beam of light shot from her mouth and hit the wall, creating a hole.
"That's cool." Akari commented.
"Lisa, please refrain from destroying the classroom. But your power is interesting. Next."
Professor Oogie ordered.
Lisa sat down. Another student stood up. It continued until Ars's turn.
"I am Ars. From the Eldritch Family. My power is..." He hesitated.
What should he say? Purple smoke? Corrosive smoke?
No matter how he looked at it, his power wasn't cool or strong. He had no idea how they scored him as one of the strongest in the school.
'Should I lie?' Ars thought.
But Professor Oogie looked at him and smiled.
"I understand that you have too many different powers. Please sit down. You don't need to tell them all."
'Eh?'
Once again, they misunderstood his silence as thinking about all of his power. It made sense since Eldritch Family members usually had a lot of strange powers.
But Ars had no power aside from the purple smoke. At least from what he knew about himself by now.
"Next." Professor Oogie urged the next student.
'Oh well, whatever.' Ars shrugged.
It's not like lying about his power was a bad thing. He could use it to act and avoid trouble in the future.
"I am Slammy! I can melt stuff and I love to hug people! Nice to meet you all!"
Slammy introduced herself energetically.
'Scary. Definitely not hugging her.'
"Lastly, Akari from Oni Race. Your power?" Professor Oogie asked.
"My power is fire-based. I can burn everything to a crisp." Akari demonstrated her power.
A flame appeared on her palm. It was red and was burning hot. Ars could feel its heat from his seat.
Creating fire definitely was cooler than breathing purple smoke.
'I wonder if I can do that too?'
Not much was known about his new self.
'Maybe I can also create fire from my palm?'
As he thought that, he unconsciously raised his hand with his palm facing up.
It was just something he did out of boredom and experiment. However, unexpectedly, purple flames appeared and danced on top of it. He was surprised and swung his palm. The flame touched his desk and immediately spread.
In just a second, it disappeared, leaving behind nothing but ashes on the ground.
Noticing what had just happened, he looked at Professor Oogie and opened his mouth.
"Oops." A stupid sound escaped his lips. He remembered the professor's warning about not destroying the classroom.
Ars panicked and closed his hand. The fire disappeared, but he couldn't sigh in relief or else the corrosive smoke would escape from his lips. That would only add troubles than fix it.
Akari and Slammy were looking at him. Their eyes were filled with surprise. The former somehow had a murderous glint in her eyes.
'This isn't good.' He thought.