'Now that I have the strength of a proper F rank, I should start adapting to this body." Changing my clothes into a hoodie, I walked to the training grounds.
"Now that I think about it, the growth of the students is quite abnormal; they are advancing faster than in the novel." It's good that they're advancing faster, but thinking about what the entity said, I don't know what will happen in the two options.
"For a fact, I know that every malicious race's eyes are on us humans, and if they see humans sudden, fast growth, the ongoing war will become fierce, and all the incidents that happen in the future will get quicker." Humans have been at a non-stop war with many races, which means there are so many unidentified races that a typical fantasy novel shows.
"The author sure cooked this novel with so many races."
After the alliance between humans, elves, and dwarves, they continued to face different threats from these malicious races, and till now, their bond has only gotten stronger while supporting each other to overcome their crisis.
"Till now, the malicious races didn't give all out in their fights between humans because they thought humans would never reach their level, but now I think it might be different."
I reached my destination while thinking about future threats.
'I don't want to think about these, but I have this uneasy feeling, sigh'
I entered the training grounds and looked around a bit.
"Good thing the academy only discriminates in rankings to set various classes; if they also discriminate in training grounds, the students growth will stagger." Even if they want to, they can't do that because of the ongoing war; they need people to fight.
Opening my watch, I looked for training that would be suitable for me, and I found it—assassination ground.
"Ahh, why didn't I remember that every famous occupation has its own training grounds? If it were my body in the old world, I would have remembered even the smallest details." The training grounds are designed to increase mastery over their occupation. and designed solely for this.
I walked to the assassination ground. Upon arriving, I placed my hand on the scanner.
[Welcome Cadet]
The door opened, revealing a small city inside that looked no different from the real city on the outside. It was nighttime on this city training ground. Upon entering, I saw some students fastly moving, jumping around the buildings, and assassinating the walking human like dummies.
"Whoa, what a perfect set-up!" I exclaimed in amazement.
"I should start practicing." As of now, the training Jadel did at home would have become his muscle memory. So I'm confident in learning them quickly.
"Let's start with stealth running." Stretching my body, I jumped to the closest building.
'When landing, touch the ground softly and bend your knees to decrease the impact.
Thud!
'... not good' I started running and jumping around buildings. Each time I land, there will be a low landing sound.
I continued to run through the building, where shadows cast the most, jumping out of a window to another building. Hiding in the shadows, where the training dummies can't detect me.
"I feel like I'm a parkour rather than an assassin," but I still did what I saw in his memories.
As time passed, I continued to improve at running, hiding, landing, and instantly changing positions.
As time passed, the students started to leave. I, on the other hand, still continued because of the unsatisfied feeling that kept bugging in my head.
After I adapted to moving like an assassin, I prepared to start ambushing the dummies.
I waited in the shadows for a dummy to arrive, and when it arrived, I instantly jumped from the building and attacked.
Clank!
"Shit!" The dummy detected me as I launched at it. Blocking my attack, it started to fight back.
Clank! Clank!
"Argha." My hand felt numb after blocking its attacks. The dummy rushed to me and threw a barrage of punches.
Swoosh! Swossh!
Activating my gravity field skill, I narrowly avoided the punches; each punch left a swooshing sound, and I could barely dodge it. Seeing an opening, I kicked it and retreated.
"Huff-huff Man, that was tough." I mumbled, sitting on a building while panting heavily.
The training dummies were of F+ rank with the senses of an E- rank; fighting them head on will result in my defeat and sustaining injuries.
"Let's do it again."
Leap! Clank!
"Again"
Leap! Clank!
Leap! Clank!
°°°°
"Fuck, I can't grasp the technique in his memories." I cursed in frustration. There was a technique that manipulates shadows and covers legs; this helps in moving stealthily. With this, I'm sure of assassinating them, but I can manipulate it but can't cover my legs with it.
"Ughhh," I let out a frustrated sound.
'Don't just cover your legs with shadows; become the shadow itself' suddenly I remembered these words.
Closing my eyes, I started manipulating the shadow. 'become the shadow itself' I kept thinking of this word. Slowly, I felt something merging with my existence—a cold, smooth feeling like something moving in my skin.
When I opened my eyes, I saw my whole body covered with shadows, and black smoke was oozing out of my body.
'Ha, haha, what did I try to learn? And what did I just actually learn? a family technique that Jadel couldn't complete and I completed'
Fwoo!
Controlling my excitement, I let out a small breath. "What the–"
Fwoo! Fwoo!
"Did my whole existence become a shadow?" The breaths I exhaled looked like black smoke.
"Anyway, let's test it before it starts to hurt my body." I leapt through the building, searching for the dummies. With this form, it became much faster and easier to jump across the buildings.
When I saw a dummy, I instantly leapt to it, ambushing from behind.
Slash!
The dummy didn't notice me, and with a swift move, I sliced its neck.
Thud!
I didn't stop there and went to find another one, as I wanted to see how much time I could use this technique and exert my strength.
'It's good that the dagger also got coated with shadows without me doing anything.'
After finding two more dummies and assassinating them, I felt my body start to hurt.
"Minimum duration is 40 seconds; maximum 1 minute after that, my body will start to hurt, sigh. The unsatisfied feeling has almost vanished. I should go and sleep now."
***
***
***
When I reached my dorm room, it was already time for the classes to start.
"Fuck, I was this late? I didn't even notice. "After taking a quick shower and changing my clothes, I went to the class.
Walking on the academy grounds, everyone was gazing at me. They don't hold hostility in them, but pure curiosity and slight admiration.
'I really do stand out a little... What do I tell Ms. Elisa if she asks me about the change?
Well, definitely, there are lots of technologies that can change one's appearance, but they cost so much money, and a cadet like me won't possess that much money. Not only that, my mana has become so pure that this will also pose a question: how?
Ignoring the attention I'm getting, I walked to my classroom.
Upon entering the classroom, all the students' eyes focused on.
"Is that a new student?"
"I don't know, maybe."
"He's so handsome."
Ignoring the comments, I walked straight to my seat.
'Hhe, I feel like a celebrity now; hehe feels nice, really good.'
"Excuse me." Looking up, I saw the student who talked to me about Ms. Elisa on the training ground.
"The seat is occupied by another person; can you take another seat? He is quite a troublemaker."
"Really. What will he do?" Intrigued by his remarks, I asked him, pretending to be another person.
"He used to be a class A student, and he would beat up people; well, that's what I heard, so you might get in trouble, maybe."
"No, it's fine; I can handle it." I said it with a reassuring smile. 'I thought this guy would badmouth me, but he is only stating facts. What a good guy.'
"If you say so," he said, going to his seat.
"Everyone, take your seats, please." Ms. Elisa entered the classroom, and upon entering, her gaze instantly fell on me.
"... Who are you?" She asked, thinking for a bit, probably trying to remember if any students had transferred.
"It's me, Jadel Wayner."
"Eh," she let out a confused voice. "Eeeh!" her eyes widened in surprise.
""HUH!"" The students also let out a surprised voice.
Ms. Elisa quickly approached me and inspected me with her mana. Taking out a device from her watch, she inspected me with that too.
"You're… indeed Jadel." She said it in disbelief. "How did your mana become so pure?"
'She detected it'
After thinking for a bit, I made up a plausible lie.
"I don't know; after the crack opened, my core started to hurt, and I felt myself becoming stronger and awakened to my second occupation at that time."
"Huh, second awakening... Did you get a second innate skill?" I shook my head.
"No, only occupation."
"Occupation, huh? Still, it's good; with a new occupation, your mana also became pure. Congratulations, Jadel," she said with an angelic smile. Looking at her innocent smile, I felt bad for lying.
"Okay, students, today the Elfilial Academy suddenly visited us and requested a favor so our academy's first-year students will fight with Elfilial Academy's first-year students," Ms. Elisa announced.
Murmur!
"Will we be participating, Ms. Elisa?" A student asked.
"Yes. Not everyone, but the top 2 students. The Elfilal Academy requested to fight with every top 2 student from every class."
"Won't that reveal our secret?" another student asked.
"No, it won't be a problem. We're only showing two people's strength, and instead of our second-top student, I'll be sending Jadel for the fight."
"Huh, me?" I asked in confusion.
"Yes, among the students here, you're the most experienced one especially in VR battles, so you will be participating in this," she confirmed.
"Let's take attendance first."