The next day approached swiftly, with a slight yawn, he got up from his cozy bed, brushed his teeth and took his bath in the beautifully decorated bathroom.
After ensuring the maintenance of his personal hygiene, he left the dorm and headed for Class B.
Lectures was always what it used to be even back in his old life, boring, but after six hours of algebraic torture, it was now time to commence their training for the day.
"Change into your training gear and meet me in the courtyard of the academy."
With his final words for the class, Shota left the classroom, heading straight into the courtyard and awaiting the arrival of the students.
Murmurs arose swiftly as soon as the doors shut behind him. The students consisting mostly of nobles constantly gazed at the five students, excluding Miyuki who was the daughter of a noble.
"Hmph, you're all such children." Silver chuckled, referring to the other nobles who refused to linger with the commoners in the class. He got to his feet, approaching Mizuko who simply raised an eyebrow at him.
"Yo, I'm Silver, I look forward to working with you from now." He smiled, extending his hand forward as a friendly gesture.
Mizuko analyzed him for a while, speculating if he had any ulterior motives. But given his attitude earlier it seemed that was just who he is. "Nice to meet you." He replied, shaking hands with him.
Befriending a noble would help his social life greatly, but also contributed in his growth in order to complete their mission.
"That's great, I also look forward to working with all of you too." He added, referring to the rest of the recruits from Starhaven.
The boys and girls divided, each heading into their gender specific bathroom and changing into their training gear. After a few minutes, they assembled at the courtyard where their first lesson began.
"Alright, listen up. The end goal of Class B and A is to create your special moves and your ultimate techniques for the Hunter's exam, your focus is just on two core stages of becoming stronger. The first stage, Amplification and the second stage, Enhancement." With the students gathered around him, Shota began explaining the first exercise.
"Amplification and Enhancement?" The crowd murmured, questioning what he spoke about.
"That's right, before we move further I suppose I should mention to our new recruits that there's lot more to Soul-Energy than just Soul-Types. For this class we'll be focusing on the Soul-Core."
"Huh?" Yui mumbled, as well as Mei.
"In truth, Alister Vance only revealed a portion about Soul-Energy, for instance Soul-Energy is not what actually keeps the soul alive in a sense." Shota said, revealing the truth about Soul-Energy.
"What?"
They felt betrayed, but in the end they understood it was for the purpose of reducing the discomfort a student would feel after not being able to awaken a Soul-Type.
"Yes, what actually keeps the Soul alive is the Soul-Core. The Soul-Core creates the energy that sustains the soul, in a sense you could say it's the Soul-Energy that empowers the Soul, but it comes from the Core. An individuals Soul-Type is determined by his Soul-Core."
"How would one identify what kind of Soul-Core he has? I mean if everyone has different abilities and awakens different Soul-Types surely there's more than one?" Mizuko asked, showing off his intellect which pissed Sado off slightly.
"Good observation, in theory, there's seven Soul-Cores we've seen so far in the history of mankind. Each Soul-Core is determined by the color of one's Soul-Energy. Just like the rankings of a Soul-Type, the Soul-Cores are ranked from F-tier to S-Tier."
Stretching out his right palm, he concentrated his Soul-Energy into a single point in his palm, cancelling the transfiguration of his Soul-Energy into his abilities.
An immense pressure shook the grounds of the academy, the students could all feel the vibrations flowing through the ground, immediately a yellow aura emanated from his palm, escaping it like a cloud of smoke.
"W-whoa." They all marveled at the release of his Soul-Energy, it was fluid and mistful like gas.
"I have an A-tier Soul-Core, as a result my Soul-Energy takes on the color scheme of my Soul-Core." He said, cancelling the concentration of his energy.
"How would one know their Soul-Core?" Rentaro chimed in, asking the questions this time around.
"Like I said, Soul-Core is ranked from F-tier to S-Tier, think of the different variations of Soul-Core like the color spectrum of a rainbow which it coincidentally is. From top to bottom from F-tier to S-Tier, that's how you classify the variants of Soul-Core."
Now that he was done with explanations, it was time to get down to business.
"Mei, Yui, Ren, Daichi and Rentaro? Am I correct? Did you know that anyone could awaken their Soul-Types at any given age but in your town it's believed to be awakened only by teenagers and kids?"
His question widened their eyes, leaving them astonished. "What?" They all mumbled.
They had no idea that awakening a Soul-Type was accessible to any age, but why?
"It's because after the age of 21, whatever Soul-Type you awaken stays permanent, you can't make your energy stronger or more refined. The Soul-Core reacts to puberty, it grows along with a child thereby becoming more stronger and more refined, in other words even a child who awakened a F-tier Soul-Core can strengthen it to become a C-tier Soul-Core before the end of his growth."
This came as good news to Rentaro, leaving a smile on his face. Since his awakening, he tried figuring out how to use his abilities in a fight since summoning a dragon depleted almost all his Soul-Energy, leaving him defenseless and vulnerable, but now he understood the purpose of the Soul-Essence he received from the system.
"Strengthening the Soul-Core is much like muscle building, what happens when you strain the muscle? It tears down but once it repairs itself it becomes even bigger and stronger. The same is applicable for Soul-Core, by working your Soul-Core to it's absolute limits, you give it room to grow. That is what we call, the Amplification stage."
Now that he had covered the basics of Amplification, it was time to move on to the training.
"Today, we'll be killing two birds with one stone, the Amplification stage and your ultimate techniques. If you don't know, open your status window to view your ultimate techniques. Then try infusing your Soul-Energy into it, pour out your Soul-Energy into that technique."
'Status Window?' Rentaro thought, he assumed he was the only one with a system but he wasn't apparently. Unbeknownst to him, he was the only one with a system that could level up.
He had seen his status window a few times before, so he didn't need to open it up again.
As he was lost in thought, four individuals approached him while everyone began working on their Amplification stage.
"Rentaro." A familiar voice called out to him.
"Hm?" As he snapped out of his thoughts, he found Mei, Yui, Ren and Mizuko standing right in front of him. He chuckled slightly, able to guess what they wanted.
"Man have you been working out?" Ren said, noticing the shape his body has taken on after levelling up.
"Indeed, your muscles are becoming more defined, it must be because you awakened a talent." Mizuko chimed in with a gentle smile.
"What's up?" Rentaro asked with a faint smile.
With one look in his could tell Mei could tell that he wouldn't fall for their approach so she went straight to the point.
"We need you and you need us, you might have awakened but do not forget that individually you are weak. But your abilities along with us can make a difference and complete our mission." She said.
"Now let's not be rude Mei, we only evicted him from the team for his own safety, but now that he awakened a Soul-Type, that changes things." Mizuko chimed in, trying to resolve the whole issue peacefully.
Mei took Rentaro for granted, but he was no fool. Her statement meant that what was needed was his ability and not him.
'Tch.' Rentaro thought, as he could see the true colors of Mei and Yui in his eyes. Rank wise, he couldn't tell if he surpassed them.
"Sorry, but I'm not interested in joining your little squad."