After everything was said and done, I ate. Food is very important—please don't play with food. May the good lord bless you. Lira offered to provide me with a better and more conducive environment, also known as her place, but I politely turned her down.
We both knew how we'd turn out by daylight. The thought made my mouth water, but I needed to get my head in the game and think hard about what to do. And as much as I valued sex with Lira, I had to prioritize fucking Kassie—which definitely wouldn't come easily.
I stayed up most of the night, thinking about what to do and how to go about it. First, I needed a broader scope of this world. Right now, my entire understanding of it was still limited. I needed to find information, and no amount of information was going to be enough.
Second, I needed to survive every day. I wasn't the kind of dude who loved to pretend to be weak just to avoid notice. True, I didn't like the attention, but whether you were weak or strong, you'd get an end of the stick—your position just determined which end.
And if push came to shove, I wanted the better end. So not only did I need to survive, I needed to stake my place and stake it loudly—which would also mean I needed to be ready to deal with the repercussions. Which brought me back to the topic of fucking Kassandra and getting another summon.
For now, that seemed to be the only way. The attributes I gained from Kassie worked more like buffs and debuffs. There was no active skill like super strength—nothing like that damn Derek had.
The memory of his punch burned through my thoughts. I was definitely going to return the gesture.
Then came the next day. My jaw clenched as the realization hit:
'These motherfuckers didn't come to visit me at the clinic!'
***
We were all lined up on the training ground of the academy, each facing what the instructor from yesterday had called a Training Golem.
The Golem loomed over me, an assemblage of stones that looked glued together. The stones had damage resistance, and even if they shattered, they could simply rearrange themselves.
We stood in rows and columns, each person in front of their training golem. I stood at the back right corner.
The morning sun was both annoying and enjoyable, streaming into my eyes from behind. Its warm rays sank into my jet-black hair that flowed just above my eyes. My eyes were half-lidded—naturally so—with dark circles I really had no idea how to get rid of.
A lot of people had said that I looked like the kind of person who was too laid back about life. I didn't believe them, though. Contrary to that, I was the person who cared the most!
"Today!" The square-faced man's voice cracked across the field. He looked more energetic today than yesterday. "You all will be learning a very important aspect of combat."
Excitement rippled across everyone's faces. I was looking forward to it too, but more focused on Derek, who suddenly didn't give a damn about me. Considering how things went down yesterday, I naturally expected him to come at me with more bad blood, but he'd been surprisingly quiet and hadn't even spared me a scornful glare.
"There are seven classes, and every spirit falls under either one or two of these classes. It doesn't matter whether Heroic Spirits or Regular Spirits."
He paced with his hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping left and right as his powerful voice carried across the distance.
"Vanguard! Striker! Commander! Caster! Support! Specialist! And Duelist! These are the seven Spirit Classes that we have."
He raised a finger and continued.
"Now, you lacklusters don't go thinking you have it figured out already. Classes can be more daunting than you think. They form your role in battle. Have a good grasp of your Heroic Spirit's class and it'll be a great boon to you. Fuck it up, dampen your potential with stupidity and ignorance, and you'll shine like a turd in a sewer!"
'This man…'
I wasn't going to deny it—he looked perpetually enraged by our existence. There was an unnecessary harshness with which he delivered every single point.
His gaze swept across the entire field once more. Then he walked back to the front, his voice booming.
"What is the purpose of a Vanguard?"
The words barely left his mouth before he answered himself.
"To hold the line." He reached the front. "You'll find yourself with attributes focused on damage absorption, some that'll force your enemies to attack you, status immunity attributes, and shield attributes." His gaze swept over a few people, Derek included.
"The advantage of this class is their incredible durability. They can protect their teammates better, serving as a damage absorption shield for other members of the team to fulfill their roles. The disadvantages, however, are their low damage output and slow movement.
"Which leads us to the next class—the Striker class. Strikers are the reverse of Vanguards. They deal maximum damage and eliminate priority targets. If your spirit is a Striker class, you'll find yourself with attributes that raise your critical damage chances, combat styles that prioritize heavy damage. Their strength, of course, is high burst damage—that ability to eliminate targets quickly—while their weakness is their fragility. They require protection, which is why a Vanguard and a Striker are two parts of a perfect whole… now imagine having a Spirit that's a hybrid of both classes…"
His last comment sent murmurs rippling through my classmates. No doubt, it would be overkill. However, the instructor wasn't done.
"Silence!" The air vibrated powerfully. All voices dropped to nothing, fear quivering their hearts at the might of his voice alone.
"The third class is the Commander class. This class is all about control. They're the hidden masterminds of the battlefield. Their role is to control the battlefield. Being a Commander class means having abilities that deal with tactical superiority. You can buff your allies or debuff your enemies, even summon phantom soldiers to fight on your behalf, depending on the kind of attribute your spirit gives you or your spirit's skills.
"Commanders are force multipliers, built to dominate large-scale battles. That's their advantage. Their disadvantage is the fact that they require preparation and are extremely vulnerable alone. We don't always have all the time in the world to dance around in our minds while a battle rages before us. Tch, bunch of whacks!"
He folded his arms and continued talking about the Caster class, which I understood to be ranged damage dealers. They were built for long-range damage, elemental control, and area denial. Their advantages were devastating area damage, while their disadvantages were also fragility and the fact that their skills consumed more essence. Usually, though—according to what the instructor said—this wasn't a problem for S, A, or B rank Summoners.
Then there was the Support class, which was basically healers and full-time buffers, unlike the Commander class, which could be considered tactical buffers. Supports were the backbone of the team—they kept the team alive and enabled prolonged battles. Their weakness was their complete lack of offensive power.
Then Specialist. These were mainly utilities with unconventional abilities that didn't fit other classes. There was no exact way to describe them, but their strength always lay in their unpredictability, which made them hard to counter. Their weakness was that they were highly situational and often unreliable.
Then there were the Duelists. These ones were devastating combat instruments built for single combat. They were 1v1 experts! While unstoppable in single combat, they were vulnerable to groups and in extreme cases could even lose buffs.
The instructor, of course, also briefly mentioned hybrids—basically a Spirit summon fitting into two classes. But he claimed that none of us fell into this category because our Heroic spirits had been studied. His eyes seemed to drift toward my area somewhere around that statement.
After that, he explained class synergies, which class was weak against which class, leaving it to us to use our brains to determine the best course of action.
Afterwards, we were to battle to determine our classes and get used to our spirit summons.
The moment he announced that, something cold prickled the back of my neck. I turned to my left, only to see Derek grinning at me, malevolent light gleaming in his eyes.
'This bastard… was this what he'd been waiting for?'