Scarlet Asger

The moment I walk into the System Basics course, I find a few familiar faces there. For one, Belle is sitting in the back, and she waves at me the moment she sees me. And for two, several of the stronger people that I fought during the tournament are in the class. Such as that Drake guy who was breathing fire and could cover his arms with scales, along with that Sentinel guy with his Divine Retribution magic.

I can’t help but raise an amused brow when I see Drake visibly flinch at the sight of me before acting like he never saw me. Then I return the nod Sentinel sends my way.

Also, as it turns out, Sentinel isn’t as creepy as I’d first thought. Apparently one of my guesses was right and people are just very touchy and openly intimate where he’s from, so he starts out that way with everyone he interacts directly with until told not to. Which I find to be a rather odd order of things, but at least he’s not gonna do anything like that again.

After making my way up to the back where Belle’s sitting, I sit down next to her and start connecting my terminal as she talks.

“How’s your classes been so far?”

I answer without looking at her, focusing my attention on the device as I type in the code to connect it, “Not bad. Guardian Law was boring though.”

She chuckles at that and responds with an agreement. Then she goes on about a couple of the students in her class asking her to join their team because of her barrier type magic. Which I did eventually find out was a mental type barrier, meaning it’s made from mental energy. One of the best types that it can be made from. Also one of the reasons she was accepted so quickly to the university after contracting.

Although she doesn’t have any skills right now that use mental energy, unfortunately.

Eventually – long after I had already finished setting things up – the professor arrives in a burst of steam from the front of the classroom, immediately stopping the chatter in their manner of entrance. The steam then flies out throughout the room and shuts each and every door.

“Hello, first years, my name is Lawrence Night,” the professor – who is still cloaked in steam to a degree that makes it hard to make him out – says, a deep voice echoing through the room, “but many of you might know me as Nautical.”

Oh. That guy.

If I remember correctly, he’s a Class IV Guardian that a lot of places prefer to do without purely because of his magic being very heavily reliant on steam. So every place he fights in or uses his magic in tends to become incredibly humid and kind of wet by the time he’s done.

There are much worse Guardians in terms of inconvenience post battle though, so no one ever complains about him.

After all, if the people would complain about any one Guardian, it’d be Blue. But no one is going to complain about one of the five strongest humans in existence. Especially when they know he’s unhinged.

Unless, of course, they’re stupid.

“Let me begin with a few things first,” the man says, the steam around him finally clearing up enough for us to see the man who is wearing some sort of blue mask with a black and blue suit on, “I do not tolerate tardiness. If you are late, you will not be able to attend the class. And if you are absent, there will be no way to get the materials for the class you missed.” His eyes narrow, the steam around the room starting to clear up. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir,” everyone, myself included, answers in response.

He snaps his finger out of nowhere, making the rest of the steam clear away, relieving my eyes in the process since it was really bothering them. Then he taps his hand against the screen in the back of the room, turning it on before tapping away at his terminal and linking the two.

“This class is meant to teach new Guardians like you everything you need to know about the System,” he says, an empty status appearing on the screen as he does so. “Now. To start things off, can someone tell me one thing you should never do in terms of the System?”

Several people immediately raise their hands, but the man just looks through the room before glancing at the highest ranking people here and eventually narrowing his eyes on me. Then he calls out, “Scarlet Wolf, what about you?”

I hold back a groan.

So he’s going to be one of those teachers… the type who calls on random people or just those he doesn’t like? Regardless of who is volunteering to answer.

I answer the question rather quickly though, “Unbalancing your stats when distributing your free points.”

“Correct,” he says before moving on, “unbalancing your stats is the single most stupidest thing any Guardian can do. Besides simply jumping into a horde of demon berserkers while still at Class I.” That has me raising a brow, but he simply taps on his terminal again and continues as the status changes to show what I’m assuming is a fake status of someone at level 5 with the name Bob, “Now, many of you all know – and if you don’t I have to wonder what rock you’re living under – that we humans live congregated in large cities.” He raises his head again to look at us with his eyes narrowed as he asks, “Why is that?”

Not even giving anyone a chance to raise their hands this time, he points directly at Sentinel, who answers, “Because there aren’t enough Guardians to cover an extended space, so the casualties became decreased when the people were more congregated where the Guardians could actually reach them. Even if it led to more Demonic Assaults in the process.”

“Also correct,” he says with a satisfied nod before adding, “but there is another reason. It’s because of Guardian greed.” This gets a few people whispering, but he simply taps his foot once, making a wave of steam flare out from him, shutting them up. “Guardians from the early days of the Demonic Assaults, after the artificial Knights given to us by the fae had already handled a great deal of the issues created by the demons, suggested the cities congregate more and keep their walls more closely guarded from entry and exit for security purposes. But they really wanted to be closer to the Fractures themselves in order to have a closer supply of EXP.”

Wow. This guy is very blunt and harsh in everything he does, isn’t he?

“That he is…” Tar mutters in response, clearly listening as well. Which is odd since he didn’t really listen to the other professors.

“Now, tell me why higher Class Guardians don’t simply rush to lower Class Fractures and wipe out all of the demons there,” he says while pointing at Drake, making it pointedly clear that he is calling out the highest ranking people in the class in terms of the school rankings. And unlike me and Sentinel, Drake – the asshole whom I taught a lesson during the tournament – doesn’t answer right away. In fact, he stutters a bit before beginning a sloppy answer that Nautical simply cuts off. “Enough. Make sure that you study the textbook as that is most assuredly going to be on the exam.”

Drake grimaces, but the professor ignores him and answers his own question, “Higher Class Guardians don’t simply go through the lower Fractures to clear out the weaker demons there for EXP because the penalty for EXP grows larger and larger the greater the level gap is. And once you’re an entire fifty levels above whatever you’re killing? You do not get EXP anymore. Period. You will instead have to go fight stronger demons. So the higher Class Guardians don’t simply clear out the weaker Fractures since they not only believe it’d be a waste of time for them, but a lost opportunity for the lower Class Guardians to train themselves against the demons.” He pauses as his eyes narrow. “Even if this does mean more human casualties.”

Whispers break out amongst the students again at this. And this time he doesn’t stop them and instead continues, “Now I know a lot of you don’t like that answer, but it’s the full truth. We do not live in a utopia. We live in a world more akin to the hell of the old world mythologies when compared to the old world itself. Life is not fair, nor is it equal between Guardians and regular humans.”

Oh. Wow. This guy is…

“Not afraid to state his opinion?” Tar finishes for me, and I can’t help but lightly nod my head in agreement.

Yeah. Not afraid at all.