Scarlet Asger

“Now, moving onto the System itself, or rather the automatic management of the System,” Nautical continues as if he hadn’t just said any of that. “Many of you already know of the System’s voice that echoes in your head when you kill a demon or level a skill. What you don’t know is just how this ‘automatic management system’ works. And that is a large part of what you will be learning in this class.”

Someone raises their hand after he finishes that statement, surprising me for a moment. But not as much as the sight of the professor actually pointing at them and saying, “Speak, Ripple.”

The student – whose title is apparently Ripple – quickly asks, “Sir, what exactly is it that stops higher Class Guardians from simply babysitting and power leveling their lower level and lower Class Association members?”

“Good question,” Nautilus says, once again surprising me. “To answer that, I’ll have to get a bit into how the automatic system works, but to keep it simple for now, I will just say that the System does appear to be able to read our minds. It can tell apart everyone’s intent and factors it in whenever dishing out EXP and achievements to any involved individuals in a demon’s – or human’s in the case of the demons – death. And never has a single person ever been able to fool the System. Not for lack of trying though.”

He pauses for a second as if waiting for other questions before continuing, “Over the years, we’ve been able to learn more and more about the System both through personal experience and what we’ve managed to get out of the fae, and it’s clear it was designed to not have any freewill or ability to make decisions outside of its, let’s say, ‘programming’, meaning it will always make the fairest decision at the time. Even if that decision may not seem morally correct to some of you.”

Yeah, that I can tell already. Just from the System rewarding me for almost dying over and over again while also warning me about risk. Rather two-faced, if you ask me.

“Well, no System is perfect,” Tar says, a hint of amusement in his voice at his own joke.

I don’t laugh though. Partially because it wasn’t that funny, and partially so that I don’t get stabbed by a glare from this rather intimidating man standing at the front of the class.

“Moving on, I’ll be going through our vocabulary for the semester, and then I’ll be walking you through a brief rundown of the various penalties that the System applies,” he says before tapping on his terminal. So I do the same to expand my notes and prepare to start taking them.

This is going to be a long class.

“-and moving on we have the penalty for killing a demon fifteen levels below you,” he says, and I can’t help but smother a yawn. Because this really is one of the most boring classes I’ve ever seen, beaten out only by Guardian Law.

Right as I’m about to glance at Belle though, the sound of glass shattering echoes across the entire campus as the air becomes tinted with red. And I immediately see Nautilus frowning as he stops talking. He then begins emitting steam again and says, “The rest of the class will be pushed back to next week, added onto the end of the next class. Make sure you read the first chapter of the textbook and remember the terms that were discussed so far. That’ll be all. Now go out to the Fractures.”

The man vanishes in a bout of steam as all of the students get up from their seats, myself doing the same.

I look down at the device only to find that apparently it had automatically disconnected my terminal from it, likely some sort of protocol built in at the start of a Demonic Assault. Then I focus on Belle to find her typing away at her terminal, likely calling for the others.

We both quickly leave the lecture hall before leaving the building entirely and immediately finding a limo sitting there waiting for us with the others there. And everyone quickly looks at me for directions, so I show them the alert that I got while we were walking over here, and they pick the closest Class I Fracture for us to head to.

As we drive though, I can’t help but think of the professors last words. About the class being tacked onto the end of next week’s class.

I was really wondering how they’d handle Demonic Assaults here, but I guess they just move the remainder of any class interrupted by a Fracture to the next week. Which also explains why each day only has a single class except for Mondays. And even Mondays only have two classes, each only two hours long.

It was rather confusing, since from what Belle had told me, the classes for her old university were much more frequent through the week and also a lot longer. But this system makes perfect sense when you factor in the Demonic Assaults.

Although it was a big deal back in Rothwell if a Demonic Assault ever occurred, since they were rather infrequent. And they also appeared most often in the orphans district since we had the most people there. Even if it only happened like once every couple months or so.

The only reason I had never been caught in one before coming to a Tier 1 city.

That aside, I focus on the window of the limo for a moment, only to glance at my terminal to look at the map around the place we’re headed to. Which this time is not a mall or a hotel.

It’s a park.

A wide open park with a massive, shielded dome around it and quite a bit of wildlife and greenery inside, along with ponds and paths through a small mini-forest.

This is going to be interesting. And the first time I won’t be fighting in an enclosed space, the tournament not withstanding on account of it not being in reality.

I quickly feel adrenaline fill me at the thought of fighting again and earning more EXP.

Maybe now I’ll finally be able to get some of those Epic skills that have been sitting in my Skill Store for days now?