After the lead mage had given his shocking statement as an answer to the return demand, Mr. Riz bid him to give some time for the kids to process and accept the sudden change they had been subjected to. There was a period of give-and-take before the lead mage relented over his reasoned argument and insistent request. The lead mage regarded him critically before stepping aside.
Mr. Riz turned right away and tell the teenagers to discuss things between themselves for a while before walking off and looked 45 degrees upward. From the way he searched his pockets before crossing his arms and stood stiffly, Rio suspected that he was also strongly affected by the current situation, and wished that he still have a cigarette or two to smoke.
His classmates were still staggering around in disarray at the time, expressions still in various states of shock, despair, and disbelief. They shambled around aimlessly, getting closer to each other, and wandered away, each still immersed within their thoughts. But humans were social animals, and the presence of other fellow sufferers made any suffering less unbearable. And shared purpose could distract and curb any self-destructive impulses.
And then soon after, the silent dread and lingering cloud of despair turned into subdued murmuring between the students who were more familiar with each other. They traded assurances, comforting gestures, inquiries, and opinions, distracting themselves from pessimism and spiraling deeper into despair.
But the too short of a distance made it so another student could interject between someone else's discussion. so a quiet discussion between friends intermittently turned into a suppressed debate and irritated verbal conflicts. Fortunately, Mr. Riz could still restrain them, and a glance and cough could quickly smother any clash of opinions before it could turn to full-blown shouting matches.
Inbetween each clash of opinions and reluctant reconciliation, Rio’s classmates unconsciously started to orbit their ‘cliques’ leaders. The distinction between the member of one ‘faction’ and the other ‘faction’ was not too clear-cut, especially with the fact that everyone had been a member of the same class-room for two years. So a ‘faction’ member stood close enough to another ‘faction’ member which had 80 percent similarity to them be it in the hobby, normal everyday demeanor, or other things.
Still, if Rio wanted to use a biased filter of his isekai novel goods, then he could definitely group them according to their archetype. There was the Popular Kids Group – or more like the extroverts who do all kinds of socialization like outings and outdoor activity – they gathered around Dan. Handsome, with a stylish hairstyle that gives a cavalier impression, a confident smirk and body language, he’s the typical normie top-dog judging from his outward appearance.
Be that as it may, Rio reluctantly conceded that Dan was not fit to be the typical ‘cool guy idolized by girls but arrogant and self-righteous person’ inside. Even if Rio was somehow the protagonist of this isekai situation, he still doesn’t see how he would have a showdown with Dan. Mostly because Rio usually saw what kind of associate Dan he surrounded himself with.
They were just too colorful, from all kinds of groups, orientations, hobbies, and ages. Rio had a suspicion that If their World had Alien or other non-human things, then Rio would have seen them in his company.
‘I hope he stays the same way, and then we could have a strong ally who could call many helpers when the trouble with these mages group and their backers inevitably arise.’
And then the meathead group. They were not the thugs and delinquents, despite their shape and choice of clothing. They were just body-sculpting and sports enthusiasts. They gathered around Jo, the biggest guy in class. He’s a guy with close-cropped hair, piercing eyes, strong muscles, and an intimidating aura. He had the look of a masculine bad guy delinquent guy who doesn’t have any softness and spent time being a jerk to everybody.
In Rio’s novel, this guy was usually the rude, dumb, and vulgar guy who likes to harass the girls they like in the way of ‘pulling pigtails’. If the world was ACG goods, then Jo would be cast as the Rival Antagonist Character who the fangirls would write as someone who would only be good and loving to their self-insert characters.
Fortunately, he was the same kind of 'book that couldn’t be judged by their cover’ like Dan. He’s a solid reliable guy who never rejects being voluntold to participate in every meet and sports competition and performed satisfactorily despite his overall disinterest in pursuing any athletic career. That’s why the ‘meatheads’ like to gather near him.
‘It’s a good thing he wasn’t a thug and delinquent. That kind of thing was only interesting in small doses and from somewhere farther, over a screen or book pages...’
‘He’s going to distinguish himself easily over here, right? Especially if he was motivated enough to do it.’
‘A guy who did sports lackadaisically but still performs well would definitely be extraordinary if he gave 100% effort.’
‘I’m going to bet he’s a genius in body-tempering and body cultivation category... ehm, this was isekai summoning world though.’
‘Thankfully this isn’t cultivation world... hopefully.’
Another clear faction in class was the Bad Girl Group, which revolved around Anna. It’s not a stereotypical bad girl group of anime and manga though, that kind of thing was impossible in a good school. Definitely no unrestrained male-female PDAs and skinship on public spaces, teenage pregnancy, or other soap opera dramas. Just a group of daring girls who spoke without worrying about propriety and toes the line in rule and regulation.
‘Speaking of which... I was sure that the last thing I remember from before was being inside the classroom.’
‘...But everybody was not in uniform, except Mari’
‘I don’t think she was someone poor enough to not have casual clothing’
‘Would she be the kind of anime people who were still wearing uniform even in informal school outings and social gatherings?’
‘Haha, as if anime was based on a real-world situation.’
The Bad Girls' Group was usually chill enough, attending the lesson without care or concern except the bare necessity to get passing grades. But this time they looked really pissed, more than shown on the expression of members of other faction. When other people’s expressions were in the range of despair, disbelief, and shocks, their expressions were in the ‘very angry and want to scratch someone’s face’. The strength of their flaring ‘anger aura; even made the people out of their group stood farther and gave them wider space than usual.
‘I hope Mr. Riz could do something about them and stop them from doing something rash.’
There were still other factions in the class, but this time they still stumbled around aimlessly. Therefore, if there were any majority decisions - as a result of the discussion that Mr. Riz told Rio’s classmates to do – that they could agree to, it would be coming from those three groups. The other groups, like the rule-abiding guys and the good girls, the nerds, the slackers, and the leftover unlabeled ones were figuratively nonexistent, each one of them immersed with their own thoughts.
But Rio wasn’t worried about any agreement his class would finalize. Even if they somehow made a suboptimal decision, there were still Mr. Riz over there supervising them, and he was a reliable person, kind of. He was a lazy, as minimal effort as necessary type of person, so they wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.
...
Thankfully, the lead mages agreed to give them time to acclimatize, and the training necessary to survive outside the imperium walls. They would be given time to rest and accommodation for as long as the rest and training period takes place.
Rio was kind of incredulous at the audacity of their first demands. The mages were going to give them an assessment of their capability – which was good, a training to use their new power – and that was after they were told that there weren’t any kind of unnatural abilities in their original world, a minimal provision – about a month of so ration and other necessity – before telling them to go and beat the monster plaguing their realms.
And the only support they were going to give for the foreseeable future would be based on the result of their effort. It was laughable, really. Summoning – kidnapping and forcefully enlisting – people from the peaceful world, ask them to fight without any preparation, and somehow hope those who were lucky enough to survive – and maybe kill some monster while at it – to be inclined to help their cause.
Rio would definitely laugh at their face and spit at their general direction – if he were brave enough. But Mr. Riz was giving a 120% performance, talking them down and refuting every over-the-line demand of the mages, all with a neutral expression. After all, the way the mages positioning themselves as the lords and the masters of the summoned people had successfully made all members of the class in various states of annoyance and pissed, with the Bd Girls Group looking like they were holding back a litany of swear words.
Well, Rio actually wouldn’t mind being sent off with basically wooden swords and pocket change, IF the world was run according to the system logic. If there were systems, then he would have a status page, and he would know his advantages and flaws, how to develop his ‘avatar’ and how to min-max it and get the knowledge of how to develop his skills.
After all, every level up would definitely upgrade his skill tech tree. Basically, the information about the next tier of his skill would come automatically, drawn from the aether, so no tutoring from the ‘NPCs’ wouldn’t matter at all.
But this world was not that easy. People would only get to know their aptitude from the assessment orbs and would have to develop themselves according to the combination of their aptitude and their innate skill. Even the native genius characters wouldn’t dare to fool around with their progress, going into any library and every source of information to learn about the steps taken by their predecessors.
They would need to learn what works best, what was the thing their ancestors regretted, what hypothesis had been proven, etc. there were no respec and character rebuild, after all. If you had taken one wrong path – from being misinformed or being too arrogant – then there was nothing else you could do but regretting your mistakes forever. No one could backtrack successfully, they could only keep moving forward.
And innate skills, only native people fully know the mechanics of the skills. Information from their ancestors – most innate skills are derivation and combination of the skill of their parents, common sense of the natives, research from the scholars, they were the source of the understanding of the innate skills.
So being deprived of tutoring – and knowledge of their predecessor – before being kicked out to ‘beat the monster or no pocket change for you‘ would be the same as being given a death sentence.
Even if they somehow able to find the way by groping about, their ‘avatar character’ would be a trash build or crippled goods. No one could make out the shapes of an elephant by examining the hair it sheds. Being strong would just be gambling with their lucks. What would they do when the imperium inevitably betray – or move against their best interest? Lie down and die?
‘Well, Mr.Riz thankfully not saying something along the line of ‘we need strength so you won’t be able to bully us’ when he reasoned that we need training and full-time preparation.’
‘Insisting in ‘maximizing his students' survival chances’ was a diplomatic reason enough.’
‘But still, what was the effects of the blessing from those mosaicked people?’
‘I hope it was not the innate skills...’
‘But combining many insignificant lesser skills to make a greater unique skill was doable if need must.’
‘I don’t think I was genius enough to find a loophole or exploits to make my ‘character’ a broken OP one.’
‘This was somehow exciting, no matter how anxious myself over the certainty of getting less than the others’
‘Why was I someone like that?’
‘I wish I could go back to gag myself or beat him unconscious so I wouldn’t ramble away and offending everybody back then.’
