The night passed very quickly in the underground city. Although the city received no direct sunlight from the sun, it was just as bright down here as above ground. The city used artificial light to serve the same purpose as the sun. When it was night above ground, the artificial light would dim to simulate the moon. It was fascinating what technology could do.
As for me, I woke up feeling great, excited about the day that lies ahead of me. What I needed to focus on first was to increase my strength. With strength, I would be able to collect more points and thus purchase resources that will help improve my strength or help me learn magic.
The quickest way I would increase a substantial amount of strength would be to raise the level of my soundless sword technique. However, raising the level of the soundless word technique is much easier said than done. The same story applies to my stats. Like anything, progress is easily made in the beginning. It only goes downhill from that point on. I reminisced of the time where all my stats were of the F-rank. It was so easy to raise them. Now that all my stats except for my wisdom stat are E rank, it is rarer to see any of my stats increase.
What I considered doing to grow stronger quickly is to learn one or two lower-ranked battle techniques. The benefit of learning these weaker techniques is that they are easy to learn, thus, easier to progress in. The only downside is its lack of power and potential when compared to the higher ranked techniques. But, by learning these techniques, I would be able to improve my battle prowess quickly.
My first class of the day, just like my previous school, was focused on academics. I admit that the academics here are much more rigorous than what I am used to in the Damaculus Battle Academy. It wouldn't surprise me if I understood very little of what the teacher was teaching. My lack of understanding of the classs' topics forces me to spend what limited time I have to train independently instead on my academics. On the bright side, by attending these classes and learning their contents, undoubtedly, my intelligence stat will increase, eventually.
Today's topics were standard. The teacher went over different math subjects, language, sciences, etc. One topic included in the underworld battle academy academics that is not found in their public counterparts is knowledge regarding killing. Its contents were very similar to what Mr. Ding taught me, except it was much more detailed.
One thing I had not yet gotten used to since being here is that I must remain vigilant even during class while the teachers are giving their lectures. The competition between the students does not exist only outside of the classroom, in fact, it is very much supported in the classrooms. Funny enough, the teacher could potentially award you if you manage to beat a classmate during class, all depending on how satisfactory your performance is in the teacher's eyes.
Most of the competition between the students in the classroom was ignorable. At this stage, it mainly comprised of students sabotaging each other's workspaces, writing utensils, etc. Nothing that dangerous yet, just annoying. It was annoying because I now must check my chair, table, and pencils every time I use them to make sure someone didn't turn them into a weapon to use against me. After all, we are all still first years, and we are all still learning more and more methods to kill each other. It's pretty sad when you think about it that way, but that is the way of life in the underworld and, to an extent, the world above as well.
Very quickly, all my classes of the day had finished. Fortunately, nothing eventful happened during school today. Still training in the fundamental of swordsmanship and still struggling to learn magic. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who hasn't been able to wield magic just yet. Everyone, with a few exceptions, is still trying like myself. One thing to note is that our battle classes will be split into two parts starting from today. The first part will continue to focus on our weapon of choice, and in the second part, all students, regardless of what weapons they use, will be required to learn a few specific skills. These skills might include utilizing a dagger, poisoning people, standard unarmed combat training, etc. Nothing out of the norm of being an Assassin.
Very quickly, and the school day had ended. Now that the day is over, I can finally focus on what I need to work on, to become stronger. The first place I headed towards after school ended was the school's library. As you may already know, the library contains many books. These books range anywhere from basic geometry to sophisticated magic theory. Though, I wasn't coming to the library for either of those topics. Instead, I was here to look for manuals of battle techniques that are simple and fit my fighting style. I wanted to find a simple sword technique to progress in, and I would like to learn a movement technique.
As I entered the library, books upon books stack upon each other greeted me. I can tell that the library was not a popular place among the students. It seems like this is one thing among students that is universally shared whether they belong to the public or the underworld. It looks like it will take me a little longer to find the techniques I am looking for with the library in this state.
Following that, I got to work. I was working as a librarian free of charge. I gathered all the books lying quietly on the ground and placed them on the bookshelves where they belong. The entire ordeal took up the rest of the day. By the time I was done organizing the books, the "sun" had already set, and it was now dark outside. Although I didn't need to tidy up the entire library, I felt satisfied doing it, which matters to me.
Just as I was appreciating the fruit of my labor, I heard the entrance to the library behind me get pushed open. Accompanying the sound of the creaking door was a small gasp of surprise. I turned around to see a boy who seems to be around my same age with an expression of surprise. He had short silver hair, which was slightly messy but only added to his appearance. As I was observing him, he was looking at the library. And from the library, he eventually shifted his gaze onto me.
"Are you the one who had done this?" the silver haired boy asked.
I replied with a simple nod, nothing more, nothing less, but conveyed everything the boy wanted to know. Afterward, the boy walked into the library and proceeded to pick a book off the bookshelf and begin reading quietly to himself. Just as the boy had his matters to attend to, I had mine.
Now that the books were finally organized, I could search for the battle techniques I was interested in learning. Little did I know how hard such a simple task could become. Out of the hundreds of techniques that fit my criteria of being simple to learn and suitable for me, it was tough to decide which technique to take with me. They all sounded good, but that's very little to work on. I was contemplating whether I should read parts of all these books to get a better idea of what they were, but I quickly scrapped that idea because it was too time consuming and tedious to do that.
As I sat there puzzled on which technique I should borrow. Without alerting me, the boy with silver hair tapped me on the shoulder from behind. I turned around to see what he wanted. I also slightly shifted into a battle stance in case the boy had malicious intent. Thankfully, the boy had no such purpose. After tapping on my shoulder, he pointed to a book that was sandwiched between many other books I had picked out earlier.
At first, I didn't know why he was pointing at that book. It only occurred to me moments later that he suggested that I read the book he was pointing at. I walked away from the boy and picked up the book he had pointed at. The title of the book was Undisturbed Snow. I found the title intriguing, so I read the book's summary.
The battle technique Undisturbed Snow was a movement technique. The technique boasted that one could run through snow without leaving behind any footprints upon reaching its highest level. The technique focused on making your steps swift and quiet. Although it lacked in speed, maneuverability, or potential, I came intending to find such a lackluster technique because that was what I needed right now, not another trump card. My trump card is my soundless sword technique. I do admit that Undisturbed Snow was one of the more appealing techniques out of the rest. Better yet, I thought it supplemented my soundless sword technique very well because both emphasized concealing the user's presence.
But I had a question that I sincerely wanted an answer to. I slowly and quietly walked towards the boy with silver hair and waited for him to finish reading the chapter of the book he was reading. When he finished reading the chapter, he closed the book and asked me in a professional tone, "How can I help you?"
"Do you come to the library often?" I asked.
The boy responded affirmatively, "Yes, I do come to the library often. I dare say that I have been in the library for longer than anyone else in our grade."
"Our?" I asked confusingly.
"Yes, ours. After all, we are both first years, are we not, Gideon?" the silver haired boy answered.
I questioned, "How do you know my name? I don't recall meeting you before."
"I know everyone's name in our grade, including yours. It isn't much of a problem, is it?" the boy responded.
"No," I said, "But, since you know my name, wouldn't it be rude of me not to know yours. May you tell me your name?" I spoke.
The boy nodded at my statement before introducing himself in an elegant fashion manner, "My name is Vesemir Solomon, a first year student of the Umbra Battle Academy, ranked first in academics."
"Nice to meet you Vesemir, as you already know, I am Gideon, belonging to the same grade as you," I replied. Then I continued, "May I ask you why you recommended me Undisturbed Snow?"
Vesemir pondered a little bit before asking, "Do you not like it?"
"No, I do like it, but I simply want to know why you thought this would be best for me out of the other hundreds of battle techniques," I answered.
The boy responded, "Very well." Before taking a moment and explained in an informative tone, "Because it felt proper. Looking at your physique, you don't rely on brute strength, and I can't feel any mana being emitted from you, so I assume you also don't use mana." I nodded. Vesemir continued, "By deduction you most likely place a significant emphasis on your agility. Earlier, I looked at the battle techniques you were looking at and discovered that they were all basic techniques of low grades. I thought Undisturbed Snow would be a good fit for what you are looking for. Not only is it a low-level technique, but it also provides the most benefits for users with high agility. Additionally, Undisturbed Snow, although it is not very impressive by itself, one thing it does have for itself is that it serves as a foundation for more advanced techniques that you might be interested in learning in the future. That is the main reason I suggest you learn Undisturbed Snow.
I found Vesemir's reasoning to be very solid, and I liked the prospect of Undisturbed Snow severing as a catalyst to learning more advanced techniques in the future. Since we were already on the topic, I asked Vesemir to suggest a decent, simple-to-learn sword technique. Vesemir pondered for a moment before heading towards the pile of techniques I had taken out earlier and, from that pile, retrieved one book and handed it to me. The name of the sword technique was Seven Splits. I was pretty generous by calling it a battle technique. Instead of a battle technique, it was more proper to call it a battle move. The move comprised of the user slashing seven times speedily and continuously. Truly a simple move indeed, but it was also precisely what I was looking for.
I like both techniques Vesemir had recommended to me. I knew that I could be able to learn these two techniques very quickly. Afterward, I expressed my gratitude towards Vesemir before heading back to my dorm with the two techniques in tow.
