Rieren and Amalyse didn’t wait before heading straight to the location of their physical cultivation instruction. Normally, physical cultivation classes took place in open areas of the Sect grounds. For Adherents, this was usually at a rock-bounded field of dirt in the northwest section of Lionshard Sect.
They spotted more students heading to other classes through the Sect, travelling in little groups or on their own. Rieren’s lack of a weapon made her feel a little exposed. She needed to requisition a sword from the Sect’s armoury.
The Sect didn’t normally hand out a weapon to any student who asked, especially not Adherents. There were far too many ways they could kill themselves with them. Rieren couldn’t blame them for being careful. All disciples were an investment, to an extent, and putting them in needless danger by granting weapons went against that.
Using cultivation techniques was forbidden too, unless an exceptional circumstance called for it. Any sort of fighting and violence was strictly prohibited as well.
Not that it guaranteed safety for anyone. Anything that was frowned upon would only draw those frowns if one was foolish enough to get caught within Sect grounds. Many disciples had found ways to exercise their nastiness and bypass any rules the Sect had established. Violence would occur in the Sect, regardless of the prohibition.
Rieren could defend herself with or without a sword, of course, but a proper blade would allow her to be at the peak of her powers. Perhaps she could make Elder Olg grant her permission to get one. Hopefully.
“I’ve been thinking,” Amalyse said, looking into the distance and oblivious of Rieren’s worries. “I want to change my class.”
“I thought you were yet to pick a class,” Rieren said.
“Yes. I meant change my class from last time. I don’t think I want to be a Riven Halberdier again.”
Rieren nodded. Amalyse knew the basics that Elder Imilem had told them after having possessed and progressed far into her class by the time of her death. She had been level thirty-six, a veteran of using the system.
“What do you want to pick this time?” Rieren asked.
Amalyse’s class had been focused around halberds, pikes, polearms, and the like. Her favourite weapon had been a lance they had obtained in a dungeon, one that could shoot lightning bolts. Rieren was starting to think she knew what sort of class Amalyse would pivot to.
“I’m not certain,” she said. “Probably a caster class, but with melee capabilities. Something hybrid. I don’t want to be dependent on any one thing.”
“You had a good amount of variety before too, did you not?”
“Yes.” She sighed in exasperation. “But it gets tiring trying to poke holes in your opponents all the time. I want to try a different approach, this time. Shoot them with arrows that explode. Rain down magic javelins. That sort of thing. Watch the world explode at a safe distance.”
That nearly made Rieren chuckle. “I believe you might find a lot of options to do something of the kind. But also, try not to discard everything you learned last time. This is an opportunity for us to reach farther than we did, and utilizing the knowledge of the past is our greatest tool in doing that.”
Amalyse nodded, if a bit reluctantly. “I assume you will be taking up the same class as last time?”
“I have already done so.”
Amalyse looked at her sharply. Generally, most of the disciples had waited for instruction from the Elders before making any decisions regarding the system. Even those who had good experience using classes and skills had refrained from making the exact same choices as before. It was good to gather all information before making any major decisions.
Of course, as a disciple of Lionshard Sect, Rieren would have been expected to wait before she picked her class. She wasn’t sure she would have. Her class was perfect for her.
But that didn’t matter. Rieren had come to the world with the system already active and her class already in place, thanks to one of the rewards for her turning back time.
Unfortunately, that meant the others might suspect things if she told them about her class already being picked when the new timeline began. She intended to keep that little detail to herself. It was inconsequential, after all.
“What was it again?” Amalyse asked. “Sword Sa—”
Before she could finish, they were accosted by other students. Rieren and Amalyse had covered most of the ground to their destination and reached the edge of their training field. But some disciples had already arrived.
Disciples who made Rieren’s mouth curl for just a moment.
“Well, well, look who finally arrived at the Sect.”
The speaker was a lanky boy who bent this way and that like a palm tree caught in a hurricane. His loose robes flapped on him with the breeze. He wasn’t alone. There were more boys around him, as well as a few girls.
“Stop gloating just because the wind decided to blow you over here before we could arrive, Folend,” Amalyse shouted, striding over to the middle of the field. “If you don’t cease, I’ll throw you down the mountainside.”
The threat wasn’t unfounded. The Adherents were to take part in their physical cultivation class on a field that was near the edge of the mountain. If they slipped, they would tumble down to bloody pulp long before they reached the distant walls of the Sect’s boundary.
“Must you speak for that imbecile that follows your tail?” Folend asked. “She will never deign to be your servant, no matter how much you try to trick her with your petty coddling.”
“I have no wish to waste words on the likes of you,” Rieren said, keeping her face cool and neutral. She didn’t even spare Folend a look as she turned around. “The only thing I am interested in is the Elder’s teachings.”
“Perhaps if you scrape and kneel, the Elder will appear faster. Certainly, the presence of you and your… kind, do not inspire the Elders towards greater effort in our teachings.”
Amalyse dug one foot into the dirt field. “Perhaps if I made good on my threat, the Elders will come faster to investigate your screams.”
Rieren placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. There was no need to resort to violence here. Folend had already moved his attention away from Rieren, realizing that he wasn’t going to get a rise out of her.
“Look at this mess,” he said, this time glaring at the guards and the villagers slowly making their way to field. “Letting anyone into the Sect. What is this world coming to?”
Rieren was no longer paying direct attention to Folend’s idiocy and though Amalyse still glared at him, she no longer chomped at the bit to end him then and there. Some of the guards and villagers had clearly heard, but before the bravest among them could respond, they found a different champion from the gathering crowd of Sect disciples.
Serace strode forward. He had tucked his dirty blond hair away from his face with the help of a band. Good thinking. No point letting one’s own hair whip one’s face on the physical activity to come. “You seem to be itching to receive a beating.”
Folend looked shocked, though he had to be hoping for this exact situation to arise. “Come again. Did you truly just threaten me? Did you hear him, Elder?”
Serace stopped cold. He looked behind him, as did Rieren, and found no one there. Serace turned back to Folend with a scowl.
“What are you playing at?”
Folend shook his head. “Truly, it is beyond your meagre perception.” The lanky boy threw a mocking glance at the villagers behind Serace. “One can see why saying the truth about our new state of affairs has riled you so. You are no different.”
Serace’s face darkened and he stepped forward. Rieren felt her pulse pick up the pace just a bit. A brawl here wouldn’t be beneficial for anyone. For all the sources of danger she had foreseen, a chaotic fight before the class even began hadn’t been one.
But before Serace could take more than two steps towards his target, Rollo came up from behind. Where his companion looked no better than he acted, he appeared as though he had taken up the role of a god in a theatre play and refused to change into regular attire even after the drama was done.
“Now, now,” Rollo said. “Let us not debase ourselves and lower our standings. Especially not in such circumstances.”
The smile he flashed them all was so brilliant, Rieren wouldn’t have been surprised to learn he filigreed his teeth with silver. It was also rather patronizing. But for all that he had attempted to make his words somewhat pacifying, they were still a poor choice, one which incensed Serace even further.
“Such circumstances?” Serace took another step forward. It wasn’t difficult to surmise why he objected so much. He was from a commoner family. “Mind telling me what exactly that means?”
Unlike with Folend, there was something truly… magnetic about the ostentatious boy. Even Rieren felt it. By themselves, the gaudy clothes Rollo wore over the Sect’s standard disciple robes, the bits of expensive jewellery, the costly sheen of his hair, and even his bearing and the way he carried himself would have been noteworthy but nothing remarkable.
Together, however, they bludgeoned everyone around them until nearly all attention had settled solely on him. Credit to Rollo, he handled that attention as though he’d been born doing so.
Which, considering he was from an Archnoble family, likely wasn’t far from the truth.
Arrogance wasn’t just something that came from one sole source, like a fountain. It was more of a cycle. More often than not, it started off with attention from others, usually parents. When this attention was provided from birth, it fed the idea of self-importance, exacerbated by great wealth and standing in society.
And this inflated sense of self-importance wasn’t sustainable, for any decrease in attention injured the ego of the poor subject. So, the subject would seek to ensure that nothing could harm this self-importance. Sometimes, it ended up being all that mattered.
But ultimately, Rieren couldn’t blame only Rollo for his arrogance. It was still pathetic, and not worth her attention, but it was annoying how Rollo took it in stride.
“He means that we are far, far better,” Folend said with a nasty grin. “He saves you from a humiliating display in front of your peers, and this is how you thank him? By shouting?”
There was his aggravating choice of words. Unlike Rollo’s however, they were sharp and incisive. As angry as it made Serace, he couldn’t deny them lest he offend the very people he had decided to stand up for, exposing himself for a hypocrite.
Serace pointed a threatening finger at Folend. “Come stand before me, and we will see who is truly humiliated here.”
Folend looked around with a face that said can you believe this fellow? The ones near him were all looking up at Rollo though, who was still smiling beatifically as though exasperated by unruly but adorable children. Folend tutted at it, then turned back to Serace.
“Come over here, maggot breath,” he said. “And we will all make you regret it.”
“Enough, please.”
Rollo placed a hand on Folend’s shoulder, who looked like he desperately wanted to shrug it off. He didn’t, though. For all that Folend wanted to pretend he had a great standing, it was Rollo who was the son of an Archnoble.
Arguably the most important person in the Sect, in some respects.
“Are we to truly resort to animalistic violence over little spats?” Rollo turned his smile to Folend too, whose eyes twitched at being treated the same as Serace. “Only barbaric brutes in old stories go about ganging up on their less fortunate fellows and teaching them a lesson, as they put it. We, as real people, ought to be better than that, yes?”
For once, Serace looked like he felt the same as Folend and would happily teach Rollo a lesson, if allowed. Rieren, for her part, almost laughed at the turn the situation had taken.
Thankfully, they were all spared a reply. The Elder of their physical cultivation class finally decided to appear, With soft cracks, the ground split apart and the Elder ascended from the newborn hole like a statue upon a rising platform. There wasn’t a single speck of dirt upon him or his robes.
“Greetings, disciples and students.” Elder Saygren said. “It seems I am a few moments late. Tardiness is terrible, and I will duly punish myself. But first, I must punish you all with my lesson for coming in early. Let us begin.”
