New Strengths

A new day has begun, the streets of the town were already bustling with people as some merchants were already shouting their products while others were barely opening their stalls, Whifast was a medieval looking city spanning over a large area of land, it was separated in five regions, the central region where royalty and other important aristocrats resided, the south region and east one were not very different from one another, they both were responsible for supervising the sea, they were rich regions due to the high influx of people coming in through their gates.

The north region along with the west one were responsible for the military state of the city, here they trained the most prominent figures in all categories, the Lonmelts Academy had the top training centres and instructors in all of the kingdom, it was the place that gave birth to most of the strongest fighters in the history of the whole continent.

The academy accepted only children that aged 15 or 16 so they could propery nurture them over the years, they formed a meritocracy system and considered that status is not important, only one's talent, that is why there were a lot of tests, practical and theoretical, that evaluated the children's abilities.

The tests were different for each class, Haemon was in the Direct Combat class, it specialized in armed and hand to hand combat, most of the students taking this class wanted to become the infantry of the kingdom or a soldier for the king's personal army since those posts offered high income and status.

Other than this class there were 5 other-Magical Studies, Diplomatic Affairs, Alchemy and Potion Making, Rune Learning and the last one, Dark Arts.

Magical Studies encompassed the learning of mana and magical arts, imagining and materializing one's powers through spells, this was the most attended class but also the hardest one since effort did not play any role in how good you were at magic, only talent and magic affinities counted, this is why more than half of the students enlisting in this class' first year did not pass and were expelled. 

Diplomatic Affairs sounded boring and useless but the kingdom heavily required smart people, they did not learn politics only but also history and languages along with human behavior, it was an useful subject but it did not interest a lot of people, still, most nobles were forced to attend this class.

Alchemy and Potion Making described the production of different potions and other materials that could be used for purposes such as providing buffs and combat assistance or increasing the regeneration of mana for mages, mystical creatures were a common occurrence due to the effect mana had on beasts so the influx of rare materials was high and the possibilities of alchemy were almost infinite.

Rune Learning was the teaching of summoning and other types of magical gateways, in a way, it was magic but in its pure written form, it was much more efficient but it took a lot of time and practice to perform, still, rune summoners were one of the most respected people on the continent.

The last one, Dark Arts, it was a rather new subject and it taught bizzare aspects, it was a dangerous path that made one exchange his life force for strength, it was only introduced because of the high influence of the demonic forces on the continent, still, it had by far the lowest influx of students.

One could frequent multiple classes but they had to pass the entrance exam for all of them, it was more of a test to see if one is fit to even waste his time in that class.

Haemon only managed to earn the right to take the Direct Combat class, it costed him his whole fortune and it was his best choice since he was not talented in any other aspects rather than physical atributes, and even so it proved to be a real challenge to remain in the academy, he was one of the weakest in his class, ranking 485th from the total of 490 students.

The worst part was that there were only two more test sessions before the end of summer when the year ended and if he did not place higher, way way higher than he is now, he would be expelled. It all seemed hopeless for him, but now he had a chance due to the system.

He was deep in thought as he waited in front of a huge building made out of dark brown wood, this was where his first theoretical lesson of the day would be held and he wanted to be here as early as possible, yesterday he completely missed it due to the fight in the forest, the sun was barely rising and he was the only one there, he sat down and made himself comfortable while waiting for the instructor.

Soon enough a man in a long jacket appeared from afar, he had a small beard but it suited his sharp face, moreover, the short, blonde hair gave him a royal look, this was Mr. Carwel, his blue, tired eyes scanned the boy standing at the entrance of the building, it seemed like he was more dissapointed the closer he got.

"You're very early today, just so you know i wont give any private consulting over yesterday's subject." He wasn't mad at the boy but he thought that the basics are the most important, and since he was explaining the theoretical part of it he believed that every youngster should pay utmost attention to those parts.

Haemon was lost in his own thoughts when his teacher arrived, he looked up and struggled to find the right words to explain himself.

"No- it was- I mean, im sorry mister Carwel, it will not happen again."

"As long as you mean it." He said while unlocking the door to the building before stepping in.

Haemon followed him inside soon after, he headed for the second floor and entered the enormous class room, it was meant to accommodate all of the first years of the Direct Combat class so there were a bunch of desks and chairs, he went up the levels and sat much farther from the stage, he was familiar with this seat after all, the reason why he was placed almost at the back of the room was because of his rank, the one's in the front were the elites while him and the other's in the back of the class were the weakest.

"Now."

He sat down and took out a small flask, it contained about 50ml of a shiny red liquid, the small paper glued to it read 'orc blood', Haemon bought it this morning to test out his Blood Control ability, this was also the reason he was in the class this early, the hospital room wasn't exactly a safe place to practice it, his dorm room was also not an option since his roommates would be asking questions and he did not want to bother with such matters.

He opened the small bottle and gulped a mouthful of saliva, he wanted to know if this ability only applied to human blood, he guessed it should have been universal and he was right, he willed the liquid to rise up and it started to float upwards, a ball of blood was hovering in front of him, its surface was wrinkly, he could not form a perfectly round object yet.

"Wow, this is amazing."

He was amazed by his acomplishment even if it was so small, he felt a strange connection to the sphere wondering how it was possible to do this with so much ease when he surely did not have any talent towards magic.

He played with this ability more, turning the blood in different forms and making it float around his vicinity, he realized three things from experimenting with it.

One-the more complex the shapes he wanted to form the harder it was to perfectly shape them, in short, he needed more practice.

Two-the farther away the blood was the worse the control he had over it, it was obvious that he could not control it from anywhere, he aproximated his range to be 5 meters at the moment.

Three-he could condense the blood and make it sturdier, although it put a bigger mental strain on him, this especially seemed very important as Haemon imagined about forming swords of blood and making them fight for him, it was only a dream for now.

*Ding!*

[Unlocked: Skill Details]

[User can now check out the properties of his abilities.]

The system sound ringed in his head, Haemon opened the interface and checked out his abilities once again.

[Blood Control]

[Skill Description: You hold authority over blood, it is in your control and will obey your every will.]

[Skill Details:]

[Maximum Amount Of Blood Able To Be Controlled-100ml.]

[Radius-6.5meters]

[Skill Evolution Progress-0.04%]

Haemon smiled with a glint of pain and shame in his eyes, the stats of it looked... very dissapointing when compared to what mages could achieve, he still thought that it was amazing, he seemed to have very good control over the blood compared to the telekinesis of the mages, moreover, the progression tab, although low it showed that he could improve this skill, it was good news.

He checked the Skill Details for his other two skills, Crimson Reave and Blood Rush.

[Blood Rush]

[Skill Description: Enter a frenzied state which buffs all your abilities, after a certain time the effect ends and a backlash is applied.]

[Skill Details:]

[Buff Strength-50% increase to all stats.]

[Duration-5 minutes.]

[Skill Evolution Progress-0%]

His jaw dropped slightly, 50 percent increase to his overall power was a huge increase, that basically meant he could be 1.5 times stronger than usual for 5 minutes, he did not know what the following effect did but he assumed it would be a debuff of sort.

[Crimson Reave]

[Skill Description: Ruler of blood, ruler of life, you heal based on a percentage of the physical damage you inflict on others.]

[Skill Details:]

[Healing Percentage-10%]

[Skill Evolution Progress-0%]

He nodded lightly while reading the information, it was understandable that he had 0 percent eolution progress since he did not damage anyone since getting the system, the healing effect of the skill seemed very interesting, he wanted to try it on himself to test it out but soon discarded the idea, it clearly said it only worked if he damaged someone else.

It was almost the time to start the lesson so Haemon put the blood back in the flask and hid it in his pocket, other first years were already filling the large room of the class and the whole atmosphere got livelier as the sun shined through the big windows.

Haemon was in a good mood until three other boys got close to his desk, surrounding him like a pack of wolves, they were Lucius and his loyal lackeys.

'Ah them, i have completely forgotten about it.'