- Excitement

We walked over to a shed and inside looked like an empires armory, just on a smaller scale. There were weapons of every shape and size. "Woah," I said as I looked at the beautiful sight. "I know right. They let us use these so we can find a weapon we like. Now c'mon, let's get started." Corey said while patting my shoulder.

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'I know I said a dagger or shortsword was the weapons best suited for me, but I'm liking the way scythes feel. They're easy to put your enemy in awkward positions and they compliment my high speed and flying capabilities.

It's just small enough to be concealed under my cloak while still hanging on my back. I like the medium-sized ones that have handles that are around a foot and a half long and a huge curved blade. The blade looked less like a "C" and more like an "L" With a bit more of a bend.

I picked two of them up and spun them around in my hand while swinging them around. "Think of the possibilities if these had retractable chains," I mumbled while performing some Arial acrobatic combos.

"Those really suit you. But Scythes aren't high in demand so finding a decent pair will be kind of hard, but I'm sure the Institute can help." Corey said while admiring my agility and dexterity.

We made our way to the blacksmith in another part of the Institute and asked if we could put in a special order for dual scythes with retractable chains.

"That sure is an odd weapon, but I think I can make it work out it's going to cost you though." He said with his deep voice while hammering a hot sword on an anvil. "How much?" I asked while sadly looking at my 10 silver.

"Depends on the grade you want. I have the skill to forge up to C+ rank gear, but it's going to cost you more the higher the rank." He countered while still hammering away at the sword. "How much would D+ cost me?" I asked, knowing it would be more than what I have.

"25 silver. Don't get any funny ideas though, students get a huge discount. A normal C- weapon would cost much more." He quickly answered. "That is a lot even with a discount, but give me a couple of days and I can get you the money. I can give you 10 upfront to start working on it now."

"I usually wouldn't make such a deal, but you seem like an honest kid. I'll give you three days to get the other 15 silver. Don't make me regret my decision." He said while dipping the sword in water. We walked out of the forge after I handed him all my money and back to the training ground. We ended up just talking the entire time until it was time to return to class.

"Listen up Students, today we will be measuring everyone's mana count and element types. It's required the school knows this information so for those who have been hiding it until now, you'll have to come clean." The teacher said while bringing in a huge mirror looking object.

"You can come up in any order, the background will demonstrate your element and sub-elements and for every Large star that pops up represents 100 mana, for every Medium star, 25, and every small star, 5, and for every dot, 1.

After explaining what the images that would pop up represent, students, got out of their seats and lined up, eager to know the exact "numbers" that their mana pool was. Lily, Corey, and I all got in the back in the line. Some students were celebrating while others walked off disappointed.

All the students had between 100 and 300 mana. None of them had more than one element, however. Lily stepped up to the mirror and placed her hand on it. Light from the heavens beamed down on the mirror and it showed that she had 232 mana, which is more than me.

'Man, that's sad. I thought my mana pool would be the largest here.' I thought as I stepped forward after Lily left the line. I wasn't too excited as I already knew what my exact mana count was.

I placed my hand on the mirror and a scary image of a pitch-black night with undead walking around in the pouring down rain showed itself. Thunder and lighting being spammed all around as the black fog had electric sparks in it.

The class was making "ooo" and "ah" sounds as everyone else's images were pretty basic and boring. It accurately told my mana, which is 210. I walked back to my seat with a less disappointed face than I thought I would have.

So the sub-element for Darkness is undead or curse magic. That's pretty cool, but what would the sub-element for lightning be? Maybe clouds or heat?' I debated in my head until the entire class was seated after Corey's turn. He had 283 mana, which was one of the highest in the class.

"If your mana pool was relatively low compared to others, don't be sad, just know that your mana will reach the thousands and ten thousands in time. The current gap in your mana pools will be virtually gone in the future." The teacher said before resuming his lecture.

After the lectures were over, Lily and Corey wanted to do more quests as they also were trying to advance to the E rank. They were only 3 quests away while I was still 6.

We walked to the guild and looked for a different quest. They were quite tired of killing slimes and honestly so was I. We saw a quest that gave quite a large reward and was unlike most of the others.

We were supposed to protect the luggage of some E ranked adventurers while they farmed a Boar Dungeon not too far from here. It stated to meet at the guild entrance tomorrow at 6 am sharp.

We didn't have school tomorrow as it was the weekend so we saw it as a good opportunity to make some decent silver. It said they would hire up to 3 adventurers of F or E rank and would pay them 6 silver each.

We accepted it for tomorrow and ended up taking another slime Subjugation quest for today anyways. 'The only reason this quest exists is to help beginners grow. This quest is just a waste of money for the guild, but I'm glad they have it.' I thought as we left the city.

[QUEST ACCEPTED]

Protect the adventurer's luggage. Rewards: 500 exp, 2 silver, and 1 skill point.

[QUEST ACCEPTED]

Kill 25 slimes. Rewards: 400 exp, 1 silver, 1 skill point.

'Man these F rank quests suck. I need to step up my game already so I can get some real exp.' I thought as we started hunting the slimes. After around 4 minutes, we finished the quest. Lily and Corey took a break to catch their breath and talk but I kept killing slimes at a rapid pace. 'I want to take down the boss for the skill point.' I thought. After killing around 15 more slimes after finishing the quest, I leveled up.

'Finally.' I thought as I took a small break. "Do you two wanna take on the boss?" I asked. "You know the boss of a dungeon is always several times stronger than the mobs right? And they always possess more skills than the mobs do." Lily remarked in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I've taken one of them down myself before when I was much weaker. I was just seeing if you guys wanted to join the fight. I'll be killing it regardless if you join or not."

"Yeah, I'll join you. C'mon Lily." Corey said as he stood up and walked beside me. Lily unwillingly followed as she felt it was a waste of time. "They don't even drop anything." She mumbled as she walked with us deeper into the dungeon. After only a few minutes of slaying more slimes and searching for the boss, we spotted it rolling around aimlessly.

"Let's go."