Starting the grind

As Aaron declared Luna the winner, her opponent got up from the floor with her veins bulging, "She must've used an ability! we don't even know what her ability is" she shouted.

"My ability is blaze, I can't enhance my strength without using my flames" Luna replied as a coat of fire formed on her fist.

Her opponent just left the ring after sucking up her anger, without saying anything else, 'GG, no re'

After both of the girls left the ring, Aaron told everyone to get used to their weapons and he would select a few students to spar against each other. The students were quite obedient about not using their abilities, but misfits were to be expected, as in a fight, one of the students used their ability, thinking that the teacher wouldn't notice.

"Get out of my class," Aaron appeared in front of the student who was about to use an ability; he had already noticed that the student was preparing to use an ability. But the others didn't see a thing, "wh-what do you mean?" the student stuttered as he saw the towering man in front of him.

"You thought I would not notice? Using Ki, it allows me to see other people's aura—their life force. When someone uses their ability, their aura changes," Aaron explained his utility of Ki as an instructor, "I don't want a student that can't even follow a rule as simple as not using their ability; so get out, you're banned from my class."

The student couldn't handle the pressure anymore so he dropped his weapon and hurried out of the room.

'So much for following one rule, eh?'

The crowd of students were whispering amongst themselves, wondering if such strict policies were necessary for the class, and if breaking a rule just once was something that ought to be punished so severely

Quinn thought that this ought to be mandatory; if the student can't follow a simple order, necessary action should be taken. After all, it is the duty of the trainees to follow orders from their higher-ups and live up to their name as the military. It is not that their teacher was merciless, but that he cared for his students which Quinn found odd.

The world that they live in now is even more cruel than it was before and practices the survival of the fittest even more so than before. The strong rules over the weak and the weak suffer as they must.

Most of the teachers don't care about the students and tell them to be stronger and tougher indifferently, but Aaron was different. He actually cares for his students, he stopped the ability before anyone was hurt and even banned the student, taking sympathy even on the misfit indirectly.

***

The class ended at about 5 PM, and the students were free to move around the campus until the curfew, when they would not be allowed outside of their dorms. There was still a lot of time until curfew, so Quinn decided to get something to eat—again. He was sad that the one opponent that he fought did not give enough EXP for him to level up, but opportunities always arrive—sooner or later.

'Haah... . What a waste of time. I only sparred with one guy and it didn't even give me enough EXP to level,' Quinn sighed. While in the magic weapon class, he had deicided that he would practise with the dagger he found yesterday—for now, at least.

The students were allowed to keep the weapons they got from the magic weapon class but the weapons were still school property, so the students were responsible for them.

When he finally got to his dorm room, Quinn put on his gauntlets and use the inspect skill on them.

'System's Novice Gauntlets—MK 0513'

Strength +13

Defence +9

-A weapon given to the user upon the completion of a certain quest-

———

Checking the stats of the gauntlets, Quinn thought thought that it should at least be an E-rank magical weapon but there was no such thing in the information.

There was no tier given at all which Quinn found weird. He thought: 'Does that mean it's not a magic weapon?'. Quinn remembered his parents telling him that they found the ring on a beast planet and that it was not a magical item that could be activated, so it was highly unlikely that the things that the System produces would be magic items.

"No merit in hanging onto that thought," he decided to play a bit with his Shadow Control ability before going to bed:

[User's level is not high enough]

[A quest has been issued:

Reach level 15 to be able to use the Shadow properly]

[Reward: New Shadow Skill]

Quinn was confused, 'To be able to use the Shadow properly? I haven't been using the Shadow properly?' he wondered. "Well, it's not like I used any Shadow skill other than the Dimensional Storage, either way-."

"No matter!" said Quinn, getting up form his bed, "I should get going... ."

He got out of his room to go to the small city and buy a mask. On the road, he thought of something: 'System, can you hide the ring on my finger?' he asked the system-

[Prosesing User's request...]

[Accepted. User can now turn the ring invisible]

'Lemme try... .' Just thinking of the ring turn invisible, the ring vanished from his finger and vice versa was also applicable.

Quinn wanted to buy a mask to go out at night and level up by beating some bullies or try and lure some out to him. He had decided that he would do this every night to get stronger untill he reaches level 15 or had some other idea to level up.

He would either look like an innocent level 0 and lure in some people trying to steal credits to him or just find someone bullying some other student and beat them up.

He got out from the store with a regular, plain looking white mask which covered all of his face. Even his eyes, but he could still see normally. 'Technology, mate-'.

"Oh, found one already. And it's only one guy," Quinn chuckled.

'I feel like the bad guy here...'