20 Electives

"Nero, you have to take these things seriously," his general education teacher, Mrs. Sims said, rubbing her forehead because she knew exactly how this conversation was going to go.

"Mrs. Sims, I think you know full well how seriously I take my education," Nero responded somberly, not a sign of mischievousness on his face. That almost made it worse. "I have answered every question that pertained to my knowledge of innate abilities, Eldrim cards, professions, cultivation, and anything else that may even remotely have anything to do with my upcoming classes. I think that should be sufficient for the school to decide which mandatory classes I need to take. Anything else is a waste of my time, and the school's resources. Let's just skip over this part."

Mrs. Smith sighed once more. Like every other person in Kolar, she was a veteran. She had done her mandatory army service. But mandatory army service gave a very misleading perception of what most people experienced in the army.

From the janitors, to the cooks, to the engineers and artisans, the army had them all. Enlisting in the army did not mean that one would get relegated to the battlefield. It, instead, meant that one's allocation would be according to their skill set and aptitude. Her service had been in one of the administrative offices, due to her unique innate ability, where she had a lot of exposure to many of the upper echelon of the army. She knew just how much importance they gave to being able to predict the mindset of their soldiers as well as citizens.

If Nero were an ordinary student it would not matter, but he had not been hesitant about sharing his aspiration for joining KMA. These kinds of things would reflect badly when his case was reviewed. But he was always adamant that his stellar performance would be more than enough to get him admission.

She looked up at this extremely gifted, yet stubborn student and then shook her head. It was better to focus her energy where it would get results, so she focused on something else.

"Your mandatory classes will include aether manipulation, basic cultivation, basic curses, and card crafting. You can go through the list of electives and see which ones you want to sign up for. You'll have to work hard if you want to take any of those classes while keeping up with the rest, since there's only one semester left before applications for KMA. I don't recommend you take more than one or two electives at most, because you still need to give the exams for your regular classes as well."

Nero took the paper Mrs. Sims handed out and studied it seriously, even though he already knew the classes by heart. Truth be told, he was not too interested in any of the electives offered to him right now, because for the truly interesting ones he would need to pass his mandatory classes first.

Only the purely theoretical and academic electives were available to him at the moment. His gaze lingered on "Eldrim society - a study of Eldrim ruins". This one had never really interested him before, as it did nothing to bring him closer to his goals. But given the rumours going around, he could not help but hesitate.

Even a single additional class would take away a tremendous amount of training time away from him, something he was in dire need of. He had to improve his control over his innate ability, understand how to effectively use cards, and integrate them all into his combat style.

Using a spear made wielding cards very inconvenient, something Kolar had put a tremendous amount of effort into finding solutions for. But each of those solutions would demand his time and attention.

But, if there truly were ruins near Aetherpeak, then it was unlikely he could afford to not increase his knowledge.

Nero made a decision to take the class, and so got rid of all his hesitation. He selected the class and handed back the paper to Mrs. Sims.

"Eldrim studies, huh? Didn't peg you as the sort. But I'm glad to see you stepping out of your comfort zone. I'll submit the paperwork and get started on your new schedule. As you probably already know, your mandatory classes will either put you in a small group or have you study with the teacher one on one. It depends on whether or not there are a lot of new Neophytes at this time.

"That's because these classes are very important, and so we need to make sure that every student understands them well. For the electives you'll have to join the ongoing class, and since each of them is only a semester long, you won't have too much to catch up on, for now.

"Once your new schedule is made, it will clash with your regular classes, so you'll have to miss those. So until then, you better make the most of your time. Go on ahead, I'll find you when your schedule is ready."

"Thanks Mrs. Sims," he said as he got up with a wide grin. His teacher was shaking her head, but he was in a great mood. The whole reason he had come early was so that his schedule could be made quickly and that he could start with his classes. But since it would take a while, there was no harm in returning to his regular class.

The school corridors were a lot busier now, at least in this section, as more and more students had arrived. Most were already in their regular classes, so the ones he saw now were the students who either had electives or mandatory classes.

He walked to his class, which was on the second floor of the High School building, and was looking forward to seeing his classmates, when he spotted something odd from the window of his class. Firstly, there was no teacher in the room. Secondly, there was a student in class who he did not recognize, and she was…

His wide grin lessened, just a bit, before he walked into class. The buzz of idle chatter paused the moment he opened the door, but when he came in everyone resumed their conversations, as if they were relieved it was just Nero.

Gabriel was sitting in the back, alongside a few of his other friends. Harold, the one friend who betrayed him yesterday for a girl, was no longer sitting in the back but was sitting beside Wendy, his new girlfriend. Many of his peers were talking about yesterday's fight where Green Hurricane fought against a couple of Shadow Deer in front of an audience. Others were whispering about the terrorist attack. All seemed normal.

Nero waved at his friends, but then turned to look towards the unfamiliar figure. She was a tall and slim girl with long, jet black hair. The uniform, which was designed for the cold climate of Aetherpeak, covered most of her skin, but from her hands he could tell that she was tanned.

She was leaning over a desk and talking to one of the students, her voice sweet and energetic. She hadn't seemed to notice that Nero had entered the class, not that he was concerned about that. Instead, it was who she was talking to that concerned him.

Nero walked towards them, and soon a relatively short, freckled boy came into view, his gaze locked onto the girl talking to him. Nero could see the excitement of talking to the girl right on his face, and he was animatedly replying to her when he sensed something.

He looked to the side, and the moment he saw Nero approaching the excitement he was feeling vanished, replaced instead by a deeply rooted fear. His face became pale, and his words froze.

The girl noticed the change and followed his gaze to Nero, and studied him. Nero, likewise, scrutinised the girl, and did not shy from studying her entire figure. The uniform she was wearing was loose on her, but it did not prevent him from seeing what he wanted to see.

"Don't you know it's rude to ogle at a girl like that?" she questioned him, put off by his penetrating eyes. The class suddenly hushed, as if they collectively decided to watch the drama unfold.

Nero did not respond immediately, but instead studied her eyes. They were grey, with an interesting black pattern in them. He could not tell if her hair colour and eyes had changed due to awakening, or if they were naturally like that. How interesting.

"I was not ogling at you, I was admiring your collection. You have two knives in your shoes, two on your thighs, several on your back and abdomen, as well as countless pins in your hair that I imagine can also be used as weapons. According to school policy, students are only allowed one weapon on their person on school premises, and you need to have it registered. Sorry if it appeared as if I was staring."

The girl was slightly startled, but before she could reply, the sound of a few girls laughing distracted her. She turned and saw that the entire class was staring at them, though some tried to hide it when she turned to look.

But instead of being flustered, or put off, she looked back at Nero and smiled politely.

"Ah, my bad. I thought you were… Never mind. Hi, my name is Vanessa. I'm new here." She held out her hand to shake, but Nero only looked at her hand for a moment.

"I missed the blade strapped to the forearm," he muttered, before saying aloud, "Nero. Nice to meet you. If you'll excuse me, Vanessa, I really need to talk to my friend here for a moment."

He stepped past her without shaking her hand and approached the pale boy, prompting another round of laughter from the group of girls. The boy was blonde, naturally, and had not yet gone through his own awakening. He was one of few left who hadn't in that class. He might have appeared handsome, if he didn't look like he was doing his best not to tremble.

"Silas, I have good news. I'm sure you can guess, but I've become a Neophyte. You know what that means, right? I'll get my hands on aether shards today, so I hope you're ready for our project."

Somehow, Silas became even more pale upon hearing his words.