Chapter 21: 21

Xiao Lin had a rough understanding of Dawn Academy’s stance when it came to the classes. Students were not recommended to take courses in cultivation and magic at the same time. For example, Basic Swordsmanship and Basic Saber Technique were arranged at different times, since there were many who had chosen both Swordsmanship and Saber Technique. Meanwhile, few probably chose both Swordsmanship and Magic.

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Xiao Lin was still unable to devise a solution, even by two in the afternoon. Left without a choice, he had to bite the bullet and head to his Basic Swordsmanship class. Unlike the mandatory courses, the training venues for more specific courses were located in the more remote southeast corner of the school. There, magnificent training halls were aplenty, almost to the point where one could not see the end of the building. Each training hall was at least the size of two football fields.

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As he approached the training hall, Xiao Lin discovered many people wearing school uniforms–in red, blue, and even black–all senior students. The building formed the main training venue for the entire academy.

The freshmen’s training hall was in the frontmost row of those venues. He searched one by one and quickly found the hall holding Basic Swordsmanship. After verifying his identity with his universal card, the hall’s doors automatically opened.

Inside the training hall, Xiao Lin discovered that the interior was different than what he imagined. The hall in itself was divided into two sides—left and right. The left half was an empty training ground with wooden floors. Various weapons—including swords, shortswords, épées, and broadswords—were arranged against the wall. Every single one was made of wood and was likely to be used for training.

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On the right side of the hall were partitioned, transparent single rooms. Figures stood inside each of the rooms, but on closer inspection, he could see that the figures were actually just bronze dummies.

Xiao Lin did not arrive early. There were already plenty of people inside the stadium, and more were still coming in. The total number of people probably amounted to at least two hundred. Fortunately, the stadium was large enough to accommodate that many people, and the swordsmanship teacher had not yet arrived. Everyone got together and chatted in groups of twos and threes.

“Xiao Lin! Here!”

Xiao Lin saw someone enthusiastically beckoning toward him as soon as he came in. He searched deep in his memory, realizing that he did not know the person. Nevertheless, he walked over and greeted them politely.

“My name is Cheng Ming. I’m the acting class monitor for Freshmen Class One. We were just talking about you. You got pretty famous in the forum last night. Lots of people are excited to get to know you.” The guy who spoke was a dark-skinned, robust-looking boy. He had a hearty smile and a rather squarish face.

“You were talking about me? ” Xiao Lin noticed that there were six people gathered around Cheng Ming, all of whom looked at Xiao Lin in a different light.

Cheng Ming smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “They’re the monitors from each class. Everyone’s got a penchant for swords. Of the twelve acting monitors, eight chose Basic Swordsmanship.”

Xiao Lin smiled and greeted the others, but he did not receive an eager response.

“The Chinese people love swords more than other weapons,” a ponytailed girl coldly remarked. She hardly noticed Xiao Lin’s smile.

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“We’re all competitors here, actually. Chen Yu said it before. The year leader will be chosen from among us. ”

“We’re still waiting for our status as acting squad leader to become official. ”

“What’s wrong? Short on confidence? We’re all talented students here. I think everyone was surprised about what our talents could do during the admission test! ”

“Hehe, that isn’t actually the case. Isn’t there one other talentless class monitor? ”

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Apart from Cheng Ming, the others did not have the slightest intention of introducing themselves– only casting a glance at Xiao Lin. They then continued with their conversation, only looking at Xiao Lin when the topic turned to him. It was clear that the others were not too friendly toward him.

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Cheng Ming felt a little embarrassed and apologetically smiled at Xiao Lin. He said, in a slightly dissatisfied tone, “Come on, guys. We’re all acting class monitors here.”

“I heard that there’s someone in Class Seven with an attribute value of forty-six and probably set a new world record. Is that true?” The ponytailed girl spoke first and looked suddenly at Xiao Lin.

Xiao Lin had no clue about the world record that Gu Xiaoyue had broken, but was very surprised. However, his tone froze over too. “It is, but that girl is also talentless. Haha. ”

His words made some of the acting class monitors a little embarrassed. The fact remained that their basic attributes were not as high as Gu Xiaoyue’s.

“I’m definitely going to be the year leader!” The girl with the ponytail had an aggressive glint in her eyes.

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Xiao Lin grew bored and left the company of that group. He stood quietly in one corner and waited for the course to start.

At two o’clock, their tutor stepped into the training hall, right on time. Xiao Lin was quite surprised to find that the image of the Basic Swordsmanship teacher was far from what he had envisioned.

She was a very attractive woman, clad in a tight, long black dress. Her curves made her the perfect example for the golden ratio. She had short, attention-catching ginger hair, and her fair face had a very heroic quality. She lifted her chin up slightly, while her proud and confident eyes swept across every freshman’s face.

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She was a very confident, very beautiful woman. The students who made eye contact with her compelling gaze inadvertently turned away, but a few boys still who catcalled after her.

The woman smiled. Her black boots clacked against the floor as she walked to the nearest boy. Her beautiful face leaned forward, and she asked in a seductive tone. “Pretty, am I?”

“Yes! Very!” The woman’s tone seemed to have encouraged the boy. He made an exaggerated thumbs-up and smiled triumphantly, as if showing off to the others.

However, he could not even hold his smile for more than a second. The woman’s expression changed at lightning speed and her black boots rose 180 degrees into the air, kicking the boy square in the face.

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Boom!

Before the boy could even retract his smile, he soared like a rocket, hitting the hall’s ceiling with a thud, and falling back to the ground like a meteor. The force of the impact rocked the solid training hall a little. Xiao Lin had to look away; the guy’s face was so bloody that his mother might not even recognize him.

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The woman said loudly in a brash, unfeminine voice. “Remember, all of you: I am not your teacher, I am your tutor! This is the most lenient punishment you can get catcalling your tutor! Of course, the academy is equipped with automatic treatment systems in every training hall and it’s possible for you to recover, if your injury isn’t fatal. However, I’d like to remind you that the treatment system is no longer free after the admission test has concluded. You’ll have to exchange redemption points for them now.”

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“I don’t have any redemption points,” someone muttered.

The woman sneered. “If you don’t have any, you’ll automatically pay it with your credits. If you don’t have enough credits,” she giggled, “just sit tight and wait for your memory to be erased. You’ll be sent straight back to Earth! ”

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