“Alright class, shit down and shut up.” No one bothered to correct Jonathan for his cursing, and knowing if they tried to call him out on it he would just claim he said ‘sit’ and they were hearing things.

It had been three weeks since the school year started, with Sage High-schools all starting in January and ending in December each year, and during this time the class was beginning to figure things out.

Granted, they probably would never learn everything about their classmates or their teacher, but that was life for you.

But one thing they got quickly was that Jonathan was a selectively lazy teacher.

When it came to certain subject points, like mathematics involving accounting or algebra, he seemed to just laze around and lose focus during the lesson, trusting the students to practically teach themselves in a group study session while he was available to ask questions.

But in other points, Jonathan would get serious… and they would listen or get punished in some way, such as the time Vince tried to eat while Jonathan was lecturing and suddenly found his food for the rest of the week in Jonathan’s hands.

So yeah, they listened when Jonathan actually tried to teach them something, and this seemed to be one of those days… even Liza who slept all the time was awake.

She usually slept while leaning against Kazuya, who just awkwardly attempted to get away from the shorter girl who seemed obsessed with being near him for some reason.

“Today, screw every other lesson. I don’t feel like talking about that Shakespeare guy, or how to do accounting, or how to calculate gravity relative to mass of an object, today, I’m teaching you about one of the three major enemies all Sages possess.” Jonathan said, walking up to the white board as he held a marker in his hands, writing out two words on the board.

“Mystic Beasts, one of our greatest enemies, and yet also the most passive of the three, can someone tell me the textbook definition of the things, other than Jade please?” Jonathan cut off Jade just as she tried to raise her hand, making her look ready to burst into tears at not being called up.

After a week of her answering everything, Jonathan just told her to shut up and let other people answer. So she wanted to answer the question, but it was pointless if she knew everything and her classmates knew nothing.

“Mystic Beasts are essentially animal Sages, animals that mutated to somehow become capable of manipulating an Element much like we do.” The fact that Vince answered was a bit of a surprise for everyone there, and noting their looks he became sheepish as he scratched the back of his head.

“My family is heavily involved in hunting Mystic Beasts back in the USSR.” He explained and they nodded, accepting his words for what they were, he had prior reason to know these things.

“Good answer Vince. I will also add onto your explanation by saying that it isn’t just existing animals that this happens to.” Jonathan said, writing another word on the board.

“Mythology also has an effect on Mystic Beasts for reasons unknown to us.” The word Mythology appeared on the board, followed by the names of mythical creatures.

“This is proven in that Dragon Mystic Beasts exist, as well as Phoenix’s, Minotaur’s, Quetzalcoatl, there are even Leviathans in the ocean who appear similar to the beast from the 1851 novel, The Whale, better known as Moby Dick.” No one giggled at the name, let alone Kazuya who clenched his fists at the mention of the oceanic beast…

There was a good reason that, despite being of Japanese descent, Kazuya was not born there. The island nation no longer existed because two of those beings decided to attack the nation at once, sinking the once great nation under the sea about a century ago.

“In addition, Mystic Beasts, unlike us Sages, cannot grow in strength simply through training or studying. We grow by exerting ourselves, fighting, learning, and bettering our control until we eventually reach another level of strength, which we refer to as Stars.” Jonathan continued, now adding the word ‘Star’ to the board.

“Stars are not only used for Sages, but for all Element controlling beings including Mystic Beasts. Your amount of Stars is supposed to represent what rank of Mystic Beast you may hunt.” Jonathan began to draw up a table, headed by ‘Mystic Beast vs. Sages’.

“As all of you have two Stars, you may all hunt a two Star Mystic Beast alone, or a three Star if in a group of ten two Star Sages.” There were nods around the room, understanding that the difference between Stars was roughly ten times the previous one…

Of course, if one was at the pinnacle of two Stars and about to reach three Stars, they would be considered half as strong as three Stars. The jump in power was very noticeable to Sages.

But a beginner two Star Sage would be ten times weaker than a beginner three Star Sage, it was common sense.

“This ratio was informed to every major city and gathering of normal humans, but it is actually a lie I’m sorry to say.” Jonathan said, making everyone look to each other, no one willing to speak up, knowing Jonathan to want silence until a question was asked as he showed the finished table he was working on.

“This ratio is factual only up until five Stars. Beyond that point, it is no longer an equal fight. A six Star Sage cannot defeat a six Star Mystic Beast. Likewise a single ten Star Sage cannot defeat a ten Star Mystic Beast, of which there are luckily few in the world.” That was a horrifying thought to everyone in the room as they listened to the words of Jonathan…

So even if one of the Ten Kings was there for Japan, or even if there were two, they would have lost?

“Again, you must all remember, Sages do have advantages to help even the odds. For example, Mystic Beasts of different races rarely if ever work together, and unlike them, we Sages can use Elements that do not belong to us.” Jonathan said, proving his point as he raised his hand and created a fire.

“I haven’t outright stated it to you all, but I am a five Star Sage, so creating something not of my Element is not as taxing as it is for all of you… well, barring little hero.” Kazuya’s blank stare contained all the loathing in the world for Jonathan’s nickname.

“In addition, there is such a thing as Elemental advantages, though they can be worked around in some cases, most Mystic Beasts do not know those things.” Jonathan said, looking at Tony for a moment.

“Stutter-brat, launch some lightning at me.” Jonathan said as he held out his palm, a shield of water appearing over his hand, making Tony look worried before he just nodded, listening to what Jonathan asked of him.

The lightning hit the water, and fizzled out, not doing any damage to the surprise of everyone in the class.

“This is something you would learn later, but what I created just now was pure water. Lightning only travels through water due to the impurities in it, such as salt in ocean water. If there are no impurities though, water is amongst the greatest insulators in existence. Mystic Beasts, however, would never have encountered pure water, and would not know about it.” Jonathan said with a smirk as the water evaporated back into the air.

“It’s impossible to create something if you do not know about its existence, or whether or not it is even possible. Our third advantage over Mystic Beasts is our numbers. While there are definitely more than ten Mystic Beasts with Ten Stars, lower levelled Mystic Beasts are outnumbered by the amount of Sages in the world.” Jonathan pointed to another word he wrote as he spoke.

“Teamwork, this is the greatest ability a Sage can possess. Personal strength is limited, as evidenced by the ceiling that is ten Stars. But two ten Star Sages working together can defeat a single ten Star Mystic Beast.” Jonathan’s eyes showed his intent.

“Again, unlike Mystic Beasts, we can work together easier, we can research and better our powers even without gaining another Star, and unlike them we are capable of flexibility when fighting with Elements.” Jonathan stated, slamming his hands on the desk.

“This is why S-class doesn’t possess more than ten students at a time. To join the S-class one must be above the average sure, but the true purpose of the S-class is to create the strongest possible team of Sages every generation.” Jonathan explained, getting awed expressions from his students as they looked at each other.

“Yes, you seven are to be one team against Mystic Beasts. To join together and overcome the messed up monsters of nature that attack us.” Jonathan said, standing up straight from his position leaning over his desk as he walked to the door.

“Come on, we’re going to go kill some Mystic Beasts. It would be a good chance to show you all Liza’s strength too.” Liza looked worried, her mouth slightly open in denial as she shook her head as quickly as she could.

Jonathan ignored her, leaving Liza to stare up at Kazuya who winced at her puppy-eyed stare looking for help.

He decided to look away so as to better resist.

A few minutes later, they found themselves at the border of the forest near the school, with Liza practically wrapped around Kazuya’s arm, begging him with her eyes to take her place.

He ignored her, taking care to not look to his right shoulder where he would instead see her face, and with his enhanced strength as a Sage she was so light it was as if she wasn’t there.

“Liza, get off of the hero-brat and come here.” Jonathan summoned some Darkness, creating a strong enough pull to stretch out Liza… who was betrayed by Kazuya who pried her fingers off of him.

“No…” Liza’s sad look was ignored by everyone in the class in the attempt to not deal with her antics as she landed smoothly next to Jonathan.

Liza, for all that she was supposed to be the strongest in the class, she was lazy. She disliked working and seemed to enjoy just sleeping as much as she could.

She focused on some things, like languages and on occasion would even volunteer to read out things in class.

For all that she seemed to talk quietly, when she had to project her voice, she could.

She would actually make a good public speaker… but in private, she spoke haltingly with a quiet voice. It was actually adorable, but Kazuya would never let her know. She might cling even more to him, and he still wasn’t sure why she did so in the first place.

“Okay, so, Liza here is going to show you how she fights. Just so you know, she’s the only member of your class with three Stars, though she just got her third about two months ago.” That got them all to look at Liza with awe as she frowned, looking into the forest.

“Liza… Liza are you going to fight or not?” Jonathan asked as Liza instantly tried to open her mouth to deny the fight.

“It was a trick question, there is only one option. Fight or fight?” Jonathan reiterated making Liza close her mouth and frown as they walked into the forest.

“Sir, what is this place?” Edward asked, looking around as he focused on his Earth Element to act as sonar…

Surprisingly, not a lot of people figured out using their Elements as a detection method until much later on, many of the first years didn’t even know one, and in this class it was only Edward, Liza and Vince who could do it.

“It’s a Mystic Zone, a place where Mystic Beasts are born. The average Stars of the Mystic Beasts in the area determine the zone’s ranking. This zone is a one Star zone maintained by Elem High. We cull any Mystic Beasts of two Stars or higher, and allow the one Star beasts to roam free.” Jonathan’s statement was met by a nod from Kazuya.

“Combat experience? Better to gain it in a controlled environment than to get it without a safety net.” Kazuya’s words got nods from everyone before Edward spoke up.

“There is an enemy approaching, four legs, moving quickly, judging from the size it’s a wolf of some kind.” Edward’s judgement was met with a nod from Jonathan, before they noticed the breeze ruffling his hair.

“That’s about right. During our next class I’ll be teaching you all methods of tracking using any Element. And I mean any.” Kazuya was especially interested in this compared to the rest of the class…

The more he learnt about the Elements, the stronger he got, but unlike the others who only focused on two, or three in Edward’s case, he had to learn about all ten due to his Essence Element.

Sure, if he knew enough he could be really versatile in comparison to every other Sage, but it also meant that without training in every Element he would just be any other Sage.

The wolf soon appeared, growling as it bared its fangs, its coat of fur being a deep brown, revealing its Elemental inclination to be Earth or Wood.

Wood was shown by a lighter brown flecked with green, and this wolf did not show any green in its fur, so it was a Mystic Beast of the Earth Element.

Liza reached to her side, allowing the group to see Jonathan nod as Liza reached to her side, her weapons mysteriously appearing in her hands…

It was weird, in Kazuya’s opinion… oh, he used many weapons as part of his training, though a katana was his main one he could use many…

Liza’s weapon was a thin blade, almost a rapier except that it didn’t seem designed for stabbing exactly, it was just a bit too wide for that designation, and in her off hand she wielded a shorter dagger, possibly for use in parrying.

“Those aren’t her main weapon though… but her main weapon is not suitable for killing Mystic Beasts.” Jonathan’s statement got a nod from Liza as she flexed her hands, feeling the weapons settle as the wolf lunged at her while she looked at her hands.

No one warned her, knowing that Jonathan would help her out if she was truly in trouble… and then the wolf seemed to slow down while Liza vanished, reappearing on the other side of the wolf as it landed.

Or it tried to, but as its body touched the ground it fell into pieces, as if cut in mid-air so quickly that it was turned into meat blocks.

“What the hell!” Vince’s shout was accepted by everyone, and even Jonathan just nodded in agreement with the assessment.

“Yeah… Liza’s unfairly strong. Anyone of you catch that?” Jonathan asked, not really sure on who might have seen what happened.

“I caught some of it… only a bit though.” Edward admitted, and Vince was nodding his head furiously as if he was in a punk rock concert.

“I saw quite a bit, she moved like she was strolling! Then she began attacking and… I got lost.” Vince saw her movement, but did not see her attack; it made sense for Vince’s eyesight to be so good though, given his role as a long-range attacker.

“I saw everything.” Kazuya’s words got many of the group looking at him as he narrowed his eyes at Liza…

He was mostly staring at her because she was standing in front of him, staring up at him with eyes that screamed ‘praise me!’ and he just looked to Jonathan.

“Sir… Liza’s Element, it’s not Light, or Lightning, the two fastest Elements… rather, it can’t be those.” Jonathan raised an eyebrow, motioning for Kazuya to complete his statement.

“Of the three fastest Elements, all have their own set movements that affect their users. Lightning users tend to move erratically, Light users in a straight line and Wind users as if flowing towards their opponents… but she just walked.” Kazuya’s statement was punctuated with a stare at Liza.

“Your Element… it seems impossible, but given that I have an eleventh Element, a twelfth doesn’t seem so farfetched. It would be an Element that made slow movements fast, or fast movements slower… is it Time?” Kazuya’s question was met with a blank stare.

“Yes. Time is my Element…. strong.” Liza was still staring at him unblinkingly… if she had a tail she might have been wagging it with how interested in his opinion she was.

“Time as an Element? That’s... How would someone beat that, if it works like other Elements?” Leah asked, getting nods of agreement from the others.

For Sages, possessing an Element meant being able to ‘generate’ and ‘manipulate’ that Element. For Kazuya, being able to generate excess Essence and manipulate it easily into other Elements was a given.

Leah could generate time, to speed up the time for something, or manipulate the existing time, to slow it down, and how she used that basic ability would be determined by how strong she got.

“It isn’t impossible to defeat Liza, just difficult.” Jonathan admitted from the side as he poked Liza’s head, making her turn to glare at him… which just allowed him to begin poking her forehead like she was one of those bobble-head figurines.

“Yes, like Kazuya, Liza has an Element we haven’t really encountered in a Sage before, Time. She has the opposite problem to Kazuya though.” Kazuya immediately understood and looked to Liza with softer eyes.

“Time takes a huge amount of essence to manipulate even a bit, which is why she doesn’t use it in a large area usually, instead internalizing it and speeding up her movement speed, occasionally she can even affect one or two enemies.” Liza nodded in agreement to Jonathan’s words as Kazuya placed his palm on her head, getting a small blush as she stared at him.

“…Does doing that shorten your lifespan?” his question got wide eyes from their classmates as Liza tried to look away, only to realize that the palm on her head was not to comfort her, but to keep her in place.

“…Yes. After I fight, I slow down my time to keep it balanced though.” Kazuya sighed, accepting her statement before he flicked his fingers at her forehead.

“Fine, as long as you aren’t killing yourself.” Kazuya said as he walked to Jonathan, leaving Liza to look at his back.

“That is truly the look of a maiden in love.” Vince and Edward were nodding as they looked to her, making Liza shy away from them… even Tony was nodding, despite saying nothing.

She unfortunately backed into Leah and Jade who were looking at her with tears in her eyes, and Liza immediately tried to escape before she got surrounded and attacked.

She didn’t make it, and so Edward, Vince and Edward placed their palms together in silent prayer for her while Jade and Leah babbled on about how cute her affections were.

“Sir, are we all going to fight a Mystic Beast? And if so, can I fight next?” Jonathan nodded at Kazuya’s question while Kazuya felt glad that he carried his blade with him everywhere he went.

Kazuya wasn’t allowed to use it against other students though, so he had never revealed the blade before now.

“Sure. In fact, there’s an elk nearby.” Kazuya nodded, and the group was shocked out of interrogating Liza on her feelings by Jonathan and Kazuya walking away.

Liza was quick to turn herself into a practical backpack for Kazuya, who just ignored her presence, as well as her complaints of how walking in a forest got twigs in her shoes.

They encountered the elk Mystic Beast soon, and found its coat to be a bright red, its horns smouldering as if they were ashes left from a fire.

Its Element was obvious at this point, as it saw the students approaching, dragging its front hooves on the ground as Kazuya walked forward, removing his sword from its bag, carrying the scabbard in his left hand.

Kazuya squared his stance, preparing his attack with his Elements, waiting patiently for the moment the elk got in range.

It charged, its horns pointed to Kazuya, the sheer size of them creating a charging ‘Iron Maiden’ and Kazuya just waited…

When it seemed the horns were just about to hit him, Kazuya’s body lowered as he ducked under the horns aimed for his upper body, spinning to the side as he unsheathed his blade.

The elk fell immediately, unlike Liza’s action of cutting the wolf so fast it broke apart as it landed, Kazuya was not that fast. The result of his swing was apparent the moment it was completed, given that the elk’s body was now without a head.

The class seemed impressed, though it was Edward who spoke up as he looked to Kazuya’s blade.

“Kazuya, your sword… is that made of Adamantine?” Edward’s question got glances to the blade as they realized that unlike normal swords, this one had a pale green hue, proving the nature of the metal was not normal.

“Yes. Principal Oren provided it to me in exchange for allowing the study of my Element.” Kazuya admitted, looking at the lustre of the blade, shining where the sun hit it.

Adamantine was a ‘high metal’ which could only be created by Metal Sages such as the Principal. Starting from the third star, Metal sages became capable of creating these high metals, though only in certain amounts.

The Principal was the King of Metal, the only ten Star Sage of metal in the world, so he obviously possessed a metal that no other Metal sage could use.

Adamantine was a metal that could only be created by five Star Sages, and could only be broken by beings of equivalent strength.

“I’m a bit jealous… most of our equipment is made of Damascus.” Tony’s statement regarding the first high metal was agreed by everyone except Liza and Edward.

“Mine, Hihirokane.” Liza’s weapons were even rarer, using the seven Star high metal and making Kazuya look at her blades with interest.

“Ha, ha! I do not need equipment for my body is a weapon unto its own!” Edward’s grand statement was punctuated with a flexing of his muscles… hidden under his school uniform… and they all remembered that he wasn’t given a weapon because he was bad with them.

So yeah, Edward’s statement wasn’t as powerful as it could have been.

“But you have armour to wear right? I mean, if you’re a fist fighter then armour is a given.” Kazuya added, getting over his jealousy of Liza’s weapons for a moment.

“Indeed, my armour is made of Mithril, the four Star high metal. My family refused to provide anything stronger otherwise I would overly rely on the defence.” Edward admitted, and they could see the point to what Edward was saying.

“I mostly asked for adamantine because normal metal would break with how I use my katana. Mithril might have worked, but it would have been too light.” Edward nodded, looking back to the elk, which had its neck sliced.

It didn’t look like much after the deed was done, but what Kazuya had done was the equivalent of cutting through a tree trunk in one slash. Mystic Beasts were stronger than normal animals, and their bodies reflected this, Edward had no doubt that a normal human being would find it impossible to even cut through the meat of the elk.

“Each of you is going to hunt one Mystic Beast today. Don’t worry about collecting the corpse, I’ll be storing them.” Ah, the Darkness Element… lots of odd abilities it had, one being the ability to store things, an odd ability which apparently used shadows as containers.

So they left, getting bits of information about Mystic Beasts that they encountered and general information.

For one, one Star Mystic Beasts couldn’t externally control an Element, and it just affected them in some arbitrary manner. Like the elk and its flaming horns, or the wolf and its tough exterior… that tough fur was ignored because Liza had extremely powerful weapons and the physique of a three Star Sage.

Despite being smaller than Kazuya, she could probably bench press almost double how much he could. And he could lift about eight hundred kilos.

Was it any wonder he ignored her weight when she jumped on him? She was light… and she could probably hurt him and then just force him to carry her.

They encountered five more Mystic Beasts, each of Fire, Water, Earth or Wind elements, as the other Elements did not start from one Star for Mystic Beasts.

Lightning, Ice, Metal and Wood Mystic Beasts were all ‘born’ with two Stars, with Light and Darkness Mystic Beasts being extremely rare and born with three Stars.

From this, they learnt that Water Element Mystic Beasts had strange physiques, such as a doe which was capable of running on water, killed by Jade… she cried a bit after killing the beautiful creature.

Jonathan just told her to get used to it and they carried on.

Then there were Wind Mystic Beasts which were lighter in weight than their size would suggest and fast, a wolf was kicked by Tony only to end up going above the trees almost, making the shy boy look confused and worried.

Edward, being the ‘manly man’ that he was, decided to take on a bear with the Earth Element. Jonathan just shrugged and said he could go for it.

The only people who didn’t seem to understand what was going on was Leah and Jade when Edward fought the bear.

Everyone but them were nodding with approval at the fight, even Liza as Edward hit the bear with a knee in the chin, forcing it up right before he stepped behind the bear, doing his best to wrap his arms around its chest…

And then he gave the bear a German Suplex. Kazuya shed a tear at the manly sight and they continued their journey looking for an opponent for Vince and Leah.

Vince’s opponent ended up being a rabbit of the Wind Element, something tiny, fast, and nigh impossible to hit.

Vince killed it with one shot, and he wasn’t even near it, reminding the class that Vince, for all his fun and games, was the long range specialist in their class, and he had admitted to coming from a family specialized in hunting Mystic Beasts.

As for Leah, her fight was with a Water Element owl, which could fling its feathers at her.

They would hit with the force of being thrown with a brick, killing a normal human if they got hit in the head, but Leah just used her water to catch the feathers before she twirled her arm, creating a wall of air hitting the owl and making it fall.

“You might have a talent for capturing Mystic Beasts alive, stutter girl. Kill it though.” Jonathan’s blunt statement was met with a shaky nod and a slash of wind cutting the head of the owl off.

“Well, with that, you’ve all killed a Mystic Beast. Who killed their first today?” Jonathan’s question was met with raised hands from Tony, Leah and Jade and he nodded.

“I expected that. People who have killed Mystic Beasts before don’t really let it bother them. They look like normal animals with funky colours but they kill any human that enters their territory.” He reminded and the three considered it…

If they weren’t Sages, they would have died during their fights, so they got the point. It would take time before they got used to the idea of killing things though.

“Sir, I wanted to ask, but how do Mystic Beasts gain Stars?” Kazuya asked as they walked back, and Jonathan looked at them.

“They’re different from Sages. For us to gain a Star in strength, it requires us to train and learn, increasing our control of our Element as well as the strength of our bodies.” Jonathan stated, giving a reminder to his students, all of whom had at least two Stars so they had all done this before.

“By increasing control, a Sage compresses their Essence so that they may hold more. By strengthening our bodies, a Sage gains more ‘space’ for more Essence. Both methods result in holding more Essence until we experience a change in our bodies.” Jonathan’s words were met with nods.

“It’s actually similar to those Chinese cultivation novels, except we don’t have anything as amazing as a ‘Dao’ or something.” Jonathan’s statement was met by confusion…

Jade kept quiet about how she understood what he meant, given that she enjoyed the novels herself.

“For Mystic Beasts though, they don’t need to train, or study, or anything like that. They just have to live and survive.” Jonathan complained with a frown on his face.

“Mystic Beasts naturally compress their Essence as they age, meaning they will gain strength simply living. And you all know what happens to your life span with more Stars?” they nodded, knowing what Jonathan was getting at.

Principal Oren was the second youngest of the Ten Kings with being about one hundred years old, having become a King around his nineties. He looked like he was in his twenties, and he’d probably live much longer as long as he didn’t get killed.

“The stronger you get, the longer you live. It’s the same for Mystic Beasts, except they are guaranteed to increase in rank before they get too old.” That was an annoying thing, but they got the idea.

“Now, that’s our lesson on Mystic Beasts. By the way, here, you all have twenty pages of homework.” They all blanked as they looked to their teacher, holding all their work in his arms as they stared.

“What, you think I was given authorization to take you out there? We had class at the time, and you all need to keep up with the curriculum or I’ll be fired and you’ll all fail.” Jonathan’s blunt statement was met with groans as they took their homework and walked away.

They didn’t see the smile on Jonathan’s face as he nodded, looking back to the forest, nor did they hear his words.

“Taught them something useful today…” his statement was met with a caress of the wind before he walked away with a smile.

“You always know what to say, dear.” Jonathan considered how to mess with his students tomorrow even as the wind ruffled his hair.