The combat class was outdoors?

I saw a bunch of people gathering around a stadium and a young man in half armor like a mercenary. He had a young woman in matching armor behind him.

I formed a chair with a thought and sat down, kicking a leg over the arm. Card began dancing between my fingers as I watched the cliques of more than thirty people. Six more walked up, one of them being Linda who headed directly towards me.

“Young master,” she bowed, creating a chair for herself.

I noticed a few commoners looked at Linda and she glanced at one or two with eyes of recognition.

“Can I invite those two over? They grew up in my village. They might not be talented according to nobles but they killed more wild beasts than I did.” Linda bragged for them.

“If you want to talk to them. Go on over but I’m meditating. I don’t need the extra distraction.” I rebuked.

Linda glanced at the card that was a blur before she blushed in embarrassment and began meditating herself. Though she was much more obvious. Pulling her legs up into lotus and taking deep breaths.

The young man on the stage glanced at his pocket watch. He waited a few more seconds before clapping once, which silenced all talking.

“I am your Combat Instructor Jacob Rede and this is my wife, Joanne Rede. She will be here as designated healer.” his voice boomed across the field. “Your class is going to be very simple and practical. In mere moments, a gate will open. Dropping you in a hostile environment that you will have to defend your life in. This is a mission which will grant you credit points.”

He paused and let the murmuring and protesting get out.

“I know. I know. You aren’t ready, you are in your first year but this is an advanced combat class not a beginner. If you can’t handle it then please leave now and go see your mentor if you have one. If you don’t then whiny bitch center is always open to help you face reality.” He chuckled, pacing around the stadium.

“To graduate, you need a thousand credits. Just by passing the mandatory classes, you will get the equivalent of a hundred credits per year. Which means at the end of four years, you will pick up four hundred credits. The rest of your credits come from school events, competitions, and these missions. In which you are about to embark in a few moments. By doing them now, you are getting ahead of your peers, the rest of the first years. This is an excellent achievement for you. Now I will give you time to form teams of five at the highest.”

He stopped talking and turned to his wife, ignoring us completely.

A few even yelled out to get his attention but him and his wife had an excellent conversation about who they felt would die the quickest.

Linda’s friends walked towards us, which wasn’t surprising but I ignored them. They were men, when did I become an all male party? Never, right. Not someone as handsome as I, would get the stigma of a dog lover. Not going to happen.

“Hey, I am…” one of the buffier of the three spoke up.

But I interrupted, “Sorry, I only party with women. Higher payout. Ignoring that, crafters first then burdens latter.” I spoke loudly enough for everybody to hear me.

Which spark few crafters to come running up. One of them being a commoner with soot stains on her clothes and slightly darken fingers. Well, she was really tan as if she stood in the sun all her life. However, she was buff like two of me could barely make up one of her.

“I'm a three star blacksmith. My father is one star blacksmith and works in the capital association as deputy director.” her voice was a little hoarse but loud.

I nodded and gestured to the side.

“Two more slots.”

Of course, this when someone tries to throw money into the picture. A blonde girl with a bag of jiggling coins thrust into my face.

“I’m not a craftsman but I’m willing to pay. Fifty gold coins..”

“I am an enchanter. Six stars but my theoretical knowledge is four stars.” A black haired girl held up her artificer badge high.

Well high for her was like one feet higher than my chest. She was a small girl with narrow eyes, ink stains on her fingers.

“Enchanter girl come over. One spot left.” I chuckled.

When one person had a smart idea, why couldn’t everybody else copy? Another noble did just that and with his blonde hair. He was obvious from royalty thus attracted more of the noble's attention than I did.

It was fine. I was looking more for the commoners than nobles to begin with. Why? Ha, simple. According to the rules, carrying crafts of any status gives ten extra credits. Commoners fifteen extra credits. So on top of being commoners, they were all craftsmen which meant twenty-five credits per person.

A slender tall green hair girl walked over me, dressed more impeccably than any commoner. However, I tossed out the idea she was a commoner the moment I saw her pointed ears and clean fingers. Plus she was holding a notebook, flipped open while giving me that kind of look that said. We were destined together.

“As your Fiance, I think I should fill up that last slot don’t you think?” Her voice was soft and almost had a melodious tint.

She flipped the book to me and I cringed. Ah, yeah. I totally forgot about my engagement. Why? Well, it had to do with the fact that my father did it without asking for my opinion. Did it matter if I agreed or not though? Obviously not.

My family had a specific issue that was hard to cover. That being that we could not reproduce with our fellow humans. Ah, you might be wondering, what kind of bullshit is this? Because of the way we utilized our power, the way we live, and the overall aspect of our genes. We were closer to very rare creatures called Fae.

What this meant was that while we started out as humans. We have breed out the majority of those genes and become something more like forest elves but longer lived because our meditation sequence is using aether to strengthen our limited immortality. We would never be able to become angels and such. Fully immortality. Die and you are reborn in place of power.

No, we were just tougher, lived longer, stronger, and closer to nature. Sigh, though it's hard to hide that knowledge and my father’s father doesn’t even exist in the outside world. Even though he tours a lot of realms and has a palace inside of a mountain.

We weren’t the only families like this though. There were many old families with thousands or even longer, years of foundation. Real Royalty, for example, their symbol wasn’t merely dragons. Well, drakes. They also mated with them to increase the bloodline power.