[Veronica Vance: Lvl 2 || Xp: 45/100]

[Class: Warrior]

[Skills: \Slash lvl 2\ \Tank Shot lvl 1\ \Distract lvl 1\ ]

[Passive: \Warrior Apprentice lvl 1\ \Close Combat lvl 1\ ]

[Items: Iron Sword, Iron Chestplate]

[Rupert Vance: Lvl 2 || Xp: 12/100]

[Class: Mage]

[Title: Gifted of the system]

[Skills: \Wind Blade lvl 1 \ \Heal Wound lvl 3\ \Empower lvl 1\ ]

[Passives: \Mana Genius\ \Magic Apprentice lvl 1\ ]

[Items: Staff Wood Wand, Mage Robe]

In the few days before classes start, Veronica managed to get her [Slash] to level 2 and Rupert got his [Heal Wound] to level 3. Neither knew what speed their progress was, but both were determined to not fall behind the other.

Every day after her training, Veronica had increasingly passionate sex with Rupert. He had found a bit of a cheat code when it came to the deed. [Heal Wound] controlled to heal his muscles could restore his stamina a bit, even if it did make his mind tired. He did it anyway. Anything for his wife.

Sweaty and tired, they laid in bed together. The complex brain chemistry was slowly wearing off as they relaxed. Rational overtook primal and they could talk about their day.

"I started to block the stronger attacks from The Instructor today. He taught me how to divert the strike and counter. It was really fun.

"Hm."

"What about you? You've been disappearing every day since our spar. I hope I..."

"It wasn't that. I think I know why you'd think so, but I decided that trying to fight you at close range is like trying to break a rock with an egg. I'm not the right match to fight you, so I go practice magic. If you haven't noticed...my stamina is a bit better. *Eyebrow hint*"

She slapped his arm.

"You cheeky bastard. You were cheating using magic?"

"Yep."

They kissed and relaxed further into the pillows. Tomorrow was their first day of classes. Rupert at 52 and Veronica at 48, neither had been in school for a very long time. They bother hoped that the other students wouldn't be too much younger than them. Otherwise, they would feel extremely out of place.

Rupert leaned over and double-tapped the magic lamp, letting the room fall into darkness. They drifted off into a deep sleep, excited and wary of the changes to come.

---------

The sun flittered through the red curtains of the room, reflecting off the mirror on the opposite wall. This light then went right into the eyes of the couple. It was an alarm clock of sorts; no one could sleep with that much light in their face.

Veronica was the first to stir awake, soon followed by her husband. They quickly put on their clothes and gear, checking each other's appearance.

As beautiful as ever.

As handsome as ever.

They walked hand in hand through the door and down the stone hallway. The arrows on the wall directed them to the interior training hall. That would be the location of their classes most of the time.

When they found it, they were blown away by the magnificence of it. It wasn't even a classroom at this point, more like an entire ecosystem underground. The room, if it could be called that, was about 4 football fields big. There was green grass and towering trees. A stream ran through the whole space. A blue artificial sun hung overhead, lighting the entire place. A waterfall could be seen in the distance at the start of the stream, coming out of the rock face.

"Wow."

"Amazing."

In one of the tree clearings, a small amphitheater had been built. In the seats, two dozen people sat ranging from 16-19 years old. Without exception, they all wore black leather and black cloaks. At least two daggers hung by their sides, some had entire belts of daggers slung across their chest. One of them even had some kind of yellow eyeglasses.

In Rupert's eyes, those glasses emitted a slight glow, showing that they were enchanted. The others looked at the two arrivals, each making their own judgments.

They were all the most talented assassins the Harbingers had, the next generation of deadly professionals; raised on death. They had been through years of bloody conflict to show their brilliance. And now, two pansies had been added to their elite class. It was the largest error in their eyes.

Who are they to join our ranks?

The only person who didn't hold such stigma was the teacher. It was an elderly woman with small bifocals. The arch in her back and the cane in her hands portrayed the image of a frail old woman. In Rupert's eyes, every inch of her glowed brightly with many colors. He didn't understand what the different colors meant, but he would find out eventually.

In a sickly sweet voice, the woman gestured to them.

"Please, come have a seat, dearies. We haven't been waiting long."

Rupert and Veronica sat down on the stone benches. They were oddly warm to the touch.

"Today is a joyous day. Today we welcome two new students, Veronica and Rupert. They may be older than you, but treat them with respect, and they will do the same. Now, onto the first lesson..."

"Teacher!"

One of the students stood up. Someone had to voice their grievances.

"How can they be let into this class. We are the..."

Before he could utter the next word, thin metal threads wrapped his body. The armored areas became bound while the unprotected areas drew drops of blood. He immediately began to lose his color. The threads didn't just bind him, but also rapidly suck his HP out and give it to the elderly lady. The Mother Spider.

"I expect you to watch your tongue young man. They may not be strong now, but they WILL surpass all of you in the future. The Grand Shadow has personally put them here. Show some respect."

She released the kid and let him fall to the ground. He pulled out a glass bottle filled with a red liquid and drank it down with great speed. His face regained its color and he sat back down. He counted his blessings that he was let off so easily.

He grossly miscalculated the backing of the newcomers, reevaluating his position on them.

"As I was saying, our first lesson of the day; brief history."

All the kids groaned. Every time their families have tried to teach them it, they would rather fight in the wilderness. Why learn the past when levels and skills were all that mattered?

"Those who neglect history are doomed to repeat it. Who can tell me who Gunn The Warhammer was?"

There was silence among them. The only noise made was the rustling of trees and the sound of running water.

"As I thought, none of you. A shame that the young neglect the teachings of the old. Gunn The Warhammer started out as an assassin. He was raised by one of the 16 Clans of Darkness in the west and grew to become a feared man. One day, he met a dragon and attempted to kill it. In anger, the dragon cut off his limbs over and over, watching them regrow over and over."

"After a dozen years, the dragon got bored and flew to a different planet; leaving an emaciated Gunn. His dextrous hands had lost all their finesse. His once expert foot skill became useless with his now weak chicken legs. Not many knew what happened next, but a decade later, he emerged from the mountains with a body of unparalleled strength."

"His class changed entirely, from an assassin to a warrior. His arms became as thick as legs and his legs became as thick as trees. Instead of daggers, he now wielded a war hammer. He was targeted by his clan for casting off his assassin heritage and in turn, he destroyed them. Now, only 11 Clans of Darkness exist. It took 5 entire allied clans of skilled assassins and auxiliary professionals to take down one man."

There were many shocked faces in the class.

"What is the lesson here? What can we take from this snippet of history?"

"Don't piss off dragons?"

"Become a warrior?"

"Don't exile past assassins?"

"Use a war hammer?"

She started to get agitated.

"Think! All your answers are questions! Use those so-called brains of yours."

Rupert thought about it for a few moments and came up with an answer of his own. He wasn't a fan of history either but agreed that it had its value.

"More than one path to real strength exists."

The Mother Spider smiled at him.

"Excellent! Wonderful analysis; it is you said, there is no singular path to power. The Almighty System grants us so many ways to become strong, therefore no excuse exists explaining why each of you cannot become the strongest. Even after being reduced to nothing, Gunn rose past his previous heights. Obstacles are just that, something to move past. Remember this as you grow, EVERYTHING can make you stronger."

The children sat and thought about it. The older couple instantly absorbed it. It made sense, a simple lesson to learn. As a bonus, they got a small look into the world beyond. There were clans, dragons, and other planets. All information was relevant information for them.

"Enough thinking, onto the second lesson. The first one was to get your brains spinning this early in the day. Now, you run."

What?

Instantly, the metal thread from earlier rose from the ground and began to chase the students. When it got close, it disappeared in a flashed and left a long and shallow cut on your body. Order switched to chaos as all the students started to scatter.

Veronica grabbed Rupert and carried him away, using her better agility to avoid the initial onslaught. After, she put him down and let him run on his own.

"What the hell is going on!"

"I don't know! But keep running!"

While everyone turned to panic, the old woman stood there and started to laugh maniacally.

"Run! Run you little chickens! The slowest one has to cleanse my pet's spider hollow! HAHA!"

The image of an elderly lady was replaced with a crazed lunatic in the eyes of the Otherworlders. She just stood there...menacingly.

Rupert had a hard time catching up, but Veronica only had about doubled his agility. The gully between them was not yet that vast. Rupert cast Empower on himself every ten seconds, allowing him to remain side by side with her for a few moments. Though it quickly drained his mana, it would eventually come back. The faster they got away right now, the better off they would be later.

Right when they thought they were safe, a silver thread zoomed through the air and sliced Veronica's cheek. Rupert quickly healed the would and grabbed her hand, causing them to quickly stop. Rupert's physical stats weren't the greatest,

but his high intelligence made his brain process things much faster.

In front of them, there was a nearly hidden web of threads, emitting an insignificant glow around them. It was truly built like a spider web, meant to entrap them should they fall into it.

The duo turned to the right and continued their running. Again, they quickly ran into another web of threads. They were quickly creating a maze around them, creating walls from thin air. If they continued to do nothing, they would be encased in webs soon.

Rupert's mind was running at full speed while Veronica was physically running at full speed. The combination lead to strong web-detection and web-avoidance.

Why is this happening?

That question popped into Rupert's head. Unlike the other questions that floated around and disappeared, this one stuck around.

Why... no... she said 'next lesson.' This is a lesson!

Even while thinking, Rupert still watched for webs.

"Dodge left and duck! Start running towards the teacher!"

"Why!"

"Trust me!"

Veronica grabbed Rupert's hand and threw him over the web wall forming while she herself dodged left and ducked. Rupert landed hard, but quickly healed himself and took off running; Veronica on his heels.

If this is a lesson, there is something to learn from it... but what!

The threads detected their new direction and started a new wave of onslaughts. They hadn't managed to land a hit in a few minutes, so they upped their ferocity. It used to be a dozen threads chasing after the both of them, now doubling to 24.

Rupert tried to think of the reason for the lesson. It just wasn't coming to him.

He hopped on Veronica's back and started to form a wind blade. The air in front of them sharpened and concentrated, ready to be launched. Instead, he kept it charged and ready to launch. The skill screamed at him to let it go, this wasn't how it was supposed to be used.

Now they were like a charging bulldozer with that cut all the threads in front of them, running from the threads behind them. They started to get really close to the teacher and caused the threads chasing them to double again. This forced Rupert to release the wind blade and slice them all.

It took one final push, but they both managed to stand in front of the teacher. two meters around her, there was a safe area of sorts. The threads all stopped in a sphere around her.

They laid on the ground, exhausted. Rupert healed Veronica first, needing to wait a few minutes before he had enough mana to heal himself. When they had enough energy to stand, they walked over to the teacher. She had a wicked smile on her face.

"I was told you two were special. So, what did we learn from this?"

Rupert had to find a way to put his actions into words. They were told to flee, being chased by threads that cut them if they got close enough. It seemed hopeless to get away from them, they were ever-present. At that moment, he chose to go towards the source. It was his first instinct in the situation, a little voice in his mind. That's where the mana is. There is where you can stop this.

"When running doesn't work, fight."

Her smile only grew more wicked.

"Good. You may sit now. Enjoy the rest of the show, little ones."