Chapter 115.1– Ranger Academy XV- Classing up!

I stumbled out of the arena, having held up a good front for the crowd, to where Ocean – and Artemis – were waiting.

“Good work Ranger Elaine.” Ocean said, formally saluting. Holy shit, I was being saluted by a Sentinel.

Artemis shot him a dirty look, pulling me into a hug.

“Good job healy-bug. Proud of you. You’re free now. Need a moment?”

I nodded, resting a moment, gathering my thoughts, then getting up.

“Right, let’s head back.”

“Don’t want to watch Brawling?” Ocean asked.

“I want to get as far away as I can from the crowd that was screaming for me to be raped in front of all of them, thank you very much.” I said, the memory like oily grease on my mind. I spat, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

“Yeah, let’s ditch those losers.” Artemis said, as we started to walk out.

Ocean sputtered behind us.

“The stands are filled with Citizens! Senators! At least two other Sentinels! And more! You can’t just call them all losers!”

Artemis shot him a look, which impressed me. She was willing to sass a Sentinel. “I can, and I did.”

We made it back to Ranger Academy without further incident, where I technically had the rest of the day off.

It was freeing. I hadn’t realized how much mental load was taken up by Kerberos, wondering where he was, when he’d strike next at me. I had nothing for mental trauma, and his goons torturing me was easily the worst memory I had. Him being dead and gone was freeing, blissful. I was practically skipping and whistling from that.

I still made it to Sky’s lesson, but apart from that, I took it easy. Who didn’t want to fly?

There was no way I’d stand Night up though, and we met at the usual time and place.

“Ranger Elaine. Most excellent.” He started off by saying.

I’d had time to cool off, and while I wasn’t about to start going down a pacifist path, I just felt sick. I’d literally blown someone’s head off, and I’d had every reason to do it. It was the right thing, it was self-defense, I’d do it again, but Night kinda had a point. I’d never deliberately, directly killed another person before, and it was a whole new experience. The sheer intensity of the emotional fallout from it being Kerberos, the demon who’d been on my back, was doing me no favors as well. My emotional state was all over the place.

It was good to cope with the emotion. It was healthy to process it.

Bless the contemplation between each sentence, the silent walking to process thoughts. I had a sense that I was going to pick up this habit of Night’s in the future.

“I believe, in the few weeks left to us, that it is time for you to class up. I shall make no comment on what I believe you should take, except to listen to those who have, with the best of intentions, given you advice.”

Classing up time! My spirits lifted considerably at that.

“Now, with that being said, let us discuss your general skills. Your [Training] skill has reached, more or less, the end of its useful life. You made most excellent use out of it, but at this time, I believe we should replace the skill, and use the remaining time to get your new skill as high as possible, along with getting used to your new abilities, should you change element, or get a particularly interesting new skill.” Night said.

“I recommend you get [Reflexes]. It will help with your reaction time. The hope is, one day, it will evolve with your [Vigilant] into [Speedster’s Perception], a most useful skill.”

We took a few moments while I digested what he said. It made sense, but…

“I know I encouraged Artemis to take the skill once upon a time. I do not know what has happened with her and the skill, but I have reason to believe she still has it or an evolved version.”

I thought about Artemis, and her superhuman reaction time.

[Reflexes] it was! Not that I was going to argue with Night over it.

“It’s hard to say one way or another if taking [Reflexes] now and then classing up will be better than keeping [Training] and classing up. [Training] isn’t that useful, and is unlikely to impact your choices, and [Reflexes] will simply be too low to help.”

Night shrugged.

“It’s unfortunate, but the additional experience gained by [Training] more than makes up for it. Let us discuss your stats.”

Stats

[Free Stats: 1032]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 3546]

[Mana Regeneration: 3967]

[Magic Power: 3079]

[Magic Control: 3406]