Chapter 113 Military Academy [3] - First Class

Two hours flew by, and before Lloyd knew it, it was time for him to attend class.

His schedule so far looked blank except for the hour in the morning when his class was. Of course, Lloyd had no idea why that was the case, but his theory was that they'd either send them their schedules during their first class or that they'd be choosing classes to go to for the next term.

'Could have sworn we were supposed to do only training for the first term.' Lloyd thought to himself while entering the classroom and looking around.

It looked like an ordinary lecture hall capable of fitting 150-200 individuals.

"A hierarchy? Already?" Lloyd asked himself while looking at how the students were spread out.

From a simple glance at their stances, confidence, and manner of speaking, it was quite easy to see which ones were from powerful families and which ones were from weaker ones. It would have been much easier to recognize them if they were all wearing their own clothes, but since they were all wearing their military uniforms, it was a little harder.

They seemed to have also spread out amongst themselves, the top row being left for powerful family individuals only while the bottom row was the one closest to the lecturer and was left to those with lower families or even possibly orphans.

'They aren't even taking strength into account, it seems.' Lloyd thought to himself while walking to the bottom row, closest to the lecturer. He could feel that some of the people in the lower rows were stronger than those in the powerful rows

He caught a few glances as he walked down, primarily from the girls; however, when he passed the middle rows, a few girls from the powerful families lost interest, while the rest analyzed him from top to bottom until they moved on to their next point of interest.

Yes, he would have loved to take a powerful row, or at least one in the middle of all the mediocre families, but it was best if he just went to the bottom.

He didn't want anyone to know that he was THAT Lloyd Elrod. Both of his parents were generals, and even though Generals were quite respected in the army, they were considered thorns at the sides of the powerful family heads.

The military was owned by the royals, not the powerful families, and despite what many would like to believe, powerful families and royals are not on the same side. Sure, they are allies in the name of Solaris and humanity, but it didn't make them friends but closer to rivals and competition.

It was one of the main reasons why Generals were appointed higher than powerful families during times of war. The Royals could trust their sworn generals to do something and not stab them in the back; the same thing could not be said for the power-hungry powerful families.

'Better to look like an orphan than have a target on my back.' Lloyd thought to himself before taking a seat at the front.

He had spotted Jay, his roommate, within the crowd of the powerful families. It was a little weird to see him among them, because despite being 'among' them, he didn't feel like 'one' of them.

'Maybe he's from one of the upcoming powerful families?' Lloyd thought before shrugging; his interest in the subject died as fast as it had come up. He was a little curious about who his roommate was, but since Jay wasn't bothering him, Lloyd would mind his own business.

Lloyd was quickly ripped out of his thought, was a low buzz sounded through the room, catching everyone's attention and causing them to look toward the expanding portal at the front of the classroom.

A man with brown hair walked through the portal as his emerald eyes scoured the classroom, looking over all of them with a disappointed look.

However, a look of confusion appeared on his face as his eyes scanned the room and reached the middle section.

That look of confusion turned into an unnoticeable slight surprise when he saw Lloyd, yet Lloyd didn't seem to be paying too much attention to the man who had just come into the room since he was focused on something else.

He was too distracted by the spatial energies flowing into the room. It was nothing like standing in front of a naturally spatial tear, but a slight sense of comfortability went through his body.

However, since he hadn't fallen into complete comfortability yet due to the low abundance of the spacial energies, he sucked some of it inside him, through the mana channels that looked like neurons and into his mana core that beat a little every time some mana entered it.

However, instead of simply moving to his rune, he felt the spatial rune, the rune that comprised one-third of his void rune, expand slightly. Yet, nothing really happened. The energy entered the runes, and that was it. The only thing Lloyd found weird was the fact that it expanded slightly when he thought of absorbing the mana.

'Damnit. What am I doing wrong! It just doesn't want to remain in the core. All I can do is circulate it around my body, which doesn't really do anything but strengthen my body a little, and even that, it doesn't do well.' Lloyd inwardly complained, his anger getting up for a second before he calmed his mind and looked to the front of the class.

"My name is Jack Heaver. We met yesterday. Well, I met most of you since there seem to be a few new faces around her." Jack said while narrowing his eyes and glancing at the individuals.

"Anyway, I will be your tutor for the next term. Your tutor may change next term if you either do poorly or completely awful. Anyone else will have me for another semester and possibly until the end of your first year. Understood?' He asked, making everyone in the classroom nod.

Today there isn't much to do. You will first stand up, introduce yourself, talk about something for less than 10 seconds, and then sit down. After that, a screen will appear on your desk and will give you a list of classes that you would like to attend.

You will be recommended your classes by the military's AI, but if you do not wish to choose what the AI has given to you, you can make your own list or add a few classes to the list the AI has given to you. Its up to you. Any questions?" He asked, yet all he received was silence.

"Alright." He paused momentarily, looking at the class before choosing a girl at the end of the bottom row to start with the introductions.

The girl stood up with a serious expression, and her arms glued to her sides. Her entire body was tense, and straight, which was exactly what the army wanted.

Her appearance, however, was average in every way, yet Lloyd was too focused on her uniform to realize that.

Women's uniforms were a little different than men's, but neither really felt like clothing they could fight. Sure, they were covered with more runes than the clothes of many of the higher-family kid's clothes, but other than that, they seemed pretty ordinary.

They were black with white strikes. The white strikes were thin and small, so most wouldn't see them from afar. Everyone wore buttoned black jackets with long collars; however, while men had a button on their collars, too, the girls did not.

Their jackets were a little more buttoned-down, and they had to wear a black belt along their waist for a reason that Lloyd still didn't understand.

All the women wore skirts that had to reach their knees while men wore normal pants. Shoes were customizable, yet they had to be black anyway, so Lloyd had chosen to use the normal ones.

"My name is Erika Smith, sir. I am of the warrior class, and my main fighting syle is close combat fist fighting." She said before sitting down.

'Shouldn't she be a martial artist? Or maybe she was a martial artist before, got warrior and decided to become a combat warrior.' Lloyd thought to himself.

Many stood up after her, each person saying their name, class, and something about them. Lloyd didn't bother to remember any of their names since most of them had common classes, and even those who didn't felt quite weak.

However, while the girl didn't say anything about her aspirations for the future, a few did, yet even they didn't dare say something too big at the risk of offending on the students from powerful families.

The room had almost 10 rows with 4 sections. Lloyd had simply chosen not to go to the front since he would become more noticeable.

When it finally came to his turn, Lloyd stood up, and stared at their tutor momentarily before opening his mouth.

"My name is Lloyd Elrod. I'm a shadow assassin hybrid, striving to become a lieutenant in the army to further help my race reach the top." Lloyd explained with a slightly apathetic tone, which he was not going for, but since it came out that way, he just went with it. Of course, he didn't mean any of what he said, but it was a goal that wouldn't put a target on his back so he was fine with it.

However, no one other than Jack, their tutor, cared about his goals. All they were focused on was the fact that he was not only a shadow assassin, but also a hybrid at that. Classes with an element attached to their names were always more rare than classes without a specific element. However, being a hybrid with a element class was even rarer, and usually even more powerful than the other two combined.

If that wasn't enough, they also had a much higher chance to evolve into a new class when reaching the next commandment.

The women who were previously slightly interested in him looked at him with a little more greed. Sure, he wasn't going to be the strongest, but who wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone strong.

The icing on the cake was the fact that it seemed to them that he was from a weak family, making him more enticing in the eyes of the higher-family girls since it would be easy to lure him in and control him once they had a good grasp on him.

Without knowing it, Lloyd had put a lot of attention on himself due to a single mistake, which would cost him in the near future.

[P.S.- Lloyd didn't sit in the middle row because they would have asked him what family he was from, exposing him for being THAT Lloyd Elrod. Lloyd is a pretty common name, and Elrod, while not being as common as Lloyd, was still a little common when you think about it in the grand scheme of things.]