Past Life Hero, ch 19

Long Chapter!

Max’s second day of class started off differently than the first had. He decided to get up early and work out in the morning. While he was getting ready, he heard noise in the room next to his for the first time. The entire time he'd been at Summoner Academy so far, he'd never met his roommate. In fact, I'd never seen any evidence of anybody else ever being in the bathroom, so he was fairly sure up until this point that nobody lived there.

The noise was weird but could be an animal.  He made a note of it, left, and did some light exercises.

His efforts to claim the mana around him and build his mana body to first star were going slowly but well. Even though it had only been a few days since his fight with Prince Regal, he judged himself to already be stronger and faster than he had been during the duel. His power was growing rapidly.

In fact, by this point, he was fairly sure that he would have been able to match the prince in raw strength. Of course, his growth at this point was very fast because he hadn't had decent mana for a very long time.  He would likely hit a point of diminishing returns very soon, especially since, despite the higher mana concentration than back on Earth, it was still relatively low in the Quadrant. He has to assume that maybe part of that was because none of the Path schools in this Quadrant were dependent upon mana. He thought he was right, but still wanted to get it verified in the future.

Max’s morning went smoothly after that. He showered and changed into robes again. Wearing Prince Regals outfit he’d won was tempting.  However, this was still going to be his first day of his other classes of the semester.

His first class today was Challenger Path Lore. Max arrived on time where his class was located in the Fire Hall. He noted that, unlike the three classes he'd had the previous day, there were actually a good number of upperclassmen in this class. He'd noticed a few in  Summoner Lore 101 before.  But now  in Challenger Path Lore, it seemed less than half the students were first years.

He caught more than a few looks when he found a seat near the back of the classroom.  The other students' gazes were directed at his dagger and were also sneaking glances at his first year badge. Nobody arrived for the first time in any Quadrant with any gear or anything other than a basic set of clothing, so he was sure they were speculating on where he might have obtained a weapon in his first week.

The professor wasn't in class yet, so Max played around on his tablet, studying his syllabi, and also exploring the device to see what other functions it had. It really was a lot like a smartphone that ran on magic, and its most impressive function was how he could fold it up to turn into a bracelet.  As he folded it, it actually grew thinner, compressing.  Most of the students in the Quartet carried it this way.

A couple of minutes before class was officially going to start, the professor walked in. She was a handsome, dusky-skinned, middle-aged woman and didn't make eye contact with anyone. She just turned to the board and wrote her name: Professor Nongal. Then she turned, studied her tablet, did a quick scan of the classroom, and said, "Good, you are all here."

Then she tapped her podium and said, "We're going to keep class light for the first week or two, but at its core, this is a memorization class. I am sorry if any of you came in here with a different expectation, but I will not be supportive of anybody who tries to drop or get a transfer after this first day, because I believe that this class is quite possibly one of the most important classes offered in the Summoner Academy." She paused and scanned the classroom with a stony face. "I'm sure some of you are wondering what in the world I'm talking about. Maybe thinking that I'm being dramatic because this is my class. But no, I assure you, I mean what I say.

"Think. You are taking other classes on how to interface with other Challengers who are on other Paths after you return to your world. In reality, even though many people will have died when you return to your world, regardless of when you get back, there will still be many who will still be alive. And it is also true that most of them are going to be fairly useless when it comes to actually fighting monsters, regardless of how powerful or advanced your military was before you came here to this Quartet." Out of the corner of his eye, Max noticed jaws clench and hands ball up into fists. The professor had definitely hit a nerve there, and she must've expected it because she gave a smile that was mostly genuine sympathy.

"I know that most of you, or hopefully just some of you, won't believe me about this, but trust me, the longer you are in the Quartet and the more you see what other champions can do, the more you hear about worlds that couldn't be saved, the more you will come to understand that I only speak the truth." She gave another sympathetic look as a few students in the class rocked back in their seats. "Yes, it's something that we don't like to discuss very often in the Path school, and most of the upperclassmen already know. They should know anyway. But not all worlds are saved. I would bet that the majority of worlds in the universe are lost after a monster invasion begins."

On the other side of the classroom from Max, a blonde woman who looked like she was only about nineteen raised her hand. Professor Nongal pointed and said, "Yes."

The student, a first-year like Max, asked, "Why do the monster attacks happen? Everything I've read in our handbooks or everything I've heard from other professors hasn't answered this question yet, not directly." Some other students in the class, notably ones who were in their first or second year, made grunts of agreement. The more advanced students were conspicuously quiet.

Max was all ears.

The professor sighed.  "I hate when I have to be the one to tell students this, but the reason why nobody has given you straight answers is because we truly don't have any. We have speculation, we have really good theories, we even have words from gods and goddesses, but at the end of the day, we still truly don't know for certain why so many worlds come to calamity. All we know is it has been happening for a very long time because of the Path system and the Quartets.  It is quite possible that this school has existed for tens of thousands of years." She paused to let that sink in, and Max's mind reeled. He wondered if maybe Albion would get an invasion of monsters in the future.

Max had been powerful in his past life and there had been other powerful warriors and adventurers.  But the scale of the attack that he had seen on Earth before being chosen as a Challenger was beyond the scope that a few plucky individuals on any world could fight by themselves. As he thought about it, even if a hundred thousand people from Earth had been chosen as Challengers, and all of them made it through their training and went back to Earth to fight..the planet was large. Theoretically, the number of Challengers returning would be distributed according to the populations of every country they came from.

So what about sparsely populated places? Would they just be out of luck? Or would that even end up being a hotbed of monster breeding or portals or whatever? Would that be the monster beach head? It was something he hadn't truly considered before.

Apparently, others in the class were having some of the same realizations as Max because he heard at least one quiet groan.

The professor continued, "So, now those of you who didn't know, understand why it's so important to take all of this seriously and to give yourselves every possible weapon you can gather before returning to your world. And mark my words, knowledge is truly one of the most powerful weapons you can return with.

"What this class will do is help you interface with other Challengers that you will meet and fight with against the monsters. But–" She held up a finger. “Perhaps even more important, it will help you identify other Paths among Challengers that you might eventually have to kill."

Silence rang in the classroom and Max could understand why. He was stunned too. It was another fact that he should have thought of already, even with everything else going on, but he truly hadn’t considered it yet. He could only blame a couple of decades of relatively peaceful life on Earth. But now he knew the professor was exactly right. Out of a hundred thousand people, or even only ten thousand people that came from Earth to train as Challengers, not all of them would be good people. And some of them, even if they fought monsters, might try to kill their fellow man.  Or worse.

Max's hand flexed as he remembered his days in Albion fighting against fellow adventurers. What's old is new again, he thought.

Professor Nongal nodded her head in satisfaction as she scanned the room. "I do not enjoy saying these things to you, especially on the first day of class, but I am glad that most, if not all of you, seem to understand what I was trying to communicate. The more you know about other Paths, the more effective you can be as a warrior of your world and as a Challenger in general.  It might actually save your life." She began to say something else but closed her mouth with a snap. "More on that later.  Now then. I am going to give you an assignment to start reading the book for this class that you will find in your tablet. Most of our classes from here on are going to be very intense and full of information. I will be conducting class in a lecture format. However, during this semester, we will briefly visit all three other academies, the other schools in this Quartet so that you can witness training by Challengers on other Paths. Firsthand."

When Max heard that, his heart sped up a bit. He had been intensely curious about the other schools in the Quartet ever since he had first started reading his new student pamphlets. Professor Nongal nodded her head to everybody in class and said, "Your may have a longer break before your next class if you have one…starts now. Dismissed."

Max left the classroom with a curious mix of emotions.

He definitely agreed with Professor Nongal that her class was important, but based on his past life, he had a feeling that he was going to think his next class was even more important.  One thing he learned as the Hero of Albion was that with enough power, even the best or most nasty surprises could be overcome. And that had been mostly working alone.

However, when Max had been murdered in his first life, he learned another hard lesson about trusting people. He’d had a lot of time to think about it, and one reason he’d thought the untrustworthy were trustworthy was because he’d never let people in.  Not really. He’d never been truly close with anyone.

This was one reason why on Earth he had made more of an effort to be outgoing and to cultivate true friendships. If he had had somebody watching his back, somebody he truly trusted, maybe he wouldn't have been stabbed before. And his next class, Basic Group Combat, would be relevant whether he was fighting just with friends or perhaps even with an army. The basics and the principles were largely the same.

***

Basic Group Combat was a bit different than Max's other classes. He knew there would be a test that every student would need to pass or they couldn't continue with the class. This was why so many students in Summoner Academy took Basic Combat before trying Basic Group Combat.

This class wasn't held in one of the standard classrooms. Instead, it was in an outbuilding near one of the fields behind the academy. As Max arrived, he noticed a group of students milling around outside. A man about his age with white hair and red eyes stood with everybody else. Eventually, Max could see what had to be the professor heading over from one of the other buildings. He was tall and gaunt, with gray hair tied back into a ponytail. He wore an axe on his back and had two smaller hatchets on his belt in sheaths on both hips.

The professor scanned the waiting students and Max could practically feel the weight of the other man's scrutiny, especially on the dagger he wore. He marched right past all the waiting students, walked up two steps leading to the door of the classroom, and then turned. "My name," he said in a deep voice, "is Professor Grave Call. I am not going to waste your time, and you are going to immediately get into testing.  Because if you don't pass, you can't be in my class anyway. So everybody who fails will be in the same boat as those who didn't show up today and will need to transfer. Does everybody understand?"

The students all nodded, and a few gave small, tentative words of agreement.  But the professor was already ignoring them as he stomped off towards a nearby field. Max exchanged glances with a few others and followed the professor. He could tell where the professor was heading when he saw the racks of practice weapons to one side of a nearby field.

Sure enough, the professor marched right up to the weapon rack, turned, and said, "Fighting in groups or learning to fight in groups is the entire point of this class. So I will not be testing you on that. You will have plenty of time to learn.

“But knowing how to fight, at least the basics, you should already know before we start. The easiest way to demonstrate to me that you know how to fight, at least well enough for this class, is to have one-on-one duels. I don't have the patience to wait for everybody to find a partner, nor to watch friends take it easy on one another. So, I have a bowl with numbers here. There are thirty people present. There are fifteen numbers in the bowl. Once you pick a number, you will be paired into groups based on your number, one to fifteen. Does everybody understand?"

All the students nodded, and the professor handed the bowl to the first student, a chubby boy with glasses, who drew a piece of paper and then passed the bowl around. By the time Max drew a number, there weren't many left, and he glanced at his paper. Number ten, huh? he thought. The students milled around, calling out their numbers, looking for their partner. Max was surprised by the person he'd been paired with, a smaller student who was a little bit older than him.

The professor said, "Now you all are paired up. We are going to do duels one at a time, and whether you win or lose is not how you will pass this test. Instead, I need to see where your skill is at, where your instincts are, and also what kind of heart you have.  You may wonder how I'm able to ascertain all of these things through simple duels, but just take it on faith.  After we have our first round of duels, I am going to call up several other students to have one more duel, and they will likely be starting team captains for the semester. Do you all understand my instructions?"

All the students, including Max, nodded or otherwise indicated that they'd heard what the professor had said.  "Good, let's get started then. Number one pair, come up and get in the chalked circle over there after choosing one of the practice weapons."

The first pair walked forward, a man and a woman. The woman, who was tall with dark skin and short hair, raised a hand. The professor asked, "Yes?"

The woman said, "May I choose more than one weapon, professor?"

"Yes, yes. If you want to hold more than one weapon or carry them, you can take as many as you want. I don't care."

The student nodded her head and perused the racks of practice weapons with her opponent. As they did so, Professor Gravecall said, "Everybody waiting right now, look at the weapon rack, and try to decide what you are going to use before your duel. I want this process to be a little bit quicker than it is right now for matches after this one."

Max nodded to himself. That was a reasonable request.  He caught a glimpse of the professor’s tablet and could see it display information about every student whenever Grave Call pointed it at anyone in class.

That’s slick, he thought.

Then the two duelists took their place within the large chalked circle in the field. The male duelist was slightly past middle age and a bit overweight, but Max could tell by how he carried himself that he had been a fighter or a soldier of some kind before coming to Summoner Academy. The dark-skinned woman held herself like an athlete. In one hand, she had a spear and she had fitted two wooden daggers into a rope belt that she'd secured from the weapons rack. The man was holding a large swords.  A crossbow with padded bolts in a quiver hung at his waist.  Max wasn’t sure why the man had taken the hand crossbow.  Maybe in case the fight turned long range.

The practice weapon rack really did have quite a few options to choose from.  It even looked like there was some sort of pistol and even a rifle. Max doubted that either one of them was a practice version of a firearm like back on Earth since so many Paths and monsters had ways to nullify chemically propelled bullets. But then again, some Paths could use guns to good effect.

Max knew summoners couldn't, so he figured the only reason the weapons were on the rack was maybe to be thorough.  Maybe, he thought. But again, he doubted they were meant to be training versions of guns using gunpowder.  Perhaps somebody could join Summoner Academy with other abilities or skills that would help them use guns that didn’t fire bullets. Max knew a lot of his questions about people with other powers or on other Paths would be answered in his classes.

Most of what he knew now he'd overheard in the lunchroom or through conversations with other students. But he'd consistently heard that sometimes people embarked on a Path who also had other powers, or unique variations.  And apparently, if anyone was already too far on any given Path or analogue, the system would usually automatically place them in the appropriate shool for it.

Now Max knew that if Earth had had more mana and he'd been able to build his mana body more, maybe even to one star, he might have automatically been placed in the academy for the Blade Sorcerer Path. He still wasn't sure if that would have been better than his current situation or not.

He watched carefully as the two duelists squared off against each other.

"Begin," said the professor, and the fight started.

It was over quickly. The man rushed the woman, trying to overpower her with a heavy overhand chop, and she didn't even bother to block it. She merely stepped back and threatened the older student with one of her daggers in her belt, throwing it underhand at his face. The throw didn't have a lot of power behind it, and Max judged it might not have even hit point-first, but the man still went out of his way to dodge and bat it away. That one moment of distraction and confusion cost him the duel when the woman darted forward and planted the tip of her spear on his chest.  He fell on his butt.

Professor Grave Call announced, "Winner." He pointed at the woman.  Then he called, "Next."

Each fight progressed similarly, and Max stopped paying very close attention unless there was an interesting series of exchanges or if something else caught his eye. In only a few minutes, it was his turn.

***

Max moved to the weapon rack to grab a wooden training sword. There were a number of weapons he could use proficiently, but he decided to keep it simple with just an arming sword. However, as he neared the center of the circle, Professor Gravecall held up a hand and pointed at the dagger on Max's waist. "First, please remove your live weapon." Max nodded and took the dagger off of his belt.

At this point, all of the students who hadn't noticed the dagger were aware of it.  They alternated looking at Max’s first year badge and the weapon, staring in astonishment.  Thos most surprised were the upperclassmen past the second year. He set the dagger down near the instructor on the ground, and one student nearby took a couple of steps away as if it was a viper. Max was mildly amused by the other student's reaction. She was one of the students that hadn't dueled so far, and Max thought if she was that afraid of a dagger on the ground, she might have a tough time in this class.

Then Max moved back towards the chalk circle, but the professor held up his hand again and asked, "What is your name?"

"It's Max Cunningham." He wondered why the professor had asked when he could just look it up on his tablet.

Professor Grave Call said, "Ah, you must be the first-year student I heard about that beat a Mystic spear student in the central area. Am I correct?"

Max didn't really like how the professor was singling him out, but he didn’t see a point in lying.  Especially when the professor obviously already knew about it all. So he said, "Yeah, that was me." Around him, the other students stared in further astonishment.

The professor gave a slight nod and said, "Let us change your opponent. So far, these duels have been very educational, and we will not need a second round of duels as things stand. I would like to keep it that way to save time. Gantry Pliss, come front and center and duel student Max here."

"What about me, professor?" said the man with the mustache that Max was originally going to duel.

"You can duel the opponent that Gantry had drawn," said Grave Call.

The man with the mustache nodded and glumly moved to the side. Max wasn't sure why the smaller man obviously wanted to fight him.

Gantry Pliss, whe white-haired man who'd first spoken to Max when he approached the school building selected a weapon. He chose a sword just like Max, but his was balanced more for stabbing and was slightly longer. The two squared up against each other, and Max examined the other man's appearance more carefully for the first time. He was wearing a robe like everyone else, but it was of finer quality. He was also a third-year.

The professor instructed, "Begin," and Max darted forward. Gantry's sword moved up incredibly quickly, just in time to block a strike Max had delivered at the other man's temple. Smoothly, Gantry transitioned into a riposte, the stab smooth but powerful.  Max dodged backwards, the tip of his sword flicking up, touching the other man's practice weapon before sliding along its length and trying to take an arm. Gantry was quick, though. He pivoted to one side, and Max's sword blade barely missed.

Max sprang backward to prevent getting stabbed in the chest and narrowed his eyes, wondering what was going on.

Granted, he was nowhere even close to the power he'd had during his life on Albion, but he still had superhuman levels of physicality. Meanwhile, Gantry, although in good shape, didn't seem to be moving with the same speed or power that Max was. He was not using any obvious, flashy abilities either.  Instead, at the last moment, his limbs or sword would seem to move in a jerky manner. That’s what was making it hard to counter him, too.  Max narrowed his eyes, engaging warily, going for a leg instead after a sneaky fake out. The feint almost worked, but right as his sword was about to take his opponent's knee, Gantry's entire body slid backward by about a foot.

This should be a relatively low powered fight, since Gantry was a Summoner and only in his third year.  At least Max assumed this would be the case.  And that had seemed to be true– it was why Max felt like he was doing okay despite his own low level of power.  But the way the other man was moving was super weird.

Max frowned and attacked more seriously, injecting his wooden sword with mana to keep it whole as he delivered a punishing series of strikes. Whatever ability Gantry was using to protect himself could keep up…barely.  At least until Max incorporated more feints. He closed again, thinking he might finally be able to win against the white-haired man. But suddenly, as he was going for a winning strike, he felt a strong push from behind on his shoulders. Max stumbled, suddenly off balance.  Quick as a snake, Gantry's sword tip touched him in the armpit. There wasn't too much pressure, so the only thing that hurt was Max's pride. He had not lost a duel with swords in a very, very long time.

Obviously, the other man had done something that he didn't understand. He stared at Gantry and, after a moment of hesitation, bowed and said, "Good fight. Thank you for not skewering my armpit." The other man's guarded expression faded, and he gave a big smile. "Don't mention it, and you almost got me." At that moment, a single slow clap turned into applause by about half of the class, especially the first years. The man with the mustache that Max had originally been going to duel very obviously looked relieved. It seemed he’d had a change of heart about dueling Max.

Professor Grave Call walked up to the ring and said, "You two have both learned something important, I think. Gantry, now you see how somebody who truly knows how to fight, someone skilled, can test you. Keep in mind that Max here just started school at this Academy yesterday. He has not even been attuned to his summoner sight yet.  He has no contracted spirits." Then he turned to Max and said, "And now you, who obviously has fighting experience, understand the kind of trickery and versatility that some Summoners have access to. You absolutely would have won that fight if Gantry were not a Summoner, probably in the first second. But despite your superior skill, Gantry held his own and even beat you due to his relationship with his spirits."

Max nodded. "I think I understand. Whatever pushed me was a spirit."

"Correct," said the professor. "Very soon, when your Summoner's Sight is opened, you'll be able to see them.  Maybe." Max was now understanding the implications of this new power. Without saying anything else, he moved to the side of the field where everybody who had finished their test was watching. There was one other decent duel before they were all finished, one between the man with the mustache and his new opponent. But other than that, Max saw mostly basic skills like the other duels before his.

Finally, Professor Gravecall shouted, "Gather round!"

All the students headed over, and as soon as they surrounded him, Grave Call told the first row to take a knee. That done, he said, "I'm very pleased everybody here passed their test to take Basic Croup Combat. Your four group captains are going to be Max Cunningham," he pointed at Max, "Gantry Pliss," he pointed at Max’s opponent, "Eleanor Little," he gestured at a muscular young woman that had used butterfly swords in her duel. "And last–" The professor pointed at the man with the mustache who'd originally wanted to fight Max earlier, a second year.

"The last captain will be Harold Mantle. Captains, you will stay behind to talk to me. Everybody else is dismissed. Make sure you read your syllabus and prepare for the next class. If you have clothing that is easier to move in than your standard robes, I suggest you wear it during this class from now on. If you don't have such a thing, I suggest that you buy it or earn money so that you can.  It will be cheaper to find a student who sews that can craft clothing for you out of standard robes."

Most of the class left, leaving just Max, Gantry, Eleanor, and Harold standing in front of the professor. "Next class, I am going to give you all a list of your new teammates. When we have exercises or mock battles between teams, you four will be the designated team leaders unless I change things up that day. Keep in mind I may change these teams later. This class will be graded, and whoever the team leaders are, if they perform well, I will be willing to write letters of recommendation for some of the more prestigious classes, and you will receive a prize from the school. This is one of the best routes to graduate Summoner Academy early.  And, for your information, the four best soldiers in the class, your number one teammates, will also get the same perks. A total of eight people will get recommendations at the end of the semester. Do you all understand?"

All four new team leaders nodded. Some classes in the Summoner Academy were harder to get into than others, and some weren't offered every year. A recommendation from a professor could actually help get into classes or even skip some classes altogether. When the professor turned away, giving them an obvious dismissal, Max was lost in thought as he headed back to campus.