Chapter 1485: You Git Gud Or Git Lost
I caught the horizontal slash from a female Infrid student, the blow being surprisingly heavy despite her petite build.
I tilted my blade and let her attack slide off before giving her a kick in her abdomen followed up with slashing my sword in an arc, slicing her chest open.
Blood spurted out from her chest and she let out a scream, clutching at the wound and dropping her sword before falling to the ground, already defeated.
The screen appeared in front of me again, adding another fifty points to show that I now had three thousand points.
Right on time, the instructor clapped her hands to get our attention, "Alright! That’s enough for today! I’m happy to see no one reaching zero points on the first lesson! Though some of you seem to have already lost half your points I see... Oh well! Let’s head back to class!"
The students did not complain and the ones on the ground let out a grateful sigh as they picked themselves off the ground to stand up on shaky legs.
You have to give them credit where it’s due... They didn’t run even though these people were clearly new to the idea of fighting with your life on the line.
I think amongst these newbies... Some of them might actually be good fighters if they can get over this fear.
The instructor led the way back to the classroom, looking every bit as chirpy as she first appeared like she did not just witness her students locked in mortal combat just a few moments ago.
All of us managed to reach the class and the students stumbled back into their seats while I settled into mine, bringing out my egg again to continue pouring mana into it like it never left me.
Instructor Piertra skipped back to the podium again, looking around the room with a satisfied looking smile on her face.
"Congratulations on surviving the first lesson! Things will only get more interesting from here! Now... Can anyone tell me what this lesson is for?!"
She was even bouncing up and down excitedly, like she was expecting everyone to be as enthusiastic as her in participating in the lesson.
But most of the class were already half dead from exhaustion, both mentally and physically.
I see why they needed a buffer between this lesson and the next one so the students can recover mentally as well...
A few seconds passed as no one answered the instructor, yet her smile never wavered as she continued looking at us, as though absolutely sure that someone would actually answer.
Eventually, I decided that I might as well just try anyway just to get the lesson to continue because I have a feeling she’s actually just going to wait until someone answers it.
"To weed out the weak ones," I answered.
She shifted her gaze to me, her smile widening considerably.
"Ah yes... Student Aster, our current top student of this class. Very good. You are partially right in that of course, we have no need to keep the weak here especially when they don’t have the stomach for it but it’s also more than that."
I continued without missing a beat, "It’s also to let everyone understand and overcome the fear of death."
Professor Piertra snapped her attention back to me again and her eyes lit up with what I guessed was delight.
"Ah! Very good, student Aster! That’s exactly it! That’s the key point of the lesson here! If you fear death so much that you would even drop your own weapon in the face of it, you will never advance on the path of the sword! Very good!"
She waved her hand and the scoreboard behind her showed my points being updated with another hundred points added to it.
So you can also gain points like that huh... Good to know.
That means even if your practical skills are the worst amongst the students, you could still gain points in the theory section to make up for it.
I suppose that’s nice to know that they offer this as another chance for those types of students to... Well... Not thrive for sure but at least survive I guess?
Because those students would probably just be lacking the talent to be swordsmen but they just want to learn anyway so they get this chance for them to stay in class.
Maybe they might even overcome their lack of talent with hard work... Assuming they can even put in the hard work in the first place of course.
Instructor Piertra grinned at me, "Student Aster... I assume you have experienced the threat of death before?"
I considered my words for a moment before I spoke them, "I have... Come face to face with Death multiple times before."
She chuckled, "I see, I see. That is very interesting indeed. Do be careful though... A fighter who has grown completely unafraid of death... May just as easily succumb to it as one who fears death."
"I am aware, Instructor Piertra."
Somehow, her smile actually looked a little predatory for a split second before it went back to normal right as the bell sounded.
She relaxed again and turned her gaze to the rest of the class, "Once again... Welcome to intermediate swords class everyone! I hope I will be seeing most of you remain here until the end of the year!"
The hidden meaning behind her words were not lost on us as she skipped out of the class casually.
The rest of the students still seemed too exhausted to move so I just stood up and left on my own, not even looking back at my classmates since I was a little embarrassed about having defeated a number of them and felt a little awkward since I thought they might resent me.
Anyway, I’m more interested in the fact that it’s lunch time so I was wondering what they would be serving for our meals in the cafeteria.
I understood that as students, our daily meals were handled by the school where we could eat whatever they were serving in the cafeterias of the school which was located near the dormitories.
It functioned as one giant hall in a building where all the students can dine together and it worked as a buffet style where you could just take whatever food you want and eat within the building.
Obviously, it’s not mandatory and students can also go to eat at the market district instead if they want to.
From what I heard, the school food wasn’t bad but it was just that it obviously could not compare to the high class food that some of the restaurants in the market district offered of course.
I joined the crowd that were also leaving their own Martial skill classrooms to head out of the building, pausing to look up in the sky as a shadow slipped over us.
Up in the air, a Meslatar student was flying in the direction of the cafeteria, their robes marking them as a senior student which meant that guy most likely had a permit for flying.
Tsk... I want to fly too... This is so unfair...
Instead, I have to follow the crowd towards the teleportation array to teleport to the cafeteria, all of us appearing outside the large building where a crowd was already heading towards from other teleportation arrays.
I used my [Ring of Shared Thoughts] to contact them and it seems like I was the first one here so I told them I would go inside to find a table first for all of us.
When I entered the hall, I realised just how big the place really was as the dining hall seemed to stretch on as far as the eye could see.
It seems to be a free seating arrangement as I could see robes of different colours mixed all around without any visible form of organisation as the students ate their food on the tables provided.
Alongside one of the walls were the rows of food stalls that were serving out food to the students and it seems like various cuisines have been prepared to cater to the different races of students that may be enrolled here.
For me, I tried to look for a seat first since I figured finding a table that would seat all of us was more difficult than finding food so I squeezed through the crowd to look for a seat.
I found a rather large table at the far end of the hall which was surprisingly empty and big enough to fit the girls and so I went over to sit on it, claiming that space as mine.
I settled in the seat, hugging my egg to me as I continued to pour mana into it while waiting for my girls to show up.
That was when I realised that the students closest to me were looking at me with wide eyes like I had just beaten someone up or something.
That was when I felt a presence behind and a voice growling, "You’re in my seat, bitch."
God damn it...