In my humble opinion, the biggest advantage of the S Class was simply that there were so few students that a professor could focus on each one far more than in a regular class.
To be honest, aside from that, I felt like all the “special curriculum” talk was just fluff, and the classes themselves weren’t really anything special.
I hadn’t attended any official lectures or classes in Arcania before, but on that first day, during the <Basics of Magic> course, something became crystal clear to me.
I was okay with them using the same old magic textbook that I had tried—and failed—to study alone in the past for an entire semester.
After all, learning by yourself or through your peers can never compare to having a professional instructor teach you, even using the same material, so there was certainly potential for better outcomes.
But, alas, that was my overly optimistic expectations speaking.
The instructor for <Basics of Magic>, whose name I didn’t bothered to catch since I wasn’t really listening, was enthusiastically going on and on with explanations. But it all went in one ear and out the other, and I understood nothing—just like before.
Honestly, Eddi did a better job explaining things to me in terms I could actually understand.
Sigh.
The highly anticipated first lecture, <Basics of Magic>, set the tone for most of the classes—seeming impressive at first glance, but ultimately, aside from the small class size, not offering much actual value.
Still, at least now I knew everyone’s names.
Out of over a hundred new students, only seven were selected for the top-tier S Class.
At first, I thought all freshmen were pretty much the same, but after a series of incidents, my perspective shifted slightly.
The students were better than I had expected. It was clear that none of them had gotten into the top tier by accident. Each of my classmates had their own distinct strengths.
Take Elaine of the St. Claire family—she didn’t need an introduction. Then there was Cain Hover—though he was a total j*rk, there was no denying that for his age, he had exceptional control of flame magic.
Later I discovered that Cynthia’s family, the Supperus lineage, was famous for archery skills.
That explained how she had so sharply noticed the instant the firebird disappeared—it all made sense now. A sharp eye for movement is one of the key skills an archer must have.
The other three students also had their unique strengths.
First off, there was Anes Kessler, the red-haired girl who made no secret of her efforts to cozy up to Cain.
It wasn’t just Cain—she was also all smiles around Elaine, suggesting she was clearly trying to befriend the big-name families.
However, Elaine, unlike how she treated me, was unusually rigid and distant toward others. As a result, Anes naturally gravitated toward Cain Hover and stuck closely to him.
While I didn’t approve of her actions, Anes’s sharp swordsmanship was genuinely impressive.
The way she wielded her rapier, swiftly striking and then stepping back, was something that clearly demonstrated why she was in the S Class.
Then there was Marie Sillah, who wielded a spear, not typically considered a “ladylike” weapon.
She hung around with the Cain and Anes crowd as well. During a combat skills lecture, Marie showcased a style of spear fighting that was clearly refined through extensive training. Her movements were smooth, even if they lacked raw power.
Lastly, there was Emily Franz.
“Uh, ehhh… hi?”
“Wow, you’re here early today?”
“Uh, yeah. I stayed up researching last night…”
“…Huh?”
“AH! Was that irrelevant? Sorry! I, uh, I’ll head upstairs first!”
With that, the last member of S Class, Emily Franz, dashed up the stairs, her breezy blue hair swirling behind her. She was one of the two legitimate mages in our class alongside Cain.
Though she seemed a bit eccentric…
“Research all night… straight to the academy? Hmm…”
Though Emily vanished before I could ask, something in her behavior suggested that was exactly what she had done.
Emily was the sole S Class student who kept to herself. After the first day, the dynamic among our group rarely changed.
If Elaine, Cynthia, and I were together, Cain, Anes, and Marie would always be huddled up across the room. Meanwhile, Emily would be off on her own, engrossed in whatever she was reading.
“By the way, what kind of research could a freshman possibly be doing?”
My rhetorical question went unanswered, of course.
“Maybe… I should focus on my own research.”
As I stared blankly in the direction Emily had disappeared, a thought occurred to me. This wasn’t the time to worry about others.
My primary concern these days was how exactly to acquire these ‘skills’ I was hearing about.
I had completed the main quest of entering the academy and earned the ability to choose a class. With high hopes, I selected ‘Wizard,’ imagining myself casting teleportation spells and pulling off impressive magic tricks.
However, when I checked my new ‘Skill’ category, this is what I found:
[Skill]
You have not learned any new skills yet.
For days now, nothing had changed in that window. Clearly, studying magic on my own wasn’t magically unlocking new skills for me.
Even after meticulously reviewing the basics again in case I’d missed something, there was still no change in my skill set or status window.
So, how exactly do you acquire these ‘Skills’?
Sigh.
Out of sheer frustration, I let out yet another sigh.
Nothing in this world comes easily. Or maybe nothing involving status windows and system messages ever does. That’s certainly been my experience. Meanwhile, missions for the Black Shadow Guild went pretty smoothly most of the time…
“Ryu?”
At the exact moment my complaints about the system were bubbling up, someone called my name from behind.
It was Cynthia.
Everyone seemed to have arrived unusually early today. Behind Cynthia, Cain Hover was also strolling along.
“So, is today ‘let’s all arrive early’ day?”
“… What are you talking about? Don’t you know?”
“Huh?”
Cynthia’s eyes reflected a hint of confusion. She carefully scrutinized my expression with a discerning gaze—d*mn, that girl’s sharp.
“Seriously, you don’t know?”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Hmm…”
“What? Why? What is it?”
Cynthia continued to glare intently at me, clearly suspicious, but this time, I honestly didn’t know.
If my behavior last time was 100% an act, this was 100% genuine confusion—and I was equally annoyed by it.
After studying me silently for a moment, Cynthia finally dropped her gaze and began to speak again.
“There was an announcement this morning.”
“An announcement… where?”
“You don’t… actually not have one of those communication orbs, do you?”
“Oh? I might not have one of those.”
While I had an emergency communication orb for contacting Eddi in case of trouble, I didn’t own any others.
Upon hearing my response, Cynthia released a small sigh, shook her head, and pulled out a small orb from her pocket.
As she muttered something about how I could possibly not have one of these, I decided to ignore her comments.
The moment Cynthia infused the orb with mana, characters composed of mana, similar to my ‘status window,’ began to materialize before my eyes.
“Check this out. This was just announced this morning.”
“Hmm?”
<Announcement>
-The Crescent Academy Headquarters has decided to bring forward the previously scheduled inter-grade competition from May to two weeks from now.
…
The rest of the message was filled with further details and contact information, but the main point was that the inter-grade competition was happening sooner than planned.
Whatever this “inter-grade competition” was, it was happening earlier than scheduled.
“Inter-grade competition?”
“Yeah. Inter-grade competition.”
“Ah, so such events actually happen.”
“Wow, you don’t even know what the inter-grade competition is?”
Nod.
How could I know?
“Uh… It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a competition among students from all grades… Hmm, how should I explain this?”
Cynthia was struggling to explain when another voice chimed in from the rear.
“Basically, it’s the upperclassmen coming to stomp on you, pleb.”
“Hey?”
The voice full of hostility belonged to Cain Hover, walking leisurely behind us.
The guy who had already been bested by me, yet harbored not a trace of hidden animosity but instead, even more overt hostility.
“Hmph. There’s not going to be a freshman willing to team up with a loser like you. At best, you’ll only get that ‘pretentious equalitarian’ next to you to team up with.”
“… What did you just say?”
While Cynthia clicked her tongue to express her anger at Cain’s words, my attention was momentarily elsewhere.
<Main Quest (2): Make a Name for Yourself>
Objective: Win 1st place in the Inter-grade Competition.
Details: Triumph in Crescent Academy’s long-standing tradition—the Inter-grade Competition.
Reward: Skill corresponding to the chosen class, 5 Stat Points.
Penalty: Reset and End Game.
As usual, a sudden system message appeared out of nowhere.
“Ahhhh.”
This was the new, subtly addictive main quest I had been waiting for—finally!
And this time, my eyes were glued to the rewards.
“So this is it!”
I wanted to shout out in joy, but I managed to restrain myself at the last moment.
Ah, so that’s why I haven’t been able to gain any skills no matter what I do.
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
It makes perfect sense if skills are obtained as quest rewards, just like how the class selection was given as a quest reward.
Seems like I’ve been too accustomed to living self-sufficiently, barely paying attention to status windows or quests for over a decade.
My routine life left little room for such considerations.
“Equalitarian. Problem?”
“… Huh, never mind. Waste of my time talking to someone like you.”
‘Eh?’
While I was mentally shedding tears of joy over the quest’s details and rewards, something else seemed to be going down between Cynthia and Cain.
“Uh… friends?”
At my word, both Cynthia and Cain suddenly turned their attention to me.
“Hmph.”
Cain scoffed first, nudged Cynthia and headed towards the lecture hall.
“Annoying fool.”
Cynthia scowled and followed Cain.
“… Can someone explain the inter-grade competition to me?”
Yet again, there was no one there to answer my quiet question.
