24 support & forging

Don tried his best to look natural but that could not be said about others. With the number of regular classes that Lisser teaches, it was not shocking to see that more than half the class knew who Teacher Lisser was. Lars was the minority that did not know. The teacher smiled wryly as she saw this.

"Well I see that some of you may know my twin brother...well he does leave an impression." As the students heard this, it all started to make sense. The more Don looked, the more he saw the resemblance. They were both thin and tall with hawk like eyes and a straight nose. They both looked like they were in their 40s as well. The few differences were that this lady made sure to look presentable. She had long straight black air and a neat cloak on while Teacher Lisser had a scruffy beard and messy hair and slouched a bit. This Teacher also looked more social and kind.

Their teacher smiled as she looked at her students. She seemed to be pleased with the size.

"Hello my dear students. My name is Rose Brooke. You can call me Teacher Brooke or you can call me Rose. Since my husband also teaches here, you might also know him as well. All 3 of us were in a party once upon a time with 2 other people. I was the healer, my brother was the mage and my husband was the main attacker, a swordsman. It has already been so many years since our party disbanded...." Teacher Brooke reminisced for a second before she snapped out of it.

"Oh what is an old hag like me saying. This is support training class not Brooke history class hohoho. Now this is support training class. The fact that you are taking this class probably means you are not planning to take Offense or Defense training class. Since I am obligated to, I will give you a rundown of the 3 course. Each course represents a position. Offense training is preparing to either be the front guard or the middle overlay. They will be the first and second layers of attack. Their training is quite intense and power based. They focus on increasing their strength and agility in order to lower enemy numbers. Powerhouses would take on small numbers with huge defense while long range usually take on large numbers with little defense.

Defense training is preparing you for front guarding. Their main goal is to protect the ones at the back. Some may just be complete walls and take on all the damage and never attack. Some people sacrifice some endurance so that they can give the enemy a few hits themselves. These people focus a lot of their training on increasing their endurance and body defense. They are the definition of people wishing to become a rock in their next life.

Now the support training which is in my opnion the best field prepares you for being the back end and middle placement in any formation. Your goal is to support your teammates in any way. Whether you increase their moral, vitality, strength or defense. Others might take a different path and support their party by debuffing the enemy. This could include restricting their movement, decreasing their offense or defense or setting them in an illusion.

Now today I will be getting to know all of you so that it will be easier for me to help you all train your skills and learn many new ones this year." After she said that, she told the class to stand line up from tallest to shortest. This separated the 6 foot 2 Lars from the 'haven't reached puberty yet' Don.

"Now let's start from the tallest." Teacher Brooke said this as she opened her student book.

"Lars Delaros. Now tell us a little about yourself and why you decided to take this class." Teacher Brooke went straight for the personal questions.

"Well I come from a long line of monks. Once we turn of age 16, we are tasked with leaving home to get outside experience. After filling our minds with life, we will find a maiden of our choosing and bring her home with our adventures written down. We would then spend the rest of our life guarding our temples if we inherit one. If we done inherit them, we can either build a branching temple or follow another temple owner. Many of my brothers and cousins took different paths to enlighten, I have decided that for me, being on the road and discovering artifacts would be better. I took this class because my family is well known for their healing abilities. It just makes more sense. I also have lessons in mixed martial arts. When I return after 30 or so years, I hope to inherit the dojo temple and become the new master." Teacher Brooke nodded as she heard this. She could tell that the boy has had his life planned out from the moment he turned 16.

Teacher Brooke continued to call on each student until finally she had gotten to Don. Teacher Brooke smiled as she saw Don. His schedule was a huge riot at the staff lunch table. Vice principle Valentine was eager to show everyone the odd student that was chosen this year.

"Don Finch, it is quite nice to meet you. Now why did you take this class... well maybe a better question is why did you take 3 auxiliary classes? I have known some students who did not even take 1 their whole 4 years of school but you took 3 at once." The students in the room looked at him oddly. Don could only keep a straight face after being outed by the teacher.

"Well honestly, I did not know it was such a big deal. I just took what I thought would be the most interesting. I care more about history, forging and supporting my siblings than strengthening myself. Maybe this will change in a year or two and I will pick up some other classes, but for now this is what I enjoy the most." Teacher Brooke's eyes sparkled as she heard this. It was honest. Maybe a little to brutally honest. She could imagine the arrows going through Cruise's chest if he had heard this. He would find the strongest blackhorse each year to fight against other black horses in other academies. He has won for 9 years in a row. He would be crushed if he realized that he cockiness and confidence has already ruined his record. Anyway, teacher Brooke did not care. She had already seen the boy as a kindred spirit.

When she was young her parents had wanted her to also become a mage. She had a larger than average mana pool and they had hoped that she would use it wisely. Instead she used it to save people and become a doctor. Even so, she did become a part time adventurer in the end.

After learning their basic strength level (except for Don) she quickly asked them to bring their PE clothes for tomorrow before the bell rang. Don said his farewells to teacher Brooke who was quite nice in his opinion. He then said his farewells to Lars before heading to his last class of the day.

When he entered his final class, he instantly noticed a difference. Instead of row like arrangement. Thhere were desks for each student and each desk was at least a don in width. This class had a bit more students. A total of 20ish people were there. Most were 2nd years while 3 were in their 3rd year and there was only 1 first year, Don. It seemed like many people did not take forging in first year.

The teacher who came out this time looked much older, about 60. He was on the shorter side, he had a big pot belly and his arms seemed a little to buff for the rest of his body. He had huge goggles on and the front of his hair had long been gone before Don was born. The teacher stood in front f the class while he rested his arm on his desk. He scanned the class and once he got to Don he looked at him for a good second before scratching his beard and scanning the rest of the room.

"The name is Teacher Mo but I like to me called uncle Mo or just Mo keep the relationship closer. Well like many of your other teacher I was an adventurer...well if you could call it that. You see I never went to no academy. I was what you would call an adventurer without a license. I never signed up in no Guild or nothing. Just took what I wanted and got no repayments. It was an easy way to satisfy my Item requirements that I needed to complete my projects. You see, I was a master Forger. Well I still am but it has taken a back seat to something else. After years of not really following the rules much, I got caught. The main reason is because my shop started doing too well and I was not one to hide where I found my materials. Anyways I was forced to do a year of community service and had to take adventurer class. At that time, I was already 40! I quickly did the 2 years in a small school and tried to forget those embarrassing years. After I got too old to ever reach the next ranks of forging, I retired and decided to teach in school since it pays well. The reason why I am telling you all this is so you know to follow the laws but let's be honest here. The laws... do they even mean anything? " After asking such a controversial question, he quickly went on to something else before we could even answer.

"Now forging is the basics you need to know to be a blacksmith. Now who here has fixed something or used the ol hammer and flames?" Everyone in the room raised their hand. Mo nodded as he heard this. 'Good good no amateurs this round.'

"Ok, now does anyone know the ranking systems of blacksmith's?" Everyone was quiet. Although some people had an idea, they wanted to hear the full explanation from their teacher.

"Well I'll just say that the ranking system, like all other things gets harder and harder as you go up. The ranks go from apprentice, then blacksmith copper, silver, gold, forger, master forger, divine forger and finally rune master. Apprentices are what you all are now. As long as you have touch a hammer before, you can count as an apprentice. Once you can forge a normal weapon you are considered a copper grade blacksmith. You upgrade to silver when you can forge a mortal weapon. You upgrade to gold once you can forge a high grade mortal weapon. Who upgrade to a forger once you can forge an immortal weapon. You upgrade to master forger once you can make an immortal weapon with more than 1 attribute in it. A divine forger is one of the rarest seen. I myself have only heard that 1 lives inside Taurus's capital city, Urichle City. They are able to forge Divine weapons while Rune master are able to forge weapons with sentience that grows with its master. The step from master forger to divine forger is like heaven and earth. To go from Divine forger to Rune master is unmeasurable. There has only been a hand full that have appeared in this age and the majority of them are Dwarves."

His students nodded as they heard this. Some of them looked extremely excited as they listened to Mo. Out of these people, who didn't know the divine forger, Felix Blackhorne? Even Don, a village bumpkin had heard stories about the human who had reached Divine forger. Although 2 other human blacksmiths have made it to the divine forger level since this era has started, neither of them were able to reach that threshold before 200 years old. Since Felix is still young, there is still a chance that he could become the first human rune master of this age. Out of all these young impressionable teens? Who doesn't want to become a rune master?

After Mo finished his little lesson he grabbed a bunch of bricks and set one on each table. Don looked at the unfamiliar metal in his hand. Mo turned to the front after handing everyone a brick. He looked at all their excited faces. He could tell that they really wanted to just get in there and make divine weapons.

"Now your first lesson will separate you from your peers. This is so important that if you can't do this, there is no way your passing my class." Everyone gulped as they heard this. 'Is he going to have us make an intricate weapon?' one person thought. 'Are we going to have to mold this material into a completely different material?' another person thought. 'Is he going to test our endurance? First person to give up will be out?' a person thought nervously. Mo looked at everyone straight in the eye.

"Make a smiley face!" Mo said in a serious tone.

Class "....?"