The Start of Classes

The next morning after my outing with Luna, I woke up and things went the same as they did yesterday. I had to deal with Fleur being clingy, and took some time to chat with Raya. Raya always has a mature air about her compared to the other two and is not as talkative unless someone makes and effort to speak to her.

The main difference was Luna. The girl seems to be avoiding me now and trying to keep her distance. I'd like to find some way to address this but I would first need to find out what the root of the problem is. I doubt I would get any info out of her if I asked, more so now that she is avoiding me. Honestly, I've been enjoying my time with these girls, even if I'd rather not admit it. Even Luna, who acts harsh has grown on me in the short time we have known each other. I'd like to fix things between us, so that we can all work together properly. I can tell that we will be strongly bonded in the future based on how quickly I have come to like these girls.

'hmm bonded. .' That reminds me Vivienne mentioned that my fusion ability would allow me to gain characteristics of those I am closely bonded with. I wonder what kinds of things I would gain from these three? There might even be a possibility of learning magic this way as well. Sadly, there isn't much point thinking about that right now. For one thing, there is no one available to even teach me. Based on what Vivienne said to me about the ability, I can guess that the technique is highly guarded by the dragons. There is a chance that they would not be willing to teach me, or that I would be target just for having it in the first place. Honestly the whole situation was rather troublesome.

While I was eating breakfast with the trio and mulling over all these things in my mind, my holo-plate rang out, signaling that someone was trying to contact me. I opened it up for a video call to see that it was Carin. She we had exchanged our contact information with each other last time we met, since we would be working closely with her from now on. 'Now that I think about, Luna gave me hers as well yesterday, it would probably be a good idea the register Fleur and Raya too.'

"Oh good. You're all here. That makes this easier." Carin said. I turned around to see the other three had crowded around me when they noticed it was Carin that called. I made eye contact with Luna briefly which caused her to back away a bit. 'I should really find a way to resolve this.' I thought to myself.

"There was something I forgot to mention during our meeting before. Make sure to wear your adventuring attire that you picked out."

"Why would we need to do that, aren't practical lessons later in the day?" Luna asked. The others didn't seem surprised at this, but Luna, having shut herself in during most of her stay was confused at this. Since I arrived late, I was in a similar boat and was wondering why Carin wanted us in our adventuring gear.

"That was a bit of a mistake on my part. I only mentioned getting used to fighting in your clothes during practical lessons, which might have caused some confusion."

"The fact of the matter is, you will be wearing them for all of your classes. You may have picked up on it during your shopping, but there are no school uniforms in the adventurer course. That is something reserved for academic courses."

"Your adventuring attire will be your uniform and you are required to wear it at all times. Think of it as a way to build your image during your stay here. Your adventuring attire will be your defining feature and people will come to recognize you based on your appearance."

I thought the reasoning was pretty sound. Building your image is important for getting your group recognized. I would Imagine those that are more popular are able to receive special job requests and possibly even nicknames given to them by the people.

"That's all I have to say. Classes start soon so make sure you are on time and in your gear. We will be meeting in the academy courtyards, so look for me when when you arrive." Carin said, before she cut the connection.

After the call, the four of us finished eating and went back to our respective rooms to change. It took the remainder of our time getting dressed, as none of us were use to putting our outfits on yet. I suspect this was another reason we were required to wear our adventuring attire. Speed will most likely be important sometimes and you wont always have the convenience of being able to spend a lengthy amount of time getting ready. I didn't meet up with the others when were done, as we all ended up teleporting from our rooms, directly to the school grounds.

As the scenery changed there was a mass of students flooding in. Equipped with the outfit I chose yesterday, along with a sword at my waist and a bow on my back, I took a moment to compare myself to some of the other students. I noticed that I was standing out quite a bit. There were a number of students like myself, that put quite a lot of thought into their appearances. Some looked extravagant, some took the sexy approach and wore skimpy armor that didn't leave much to the imagination, and some focused on a coolness factor. But most people looked like what you would expect from a typical adventurer. Generic you might say. They didn't look particularly bland or bad, but there definitely wasn't anything that made them stand out.

I was getting many stares from female students. I'm not sure if it was an effect of my Oxen blood or not, but some of the girls seemed to be downright swooning over me. Not that I had any interest in them. I'm not someone that tries to go after every girl that has an interest in me, even if I wanted a harem. On the other hand, The reception from the males was rather mixed. Some were admiring me, even going so far as to give me a thumbs up for my tastes. While others were glaring at me for the attention I was getting.

I have to say, I was quite curious about what the girls chose. I didn't get to see their outfits and there was a feeling of suspense at finding out what they will look like. I was looking around when I noticed there was quite a large crowd gathered.

"Kyaah"

"Oooh"

Sounds of exclamation rang out from the surrounding spectators. I had a suspicion about the cause and decided to push my way through the crowd. Sure enough, it was exactly as I thought. At the center of the crowd was Fleur, Luna, and Raya. Among the students they could definitely be categorized as those that put a lot of thought into crafting unique images for themselves.

Fleur was wearing something that was like a mix between a mage and a high class schoolgirl. A long sleeved white, collared dress shirt worn under a black vest. From the waist down she was wearing a black skirt with boots that when up to her claves. She topped the whole outfit off with a sleeveless, white hooded cloak. The bottom ends of it were fashioned into a delicate lace embroidery pattern, and the whole thing connected at the neck with a silver chain. Her choice of weapon, a bow, was worn on her back.

Luna was wearing some kind of two piece padded gambeson armor. The whole thing had brown leather accents and the padded parts had metal studs where the stitching met. The top was a short sleeved crop top, with a high collar. The bottom consisted of four separate flaps-two on the front and two on the back, that went down to the knees and was connected by a leather belt, and underneath she wore a pair of string panties that were tied at her hips. She coupled it with a pair of steel-toed boots, as well as some spiked gauntlets, and she wore her weapon of choice- a large dagger, on the back section of her waist. The whole thing exposed quite a bit. I could tell she went for ease of movement and didn't think about the revealing nature, due to the flustered expression she currently had on her face.

Raya's outfit was very similar to what she usually wears. She still wore a pareo, only this one was red and made of a stronger material. It had gold plated armor around the hips as well as gold accent chains draped around the fabric. The top of her attire was what had changed the most. She was still wearing a crop top only instead of being made of fabric, it was one that looked like gold scale mail. She paired it with similar colored wrist guards and ankle guards, along with some strap sandals. She topped the whole thing off with a red mage hat and along with the bladed staff she carried, she looked like some kind of magic knight. I have to say, the red and gold color scheme of her outfit accented her tan skin as well as her red hair and scales quite nicely.

I had noticed they were getting kind of fed up with all the attention, so I pushed my way through the crowd to try and help them out. When I reached them at the center, all of the previous attention focused on me and the surrounding students began muttering things to each other.

"Hey who is he?" one girl said. "I don't know but he's kind of hot." similar to before the reception form the boys was rather mixed. "Who is this guy?" "must be one of their teammates." "tch, cool looking bastard. Don't get ahead of yourself." "Hey man, was that an insult or a compliment?"

I tried to ignore it and continued my approach to the three girls in front of me. Upon seeing me, Fleur yelled my name and ran to my side to hide behind me, like I was her savior or something. I was confused by this at first but then I remembered that she has been through some unfortunate incidents due to her charm. She's likely not good at dealing with crowds. I walked over to the other two with Fleur in toe and turned my attention to the surrounding crowd.

"Do you guys think you could let us through? You're troubling my team members and we still need to meet with our mentor." after my statement, the crowd parted enough for us to pass before dispersing afterward. They likely realized from my words that they also still need to find their respective mentors.

"Hmph, I supposed you have your uses." Luna remarked as we walked away.

"Thanks for that Rune. I was starting to get a little irritated myself." Raya said. Fleur was still silently clinging to me, but I could tell that she was also grateful that I stepped in.

"Yeah sure. You guys look great by the way. I can see that we all put a lot of effort into crafting an image for ourselves." Raya in particular seems to have spared no expense. I guess in makes sense though considering her family. One thing about her outfit has been drawing my attention though and Raya took notice of my gaze.

"Oh this? do you like it?" she said pointing at a necklace she was wearing. The necklace had a bright blue gemstone at its center and was giving off a faint glow. At first I thought it was just an accent piece because it matched her eyes, but when I noticed the glow I began to think otherwise.

"Yeah. I'm guessing its not just an ordinary necklace right?"

"Yes. This is manafication necklace. It allows one to store mana as a reserve and then use it again when its needed. If you look closely there is a sigil at the center that gives it power."

"Sigil?"

"The symbols used in runic magic."

"I see. ." I took a moment to look closely and just like she said, the cause of the glow was right there in the form of a sigil. It was quite interesting and I ended up looking a little longer than I meant to.

"Oh my, are you enjoying the view down there Rune?" Raya said in a teasing tone. It was at this point that I realized my face had been awfully close to her cleavage this whole time.

*cough*

"Well. ." I muttered as I backed away in a hurry. Raya simply laughed it off. She seemed to get enjoyment out of teasing me. After our short conversation, we spotted Carin and and made our way towards her.

"It is about time you you guys showed up." Contrary to her stern greeting, she was wearing a smirk on her face like she had been watching something amusing this whole time.