6 Chapter 5: Academy Days (2)

Josua woke up. It was already morning. The time was around 9 am. Today's the start of the two week cramming session by Regius for Josua. As mentioned before, the lessons within this so-called cramming session revolves around the common sense within ARKS, the various rules & regulations, and the bureaucracy within ARKS. These are some of the contents of the subjects Regius will teach to him during the two week session.

He sat up on the bed. To his right was the music box that he bought. It played Quna's song, Eternal Encore, if the music box was turned on. It has a little Rappy on the middle that will spin slowly as the song plays. Whenever he played it back in the original reality, he felt bitter and sad, reminding him of Quna's story and the aftermath of it, be it in the anime or the game itself. To his left, past the left side of the bed, was a night stand, with a Rappy plushy and Lilipan plushy placed on it. Those two plushies would wave from time to time.

He then stood up, and went to the bathroom, which was past the living room. It was the same size, given his previous shenanigan of upgrading the room size to Large, like his bedroom as well. Perhaps it was a mistake, perhaps it wasn't.

He walked towards the bathtub that was by the window, near the door to the balcony. It was an Oracle Bathtub. He got it as a furniture drop from the Urgent Quest 'Drawn to Darkness'. To be precise, he has a lot of it in his premium storage, given he had done that quest so many times whenever it came up. Blue runic patterns decorates the tub, with a yellow-colored water typically being the bath water. The faucet is on the upper right side of the bathtub, near the headrest. Meanwhile, on the left side, there's a keypad that helps in adjusting the temperature of the water, lighting etc.

He unequipped everything from his body by the menu. Unlike the character avatars, which would typically still have some sort of undergarment, even if they're technically not wearing anything, he's practically butt naked. He dipped into the bath, and a sense of relaxation overwhelmed him.

"Fuwahhh.... This feels really nice..." He said, almost to the point of moaning.

He would spend some time bathing, and around half an hour later, he finished his bath. What was weird, was that when he stepped out from the bath, and proceeded to wear his Kaiser Raut outfit via the menu, his body was no longer wet.

"The convenience is really something else. Should get a towel later when I get back." He murmured as he left and went to Franca's Cafe for a quick breakfast.

After about 10 minutes of walking and using the teleporter, he arrived at the cafe. He sat down at a seat and hailed over a waiter to make his order.

"Can I get the Breakfast Special, please? And make it on a jiffy." He said to the waitress after glancing at the menu.

"Understood. A Breakfast Special, right? Please wait for a moment." She said before she went to Franca to relay the order.

Ten minutes later, his meal arrived on his table: a set of breakfast meal, consisting of a pair of sandwiches, an omelette, three pieces of bacon, and two hash browns, with a glass of orange juice on the side. Just wafting the smell of the meal in front of him was enough to stimulate his hunger. He had breakfast like this before, but in his original reality, he only had it when he was abroad or during a stay at a hotel. And even then, he never had this kind of reaction to those same thing compared to this one.

It was pretty much like the first time he ate at the cafe. Later, he finished his meal in about 10 minutes as well. He then hailed a waiter for the bill, and proceeded to pay. Mind you, he still has his own mesetas, probably around 3 million-ish prior to his transfer to this reality.

He left the cafe and got a shuttle to ride on. He went to the academy and arrived within several minutes. By this time, it's around 10 am-ish. His 2-week session with Regius today starts on 11 am, so he still had some time. Regardless, he immediately went to Regius' office.

"Huh, still empty. Guess he's not here yet." he remarked when he went inside the office.

Regius had yet to arrive, so he decided to sit and wait. In the meantime, he continued his pondering on how to save (or at least preserve) Xion.

"A Fluctlight cube should do the trick. However, might have to think on how to interface with her if I go down that route..."

"White Auracite... Wait, it could also do 'that' as well..."

"Yeah, I could, technically speaking, seal Luther, or any Dark Falz really, in a White Auracite!"

"Since Dark Falz(s) are technically just mass of photons hijacking a host, they could technically be sealed within a White Auracite. They're basically disembodied souls!"

He smirked when he realized. This was one possible way to rid the Dark Falz(s), and perhaps, save the hosts as well! As to the reason why he thought of this, it was because the possible similarities between Dark Falz(s) and the Ascians, in that they don't have a true body. They possess a person, and are practically immortal, in a sense. At least, the Ascians were thought to be immortal, until they were exterminated, in the truest sense, by trapping their corporeal form (AKA their soul) inside a White Auracite, and then destroying said Auracite with a powerful enough aether-created weapon (Note: Aether from FFXIV are more akin to Photons from PSO2).

"But the repercussions though... Hmm..." He mumbled.

As he continued in his train of thought, the office's door opened. Regius entered and sat down at his desk. Seeing Josua already there, though, he was slightly surprised.

"I see that you're already here. Good." He said, waking Josua from his musing.

Josua was startled. As in how it looked like, he flinched and shivered a little before calming down, back to normal again.

"Come with me." Regius said, gesturing Josua to follow him.

The two then left the office, with Regius on the lead. They walked towards an unused classroom. Since class had already started, most of the students were inside the various classrooms, with only some ever so rarely leaving the room due to certain circumstances. Later, they entered the designated classroom. Josua sat down at a seat in the front row, while Regius was at the podium.

"Okay, let's begin..." Regius said as he brought up the giant display.

Josua focused on it as Regius began his lecture on the various non-combat related subjects for the next two weeks. Time passed quietly as this went on.

.....

Hallix. He was a third-year student. Like many others in the batch, he's preparing for the final exam, in which he'll be sent to Naverius for a controlled live-fire test. And yes, he can be thought as part of the mob characters.

Today's class is a combat exercise one, that will be held in a training field. He, along with the rest of his class, went to the training field. They will be fighting against holographic projections of a set of enemies. This time, the enemies chosen as the set were Dagans. They're the most common variant of Falspawns typically seen on the field.

During a combat exercise with a holographic projection in the training field, the pain induced from damages occurred during combat in the training field will be lowered to about half. And the damages will be reverted once they exit the field. While the pain absorption can be turned off (AKA 100% pure pain from the damages), however, most students would pass out from the pain. Hence, they would at most lower it to 30% pain absorption, since the objective is mostly to adjust the mindset of the students to get them used to combat and build some pain tolerance.

Also, the weapons used within the training field were provided by the academy. While students are allowed to have their own weapons, however, they're not allowed to operate it. This is as to level the playing field, since some may have more potent weapons than others.

Hallix's class (main class) was, or at least he aims to be, Ranger. He has more proficiency with an Assault Rifle (AR) than a Launcher or a Twin Machine Gun (TMG). His turn was about to come up. He readies himself as he entered the field. As soon as he reached a designated spot, the holographic projection of a Dagan was generated.

"Calm down, calm down. Gotta get a good score. One hit, one kill..." he mumbled as he aimed his AR at the Dagan.

It ran on its quad legs, trying to reach Hallix. Of course, he already had some experience since he had done this several times while in the training field during combat exercise course. He cocked his AR, and began firing at it.

Papapapapapa!

Perhaps it was because he's still nervous, some of his shots missed. He continuously fired at it as it inched closer to him.

"Oh daaaaaaammnnn-" he shouted as he rained down fire upon it.

But before it could reach him, he finally dealt enough damage to its weak point and killed it.

"Fuuh... It never gets any easier." He said, wiping off the sweat from his forehead.

The display above the field's entrance showed his grade for all to see. This was a thing, hence it helped in keeping the score. After it was done displaying a cadet's grade, it would then display the top 10 cadets with the most exemplary rank.

[Course completed.]

[Cadet Hallix - Grading: B]

His grade wasn't all that impressive. While it was good, it wasn't enough to be on the top 10 spot.

"Sigh... I got too nervous..." he sighed.

Most of the time, he'd get B+ or even A- during the combat exercise course. This time, however, he was simply off his game for the day. Bad luck or whatever, it affected his performance and hurt his grade as a consequence.

As he walked away from the entrance, he saw the others mumbling and staring at a certain cadet. He looked at the source of it, he too had mixed feelings.

"The new guy, huh..." he said as he looked at the person in question.

It was Josua. It had been a month since he joined the class, and two weeks since he officially started to participate in the class' lectures. The first two weeks were filled with cram lessons from Regius for him specifically, while the other two weeks were him attending the lectures in the class.

Many of the cadets there were gossiping around, be it from his origins or his sudden entry into the academy and becoming a third year at that.

"Look, it's that guy!"

"Where do you think he's from?"

"I heard he's a personal disciple of Mr. Regius!"

"No way! I heard he was Ms. Maria's!"

"Hehe, who knows? We'll just have to see if he's good enough!"

Personally, Hallix didn't care too much. He knew how hard it is to be a third year, and there was no way someone like Regius would accept a nobody into the academy and straight into the third year class at that.

"He should be good enough. Let's see..." He mumbled as he watched Josua walking into the training field.

.....

It has been two weeks since Josua finished his cram lessons with Regius, and four weeks since he joined the academy. Once a week or so, Maria came by to check up on him at his Personal Quarters. He would also return to his home on Earth every once in a while.

He entered the training field, with a Gunblade in hand. This time around, he's being a Hunter. Prior to his transmigration to this reality, he was already on the 50's range in level for being a Hunter. And to add to that, he was already familiar in using a Gunblade. It was only a matter of experience, mixing and matching Photon Arts of which he's more comfortable with. While he already has an idea on what to use, he's still tweaking on which he should use for a combo.

"Tri-Impact being the starter is already good enough, and Rayblade Shot is also enough for the second move. But Aimed Shot though..." he muttered.

He looked in front of him as a projected Dagan was generated. As it then began running towards him, he readied his stance. With his left arm serving like a sight of sorts, while his right arm, holding the gunblade in question, pulled towards to his right side, as if he's preparing to stab the Dagan.

He dashed towards the Dagan, and unleashed Tri-Impact.

Slash! Slash! Stab!

The first slash was from upper diagonal left to bottom right, while the second one was after he spun quickly and slashed from bottom diagonal left to upper right, and it was ended with a stab enhanced with enough photons to stab through.

The Dagan was staggered. As it had yet recovered, he used Rayblade Shot. He slashed diagonally from the bottom left to upper right, spun as he transitioned the Gunblade to its gun mode, and proceeded to fire a concentrated shot towards the Dagan.

Swish! Bang!

The Dagan spun uncontrollably and was blasted a distance away. As it slowly stood up once more, he activated Aimed Shot, aiming at the weak spot of the Dagan. He charged his shot as the Dagan began running towards him once more.

Kiiiiiiiiing....~

The shot getting more powerful by the second, and when the Dagan was a few meters away from him, he released the charged shot.

SHUOOONNGGG!!! BANG!!!

The shot blasted the Dagan's weakpoint, and subsequently disintegrated it. Then there was a notification displayed in front of him.

[Combat Simulation ended. Please exit through the field entrance.]

He walked back towards the entrance. As he exited the room, some of the cadets around him were flabbergasted. They saw the grade that he got on the display above the entrance.

[Course completed.]

[Cadet Josua - Grading: S]

He was one of the first few that got an S rank. While he managed to complete the course under half a minute, those that got the same grades as him that placed higher were faster than him. It couldn't be helped, since this was one of the few times he managed to stretch himself since he transmigrated to this reality and body.

"Hmm... Should change Aimed Shot with something else..." He mumbled.

While he was walking and mumbling, the remaining cadets went with their turns on the combat exercise inside the training field. He sat down on a seat, continuing to mumble and think. As for his rankings in the top 10, he's around the 3rd place.

(And now, here comes the obligatory jealous people and face-slapping them, because of course!)

Hallix was surprised to see someone with that kind of performance and grading. Not to say S rank in it of itself was the only amazing thing, but the fact that the new guy was somehow proficient enough in combating that Dagan was impressive. He nodded in approval.

However, he then saw some cadets approaching the new guy. Their faces were filled with quite the envy that's visible for all to see.

"Oi, new guy." the head honcho said.

Hallix, who was observing from the side, intended to intervene when he saw the scene developing before him. Josua looked up and saw three guys approaching him, after he heard one of them said something to him. He had a nagging feeling that this was gonna be a pain in the ass.

'Is this gonna be one of those tropes... Bruh...' Josua groaned in his mind.

"Sigh... Just get on with it. I can already see where this is going." he said, ticked off by this stereotypical trope that's happening to him right now. And before those people could respond, he stood up and was before them. He was taller than them.

"Listen here... I don't have the patience to deal with you people right now. I already have a lot on my table, and I don't have the energy to deal with you punks. If you wanna be jealous, then go find someone else to be jealous about." he said to them with a blunt tone, and snorted at them.

The three went blank for a moment, before they processed what he said and went fuming. However, they couldn't do anything without getting themselves expelled. The academy won't allow any altercation between its students, and if it happens, the guilty party involved will be immediately expelled.

Such was their intolerance towards infighting. ARKS needed people dedicating themselves to the war effort against the Falspawn and its masters. And while the academy itself wasn't a part of ARKS directly, they were, however, enforcing its principles to a strict degree.

"However, if you wanna have a go at it, be my guess. If you wanna be expelled, of course." he sneered, leering at them before he went back to sit down.

The three swallowed their anger and walked away. It wasn't worth the trouble of getting expelled just because they started something with the new guy. Hallix was surprised to see how they were handled. Those three were quite famous for skirting the limits of the academy's enforced rules.

They never start a fight with other cadets. However, they did other things that was just at the bottom line of the academy's rules. Inhibiting some students, purposefully delaying some things, those kinds of things that while it's clearly wrong, they got away with it because it hadn't broke the rules yet. Some of the academy's enforcers weren't able to do anything to them because of that.

Some of the female cadets were surrounding Josua, asking him with all sorts of questions. You know, the trope where the popular guy gets surrounded by girls. There were other guys among them as well, who were interested in asking him on some things. They could smell that he has some experience that were above them.

Hallix, in the meantime, didn't care too much. He had nothing to do with the guy, and it wasn't like it would matter to him anyways. The exams would be conducted in eight months, and he didn't plan on getting distracted like some from his class.

As said before, he's more like a background character, a mob character. While the new guy was interesting, it wasn't interesting enough to distract Hallix from his preparations for the exam. Fully knowing his lack of any advantage over others, especially those geniuses and the new guy, he turned his attention back to his studies.

And with this, time passed by once more.

(For Your Information)

- The cadets here have only faced simulations or projections of Falspawns and/other creatures.

- Also, they rarely go outside the academy and onto the actual field for practical combat. Only some oddballs, like Zeno, have ever done that.

- Cadets are like militias, while they can fight, they're relegated to help with civilian evacuation during an attack on a ARKS Ship.

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