Blood, Sweat, and Tears

The dummy opened up, revealing a small metallic lockbox within it. The box was of a matte black texture, with a slight green tint. I took it out of the dummy with my bare hands, inspecting it more closely.

'Fuck, it's locked.' The lockbox is locked, to be honest, I should have known when I identified it as a fucking lockbox.

'Maybe I can use Pure Focus to find out a way to open it without a key...' I did just that.

I closed my eyes and sat in front of the lockbox, dragging my finger tips around the edges and crevasses.

As I did this, my mind started to split off into branches of thought. I was thinking of many things simultaneously. One of those things was the situation I am in.

I am Haven, an academy for the elite. 'What an overused plot, am I right?' What type of school though?

Haven is a academy located in the eastern continent of Terra. This western continent is called Azya. Haven just so happens to be the most elite academy in the continent, an academy that trains 'visionaries'. Visionaries are classed into 3 general branches which split off into more branches. These 3 branches are the Warriors, the Mages, and the Rangers.

A visionary is someone that makes use of their VQ to work in one of the three branches. Below visionaries are the auxiliaries, the auxiliaries make up the majority of the lower and middle class of society. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are picked on, so long as they don't pick fights with visionaries, there won't be any accidents.

I just so happen to be a Ranger student.

In the novel, Simon had naturally superior eyesight and hearing. Seeing this, he naturally applied to become a ranger. His father was not too fond of this idea, but gave in on the condition that Simon makes the top 10 in the first exam of the semester. Because of Simon's hard work, I inherited a body with mouldable foundations.

Now... what about the ODC? Where do I even start-

TICK

Something clicked in my head. It is the solution for the lockbox!

I quickly jammed the dagger into a almost unnoticeable slit on the bottom of the lockbox, opening it.

There, laying on a velvet cushion from within the lockbox, was a small vinyl disc player, playing the contents of the dagger art. Along with it, was a small book filled with stances and movement patterns which a quickly memorised the pictures of. All in all, it took me a good 5 minutes to memories everything.

'Poof.' Now the hardest part has begun: practicing the damn art.

To train the art, I have too be in a state of absolute concentration and I can't waver for even a split second, or else I might literally 'blow up'. As to why, that all lies in the fact that this art is the most dangerous of all. But that shouldn't be a problem for me...

Well, I have to go through with this, I literally have no experience yet, so I need some instant growth. Otherwise the ODC will shred me within the first minutes of the siege. I very much don't want to die this early into the 'plot'.

I started the basic motions from the manual and went along with the worded instructions from the disc player. The instructions were clear and the motions where consistent. However, the strain on my body hurt like a hammer. It felt like a land whale was sitting on me while jumping around like on a bouncy castle.

After a while, I was bleeding from a bunch of places, but nothing was serious. 'Man, the things you do to live...' I said to myself. My body felt like shit, but at least in these last few hours of hell, I finally understand how to use a dagger in combat. Now I just need to fight a living being...

'Yep, I haven't even killed anyone before. I guess tonight will be sleepless.'