The Basics

Berus stood tall as he looked at the twenty five kids that would study under him for the next semester.

"Normally speaking, the first year of Asphodel would consist of just the basics for everyone but this time it is different."

"Out of the original 400 students 25 have been deemed to be the best in this batch and there is no need to waste time on useless information for these students. The 25 of you have been evaluated to be above the students of this batch and will be taught a bit differently."

"I will continue teaching you all the things from the first semester focusing on Assassination and stealth."

The twenty five kids looked at each other with surprise and joy as they heard Berus.

"Okay now that we are done with introductions, let me tell you about how things will work from now on."

"The building behind me will be your home from now on. There are twenty-five rooms for living, a small mission hall, a common gravity chamber, a common training facility and a healing ward."

"You will still have classes on Assassination, hand-to-hand combat, Ranged combat and Language as per the schedule. I will be teaching Assassination class while the other three classes will be taught by other instructors. These are common classes that all twenty-five of the elites will take. Apart from that, there will be a mission hall in the building where tasks have been posted by the staff of Asphodel.

Completing these tasks will earn you contribution points which will be used to exchange for advanced courses directly from me and the other instructors."

"The point I am trying to make is that you can still learn everything you need without doing anything or you need to work your asses off for the advanced stuff."

"Any questions?"

"What are the missions like, Instructor?" asked a young girl from the twenty five kids.

"It ranges from finding some important herbs from the forest to killing certain wild animals to helping the instructors in their work. Even things like cleaning the compound are included."

"The mission board is also separated into five levels: Green, Yellow, Orange, Crimson and Black. You are all green rank as of now and can only take green ranked missions. As you show your skills and complete more missions, your rank will increase and the difficulty of the missions you can take also increases. Obviously higher ranked mission means higher rewards."

"Any more questions?"

No one answered this time as the kids were still processing the things Berus said.

Nathan was very happy with the style of teaching. He was not a fan of learning the useless stuff and wanted to learn more advanced courses so this was perfect for him.

"Ok then. Since no one has any questions we can start with todays class."

"We will start with the basics of Assassination and Stealth. First, the five roots of Stealth."

"Stealth has five fundamental skills that every assassin or spy must learn.

Masking

Killing intent infusion

One with the world

Night eye

Quake

These are the things that every one of you must learn within the next two semesters if you want to pursue the Assassination route.

I will explain what the five roots means.

Masking is a skill that allows you to conceal the traces of your weapon when you are in combat. For example, the sound your blade makes when you perform an attack. In an assassination this is a dead giveaway to your location and an alert person may be able to counterattack you from it.

Killing intent infusion is a skill to infuse your killing intent into your weapon. This can be used as a mental attack as weak minded people will be affected heavily with this skill.

One with the world is a skill where you conceal your presence to the bare minimum and mask your aura with the world.

Night eye is a skill that trains your eyesight to be able to see in the dark. There are two levels to Night eye and a complete night eye can only be completed with Origin but you have to achieve the first level before you unlock your origin.

And finally Quake is a skill that allows you to feel the tremors from the ground to achieve a basic idea of the surrounding. This is one of the hardest skill to master and a skill that is most crucial in a mission.

I will not name names but four people here have learned at least two of the five skills.

Nathan had a weird expression on his face as he listened to Berus. He had shown his killing intent infusion and Masking in the semester finals so he was certain he was one of the four but the truth was he had already mastered the so called first form of Night eye and had started to comprehend Quake in the wasteland. He could also conceal his presence but could not mask his aura completely.

So in a way Nathan had a solid grasp on the so called five roots of stealth.

"In our assassination class we will start from Masking and then move to Night eye. The other three will be included in the advanced course this semester but they will be on the basics of next semester so it is a matter of choice for you guys."