David

"Listen up Team! Today's the day. You little leeches are finally going to stop sucking the life blood from this settlement and begin to earn your keep!" A brash voice sounded out through the dimly lit classroom. 

There was a chorus of chuckles in response, it was clear none of the students sitting at the desks took the man's words seriously. 

It was a small space, with desks enough for about twenty students, light filtering in through shuttered windows, and at the front of the room, was an enormous man. He wore a set of dull gray armor, that only covered his chest, shoulders and thighs, wearing a pair of thick, gray colored trousers, and heavy leather boots.

"Brogan, we all know you're a big softie at heart, why are you still going with the tough guy act?" A cheerful voice piped up from one of the desks at the front, coming from a pale skinned girl, who slouched on her desk, hidden by the piles upon piles of books stacked up around her. 

"Hmph. You want me to be all sweet and nice, huh, Cherie? I just want you all ready for what you'll be facing out in the wilderness." Brogan crossed his tree trunk arms, which were covered in tattoos of Horned Wolves, Storm Eagles and other magic beasts. His posture looked stern, but the corner of his mouth twitched in a half smile, revealing a large fang. 

Brogan's smile widened, as his deep green eyes scanned the room, looking over the young students who had been training for the past few years, ever since they had come of age, and became ready to manipulate mana. 

Then his eyes narrowed, stopping at a student with unruly light brown, almost orange hair, who was dozing off next to one of the windows, sitting right in the far corner at the very back of the class, with a faint grin on his face.

"Mgmgmmg, oh stop it." The boy mumbled, shifting in his chair, the smile growing wider and wider, as rolled in his chair, his face moving into the light. The faint sunshine revealed a delicate face, one that a few might call handsome, but everyone would call beautiful. 

Brogan slowly raised an eyebrow, and shook his head, his greasy ponytail of thick black hair shaking back and forth. A long sigh escaped his lips as he slowly started to walk towards the back of the class.

"Cherie! Cherie! I bet he's dreaming about you! Look at the expression on his stupid face!" A rough voice piped up, from a stocky boy on the opposite side of the class to the sleeping boy. A cheeky grin was spread wide on his freckled face, one pale blue eye winking towards Cherie.

Cherie, who had turned along with the rest of students, blushed bright red, covering her pretty face with her hands, and hiding herself in her pile of books once again. 

"Callahan." Brogan growled at the stocky boy, as he came to a stop in front of the sleeping boy, and there was a chorus of laughs as the students all around the classroom looked around smiling and put their hands over their ears. They'd all seen this before.

"DAVID MARIGOLD!" Brogan bellowed out, as the students all around winced, even though their ears were covered. The sleeping boy leapt out of his chair, brown eyes wide open, looking left and right, dazed. 

"Ah yes! The answer is under the front left leg!" David snapped to attention, pointing at the board, where there was a rough sketch of an enormous deer, with antlers that resembled a chandelier. 

"You absolute fool! David! This is your final day to prepare, and you're dozing off in the corner! How will your teammates rely on you out in the wilderness! And yes, that is the vital weak spot of the Gem Deer, but that isn't what we're discussing!" Brogan leaned down to yell in David's face, while David scrunched up his nose, and leaned away from from him. The rest of the classroom continued to laugh at David's misfortune. 

"Uhm, Brogan. Your breath stinks." David whispered as Brogan continued to laugh, but loud enough for everyone to hear, and the laughter grew louder, at this point, Callahan had fallen off his chair and was rolling around on the ground.

"You little -" Brogan clenched his teeth, showing off two large fangs that jutted up from his lower jaw, but a sharp voice interrupted him. 

"Come on Brogan. We all know David is more than ready to be out there with us, otherwise we would've woken him up ourselves. Besides, he's only napping because of all the time he spends training at night." This time, a slim but muscular boy spoke from the front, sat next to Cherie, hanging around his neck was a pair of goggle with dark lenses. 

"Yeah, training because he doesn't want to fall behind his crush!" Callahan piped up, and the faint grin that had spread across David's face disappeared, and it was his turn to blush.

"What am I going to do with you lot?" Brogan shook his head, and walked back to the the front off the class, but hidden from the students, there was a wide smile on his face. He knew that the reason this batch could be so light hearted, was because they were more ready than any students he'd taught before.

-----

Later that day, as the afternoon sun scorched down on the barren ground that surrounded Coppervein Stronghold. A small group strolled out of the entrance to the Stronghold, which had once been the entrance to a massive quarry. 

From the outside, all it looked like was a dead end ravine, but it hid a small settlement of a few thousand humans. This was the only way humans could live out in the wilderness, on their own, without the protection of a some powerful figure. 

The group started up the slope that led away from the entrance, at their head, was Brogan, to his right, was David, followed by the rest of the students.

"Alright kid, since you're a scout, you've had experience training out here that few of the others have had. I don't need to remind you how important your job is." Brogan leaned down and murmured in David's ear. 

While a scout truly was important, another scout from the settlement had already investigated the route they had planned to take, there was no way the settlement would throw their future into the wilderness wildly. 

"Got it sir." David nodded, and whizzed off towards a large mountain that lay to the south of the settlement. , each step barely disturbing the dry, dusty ground. 

"That boy sure is something else, he's gotten so for with just the bare bones Mana Gathering technique." Brogan shook his head, a faint disappointment carrying through his admiration. 

"If only he was born to another family, ey Captain. Or techniques were shared freely." The slim boy was now wearing his goggles and had appeared next to Brogan.

"Well Xavier, it's all for a good reason. Humanity isn't united. We can't go sharing techniques willy nilly, all we can hope is that David lets his stubbornness slide and leaves Coppervein to join a clan, oath to the Heroes, anywhere would take him, maybe even a Hero's Guild," Brogan sighed, as David disappeared over the slope, moving in a strange zig zag pattern.

"Psst, look at this, your boyfriend almost a five star. Love really does change a man" Callahan nudged Cherie, and showed her the face of a large watch he wore on his wrist. On the black face, moving rapidly away from them, was a an empty circle, with surrounded by four dots, with a faint, fifth dot.

The empty circles, signified the very first stage of mana development, the coreless stage, where mana was gathered in the body, until it gained enough density to naturally form a core. 

All the students, and Brogan, wore similar devices on their bodies, some had a watch like Callahan, other had it built into their armor or gear, while some, like Xavier, wore some sort of goggles or eye wear.

These were CoreScanners, magical devices that had become essential after the Convergence, which allowed humans, whose mana sensing abilities were particularly weak, to scan for lifeforms all around them.

"It's not like that." Cherie hissed at Callahan, shaking a gloved fist at him. She wore a suit of black armor, that didn't look like it was metal or leather, rather it looked like the shell of some insect. The helmet of the armor covered much of her face, her violet eyes glaring out at Callahan. 

"Alright, rich girl." Callahan chuckled, moving away from her and back towards the rear of the ground, where he went back to scanning their surroundings, one hand on the enormous greatsword slung across his back. 

Over the hill ahead, David was scanning the area, while also doing his utmost to keep hidden. He looked around at the ground, for any signs of tracks, droppings or pieces of fur or hair.

Picking up in speed, David speed over the rolling hills ahead, the tension falling away from him, as the pressure of their first real outing fell away, and his years of training took over. 

"Small pack of Drill Rabbits. Signs of a Ice Magpie, possibly a breeding pair. All okay." David whispered to himself, as he assessed each of the possible threats, comparing them against the strength of his class.

David continued to speed through the wilderness, the dusty ground giving way to sparse grass, that grew thicker and thicker as he grew closer to the mountain. The quiet that was near the stronghold gave way to a chorus of noises.

Faint howls in the distance, soft grunting from beneath the ground, cawing and screeching of birds, and the thundering of hooves. David now moved ever more carefully, steering clear of the small stands of trees that had appeared, and only moving into areas that showed recent tracks, in the wilderness, the most dangerous location was the one the countless dangerous creatures around avoided.

"Aha, now we're talking" David smiled as he came to the crest of a hill, looking down at shining lake in the distance. All around the lake, were faint figures, moving back and forth from the water.

However, on the far side of the clearing, out of range of David's scanner, awaited a sinister presence.