Exclusive Class

With the day nearly at its end, Damian found himself wandering around the outpost alone. Now that block classes were over, everyone was heading to their sleeping quarters to rest and talk with friends. As for Damian, his day was still far from over.

As he had heard from Instructor Vailecks, due to his status as an Imprinted, he would be assigned to something like an exclusive class for any Imprinted staying at this Outpost. The question was, where was it?

While the schedule they provided him with did come with a map, he couldn't exactly figure out if he was in the right place considering he couldn't find a single human being anywhere.

The search continued for an extended period of time before he eventually spotted one of the instructors walking along one of the outpost walkways.

Damian quickly approached the man.

"Hello Instructor, do you know anything about where I could find a class that Imprinted are supposed to attend?" Damian asked the man.

"..Yeah, I'll lead you there so just follow me." The instructor replied with a subtle look.

Walking along the dirt path, Damian decided to talk with the instructor.

"I wonder who the instructor is gonna be. I can't really remember who they said was assigned to teach the Imprinted, but I'm pretty sure I remember thinking the person was about to pass out during the announcements. Hopefully, they're still awake." He commented in slight amusement.

The instructor scrunched his brow:

"That…sounds like the instructor may have been pretty tired."

"We can only hope, I guess." Damian replied, unconvinced.

Eventually, the two stopped at a training area situated a little further from the rest of the neighboring fields and buildings Damian had been to earlier in the day.

Strangely enough, there was only one person there.

"Is this really the class? I feel like it seems a little small. Also, I don't see any instructor over there—only a single recruit. Looks like that instructor couldn't make it—not that I'm surprised considering how dead he looked." Damian questioned.

The instructor glanced at him with a knowing look:

"That's because 'I'm' the one who will be teaching you guys."

Pausing for a moment, Damian glanced at the instructor up and down.

"...I may have misspoke…" Damian replied, silently facepalming for running his mouth.

'God, I'm just…so stupid. Whatever, I'm so tired right now, I can't be bothered with getting in trouble at this point. And ya' know, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it—I don't know how I didn't figure that out earlier. At least he doesn't really seem mad. In fact…the guy looks just as tired as he was yesterday funny enough.'

At the realization, Damian then quickly recovered his memory of the announcements from earlier.

'Also, this instructor…his name was Kley I'm pretty sure. Right, they mentioned he'd be teaching this class, but…even with him here…where is everyone in the first place?'

Damian squinted at the distant training area with only one other person waiting around:

"...Are there no other Imprinted at this outpost?"

"As far as students, you two are the only ones," Kley answered, still seemingly unenthused with his work.

'I guess that's better? If there were more people involved, it would definitely mean I would get less attention as far as teaching goes. And as it seems, I'm going to need all the help I can get.'

"So, what exactly will we be doing?" Damian questioned absentmindedly.

"Well, normally I just get to relax since that Imprinted over there is basically more talented and honestly might be more experienced than I am despite her age, so she usually just does her own thing. Sometimes I do give her pointers though." Kley explained in lukewarm tones.

Damian awkwardly chuckled at the instructor's words:

"...That may be an issue for me. As far as Imprinted go, I'm probably going to need the most work out of any student you've had in the past, since I pretty much have no clue about anything to do with imprinted."

"That's fine, it just means I need to actually do my job, which has its own merits I guess." Kley continued.

'...This guy seems awfully relaxed.'

"Alright, with that being said, let's go introduce you to Yulie."

"...Sounds good."

'That's right! Yulie was that famous Imprinted Aricin was telling me about earlier. So she was the only Imprinted student here? Wait, isn't she supposed to be super rich and powerful? If so, why the hell would she come to this place?'

Stopping in front of the other student, Damian met her eye-to-eye.

"Hey Yulie, this guy here will be joining you for private instruction, so from now on I'll probably be focusing more on his training since he isn't as well-versed as you are," Kley explained to the girl casually.

Nodding to the instructor, Yulie then spoke to the new arrival:

"Hello. I look forward to working with you in our future classes. My name is Yulie."

"L-likewise, please call me Damian," Damian responded, standing very awkward and stiff in an attempt to look presentable in front of someone of such high status.

With their introductions out of the way, he soon began his first class for Imprinted.

However, it wasn't too long before the situation slowly grew into a struggling mess…

—

"Damian…we haven't even started the actual training yet. How are you this tired after doing a few stretches?" Kley shook his head at the ridiculous scene.

Lying sprawled on the ground, Damian collapsed not long after they had begun their training.

"You call those stretches?! Some of these poses shouldn't even be physically possible! How is it that human beings are able to stay in these positions for longer than a second without giving up!?"

"Forget it, let's just move on to the next task."

— —

"Damian, we can't continue through the basics until you're actually able to do this correctly," Kley instructed in a resigned temper.

"I don't know what to tell ya', this is the best my body is able to do right now!" Damian exclaimed, feeling major exhaustion.

Throughout the beginning of his class with his instructor and Yulie, Damian had severely struggled with keeping up in both mentality and physicality. When his instructor had asked him what his ability was, he, unfortunately, couldn't give a proper answer which then led to them going through more fundamental aspects of fighting as an Imprinted.

For Damian, this immediately spelled disaster for him as the training was far more straining and difficult to manage than the basics he had gone over in his group earlier in the day. The brutality of his one-on-one instruction tore him to pieces with him eventually giving out and throwing up.

And now back to the present, Damian was forced to learn an oddly difficult meditation breathing routine while being informed on the fundamental aspects of being an Imprinted.

"Originally, we were supposed to have passed through this stuff roughly an hour ago, but we're still here. Aren't you Imprinted? While I do have my assumptions as to why you're so weak, it still doesn't really excuse the fact that you're this slow in grasping simple lessons in adaptability."

"...Oh? You have assumptions…*gasp*...as to why I suck this bad? Please… do tell." Damian replied, barely keeping his body from passing out.

"Let me ask you a question first, how many meals a day were you eating before coming here?" Kley asked while examining Damian's practice.

"...What…are you talking about…you think I can afford *gasp* eating as much as…a meal a day? Give me a break, I could barely…afford a meal every other day!" Damian answered, slightly frustrated.

Kley dejectedly shook his head at the response.

"You see, that right there is probably the reason why you're so weak. You're just so malnourished, that your body is unable to withstand the exercise. Even if your imprints improved your physical ability, it can't change the fact that you need food and water to survive."

"Ohhh, so I was just weak because-

"But that only accounts for like a quarter of the problems. It still doesn't change the fact that you're a very slow learner, you're unable to keep any composure, and you're somewhat incapable of adapting to-

"Alright, alright, I get it! And are you being serious?! You gathered all of that from a single training session?!" Damian yelled, irritated at Kley's uncalled-for insults.

"I've been an instructor for quite a while, so I'm able to pick up on these things pretty quickly. You also have a few bad habits that we need to get rid of by the way." Kley nodded knowingly.

Damian groaned at his instructor's brutal analysis.

'This guy thinks he's just so impressive! I swear to the gods that I'll make you regret these ridiculous insults!'

Maintaining his training, Damian gazed over to his right where a girl with ashen hair could be seen practicing elusive motions with a long sword in her hand. Growing entranced by the movements, Damian watched her carefully in immense curiosity. Her sword seemed slow and fast at the same time, fluctuating between sharp and round arches and swings. Her feet danced as she moved, allowing her bizarre motions to change from offense and defense without halting her flow. Although it looked incredible, Damian couldn't understand a single detail of her swordsmanship no matter how closely he watched.

'I don't know what she's doing…but I definitely wanna be able to do that.'

Noticing his subtly envious fixed eyes, Kley sighed and walked over to the boy; lightly, he tapped his shoulder.

"Stop practicing for a moment. Hey Yulie, you're dismissed since class is basically over at this time." Kley spoke up whilst remaining next to Damian.

Pausing at the announcement, she waved off and headed to her room.

'...Well…at least I can continue practicing tomorrow.'

Annoyed with his performance, Damian dejectedly turned and began to walk away.

"Hey, um, Damian was it? Why don't you stay here for a while longer?" Kley asked.

Widening his eyes, Damian turned back around.

"Isn't class over? Wouldn't you have other things to do? Ya' know, since you're an instructor and all?"

"Don't worry about me, I've got plenty of free time at this hour. It just seemed like you needed the extra training and I thought I might as well help you out. So if you're willing to work even harder than now, I'm sure you'll see improvement quickly—it's up to you though." Kley calmly explained.

"If…if it's alright with you, then yes. I want to improve as quickly as possible."

'I don't care if it means all the pain in the world. I have to learn how to do that.'