The Mold (1)

Chapter 23 – The Mold (1)

Before we knew it the day had come to an end, classes-wise, following the loud ring that resonated through the entirety of Class A-1.

"I guess that is it," an elderly, grey-haired, motherly woman gently announced to us.

If anything, this old lady was the nicest Instructor we interacted with today.

The wizened Professor Karen Melgram.

Such a lovely woman with her motherly, caring voice and inspiration.

Although she loved teaching and withdrew from combat to do what she cherished, she was not lacking in skills that were beneficial in combat.

Professor Melgram was a certified Hunter with a Healing-type skill who played a major role in bringing medicine to what it is today following the drastic change that it underwent with the emergence of the Dungeons.

Professor Melgram packed the few small-sized books that she had come with and left the class.

Every member of my class was happy and cheering as the classes had ended much earlier than expected. Little did they know that it happened only because it was just our first day.

Other than Miss Carrington, who took out the considerable amount of time allotted to her to teach, other tutors barely taught anything when they came. Most simply turned their teaching session into a getting-to-know-each-other time, asking for names of every Trainee present and having a little chat with the class in general.

I must confess. That was really cool though.

Aside from the fact that we finished early today, there was yet another topic that was at the tip of everyone's tongues.

A topic that was introduced by the third Instructor who interacted with us—Professor Avoi Ding.

He had talked about something that fascinated every recruit who listened to him and had their bodies searing with profound motivation.

This something was the place called the Mold.

The Mold was a special training facility with the Cube that was divided into several levels to meet the needs of interested Trainees, Instructors and other Hunters.

As the name implied, it was supposed to help shape whoever participated in its programs into better fighters and grant them more mastery of their Skills.

"Tch," I gritted subtly.

The Mold was the first obstacle that many would meet here because scaling the training sessions was extremely difficult and demanding. Nonetheless, it had an upside to this near-default outcome of failure; that upside was the fact that even if one failed the session they undertook, they were majorly guaranteed to learn something to help their growth still.

While others had different dreams and goals of being here, I had to set my priorities right in order to achieve my goal.

Terence was bound to become the bane that would torment our world and I was the person granted a gift of regression and untold knowledge of a future that even he doesn't know. To stop him, I have to make sure he doesn't become as strong as he was in my past life.

Terence had gotten so strong to a point that he defected from his father's guild to become a man of his own; a dream that he achieved rather easily as the world knew his name in no time.

Sadly, the world had only known the Terence that he revealed to them and not the real Terence behind that mask of heroism.

Tch.

My most important priority was to graduate from the Cube as one of its top Trainees. That way, I could guarantee that the top guilds would come for me and with that also, I was certain of having the best of the best resources at my disposal.

In essence, the better one's guild, the stronger they can get at a shorter possible time than normal.

I rested my cheek on my fist as I watched my classmates leave one after the other.

'To graduate as a top recruit, it means I will have to show myself off to a certain extent. Tch, what a drab!'

I had planned to be more subtle about it but I had no control over the situation now. If I want to be noticed by the big guilds then I must definitely have to be a standout Trainee.

Unlike Claudia, Terence and Otis, who already have some solid backing, I was all on my own.

No influence or support without so ever.

My mind tracked back to the Enstar Family and a very cringe, smug, half-hearted smile appeared on my face.

'No way!'

I stood up from my chair and walked out of the classroom like the rest. All through the time I got into the elevator and outside the building, I was only thinking of the best way to show myself to the higher-ups of the Cube.

For a First Year who had not even stayed for a long time, that was going to be hard to achieve.

I stopped, looked at the sky and sighed, releasing a lot of tension in that single breath.

I turned around, my eyes following the direction where many of the trainees were headed—toward the Mold.

I watched them walking for a while before shrugging and joining them. Without any better thing to do, I decided to check the Mold out along with those that went simply because I wanted to see what would happen and perhaps exploit the situation to my advantage.

After all, no one who was going to attempt the first session put forth by the Mold was going to make it through. If a trainee suddenly did in a situation where others failed, it was going to be something that would be talked about, even if it was for a few days. That was a good start for me.

In a couple of minutes, we arrived since the Mold was also in the Central part of the Cube. A gigantic structure whose ends—lengthwise and widthwise—I couldn't see from where I stood.

It was simply that ginormous.

As magnificent as the exterior of this structure was, the inside was even more jaw-dropping.