class

Mary's class was not as simple as one would think. The class focused on teaching the student to use their natural weapons, but that was not just limited to claws and teeth. A large part of her teachings were actually focused around unarmed combat.

"Your body is your biggest weapon. It does not matter if your weapon is your claws, your teeth. a fist, or a sword. If your body is not strong enough, fast enough, or able to take a beating, how do you expect to survive?"

I nodded at the words, they made a lot of sense to me. I recalled my previous experiences in combat, whether they had been my mental battles with my Master, or the creatures from the dungeon. All of them had used more than just their primary weapon in combat.

"To be a master of any weapon, you must first be a master of your own body."

I did not learn any combat methods in class this day, not would I for a long time it seemed. For the time being Mary seemed content to train our bodies into well oiled machines. She followed the philosophy that a strong foundation must be built before anything else.

To make it short, for now the training with Mary would simply be an advanced form of Physical Education. A class that took up the entirety of our morning. When we were finally released by entire body was sore. I had run an unknown distance, and the amount of push-ups, squats, and sit-ups I had done had become a blur.

But the worst of it was the planks. For every 5 minutes we spent doing something else, a minute was spent planking. Mary claimed that it was because a strong foundation starts with a strong core, but truly I thought she was just a sadist.

I had been able to spend a few minutes of time talking with my classmates. Surprisingly they were not all muscle heads as I had originally believed. I had made quick friends with a the fox girl and the sloth boy. The fox girl, who's name was Silvia was surprisingly agile and seemed to be gifted in fire magic. After some talking I found she was actually distantly related to the headmaster.

The sloth boy was named David. He was a little strange, and was passionate about increasing his speed. Sloths were known for their slow but powerful attacks, and yet he was obsessed with breaking that stereotype. He had went so far as to only accept speed type abilities from the school, even though his agility still lagged behind the others by a lot.

This did not seem to discourage him however, as he knew that in the end he would be much faster than his sloth brethren. His obsession with speed, even if lacking in it, did not lower his power at all. Sloths attacks were powerful because of the sharpness of their claws, not for the strength behind their blows.

Both students were actually kind of ostracized by the rest of the group. The bears had a powerful build that focused more on Constitution and strength, while the Wolves focused on strength and agility. Silvia was not really welcomed by either group as she had a weak body. She was in the class because it was a requirement, her profession was actually a mage.

David was different. As a sloth he did not have a single stat that he was primarily good at. Other than agility his other stats were actually slightly above average. If he had focused on any of those stats he would have fit in rather well, but his obsession with raising his agility had made him a laughing stock.

It's important to note that if your race has a weakness it will negatively effect your growth if you put points into it. As agility was a sloth persons weakness when he became an actual warrior his stat points would be wasted if he invested them into agility.

It was not so bad as to say half of his points would be wasted, but for every 3 points he put into agility, he would only see a 2 point increase. This is why most of the bestial races focused on what they were good at. A bear for example could invest 4 points into Constitution and get the benefit of 5 points, where as they had the same weakness as sloths.

Foxes recieved twice the effect of agility, but half the effect of the other physical stats. Sloths recieved a huge negative to their agility, but they also recieved a benefit to their wisdom. It was normal for Sloths to become mages, and David was looked down on by almost everyone because he did not follow that path.

He had a clear plan ahead of him. He knew that his agility was his weakness, and that it was almost pointless to pump points into it. Thats why his plan was a 3/2 split. 3 points in agility for a 2 point increase and 2 points in wisdom for a 3 point increase. He planned on supplementing the loss with a body enhancement skill.

Body enhancement skills were expensive to use. Much like the [Blood Sacrifice] skill I would eventually learn, [Body Enhancement] had a constant cost to use. Its effects were similiar but lesser than [Blood Sacrifice] and did not include true damage, but it used mana instead of HP. His increased wisdom would eventually be enough to compensate.

Silvia did not go much into detail about her own plans, only that she planned on being a battle mage. She said she had been born with the [Chantless Casting] ability and [fire magic Affinity] talent, and had been pursuing magic since birth.

Both of them were odd men out when it came to this class, but I found them both to be rather amusing. David had a laid back personality, but did not let anyone or anything get in the way of his goal. While Silvia seemed kind of like a nerd. she was actually quite sweet.

With the help of the two odd balls I was able to get through the class, even though my body was incredibly sore. I was actually surprised that our classmates would stay together in the afternoon. It seemed that freshmen followed the same curriculum no matter what class they actually were.