The cafeteria

"Hey, Adam, right?"

He turned to see a boy slightly shorter than himself, his light brown hair a little disheveled, and a pleasant smile on his face.

Unlike the other students who had mostly looked at him with mockery or indifference, this classmate seemed more sincere.

"Yes, that's me. And what's your name?" replied Adam, intrigued.

"Erwan Lenoir. I'm in the same class as you, apparently."

Adam nodded.

"Not bad, what you did earlier." continued Erwan, smiling.

Adam saw sincerity in the eyes, at least this person didn't despise him like the others.

"Being serious is rare here. Most of them are too busy having dick contests with each other."

Adam laughed as he understood what Erwan was referring to.

"It's true that this concept of dividing up the classes makes for intense rivalry between each student."

"Yeah that's pretty good because it motivates each student to work hard, since if they fall behind they can't say it's because of lack of talent."

"But every concept has its exceptions." continued Erwan, looking at Adam with compassion.

But Adam didn't like that look, so he quickly changed the conversation.

"Are you hungry?"

"Yeah pretty much, that was even why I came to talk to you haha." replied Erwan, stroking his belly.

"Top, shall we eat together then?" asked Adam, laughing.

"Yep, and let's eat a lot in view of the next class!" exclaimed Erwan as he left the classroom and headed for the stairs.

"Why, what's the next class?" asked Adam as he followed him.

Adam was curious; he'd only looked at this morning's program.

Erwan turned, looking at Adam with surprised eyes.

"Didn't you look? It's the body strengthening class!"

"Body-building class?" Adam frowned, not understanding what they were going to learn in this class.

"How can you not know what it is? It's the most important class of the year!"

As they spoke, they had arrived at the cafeteria on the 5th floor, reserved for first-year students.

There was also another on the 10th floor, for second- and third-year students.

For years, first-year students who had just awakened their talent would be hazed by the older students, and sometimes this led to disastrous situations.

The first-years couldn't defend themselves because they hadn't yet trained, so they were always beaten one-sidedly.

To curb this situation, the ministers of the Kingdom of Kerya voted unanimously to separate the common areas between first-year and senior pupils.

Everything was done to prevent them from crossing paths.

And this quickly yielded very positive results in the places where it was tested.

Eventually, Adam and Erwan found themselves in a bustling cafeteria, with lots of students chatting loudly, but in good spirits.

Very quickly, Adam and Erwan went to an order kiosk and chose their starter, main course, side dish and desert.

Once their order was confirmed, it landed directly on one of the trays below the machine, to the surprise of Adam who had never seen anything like it in his previous life.

They moved to an empty table, facing each other.

Erwan quickly started on his main course.

"Not bad, today's stew," said Erwan, taking a bite.

"But let's get back to the main topic."

Adam nodded, his eyes full of curiosity.

"Yes, what exactly is the body-building class?"

"It's the class where they're going to teach us the kingdom's standard method of body forging."

"Great thanks, but concretely what is the body forging method?" replied Adam, looking up.

He'd already guessed that from the course name alone.

"Brother, you used to live in a cellar or what's it like?"

Erwan laughed aloud while gently teasing.

"Let's just say I have a bad memory," Adam replied, a little embarrassed.

It was very complicated for him to quickly absorb the memories of this new life when he already retained those of his previous life.

"To sum you up quickly, this is the method that will allow us to progress through the ranks of martial artists and maybe even become a warrior one day!"

"You know how martial artists are classified...don't you?" asked Erwan doubtfully.

"Of course...but always explain to see if it coincides with my memories..."

Erwan took a long look at Adam before continuing to laugh.

"After waking up we're considered first rank warrior apprentices."

"In total, there are 9 ranks to classify the level of each warrior apprentice."

"Once you reach the 9th rank, you can break through to become a warrior, but don't get your hopes up."

"Most people stop at the 5th or 6th rank warrior apprentice level."

Erwan explained the main concepts of this world to Adam, intriguing the latter to no end about all the novelties there were in this world.

"Really? And at what level are the second- and third-year students?"

Erwan stopped eating for a few seconds to think about the answer he was going to give.

"It depends on their talent, most second-year students are in3rd place but some manage to reach4th place or even 5th place if they're really very talented."

"Final-year students are generally in4th place, but the best are in 6th or 7th place in our school.

"The more you progress, the slower the improvement and those who are most impacted are the people with little talent and resources."

"Geniuses and students from wealthy families are less impacted, which explains the bigger and bigger difference as the years go by."

Having finished explaining, Erwan continued eating again.

"Ah because talent also counts to progress as a martial artist?" asked Adam suddenly.

Erwin looked at Adam strangely, but he didn't know why, but he particularly liked explaining everything to this young man so ordinary in front of him.

"Of course! And some of the rich families even take potions and monster meat to progress even faster!"

"That's why the difference between ordinary people and the more talented ones gets bigger and bigger as time goes on!"

"Because you wouldn't imagine it like this, but the difference in strength between the4th rank and the 7th is more than enormous!"

"It's to the point where even if several4th-rank martial artists surrounded a 7th-rank martial artist, they'd be defeated without too much difficulty!"

This time Adam was truly shocked.

In his previous life, there were almost no cases where a high school student could easily beat several other high school students who had surrounded him.

"Otherwise is it true that you only woke up one dagger?" asked Erwan, curious.

Adam sighed slightly.

"Yes, and a compatibility of three with daggers and a compatibility of 9 with swords. Not enough to impress anyone."

Erwan looked at him in surprise while smiling.

"It's kind of funny, though, to have a higher compatibility with another weapon than your own skill."

Adam laughed in spite of himself, he could only accept this harsh reality.

"Tell me about it. What about you, and what's your talent?"

"A short sword. Compatibility of 28, so nothing special either. But then, we're here to learn to excel, not to compare ourselves to prodigies."

"Everyone's true adversary is themselves."

Adam smiled in response, completely agreeing with what Erwan was saying.

"I think we'll get along just fine."

Erwan looked at Adam for a moment as if analyzing him, then said suddenly:

"No, I don't think so."