Dirin's classes were going by swiftly. The first one, Probability Application, was a more advanced version of his guessing game when it came to people. He learned the statistics of how people acted based on age and how they were raised. He was paying close attention to that part, as it was a major factor in his guessing game, and it could increase his chances of being right more often.
He listened closely as the professor kept on talking about how probability could be used in every situation, which Dirin already knew from high school. Dirin kept listening in on this class, learning more and more about probability and how to apply it. Dirin was going to put all of this into practice, and he was going to practice more from now on.
It didn't take long for the class to end, but Dirin already felt that he had made massive gains by attending this class. Blindly guessing on what people looked like was one thing, but now he could make an educated guess, and wasn't that the entire way of being able to progress? To learn and to put it into practice.
Dirin went to his next class, which was on the other side of the campus, so he had to hurry to make it on time. Anima Collection was a popular class. Dirin looked around and saw Tillie sitting over on the side. She was sitting by herself. Why would she have me come to this class if she was going to be here as well? Dirin approached her and sat down next to her. "How important is this class?"
Dirin figured it had to be an important class if Tillie would have him take it and have herself take it as well. The number of people in the class tipped him off as well. It was the fullest class he had seen, with people standing even at the door, with some people having to watch through the windows.
The professor who was teaching the class was an unassuming fellow with short black hair and average height. He wore a gray sweatshirt and black pants. His eyes were calm and bored as he looked at all of the students who attended the class. He tapped his foot on the ground impatiently as more and more people tried to file in.
"This class is essential. Anima is something you'll need from Rank 2 and up. If you don't know how to get Anima, then you will never progress past Rank 2. He'll explain everything, hopefully."
After a couple more minutes of setting up the class, the professor looks at everyone while scanning through all of their faces. "The majority of you here won't make it past Rank 4. About sixty percent of people don't. This is pretty simply explained by what we like to call Anima."
The professor drew what seemed to be a bowl altar with four legs and a knife to the side. It was very detailed despite him only spending a couple of seconds on it. He turned back to everyone. "Anima is what is required to have to push past Rank 2 and onwards. To get Anima, you have to complete trials to gather it. How these trials work, we don't know. It can range from bringing a material to fighting a guardian, or something else that is completely different."
"The reason why sixty percent of people aren't able to get past Rank 4 is always because of Anima. It's not because they simply don't have the want to gather it and push to Rank 5, but because the amount of Anima a Rank 4 needs is the highest in ratio with strength and ability. It is like a bottleneck that everyone needs to push past through but making it past isn't easy. Many people are stuck at Rank 4 because they haven't found enough trials, or they don't dare to attempt the harder trials."
"Sadly, the amount of Anima you collect doesn't change anything as you break through to the next rank. Trials are also repeatable by different people, but they all will get less Anima the later they are there until the Trial disappears completely. This is how things work."
The professor then went over some common types of Trials. Fetch, slay, and timer. Fetch trials used riddles to hint at what they wanted, while the person actually had to go fetch the item. Slay trials were the simplest ones since they just wanted you to kill something, though sometimes the thing would be there, or it could be a hunt. Timer trials required you to do a challenge within a certain time. This often didn't involve fetching or slaying, but they weren't unheard of either.
There was no correlation between trials and how much Anima they gave. Only the difficulty affected how much Anima you got. Sometimes, simply finding the trial was enough, but that hardly ever gave enough Anima.
There were always exceptions, though. Sometimes something easy would give a lot of Anima even though it was the easiest trial ever, especially if the trial seemed to be tailored to your path as well. "After you graduate here, you will be given an option to join a scouting force to find these trials. Once you find them, you will be permitted to attempt them first, but you must report them. It's a safe and simple option, and you would be stupid not to take it."
"Collecting Anima is very simple. Once you complete the trial, all you have to do is let it enter. There isn't any way to steal Anima once the trial starts, so don't worry. Even if you are killed, it won't go to another person. Trust me, we know. Let me set something up to demonstrate how Anima works."
The professor left the room for a bit. "He's wrong on one part," Tillie said as she looked at the chalkboard.
"What was he wrong about?" Dirin was curious what someone who wasn't even Rank 1 would know compared to a professor.
Tillie looked at Dirin for a bit before she returned her gaze to the chalkboard. "Everything is possible. As long as you study and practice enough, you can do it. So, stealing Anima isn't necessarily impossible. Practice stealing enough, and you could probably steal the very breath out of someone's lungs, let alone Anima." She then smiled as she turned her gaze back to him. "Maybe they could even steal control of your own arm a-"
The professor came back, and her smile disappeared as she looked back at him. Dirin was very curious about what she was about to say, because there were many ways it could've gone, and because he thought of many ways, and they were all horrible.
The professor set up a bowl with water and multiple rats. "The water in the bowl is Anima, while the rats will be the people." He tilted the bowl towards one rat, and the other rat tried to climb onto the rim of the bowl, but it was pushed off by the professor. "I am the force that stops the rat from taking the water, but if the other rat dies during the process." The professor took the rat and put it back in its cage while making the bowl level again. "Then it stops the process, meaning that the trial has never been completed and that whoever completes it first again will get the whole reward. Be careful of who you trust when you go to a trial. You might give the answer to your murderer."
The professor left the class with that, not even bothering to dismiss the students. Tillie stood up and looked down at Dirin with a level gaze. "This is why it is important. Once you get to Rank 2, it only gets harder. This is something you should go tell your friends."
With that, she left the room, leaving Dirin alone. Dirin thought about it for a bit. How much Anima was he going to need in the future? With his path, it would probably be a lot. That didn't bother him, though, since it just meant he would have to put more work in compared to everyone else. He was going to have to get used to that anyway, so he wasn't too worried about how he would face it in the future.
Dirin got up from his seat and started to head over to his next class, Life Energy, also known as aura, less formally. Ritchard was supposed to attend the class for Dirin, but Tillie told him to take it, and he figured she was more knowledgeable on these things than him.