Standing among the others, Noctis suppressed a yawn as he glanced over to his red-haired neighbor, who, for some reason, was still completely ignoring him. Seriously, how arrogant can one be? I don't even know your name yet!
Not interested in befriending this arrogant kid, Noctis focused instead on the class Professor, who began to explain how the rankings worked, drawing everyone's attention back to the front.
How Noctis understood, they were ranked in three categories: academics, combat, and, for some reason, adaptability. The first two Noctis found self-explanatory; the third, on the other hand,... was a mystery.
How was one even supposed to measure adaptability? Academics were clear as they could be determined by test results, and for combat, there were many ways to determine that.
So how was one supposed to measure adaptability?
However, what interested Noctis more were the rewards for placing at the top.
Three drops of Notium.Notium was a scarce resource, mostly used as currency within the city and beyond.
This was the case because of its inherent value and the ease of transportation. Of course, it could be traded for paper money, since the smallest units of the Notium were already quite expensive.
In other words, Notium had an inherently high value that even the smallest portion could be compared to a large monetary value. In fact, it was so valuable that the entire city, a production city, was focused solely on mining this resource in its raw form.
And three drops were given to the first-place winner in each category. This was a huge amount; one could rent a small apartment for a year with simply one win, or a big one if one wanted luxury for a short time. To add on, the second place got two drops, the third one got one, and after that, everyone got half a drop.
With fifteen students in each class, Noctis calculated that twelve drops were distributed weekly in just a single category.
Some might wonder why students received money rather than something that would enhance their Authority. However, the true value of Notium made this reward logical to those who understood its significance.
Its value stemmed from the fact that Notium was essentially the energy Authoritys ran on, and what would happen when a small fragment of a concept came into contact with pure conceptual energy.
It was quite simple, really; it started growing.
When Noctis heard Trisha say they would get funded, he didn't know what to expect, but it made him, someone who usually didn't care too much about money, start feeling his mouth water and his mind short-circuit.
Listening with rapt attention, Noctis was to be a bit disappointed, as one did not receive a reward from every category and only the one who had excelled in the best. This destroyed the dream of getting one and a half drops a week for basically doing nothing. Yet, this disappointment was short-lived, as half a drop of Notium was still a large sum, especially considering that he was in the first rank, which meant that he had a less urgent need for Notium and saw it more as a currency than a way to grow his power. Of course, financial power was also a form of strength, so one did not exclude the other.
Clearing his head, Noctis began to critically analyze the ranking system, considering strategies to maximize his gains within it.
Are they trying to reward specialization? This seemed most likely. This aligns with Trisha's words: specializing would be quicker than learning every field in depth; when sent in groups, shortcomings could be effectively eliminated this way.
Students excelling at one thing often outperformed jacks-of-all-trades.
But what is the intention behind that? And doesn't the category adaptation seem counterproductive to nurturing such a mindset? Noctis did not know the answers to these questions and might never know.
Turning his attention to the side, he saw a Leaderboard embedded in a wall, displaying the combat scores of all students. Next to it stood a ring dedicated to letting students fight to prove their worth.
Today, class wasn't held in the usual room. Each week, one day was dedicated to physical education—combat training—while the other two were spent on academics in the standard classroom. Today, for combat training, they used a vast hall. To Noctis, who'd seen little of the world, it seemed immense—even standard spaces impressed him.
What he found especially peculiar was that, from the outside, this room looked tiny in comparison; it couldn't merely be explained by a change in perception or something like that, as the change was far too great.
When he asked Trisha about it, she uncharacteristically answered in a not cryptic kind of way. Maybe because the information was so fundamental that she found it unnecessary to hide it, or perhaps she was distracted by something else, which made her want to get it over with without destroying the shallow bonds that had been built between us.
To put it simply, the distortion effect wasn't uncommon in the inner city, as it was a mix of technology and Notium's special properties. Surely, such an effect was expensive to achieve, yet every realm had its specialties, and in the space realm, progress was furthest along in incorporating space Notium into technology, as it was the pre-existing version of the Notium that people used as currency, meaning they had it in spades, making progress in the manipulation of space much quicker.
The teacher, slowly coming to the end of his explanation, was pointing at a few devices, laid out on a desk placed at the side of the hall. These devices looked different from one another. One was a lever glove with the symbol of a moon sickle placed on its palm, another was a small triangular shield, and another was just a straight-up Zweihaender, lying there. These apparently were called Convergers. These Convergers were used to siphon Notium out of the body, and each Converger could then converge it in a different way.
This was another application of the mix of technology and Authoritys; the difference was that one worked on a metallic battery, while the other used a human one.
Convergers could be used in many ways to create unnatural phenomena.
However, Convergers had limits, like any machine, but helped offset Authority weaknesses. Today, they would learn how to use them.
To be precise, Noctis, Siana, and Riven would get them, as everybody else already had one. Watching from the side, Riven, with a stoic expression, took a slight peek at Raef before moving toward the table, and Siana, with a still gloomy expression, was making her way toward the table as well, not seeming to care about the whole process. At the same time, other students started skatering around the room, some simply talked, while others warmed up their bodies.
Noctis decided to spectate a fight and, from there on, planned on picking something that best suited his needs.
Sitting at the side of the ring, waiting for anyone to enter, Reaf walked over with an especially friendly smile."Are you looking for a friendly spar?"
Perplexed Noctis looked towards Reaf. Why would I, of all people, want to spar? I haven't even chosen Converger yet, and even then, I wouldn't have had time to get used to it.
Noticing Noctis confusion, Reaf clarified."Whenever one sits next to the ring, this is a sign that someone is waiting for a challenger."Surprised by this, Noctis flusteredly answered.
"Oh, sorry for giving the wrong idea, I'm just interested in spectating a fight, to get a clear Idea of what kind of Converger I should choose."
Feeling a bit perplexed that he had gotten so flustered all of a sudden, Noctis quickly regained his calm as he watched Raef like a Hawk.
Chukeling calmly, Raef looked towards two other students, signaling them with a shake of his head to come over. While two students, both having been present during their little initiation, walked over, Raef said.
"Then this is your lucky day. How about my two friends give you a demonstration?"
Both of his "friends", who arrived simultaneously, looked at Riven with questions in their eyes.
One standing on the right was of medium build and wore strong eyerings, giving the impression of suffering from insomnia, stroking his arm as if slightly nervous; to his left stood a tall man with bronze skin, very muscular, with brown eyes and slightly slit pupils. Noctis couldn't quite describe it, but when that man looked upon him, he instinctively felt that he should run; this was Brutus, who had brought up the topic of the Hollowfang in their earlier meeting. Shaking off this feeling, Noctis redirected his attention to Raef.
From what Trisha had told him, Raef was the leader of his pack, but how? No matter how he saw it, this man Raef seemed in no way superior to the others, so why would they let him rule over the other two? Standing between the giant Brutus and the still taller than Raef, Elisa, he gave off the vibe of a lost child, escorted by his older siblings, not in the least that of a leader.
Throwing a charismatic smile towards Noctis, he spoke, not even acknowledging their existence.
"These two can give you a good show, considering that you'll have to decide upon your Converger soon, how about they only fight using their Convergers?"
Hearing this, the guy with dark eye circles tried to interject, as if displeased with this arrangement, with a certain uncertainty in his gaze, yet before he could even utter a word, he was shot down by a slight but sharp glare from Raef.
With the bigger man not interjecting, Raef continued.
"So how about it?"
Suspicious of Raef's motives, Noctis hesitated briefly; however, as he could not see any direct danger or reason to reject, he simply nodded, giving his approval.
Seeing this, Raef's smile brightened. Going towards the other two, he whispered a few words and came back towards Noctis. A certain shudder ran through Elisa as he returned. Still smiling, he spoke.
"Then let's see how these two will fare."
Feeling a chill run down his spine, Noctis remembered the robed man when looking at that smile.
Replying with a dry throat, Noctis thanked him curtly, his perplexion a bit whiter than before.