The Adventurer’s Academy

The day after Maria had found out about Xhez, Rin found herself taking her morning classes, as per usual, jotting down her notes as quickly as she could in a notebook Eve had gifted to her.

"So, just a refresher, since Rin wasn't here when I explained this before, there are several different categories of monsters, and it would do you well to learn them. Now, granted, they're all arbitrary, but memorizing these categories can help you identify monsters out in the wild so that even if you don't know specific details about them, based on their categories you know what to expect."

[Uh, okay,] Rin thought as she prepared herself to absorb the information.

"Humanoids. You can probably guess but these are just monsters who resemble humans. Make no mistake though, they are mindless, merciless, and animalistic. However, the part where that human resemblance comes into play is in the fact that they can make conventional weapons for themselves, and use spellsigns, just like we can."

As she spoke, Cara was lifting drawings on large sheets of paper to show what she was talking about. The one she was holding up right now was that of a kobold.

"Next up, Elementals. These are creatures who owe the entirety of their existence to a particular element in the world. Now, some of these, creatures like water sprites and fire sprites, can use spells outside of their elements, but their bodies still depend on these elements. So, if you use a Water spell on a fire sprite, it'll be very effective. If you use a Fire spell on a water sprite, same thing."

Rin recalled how Xhez's body had dried up due to her time under the sun and made a mental note of not allowing anything like that to happen again.

"Draconic. Not to be misunderstood, we are talking about dragon-type monsters that are more closely related to dragons than say, a kobold. Mostly just wyverns, which are dragons with two legs instead of four, and drakes, which are effectively just much smaller, and much less powerful dragons. The chances that any of you will ever run into a real, actual, dragon are slim to none, so don't worry about that."

Eve raised her hand and Cara turned toward her.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever run into one?" Eve asked, a curious expression on her face.

Cara took a deep breath.

"Yes. Once."

And, just like that, she went back to the topic.

"Beasts. These are creatures that resulted from regular animals being twisted by wild Essence. Things like griffins, werewolves, yarikos, anything that you look at that makes you think of another normal animal you know of, fall under this category. They can use spellsigns, but more often than not, they'll just try to bite you to death."

She turned toward the class.

"Undead. Vampires, skeletons, zombies, anything that was once dead and got brought back to life. The tricky thing when it comes to these is that how closely they resemble a human lets you know how powerful they are, understand? So, for example, skeletons are the weakest of all undead, as although they retain the techniques and skills they used to have in their lives, they literally do not have the physical strength to use those abilities to their fullest potential. Whereas, a vampire is almost even stronger than they were as a human."

When Rin heard that, she felt some shame wash over her.

[So, yeah. I nearly got my ass handed to me by some of the weakest monsters out there. Fuck me.]

"Last, but not least, Ghosts," Cara said, and Rin thought back to the spirit she'd encountered. "There is one important difference between these and undead, and that is that normal weapons have no effect on them. Now, weirdly enough, not all ghosts are hostile. Most are, but some won't even notice you. It's best to kill them anyway, if you encounter any, just to be safe, okay? These things share a weakness with the undead, and that is fire. Fire is exceptionally effective against them, to the point where even a Rank D adventurer could defeat a Rank C or even a Rank B Ghost or Undead-type enemy with a good fire spell."

With that done, she put her papers together and sighed.

"Okay, those are all of them. Make sure you know them all.  You'll be able to have some clue as to what the enemy does, even if you've never seen them before."

Rin finished jotting down her notes and the rest of the class passed quickly after that. The adventurer exited the classroom along with her fellow students, trying to go over the categories in her mind.

[Humanoids, Elementals, Ghosts, Undead, Draconic, Beasts...] She recalled. [The only ones I haven't run into are draconic.]

"Yo," a voice suddenly interrupted Rin's thoughts as she was walking to the next class. The other students passed her by as Eve flew up to her.

"Uh, hey."

"Remember what I was talking about a bit ago?" The fairy asked energetically, holding back a smile. "About how we could all train together."

When Rin heard that, she tilted her head.

"Yeah?"

"Well, because I am, in fact, so awesome, I convinced a few people!"

"Wait, really?" Rin asked. "How did you manage that?"

"I sweet-talked them into it," she shrugged. "So, after classes, stick around and I'll talk to Maria about it."

[Hm... Wait... Wouldn't this cut into my private training with her?] Rin thought, but as Eve looked so excited, she couldn't convince herself to bring it up.

"Cool," Rin told her. "Who wants to do it?"

"Just Lisa, and Dylan, for now."

[Oh.]

Rin had expected one of those answers, but not the other. Lisa, of course, had been fairly kind to both Rin and Eve since they'd gotten here, but as for Dylan, Rin didn't know much about the guy, other than his relative skill level.

"Isn't Dylan one of the best fighters in our class?"

"Yep," Eve nodded.

"So... How did you convince him to train with us? It doesn't feel like he's gonna get much out of it."

"He said he wanted to help," Eve shrugged. "I told him about how we were all kind of struggling, and he just said he was down to work with us," she shrugged.

"Uh, wow," Rin raised a brow. "That's... surprising."

"Yeah. I dunno, he's a quiet dude but he seems alright," Eve replied.

At that moment, someone else came to Rin's mind.

"Uh..."

[Should I even ask?] However, as she remembered what the woman had told her earlier, she figured this might serve as a half-decent test of sorts to see if she was serious.

"Did you ask Elisa?"

"Hm? No," Eve shook her head. "But... Do you want to? I can't really imagine her ever agreeing to this."

Neither could Rin, given what Elisa had said about Eve before. However, if she was serious about wanting to give Eve a proper shot, Rin figured this was as good a way to test that as any.

"Only one way to know, right?" Rin argued and Eve nodded.

"I guess. Can you do that, though? I mean, you are her roommate after all."

"Yeah," Rin nodded. "I'll ask her."

---

Hours later, as the group was just finishing up exercising in Eli's class, Rin did just that. She was taking deep breaths after having run for several minutes, feeling that her cardio was getting better. In the distance, she saw Elisa on her own, lifting up her shirt to use it to wipe her sweat off. Ignoring the godly physique she was showing off, Rin willed her legs to move up to her.

The blonde turned toward her and an easy, albeit surprised, smile found its way to Elisa's portrait.

"Hey roomie," Elisa said. "Need something?"

"Nah, I just... I wanted to ask you something."

"Oh? Sure, go ahead," Elisa told her as she put her hands on her hips. Slightly nervous, Rin steadied herself as she tried her hardest to look confident and said:

"A few of us are, uh, gonna do some training after our classes. Dylan, Eve, and I. Do you wanna join us?"

Her question had clearly been unexpected as Elisa looked surprised. Rin waited patiently, and somewhat pessimistically, for her response.

"I... I don't think I can..." Elisa started and Rin quickly nodded.

"It's okay," Rin said and she turned away.

[Yeah, figured.]

However, just two or three steps after she'd started to walk away, Elisa caught her by the wrist. Shocked, Rin looked back at her.

"Yeah?" Rin asked, confused.

"... Actually, okay," Elisa said, nodding. "I'll do it."

"Seriously?" Rin asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Yeah," Elisa nodded, flashing that charming smile of hers. "When are we doing this? I'm guessing we'll eat first before the training session, right?"

"Yeah," Rin nodded, almost at a loss for words, "well, I'm guessing we will. I'll ask Eve and see what she thinks."

"Cool," Elisa nodded. "Looking forward to it."

"Uh, same."