20 Arcane Assassin

Morning came, as it always does. We rose before the sun as orientation would begin at sunrise in the courtyard outside the castle. Neither Lily nor I had any need to eat as we had just fed last night, thus we were among the first on the new students to arrive at the courtyard.

The first thing we noticed was a rather large stage, on top of it was some kind of formation, and behind the formation were four large pillars. The one on the left had a picture of a staff carved into it. The one next it had a dagger. The third one had a sword and shield and the last had an axe. The second thing we noticed was several banners on either side of the stage with two symbols that were the same as the ones on the pillars.

The courtyard quickly filled up, and soon we were joined by several teachers. A blonde-haired young man around the age of 25 sent out a piercing whistle that temporarily deafened us. Our hearing returned a moment later, but everyone remained quiet. All eyes on the young man who had sent out the whistle. Next to him was a middle-aged woman, she wore spectacles and had dark brown hair.

"I would like to congratulate all of you on your acceptance into the academy. Each and every one of you represent a talent that is worth nurturing. You will find that the training from this point forward will be different from outside of the academy. It is common knowledge that beginners such as yourself will only receive a max of 4 ability points when cultivating, plus your major and minor stats. That is not true for those who have entered the academy. You will receive a total of 7 ability points. 1 in each of the major stats for a total of 4, and 3 points that will be distributed based on your class. Each of these points will be put into a subcategory. However, this does not make us more powerful than those who cultivate outside the academy, only more specialized. Inside of the academy. Following our method of growth, each major stat is split into smaller sub stats. Your points will go into one of those. A person cultivating outside of the academy only receives a point in the major categories which is evenly distributed to the sub categories, roughly equal to half a point each."

"That being said to maximize this method of advancement, we have developed a class system. You will be separated into one of the classes based on your results of a test like your ability score test. The four classes are Magus, Assassin, tank, and brawler. Much like attributes a person has a major and minor class, but unlike attributes, a person cannot major and minor in the same class."

"We will begin the testing now. No matter what results you get, I hope that you will all put in your maximum effort with great enthusiasm to become an asset to not only this academy but to the country!"

When the woman was done speaking the first student was led up to the stage the woman was standing on. He was a little chubby and average looking with brown hair. He was led to a small formation on the floor that started to glow as soon as he stepped into it. The first thing to appear was colors, there was more blue and less yellow. The colors quickly enveloped him like a fog, swirling around him in a vortex. This lasted for about 30 seconds before he was forced out of the formation. Two of the pillars lit up behind him. The first to light up was the one with an axe, the second was the one with a sword and shield. The woman's voice cried out "major brawler, minor tank, move to the correct banner. "

The next student that came up was a tall bulky man with arms as big as my thighs. As he entered the formation the colors that appeared for the last boy did not appear. However, an image of a large wolf appeared, merging with the man's body. The pillars behind him lit up as he stepped out. Brawler magus.

The test went on, the vast majority of people having a major or minor in the magus path. After all most of the students were evolved Espers. Lily was called up before me. Her Bleeding purple lily sent a shock through the crowd and she was ultimately put into magus, assassin group.

Towards the end I was finally called up. The formation was small, barely enough room for a single person to enter. The first thing I felt was the essence in my body forcefully circulate, which projected the image of the fanged skull to the group. However, instead of the colorless skull that had first appeared the skull was pure black. The woman next to the formation furiously looked through her paperwork, before looking at me and writing something down.

Soon after that my essence began to resonate with the odd energy around me, circulating through my arms, legs and mind. My muscles had a slight sensation as if being pulled and strengthened, however their mass stayed the same. The essence in my mind fought off the invading force, causing my skills to slightly activate. My body became semitransparent, my bloodlust strengthened my muscles, and Blood Drinker began to resonate.

Just as it began it stopped, I knew it was over. I stepped out and looked behind me. The results did not surprise me. Assassin magus. The world really wanted me to walk this path. I no longer looked back as I walked towards my group. It was the smallest of the bunch, with only 4 other people. One was a shadow Esper, while the other three were a mind dexterity mix.

There were only a few students after me and they quickly were separated into their groups, unsurprisingly no one else joined us. As the ceremony ended instructors walked into the room, each towards a different banner. To our surprise the woman who had been conducting the ritual also walked towards our group. She nodded to our instructor, who was a tall lanky man with short black hair.

"Dark was it? It says here that you are a vampiric Esper, but it looks like your aspect has evolved, you don't have dual aspects like Lily, but your vampiric aspect has leaked over into the main aspect of death.

This is a great turn of events for you, as you will have a chance to learn abilities from the death school. I'm tell you this for your benefit and so that your instructor can plan for that as your information no longer matches what is in your file."

She nodded again to the instructor before she turned to leave. We were left with the tall man, our future paths in his hands. The man looked over us, his eyes like daggers as he evaluated each of us. His words reached our ears as a whisper, but each word sent a sharp pressure into each of our minds.

"The path of an assassin is not easy. It involves focus, agility and power. It involves patience and decisiveness. This is your focus. A magus needs focus as well. They spend long time studying books and improving their spells. They need to have a good mind. The power they can exert is immense with proper preparation. We call our unique path the Arcane Assassin"

"The most important weapons of an assassin are patience and preparation. The biggest enemy of an assassin is himself. Your emotions while usefully will get in the way if you are ruled by them. We are assassins not fighters. "

"We of course will learn to fight with both physical weapons as well as magical weapons, and each of you will find your own path in the Arcane Assassins. Each of you will have your specialties, and I will do my best to ensure that you reach your potential. Now follow me, and welcome to the academy."